Greece- Athens and Beautiful Islands

Arrived in Greece and went to see the Acropolis. It was great to get to see the Acropolis as well as the Parthenon. I can now saw that I have seen the read Parthenon and not just the one in Nashville. We went to the tomb of the unknown solider and got to see the guards. We went to the Olympic Stadium that was built in the 1830’s. After Lexi and I broke off from the tour and went to spend some more time in Athens before going back to the ship. We had a great lunch and we shared hummus, spinach pies (spinach and feta cheese), and a gyro. We walked around and did a little shopping and then took the metro back. The next day I went on the day trip to Delphi. We had a nice drive and I got to see the Greece countryside. We got to drive through a cute village on our way to Delphi and learned that most of the people at the cafes in the village are men except there are sometimes younger women who go. When we got to Delphi I was surprised to see that it was in the mountains. I don’t think of Greece having mountains, but they do! We got to walk around Delphi and climbed to the top. It was a great view and we were also able to go into the museum and get to look around. We left Delphi and had a great lunch and got to sample many Greek dishes. Our last stop was to a monastery and then we said goodbye to Delphi. That night we went out for a friend’s birthday and had a great time.

The third day in Greece didn’t start out like I thought it was going to but ended up being a great day. I wasn’t feeling the best in the morning but we decided to go to a Greek Island. We picked the island Hydra because we had heard great things about it. We took a later ferry that we wanted to but it turned out to be nice because we met a nice Swedish couple traveling with their children on vacation and got to talk to them on our ferry ride. The ferry was not what I had thought and it was nice and reminded me of taking an airplane ride. We got to Hydra and walked off the ferry and said “This is Greece” it looked just like we thought that Greece would look. The houses were made of stone with red roofs. The first thing we did when we got there was to find a place to spend the night. We were able to find a place to stay by asking a store owner who then translated with the store owner across from her store and he rented out rooms. We got a place for a very reasonable price and it was perfect because there were three beds in the room and there were three of us. After we found a place to stay we went to the ferry office to buy our tickets for the next morning. We decided it was time for dinner and sat at a café outside which was beautiful because it was right by water and all the little boats. We got to sit and relax and enjoy the beautiful view. After dinner we walked around and went to the shops along the water. We got a chance to talk to some of the shop owners and that was awesome because we learned more about Greece and their education system. Then we went back to get our swimsuits and then walk to the water and watch the sunset. The sunset was beautiful and the prettiest sunset that I have ever seen. We went to have dessert at a café overlooking the water. Then we went back to a few shops and wandered around before getting some coffee at the café on the water. The next morning we caught the early ferry and headed back. I spent the last day in Athens and was on a mission to find handmade sandals. The girls knew of a place and we were able to find it and got my sandals. We also went to the new Olympic Stadium that was built and got to walk around and go into the pool area. I was surprised to see that the complex that help all the building for the Olympics wasn’t as well kept as I thought it was going to be. The complex looked like a ghost town except for the kids camp that was there. We had lunch in Athens that was really good and grabbed a peach before getting on the metro to get on the ship.