GREECE May 2001
17
May 2001: Tony and I returned from Greece Greece
and Turkey
We
visited Greece Crete can be a vacation in
itself! We'll safe Crete for a future
trip, maybe with a side trip to Santorini.
Because
the boat and ferry schedules for the low season we not available at time of my
planning, I decided to make hotel reservations for our arrival in Athens and departure from Athens Athens Athens Mykonos . From Mykonos, I wanted to visit Delos , but that too would be decided on once we got to
the islands and the boat schedules came out. I was informed that boats do
not go to Mykonos on a daily basis from Naxos
(at least in the spring time). So, with our 2 hotel reservations, list of
hotels, we were set to go.
1
May 2001: Our day of travel is always an exciting and exhausting day:
packing, closing up the house, last minute chores, and dropping off Lucy (our
new puppy) at Dawn's house the night before. We had to fly to JFK from
Reagan National, and then taxi over to JFK. Our flight on Olympic
Airlines was at 5:45pm. The taxi cost us $25, which was about the same
price as taking the shuttle bus. The flight over was fine. Food was
average. We didn't care for the service by the flight attendants.
Once they serve the food, they disappeared. We couldn't even get another
glass of wine. We spent the evening watching a couple of movies, and then
tried to sleep. Actually, Tony can sleep anywhere!
2
May 2001: We arrived at the new airport in Athens
The
new airport was pretty nice, but the seats in the waiting areas are
terrible! They were so uncomfortable. I found an ATM machine and
took out some money. I decided to wait to get my Greek money until I got
to Athens U.S.
We
flew to Santorini on a small ATR, which carries about 50 passengers. The
flight was about 50 minutes long. We were on the right side and could see
Oia and Fira prior to landing. A few minutes before landing, the flight
attendant stated not to take any photographs. There were military planes
near the airport. Tony said to me, "They probably don't want people
to know that they are using out of date equipment!"
We
had to take a shuttle bus to the terminal (we could have walked!), which was
just a small building with one luggage belt. It was ridiculous! We
could have picked up our luggage at the airplane, but I guess they wanted us to
feel like we were at a big airport.
Our
hotel arranged for a taxi to pick us up. Outside the building, our drive
held up the hotel sign, "Enigma Apartments." I wanted a hotel
on the caldera for its wonderful view. We stayed at the Enigma
Apartments. Breakfast was included in the cost of the room (37.000DR).
We had a great view of the caldera and all the buildings hanging on the
cliff. To the right of us, we were next to Hotel Kavalari and Hotel
Loucas, two other hotel choices. Our room was very nice. There are
8 apartments with balcony, kitchen, bath, and living room. The building
is set into the cliff. Between the living room and kitchen was an arched
wall. (See hotel section for photos of this and the other hotels).
On our balcony, we had a small table, 2 chairs and an umbrella to use. To
actually sit out and view the other buildings, we had to move our chairs up towards
the front as there were was a privacy wall between the apartments. We
were greeted by Ms. Heidi, who managed the place. She told us there was a
bottle of wine in the room for us, as well as a large bottle of water. It
was a nice treat to start our vacation.
We
unpacked our bags while sipping on the wine. Every few minutes I would
walk outside and take in the view of Fira. It was lovely. I think
it was one of my favorite spots in Greece
While
sitting outside, we met one of our "neighbors" who also were on our
flight from Athens. We chatted with Lisa and Simon, who came from Australia South Africa
Tony
and I were hungry and ready to set out to explore Fira and find a place for
dinner. It is a touristy town filled with souvenir shops and many, many,
many jewelry shops. I was amazed and overwhelmed at the beautiful and
bountiful collection of gold, diamonds, Greek designs, contemporary designs,
etc. I had read that Santorini has the best jewelry, although a little
more expensive than Athens Greece
3
May 2001: Sleeping up in the loft was nice. Our bed was
comfortable. At night, had to turn on the lights to go down stairs
to the bathroom. As I mentioned, there is no railing to hold on to and
the steps are steep. We got up around 8:30 and got ready for our first full
day in Santorini. Out on the balcony was a small young cat. She
just sat there, probably waiting for some food. We saw a lot of cats in
Santorini wandering around the area. We were surprised at the number of
stray cats and dogs. Some day soon, the Greek authorities are going to
have to put in place animal control laws. There were just too many
wandering around. I wrote in my journal while Tony got dressed. I
met our "neighbors" a couple from Canada
The
hotel serves breakfast at their outdoor café. It was nice to sit outside
and enjoy the view while eating. We watched ships, ferries, and sail
boats come and go all day long. Passengers from cruise ships arrived
via tenders as the ships were docked off shore. The main port is a
few miles south of Fira. This day, we visited the Boutari winery.
We took the local bus there, which was about a 20-minute ride after making
several stops along the way. The tour group was small, just Tony and
me! A young woman gave us the tour, explaining their wine making
process. We also saw a film, then sampled 6 different wines. Most
were pretty good, and we bought a couple of bottles. It was very
interesting to see the vineyards as the vines were shaped into wreathes and
sitting very low to the ground. Because Santorini has very high winds in
the summer time, the vines are kept low to the ground so that the winds do not
destroy them.
We
had to wait about 45 minutes for our local bus back to Fira. Thank goodness
it was a nice day. I certainly wouldn't like to wait in the hot summer
heat. Back in Fira, we headed back to our room. On the way, we
picked up a couple of gyro's at Lucky's - the best gyro's in all of Greece Athens
We
noticed that many of the round domes of the churches were painted in an off
white color, unlike the many shown in blue in the postcards. There was
one postcard of a blue domed church with church bells and the caldera bay
behind it. I asked a woman in a little grocery store where I could find
this church. "Down the street and to the right." Well,
down the street and to the right meant over the cliff! After walking
around the area, we saw the church bells. We had to backtrack and
eventually found the spot where photographers take this famous photo.
(See photo under the Santorini photo section). It's not a good
photo. The sky was very hazy and the dome had been re-painted.
Our
challenge to find this church was done and we were ready to take a break.
We headed back to our room, had drinks, and chatted with Lisa and Simon.
For dinner, we dined at Nikolas, a very good restaurant and very
inexpensive. There are no menus, but a large blackboard at the back of
the room listing their limited, but delicious, menu. The place was filled
of lots of hungry diners. We'd definitely dine here again.
4
May 2001: The cat was outside on our balcony again this morning. I
decided to name her Santo, short for Santorini. She was cute, but kept
her distance. This day we took the local bus to Ancient Akrotiri. I
had read that it was a very interesting place, and even saw a travel show on
it. We got there after a 30 minute or so bus ride. After paying to
get in, we walked through the ruins. It took us only 10 minutes to see
"it all!" We were so disappointed. It seemed that the
workers were busy working on replacing the old roof that was over the ancient
site, about 2 acres. Also, a lot of the area was roped or blocked off
from tourists. So, we didn't see much, not even any painted walls.
I did get a couple shots of the Greek vases. After this short visit, we
had to wait an hour for the next bus to arrive. We walked down to the
water/beach area. There were a couple of restaurants there. We
walked around to pass the time. Another day of waiting for the bus.
The next time we'll rent a car. Back in Fira, we had lunch at our hotel:
Gyro's from Lucky's and some wine and beer, which we purchased at the nearby
grocery store. Yummy lunch!
In
the afternoon, we decided to head to Oia, but did a little shopping beforehand.
We purchased our boat tickets for Naxos .
Then I started to window shop...again. Well, we never made it to Oia as
"I shopped until Tony dropped." The jewelry stores in Fira were
fabulous! There were many stores with many, many different types of
jewelry. I was quite overwhelmed. I had been window shopping the
previous 2 afternoons, but in the ended decided upon a couple of diamond and
emerald pieces. I guess we could have gone to Oia in the evening, but we
didn't feel like catching a bus there and having to 'wait' again. We
relaxed on our balcony for a while - love the views! - before heading out
to dinner at Zafora's. It's on the main street up from the cable
car. We enjoyed a delicious meal as we watched the sun set. After
our evening walk, we headed back to our room to have an after dinner drink on
the balcony.
5
May 2001: We got up around 8:30am and had our breakfast up at the
cafe. We chatted with Lisa and Simon who were also having their
breakfast. We were off to Naxos .
As the morning progressed, so did the winds. We went back to our room to
pack our bags, and since we had some time, we shopped for a few items before leaving.
Ms. Heidi arranged for a taxi to pick us up. One of the young men working
at the hotel carried our luggage to the taxi "stand." The winds
were really blowing and dust/dirt got into my eyes, bothering them as I wear
contact lenses. The ride to the port took only 15 minutes. By then,
the winds were really blowing! The dust, sand, dirt was flying every
where! We headed for shelter at one of the port restaurants to wait for
our boat. We were worried the boat wouldn't arrive or depart. The
winds were blowing the bay water, which was quite choppy. We sat and had
"coke lites" before the boat arrived. We got on just as it
started to rain. What a very nice boat! It's pretty new too.
Comfortable seats (assigned seats), large windows to see outside, a cafe,
etc. The older couple that sat next to us were very friendly. They
were with a large tour group heading home.
We
arrived in Naxos about an hour and a half
later. It had stopped raining, but was still overcast with dark
clouds. This was our first island that we arrived in without hotel
reservations. Tony saw a sign for the Naxos Tourist Office directly
across from the port, which is owned and operated by Ms. Kitini. He
remembered the name from our Frommer's guidebook. I had my list of hotels,
which Ms. Kitini managed two that were on the list: Hotel Apollon and Hotel
Chateau Zevgoli. I wanted to stay in C.Z., which is in the center of
town, but there was a room available for just 2 days. We were staying for
three nights and didn't want to have to pack our bags and move to another room
or hotel. Ms. Kitini drove us to Hotel Apollon, a few blocks away.
We liked the hotel very much and our room was quite comfortable. We had a
corner room with a balcony wrapped around two sides. The windows had
shutters so we could sleep soundly in a dark room.
After
unpacking, we headed into town to have lunch. We shared a sandwich and a
meze platter, which was very good. It was a hugh meal and could have had
just one or the other. Naxos town is lovely.
There are lots of whitewashed buildings along small streets. Some flowers
were in bloom, but not too many. Since it was the late afternoon, many of
the shops and restaurants were closed. Siesta time. We sat at the
cafe for a while enjoying the afternoon and just relaxing. We took a walk
along the port and did a little window shopping. At least it wasn't
raining. Along the port there is a restaurant that serves delicious fresh
octopus as well as calamari and cuttlefish. We saw octopus hanging out to
dry on lines and wood stands. It looked delicious!
In
the evening we headed out to have pizza for dinner. It was windy, so we
had our jackets with us. Tony was in the mood for pizza, so we ate at
Restaurant Kellari, on the water front. Very good pizza (brick
oven). The man who was managing the place (he's from Albania
6
May 2001: Our morning started with breakfast in the hotel's breakfast
room. We enjoyed coffee, tea, juice, soft boiled eggs, yogurt, and
delicious fresh baked bread. We were really impressed with the breads in Greece South Africa
After
lunch, we headed to a travel agency to inquire about boats to Paros or Mykonos . According to the schedules for the day we
wanted to travel, Mykonos was out of the
question. So, it was Paros for our next
island. We stopped by to see Ms. Kitini, who owns the Naxos Tourist
Office. She suggested to "get out of town" and take the local
bus to Filoti. The bus was leaving in 5 minutes across the street.
Okay, why not! Well, the bus left at 1:30pm and we arrived in Filoti at
2pm. There was NOTHING to see! It seemed everyone was in their
homes enjoying their siesta. Most stores were closed. And we were
stuck there until the 5:30pm bus arrived. Another day of waiting for the
bus. We walked along the streets, but after a while we went to a small
cafe to warm up from the cold air. It was an overcast day and quite
cool. We had a light snack and some white wine. It tasted similar
to a port wine. We walked around a little more, but it was just too cold
for me. We found a cafe with a bunch of Greek men sitting and drinking
their coffee and playing backgammon. We had some hot tea and coffee to
keep us warm. Our bus arrived at 5:30pm and we were happy to be heading back
to Naxos town! It was a long day and we
hated to waste time by waiting for the bus.
Back
in our hotel room, we read our books that we brought. For dinner, we
dined at the place that had the hanging octopus (KAYE OUZERI TO LIMANAKI, which
is just to the left of the Grotta Tours office). It was absolutely
delicious! We enjoyed grilled octopus as well as grilled calamari along
with some local white wine. Most of the diners were locals, which is
always a good sign. We chatted with one couple at the next table who were
visiting from Paros . They own a home in Paros and go there every year for 2-3 months. How
nice! They were on Naxos for a few days
visit. Back in our room again, we had some ouzo, then went to bed.
7
May 2001: We rented a car and drove around the island. We paid 6.000Dr
(about $16) for the car plus 3.000 ($8) for the gas. Pretty cheap!
It was a tiny car, but that's all we needed for the small streets in town and
narrow roads on the island. Naxos is
very mountainous and there were a lot of hair pin curves. Some of these
curves do not have guard rails! Tony knew I was uncomfortable around
these curves, so he drove slowly. It was amazing to see the locals drive
right by us without worrying about the curves or oncoming cars. It reminded
me of the Italian drivers. We saw villages along the hillsides, goats in
the middle of the road, as well as donkeys. The day was beautiful with
blue skies, white clouds, and a cool breeze. It was a much nicer day than
the day before. During our travels, we stopped at a very old church, a
Hellenic tower being restored and saw two Kouros. We also visited the
town of Apirathos Naxos
town. We swapped restaurant suggestions: We gave them our restaurant
recommendations for Santorini and they gave their suggestions for Paros and Athens
We
continued on our drive around the island where we saw the second Kouros near
the beach town of Apolonas Naxos
town around 5pm, so we dropped off the car. We were allowed to keep the
car until the next morning, but there was no point. We walked into town
and purchased our boat tickets for Paros the
next day. Along the way, we ran into Mike and Camille. They were in
town for the rest of the evening. We talked for a few minutes with them,
then headed our separate ways. I wanted to take some photographs of the
boats in the port as well as the Portara. After, we headed back to our
room to relax, have a little wine, and do some reading.
For
dinner, we headed straight back to the restaurant KAYE OUZERI TO
LIMANAKI. As we were enjoying the first dish of octopus, tzatziki and
caraffe of wine, Mike and Camille showed up. They joined us for dinner,
who also loved every bite. We ended up having 3 carafes of wine, the
tzatziki, and 3 different dishes: the octopus, the calamari, and a combination
plate of calamari and cuttle fish. For our portion, we paid $26.50.
It was worth every penny. After dinner, we headed to a bakery/pastry shop
with Mike and Camille and joined their friends for dessert. Tony and I
enjoyed tiramisu. I know, it's not baklava, but it was good! We
headed back to our room as I was tired and had a little too much wine to
drink. We had a really great time with Mike and Camille.
8
May 2001: We're off to Paros. Our boat was scheduled to leave at
12:15pm. We got up, showered, had breakfast, then packed our bags. We had
plenty of time, so we headed to town with our luggage to the Naxos Tourist
Office. We paid our hotel bill, got my passport back, and left our
luggage there for a couple of hours. When Ms. Kitini asked me how much
she quoted me for the room, I said 18.000DR. Well, she charged my credit
card 18.000DR. I guess she didn't remember we were there for three
nights, so I had her charge against my Visa for the other two nights. If
I hadn't caught the error, that would have been a really cheap stay. We
walked around the port area and I picked up a couple of souvenirs. Around
10:30am, we noticed one boat leaving. It was the Express Athina.
Our boat! We quickly ran into a travel agency and the woman behind the counter
said the boat would be back in time for the 12:15 schedule, or close to that
time. I had panicked because the next boat to Paros
was at 3pm and I didn't want to wait that long. This boat was running
late. More walking around, then we went to get our luggage and wait at
the port so we wouldn't miss our boat. While waiting at the port, we ran
into the Canadian couple we met in Santorini, who stayed at the apartment next
door to us at Enigma Apartments. They said we were lucky that we left
Santorini when we did. The weather had gotten worse and boats were not
able to arrive/depart for 2 days. They said the winds were
incredible. We were lucky.
Our
boat arrived and after the passengers got off, we all got on. It departed
at 12:30pm. The boat ride took 1 hour to get to Paros .
Upon arrival in Paros , we asked a police
officer where to find Hotel Asterias. Ms. Kitini recommended the hotel
and it was one of my choices from my research. The hotel is located about
400 meters north of the port, along the main street. There were plenty of
rooms available, in fact all of them! We were the only guests there until
the day we left Paros , when they were
expecting a group of travelers. Our room was very plain, but fine for
us. We unpacked our bags, then headed out to find a place for
lunch. As usual, at this time of day, many places were closed. In
the center of the town, we found a restaurant (Distrato), which served salads,
sandwiches, crepes, etc. We had a good lunch and chatted with the
owner. We stayed for a while relaxing under the umbrellas. We
walked around town for a while. We stopped at a grocery store to pick up
a bag of pistachio nuts. They were so inexpensive, but I didn't think to
purchase a few bags to bring home. We also picked up a 5 liter container
of local white wine. Talk about cheap! It was only $4.20 for the whole
container! We headed to our room. Since most places were still
closed, we decided to have our own siesta. Back in our room, we sat on
our balcony while sipping on our very inexpensive white wine and reading our
books.
In
the evening, we walked around town to find a restaurant for dinner. The
man at the cafe at lunchtime recommended Porphyra's, which was also listed in
the Frommer's guidebook. As we walked to the restaurant, Tony noticed the
power lines sparking. He said, "it's not supposed to do
that." Then about 5 minutes later, the electricity went out along
the whole port area. Well, we ended up dining at Porphyra's by candlelight.
We enjoyed our meal, including having shark for the first time. It was
delicious. We also had fried mullet and a couple of appetizers. We
headed back to our room as Tony's knee was hurting him. No evening walk
this night.
9
May 2001: We didn't sleep well at all last night. There were mosquitos in
our room. Even though we put lotion on our arms and face, they still hung
around. We also had the doors open for the fresh, cool air (the room was
warm from the afternoon sun), but that brought in more mosquitoes and the noise
from the street in front of the hotel. We asked the owner to provide us
the remote control for the A/C for the next two nights. She offered to
spray our room as well. After breakfast, we rented a car to drive around
the island. We drove along and stopped at a couple of beaches and
towns. The town of Lefkes Paros were very nice and clean. The water was so
pretty with the blues and greens. The island was a lot smaller than Naxos , so we got back to town fairly early. We went
to our room to get our bathing suits, and headed to Kolimbithres beach, near
Naoussa. The beach area was small. The rock formations were very
interesting. We laid out for just an hour because the sun was very bright
and warm. There was only one other couple on the beach and a few in the
water.
Back
in town, we dropped off the car, showered, and relaxed in our room. I
wrote in my journal while Tony took a nap. For dinner, we enjoyed a
delicious meal at small restaurant near the cathedral. I had a lamb dish
while Tony had moussaka. The only distraction at the place were three
young college women. Only one was doing all the talking and I swear she
could have been on the set of Road Rules or The Real World. All she
talked about (actually whined the whole time) was about her boyfriend. I
did overhear her say 'Real World' at one point and I wondered if they
were actually from that ridiculous show. The other two girls just sat and
listened. They looked bored. We were so glad when they left.
I was ready to get up and tell them to grow up! After dinner, we walked
around and I bought some pistachio ice cream for dessert.
10
May 2001: This day was a very lazy day. We knew there wouldn't be a whole
lot to see in town. We skipped breakfast and headed out for day. We
visited the Church museum, which was very interesting. In the courtyard,
church bells hung in the branches of a large tree. We found a pastry shop
and purchased a few goodies. A very rich, sweet breakfast. We
walked along the small streets while I took some photographs. We headed
to the archeological museum, which was much larger than the one on Naxos . Much of the artifacts were the same: vases,
sculptures, statues, gold pieces, and fragments of other types of
pottery. For lunch, we just had some gyros. They were good, but
again, not as good as at Lucky's in Fira. We sat at the outdoor cafe
watching people as they headed to the port to take their boats to some new
destination. In the afternoon, I window shopped and purchased a couple of
small items. We also purchased our boat tickets for Piraeus
In
the evening, we walked around a bit before heading to a restaurant recommended
in the Frommer's guide book: Boudaraki. It's located on the south side of
the port area, just over a small bridge on the left hand side. There were
only 4 other couples dining there. We sat outside. Our meal was
very good and was one of the best on our trip. Tony had lamb cooked in a
ceramic pot while I had chicken in a cream, garlic, bacon and mushroom
sauce. It was rich, but very good and not seen on other menus. Our
meal was only $17. We also had some local white wine. No appetizers
this evening and we were glad. The meal was filling. We did have
dessert, complimentary from the owner: a delicious baklava-type dessert.
A couple of cats walked in and just sat at our feet hoping to be fed. One
of the other couples took care of them. A little while later, the cats
started to fight. Fur was flying everywhere. The owner came out and
sent them on their way. We walked slowly back to our hotel through the
tourist area where all the shops and other restaurants are located.
11
May 2001: We got up around 8:30am. After our showers and breakfast, we
headed out to the grocery store to buy our lunch for the boat ride to Piraeus Paros cheese, salami, a small can of marinated octopus, a
small container of taramasolata, a can of dolmades, and a small bag of
pistachio nuts. Back in our room, we packed our bags. We had saved
two large empty water bottles and poured the white wine into them. A lot
remained, but we knew we couldn't drink it all. Tony also had 2 bottles
of Greek beer, but decided to leave it behind (only about .65 cents
each). The only hotel that had a refrigerator was the one on Santorini.
Around
11:15, we checked out and headed to the port. Our bags were heavy, but
manageable. Our boat, the Express Poseidon, left at 12:20pm. We
left our luggage at the entrance of the boat, like many of the other
travelers. The first time we did this (from Santorini to Naxos ), we felt a little uncomfortable. But since
we didn't have any valuables inside (except my film!), we decided it was okay
to leave them where they were. We went to one of the lounges and had our
picnic. People around us watched with envy while we ate our delicious
meal with our wine. After lunch, we found a place to sit outside and we
read our books or just looked out to the sea. We saw five military ships
in the distance, but we couldn't tell from which country they were from.
It was a nice sunny day and a lot of young people were sunning
themselves. Although the boat ride was 5 hours long, it was a very nice
and relaxing afternoon.
Arriving
in Piraeus Piraeus
From
there, we headed north on Athina two blocks to our hotel Attalos. We
checked in our room, #511, which had a balcony with a view of the
Acropolis. The room was small, but nice. The drapes and bedspread
did not match, but looked new. The bathroom was very tiny, but
usable. We went downstairs to ask Maria, the woman at the desk, to
have someone spray the room for mosquitos. We saw two in the room.
If there's two, there's more. Also, the A/C wasn't working. She
came up to our room about 5 minutes later with new batteries for the remote
control and told us someone would come in and spray our room.
After
unpacking some of our clothes (by this time in our vacation I do not unpack
everything), we headed to the Plaka. The people! It was much more
crowded than we remember from our trip in 1993. We walked around the area
for a while, remembering some of the streets from before. We went to a
restaurant which served only mezes. The waiter comes to the table with a
large tray and about 12 different dishes. We enjoyed tzatziki, eggplant,
meatballs, octopus cooked with vegetables, stuffed vine leaves. Also included
with our meal was bread, a large carafe of red wine, and a large bottle of
water, which we didn't open but took back to our room. We sat upstairs
and as the evening went on, the placed filled up. We sat next to an older
couple from Holland
12
May 2001: This day we spent visiting the central market, Acropolis, Agora, and
Plaka. We opted not to have breakfast in our hotel. We headed to
the central market, which was on the right a couple of blocks. This place
is not for those with weak stomachs. All kinds of meats hang in the
market: whole lamb, rabbit, beef, even pigs heads. There is also a
fishmarket with many varieties of fish and seafood. The octopus looked
wonderful. Near the central market, we found a place serving gyros, which
we had as our breakfast. They were very good. Almost as good as
Lucky's. Tony liked these better because in addition to the regular
ingredients, these had some chopped green peppers.
After
our delicious breakfast, we headed to the Acropolis. On the way there, we
walked past Syntagma square, then saw the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown
solder. We headed up to the Acropolis from the north side/Plaka
side. There were a lot of people there. I enjoyed seeing the
Parthenon again. Even though there is scaffolding, it's a spectacular
sight. I suppose it will be many years before the project is
finished. We visited the museum, which is included as part of the entry
ticket. After visiting the museum, we headed down to the Agora. I
remember back in 1993 we could walk around the area without any entry
fee. Now we had to pay to get in. Inside the Agora's market
building is a museum, also included in the price of the ticket.
For
lunch, we headed to the Psiri area, which is west of our hotel. There
were several restaurants in the area filled with lots of locals. We
didn't see many tourists in this area. The food looked good at one place
(Zeidwron) so we stopped in for lunch. Tony had a delicious meal of
sausage and peppers cooked in a tomato based sauce. I had a pork dish
with vegetable and cheese baked in parchment paper. We didn't have any
appetizers at this meal.
We
were tired from all the walking and hiking around the Acropolis, so we headed
back to the room to rest. Well, Tony did. I headed out to do some
shopping. I was gone only an hour as I ran out of money. There were
some stores with lovely ceramics. Back in the room, I wrote in my
journal. The day was very overcast. I suppose my photos won't come
out well.
For
dinner, we dined in the Plaka at O Platano. We sat outside with many
other people. We ordered too much. We had spinach pies (ordered 2
thinking they would be for one person), eggplant salad, and two lamb dishes:
one with eggplant and the other with peas. Everything was
delicious. We had a bottle of Santorini Boutari white wine, which was
very good. Our meal was about $30. We headed back to our hotel
after walking around the Plaka and seeing all the tourists there. We went
to the rooftop garden and ordered ouzo's. They were expensive.
13
May 2001: Mother's Day and our last full day in Greece. Another overcast
and cold day. These last two days in Athens
We
did a lot of walking this day. We headed to the National Archeological
museum. Along the way we picked up some food to munch on. We
visited the museum for a couple of hours. One exhibit we wanted to see
was closed. It was on Cycladic art, including artifacts from Ancient
Akrotiri in Santorini. After this museum, we walked to the War museum.
It was raining lightly all morning. We got to the museum in time to see
most of the exhibits before it closed at 2pm. There was no charge for the
museum, which was nice. Outside the building were a few war airplanes on
display. The museum had artifacts from the wars that Greece
Next,
we walked back to the Plaka, via the Olympic stadium. We sat in the
stands for a while giving our feet a break. Back in the Plaka we had
donar kebabs for lunch, which were very good. We were very tired after
all that walking. We must have walked a few miles. We were nonstop
from 10am to 3pm. Back in our room we took a nap for a couple of
hours. It was nice to relax for a while.
In
the evening we dined at Byzantino in the Plaka. We had a few mezes for
our meal. We had a late lunch so we were not very hungry. We took
our time eating and enjoying the evening. We walked around the Plaka and
I bought some pistachio ice cream. It was very good! We were in bed
by about 11pm. This was our last evening in Greece
14
May 2001: Time to go home. We got up at 8am. Our taxi would be
waiting for us at 9am. We didn't have a lot to pack since we didn't
completely unpack our bags when we arrived at Attalos. Checkout was fast
and the taxi drive was waiting for us. It took about 50 minutes to get to
the new airport and cost us 6.000DR/$15.65. The traffic was very heavy in
town. After we got out of the area, it was a quick ride to the airport.
Our flight was at 12:20pm, so we had time to find the VAT refund office, have
some breakfast, and head to our gate. As usual, we had a difficult time
finding the VAT refund office. I swear these foreign countries don't want
anyone to get their refund back, so they hide these offices. We asked
several people in uniform, who only said, "go ask...." We
finally found it. It's on the right side, just on the other side of the
Passport Control booths. There is a small sign that reads, "Customs Control,"
not "VAT Refund Office." I would never had thought that it was
the refund office. I have a map of the airport if anyone wishes to see
it. I have even marked the place for the refund office as well as the
post office on the first level. That's the other problem: after getting
the refund certificate stamped, there's no mail box. I had to give up my
passport at the control booth tp go down stairs to the post office to drop off
the envelope. I could have waited until I got home, but I wanted it
mailed from Athens
We
had breakfast at (ugh!)...McDonalds, although they did not serve the typical
McDonald's food. I had a spinach pie and Tony had a sandwich.
After, he went to the duty free store to spend the rest of our Greek
money. He purchased a bottle of Metaxa. I would have preferred
Ouzo!
Our
flight left on time but getting on board took a while. The security was
very good at the airport, so I didn't mind the long wait. I'd rather have
them check everyone out carefully than not at all. We had the exit seats
(front door), but were asked to move so that the flight attendants could use
the area for their carts. I didn't care to move, but we did. The
flight was half empty. The lunch was very good, especially the salads:
smoked salmon and eggplant salad. The flight was fine, but we hated
Olympic Airlines. They didn't show any movies at all! There were
four shows that they kept repeating throughout the flight. Many people
were angry. The other problem as I mentioned before, was that after
everyone was served their meal, the flight attendants disappeared. What
an airline.
It
was a very long day getting home. Our flight home was 9.5 hours
long! We had moved back to our exit seats prior to landing, so we were
the first off after the first class passengers. We landed at JFK around
3pm. We grabbed a taxi, who whisked us to LGA in the afternoon rush hour
traffic. We missed catching the 4pm flight to Reagan National, so we had
to wait for the 5pm flight. The flight line was backed up with a dozen planes
in front of us were waiting to take off. Our flight finally took off
around 5:40pm. The flight was short and after landing and getting to our
car via shuttle bus, we drove to Dawn's house to pick up Lucy. We stayed
for dinner, and then headed home. We got home around 10pm. Yes, it
was a very long day! It was good to be home in our own bed.
Greece Paris or Rome
We
certainly enjoyed the food and never got tired of eating Greek food, although
someimte we felt all we did was eat. The local wines were good and
inexpensive. Lunch of gyros were inexpensive and delicious - Go to
Lucky's in Fira!!! We could have spent less on our meals by skipping the
wine and beer, but even with the drinks, the meals were very reasonable.
I
think Fira was one of my favorite places. I just loved sitting on our
terrace enjoying the views of the caldera. Both ports of Naxos and Paros were very nice. I liked the small streets of
Naxos and the beaches of Paros . My next
trip? Italy
WEB
SITES USED:
http://www.gtp.gr/ Greek Travel Pages (search boat schedules)
Greece
Greece
Athens
Paros
Naxos
Naxos Island
http://www.gtp.gr/ Greek Travel Pages (search boat schedules)
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