it's all Greek to me...

what better way to return to the blogging world than a fun post about my recent Greek adventure/vacation? I apologize for the lack of pictures. It's really my fault since I made Dave (my vacation buddy) take all the pictures on his camera, but you'll all forgive me. I'll post links as soon as pictures are up (which, knowing Dave, won't take long).

The radio edit: lots of great food (read: stuffed tummies), endless beautiful scenery, numerous laughs at the expense of language barriers and translations, and enough relaxation to hold me over until my next getaway.

For those who want the extended album version, read on.

Wednesday July 4th, 2007
Day 1: After not sleeping the whole night since I thought my flight was earlier than it was in actuality, I arrived at the Ben Guiron airport around 4:45am for my 8am flight. Murphy's law was certainly in full-gear as all I can recall from that morning is standing in the seemingly shortest line for each part of the airport check-in process, and then having each of those lines proceed to move at turtle-speed. Nevertheless, I got on the plane in time and slept my way through the two hour flight to Athens. Upon exiting the customs section of the Athens airport, I saw Dave, for the first time in almost two years, holding up a hand-made sign with my name on it :-)

We did all the rental car check-in stuff, found the car we'd be driving in for the next five days, (a very cute Ford Fiesta) and shortly after that we were navigating our way out of the airport and on the way to a quaint little town called Stemnitsa. It took a few hours to get there, including a lunch break, and a few instances of stopping on the side of the road to figure where we were and what the signs said (perhaps I should have paid more attention to the Greek letters we used in high school physics?). The ride was beautiful, and the winding roads with amazing views made the time pass rather quickly.



Stemnitsa is home to some amazing honey. On the way we saw tons of boxes covering beehives on the side of the road, and in town every little shop sold various kinds of honey and jams. After a little bit of exploring, we found this very pleasant and homey B&B place to stay at for the night. We took a walk up to the highest point/view lookout area of the town and took lots of nice pictures, none of which will do the view justice. The whole town was probably a maximum of a few hundred people, and we seemed to be some of the only tourists there (granted, it was the middle of the week - apparently it's a very popular weekend getaway)

We decided to have a late afternoon snack at one of the coffee shops. They had this delicious dessert called Loukamades (sp?) which are essentially small fluffy balls of fried dough with honey, cinnamon and crushed nuts drizzled all over them. So good. I should learn how to make them. On second though, it's probably better that I don't... that could be dangerous. ;-)

In the evening we walked around and sat at one of the restaurants underneath our B&B for dinner. Well, I remember the wine more than the dinner (I believe there was some very salty fish involved). And of course the hand signals and gestures needed to facilitate the ordering of food. But it was overall a nice end to a long day, and thanks to the half liter of wine, it wasn't long before we crashed for the night.

Thursday, July 5th, 2007
Day 2: After taking our dandy ol' time waking up and getting our asses in gear, we had a yummy crepe and yogurt with honey breakfast, and strolled around town to buy some local honey. I bought two kinds of honey in the smallest jars we could find (which were not that small, really). Both types were very different in taste, and one was different than any honey I've ever had. "Yum" pretty much sums up that experience. We eventually rolled out of town and headed south towards a coastal town called Kardimili. The drive involved lots of crazy winding roads, a few breaks to take pictures of the gorgeous views, and doing my best to help Dave navigate (and by navigate, I mean point in the general direction we need to go and hope for the best).

By the time we arrived in Kardimili, we were hungry and looked for a place to have lunch. This meal was definitely the least successful (but at least there was some amusing people to chat with). We moved onto the task of finding a place to sleep - which would prove to be slightly more challenging than it was in Stemnitsa. One not so great room, two "I have no idea what you're saying - we don't speak Greek" conversations, and three "this place is nice but too expensive" later, we found a good deal on a fairly nice room where the guest book had positive comments from various past guests, including a couple Israelis. The guy in charge was extremely relaxed, and didn't seem to care who we were or how long we planned on staying. But it was a pretty good deal and so we got our stuff, changed and headed to the beach.

We walked a ways down the coast to a stone/pebble beach and were a less than pleasantly surprised by the water temperature. Maybe I've just become spoiled in Israel, but I had Atlantic-seasoned flashbacks that made it difficult to believe that we were swimming in the Mediterranean. Being the brave souls we are, (or just feeling that it would be rather lame of us to get all the way to the beach and not swim) we took a quick dip before giving up and hanging out at a little outside garden/cafe place across the street. We spent a few hours exercising our brains (well, as much as we were planning on doing while in Greece) with these rather complex crossword puzzles that Dave with him.

I'm happy to report that dinner was much more successful than lunch (yes, food IS a theme), and I even tried this octopus dish that was rather interesting (and chewy...). Towards the end of dinner we watched a boat come into the dock down below the restaurant. At first we didn't quite understand what the commotion was, but then we saw that the fisherman were hauling huge swordfish out onto the dock. We went down to get a closer look, and Dave took a few pictures. I do admit that it made me a little sad to see all the dead fish being weighed and thrown into a truck and was happy to move onto our short stroll through town. As Kardimily is quite small and there wasn't too much going on, we made our way back and settled in for the night.

Friday, July 6th 2007
Day 3: We woke up and had omelets for breakfast at a nearby cafe. After a quick connection with the rest of the world (read: email) we decided to take a drive up to the nearby gorge and walk along one of the many paths in the area. It took a little bit of trial and error, as well as a short but interesting detour before we found the area where the path went along the gorge. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best idea to hike exactly at noontime with the hot sun beating down, but the views were well worth the sweat. That being said, I'm sure Dave has a least a few pictures of me climbing up rocks, giving him the "what have we gotten ourselves into" look.

Many liters of water we consumed that afternoon, and we had a lovely lunch at a beach town a few kilometers up the road. By that time we were quite ready to cool off in the water and spend some time on one of the sandy beaches around us. Now, it's always been quite difficult to keep me out of the water (just ask my parents) and I am not a big fan of just lying on the beach tanning. But this water was COLD! Just when I thought it was a fluke that the day before we were freezing in the water, we get to this place where the water is beautiful, clear, inviting and freeeeeezing! Eventually you could adjust, but we still didn't stay in for all that long and spent some time reading under an umbrella before heading back to Kardimily.

We showered and had dinner at a very popular little place where this cute little old woman cooked all the food (with the help of her granddaughter it seemed). Dave and I ate separate meals (this is a BIG deal :-P) - he meat and me veggie. Bed was a welcomed and delicious end to our second day in Kardimily.

Saturday, July 7th 2007
Day 4: Saturday meant the end of our stay in Kardimily and the beginning of our drive back east towards Athens. We decided to take a different route than we did on the way down and it was well worth it as we saw some of the coolest views yet (including half and full tunnels through the rocky mountains around various curves of the road). We stopped to visit a little local spring and restaurant area and had lunch with some incredible views of the mountains. After satisfying our tummies and our people watching instincts, we were back on our way towards Napflio, a coastal town on the bay west of Athens, where there was supposedly an interesting fort that we could visit. And really good gelato. :-) We also pulled over to buy some great sour cherries that this old man was selling on the side of the road. The rate per kilo wasn't quite clear, but after handing over a few euros, we ended up with a huge bag full of cherries. Score.

We arrived in Napflio by late afternoon and after some less than successful investigation, we found a decent place to stay for the night and dealt with the higher rates. Napflio is definitely a much more touristy town than the other places we had visited. After getting our stuff together, we headed up towards the famous fort to see what that was all about. It took a little bit of driving in circles before we finally go to the fort entrance and made our way inside. Both Dave and I were fairly skeptical about how interesting this was going to be, having been to various forts in other cities/countries, but this ended up being truly awesome. First, we were able to climb up and around all areas of the fort, with nothing blocked off (not even parts that should probably have been blocked off for the safety of the public; read: clumsy people like me). We also had about four times where we thought we had reached the last part of the fort and should turn around and head back. First there was a steep stairwell that led to a whole other area. Then there was a tunnel and then just a random path through some bushes. About an hour and 30 or so pictures later, we reached the flag and the ledge looking over the mountain below. We made our way back, both agreeing that this was well worth the trip and definitely goes on the top 5 list of forts we have each visited.

After showering and getting ready to walk around town, we agreed that it was time to experience the other Lonely Planet recommendation: gelato. There was brief talk of waiting until after dinner, but really, why wait? Two cups of gelato and many "mmmmmm"s later, we walked up the stairs of the town to get a better view of the sunset. It's no wonder the town is a popular tourist destination; it's quite beautiful and definitely has a venetian feel to it. We walked around town, sat down for some fruit shakes at a restaurant along the bay, and eventually had dinner at one of the many cute restaurants of the old city. Interesting/amusing side notes include:

1) asking this woman if the restaurant had a table open for two, having her answer us, and then about 5 minutes later realizing that she doesn't work there.
2) Dave wishing there were fireworks while we were having our fruit drinks, and then suddenly seeing fireworks across the bay
3) Almost crashing a wedding (OK, not really, but it was discussed) going on in the town plaza
4) After the fort but before the gelato, we managed to get in a quick spanikopita (spinach pie) break. This is why I love eating with Dave - good food is not something one should compromise.

In short, Napflio was quite pleasant.

Sunday, July 8th 2007
Day 5: Sunday was our last day in Greece, and our ride from Napflio to Rafina (where we were meeting up with Josh and his friend) was also the last of our major drives. We started off the day with some breakfast at a street cafe with nice couch-type chairs, and then got a relatively early start in order to get to Rafina by a decent hour. The trip was definitely the least interesting since it was mostly going on the outskirts of Athens and then over to the eastern coast. We were in Rafina by early afternoon and checked into the only hotel that we actually booked beforehand. The place was nice and right on the main plaza of the town. We had no idea when Josh and his friend were expected to arrive from the islands (or what island they were coming from), but the hotel receptionist told us that most ferries came in during the afternoon. So we went to get some lunch and hang out until the ferries showed up.

Lunch was a rather eclectic experience, involving a really good eggplant dish on one hand, and stuffed grape leaves that were frozen on the other. The grape leaves were clearly not meant to be as the first time the waiter brought them they fell off the plate and onto the tray he was carrying them. The second time, when he actually got them safely to the table, they were frozen. Needless to say, we didn't bother to make sure that there would be a round three to that game.

Various ferries came, none of them with Josh, and we eventually went back to nap and read in the room. That got old fast, and instead I re-taught Dave how to play sheshbesh (backgammon). Soon after our third game, we heard a familiar voice and there was Josh!

Ok, side note - when Dave and I decided to meet up in Greece, we had no idea that Josh would be on vacation in Europe at the same time, and planning to be in Greece on exactly the same dates as us. Now that is what I call too random to just chance. But who was I to deny the need for a little reunion?

Josh's friend, Julia, had sprained her ankle the day before so wasn't able to join us in the water, but we all drove to a beach about 15 minutes away and spent some time in some (finally) warm and calm water. The beach was insanely crowded, but it was nice to swim around, play some Frisbee (yes, I'm still terrible) and catch up with Josh.

We took the "Let's Go" guide's advice about a dinner option (or at least, we think it was the place they were talking about) and got a bunch of yummy dishes to share. Tzatziki (yogurt with cucumber), fried zucchini, cheese balls (think creamy mozzarella stick in ball form), fish, and baklava for dessert made for a yummy last meal in Greece. We stayed up and chatted with Josh for a lot longer than we probably should have and then slept a little before getting up to drive to the airport.

Being the "to be on the safe side" people that we are, Dave and I arrived at the airport and returned the car with plenty of time to spare, especially considering his flight got delayed 2 hrs. We got our last coffee together and said goodbye. I had an uneventful flight back to Israel and my bag was even one of the first few out (as most of my readers know, luggage arriving is a VERY big deal with me).

While it was sad for me to not be on vacation with my family (in St. Martin), I am very happy that I got to spend some quality time with Dave and see some amazing parts of Greece. Road trips are the way to go for those thinking of visiting the mainland, and I highly recommend taking a week out of your lives to do so.

Until next time...