One of the pros on us moving overseas was that we could travel to different places that were out of reach living in the states. We had traveled locally within the UAE and Oman, but hadn’t had the time due to the move and Steve’s work, but on Thanksgiving Day we left the Middle East and traveled to Athens, Greece for a week.
In junior high I did a report on the Parthenon for a geography class and I was fascinated by its history and lore. I promised myself that one day I would go to visit it myself and that was one of the deciding factors in us going to Greece.
We left in the wee hours of Thanksgiving Day and traded our turkey dinner in for almost decent airplane food. We had a brief stop-over in Doha, Qatar and made it to our destination around lunch time (although to us it was mid afternoon and we had all been up since 3am). We rented a condo for the week and the owner picked us up in her tiny little car. Imagine fitting 5 people, 3 suitcases and 4 carry-ons in the equivalent of a Ford Escort. We managed to fit everyone and everything in and rode to the port of Athens, Piraeus which is about 1 hour from the airport.
My first impressions of Athens were not very favorable. It was very dirty with trash and graffiti every where. It made me sad that a birth place of so many things and ideas was not well taken care of. It seemed like the residents took no pride in their surroundings. The locals’ attitudes made up for it. They were all very friendly and helpful. And thankfully they all spoke at least a smattering of English which was very useful since the further away from the tourist areas you went, the less English you saw on signs.
We found out to our delight that we had a view of the Acropolis from the balcony of our condo when we got there and I think I took no less than 25 pictures of it wishing I had a larger zoom lens. It was spectacular at night when it was lit up. It’s something that I will keep in my mind forever. We did find out that the free internet that we were promised in the ad for the condo was not to be. This put a little wrench in some of our plans (like figuring out the metro system and me doing my homework), but we were able to figure it out eventually.
We spent that afternoon and evening wandering around the port town where we were staying. We went to a local grocery store and got some supplies for the week. I think I actually saw a tear or two in Steve’s eyes when he saw the beer down the aisle from the bacon (we picked up both). We explored the port and found out about day cruises and ate McDonalds much to the girls delight, in yet another country (it is everywhere!).
The next day we set off to figure out the public transport system and didn’t do so well initially. We were very proud of ourselves when we found the train station almost immediately. We bought our tickets and thought we were on our way. At the first stop, they made an announcement in Greek and absolutely everyone got off. I looked out the window and one of the transport workers motioned us to follow. We were all herded into buses and took a long (about 30 minutes) ride having no idea where we were going and hoping that we would be able to get back to the condo eventually. The bus finally stopped and we were again herded into a train station. I was able to determine from the map that we were now 3 stops down the line from where we were previously. Eventually a kind soul let us know that they were doing construction on the line and that’s why we had to get off and ride a bus for awhile. We did eventually find our destination Lycabettus Hill after only about 3 ½ hours of buses, trains and cabs. We rode the expensive and underwhelming tram up to the top where we were treated to stunning views of the city and surrounding areas including the Acropolis and the islands. We spent about an hour up there seeing the sights and I took several pictures (things never change). We then decided to walk down the hill and try to get back to the condo. It was mid-afternoon and we were expecting that it would take a long time to get back. But, we greatly improved our time and made it back in an hour and 15 minutes!
The next day we had booked a day cruise to 3 of the nearest islands. Since we were close to the port Steve decided that we should walk. We had walked to the pier the first day after all and it wasn’t too bad (about 1 mile). He didn’t take into consideration that it was 6am and the gate we needed to get to was the furthest one from us. Once we got to the port, a suggestion was made to get a cab to our gate since we were at gate 8 and needed to be at gate 1. That suggestion was denied and we continued to walk. 2 miles later with 3 cranky females, Steve made it to the correct gate. Needless to say, we took a cab home that night!
After the rough start, the rest of the day was amazing. We visited Hydra, Poros, and Aegina which are all beautiful. Hydra, our first stop is free of cars (except for the trash truck, and 2 other service vehicles). All other transport is done through donkeys much to the girls pleasure. The girls also enjoyed the hundreds of stray cats on the island. Between the donkeys and the cats they were happy campers. One of Steve’s favorite parts of the day was lunch (pork and beer again) which we had on board the boat in between islands. We made a very quick stop to the island of Poros which had a very nice little port with shops and cafes. Our final stop was the island of Aegina where we actually took a tour bus to the top of the island to the Temple of Aphaia (read up on this temple if you can….it has a great story) which is one of the best preserved temples in Greece. We were at one of the highest points of the island and the sun was setting (another picture that will stay in my head forever). We went back on the boat and were treated to some entertainment, some of which was entertaining (the traditional Greek dancers) and some not so much (the comedian). All in all a pretty fabulous day!
Because we had such a long day the day before, we decided to take it easy the next day (it was also Sunday and not much going on). We went to a nearby mall with intentions of finding an internet café (so I could do my homework) and to take the girls to a movie. We found the first thing pretty easily, but were not able to find an appropriate (they didn’t want to go to New Moon with me!) movie in English. But, we did find a huge park behind the mall with about 10 gigantic moon bounces in it. The girls were in heaven and spent about 2 hours jumping to their heart’s content.
The next day was the highlight of our trip in my opinion. I finally saw the Acropolis and all its amazing temples and theatres. Just walking up the hill and seeing the ruins of buildings that are thousands of years old was astonishing. I can’t say that the girls had the same reactions as us on the whole experience however. They were more interested in climbing the ancient stones than looking at them. Caitlin did appreciate that they were old buildings and liked hearing the legends, but I think she was expecting to actually see Zeus and Athena there. The only downer on the day was the lack of time we had to spend on the archaic hill. We got there late in the day and were unaware on the early closing times for that day in particular (another instance where internet would have been nice).
The rest of the trip we spent enjoying ourselves by wandering through Greece to see what we could find. On the last day there, we found something that Steve in particular has been looking for. We were in the National Gardens (large park in the center of Athens) and started to hear thunder. We started towards an exit, but were not quick enough to get under cover before we were in a full-on deluge. It took us 30 minutes of walking through the pouring rain before we found any cover and by then we were drenched. It was the first time we had seen rain in 6 months, but I think Steve was the only one that was happy about it (it was freakin cold!!!)
On the airplane ride home I asked everyone what their 3 favorite parts (in order) of the trip were and I got these answers:
Ashli:
1 The cats
2 The bouncers
3 The hot chocolate that Daddy bought us on the boat
Caitlin:
1 The temples
2 The bouncers
3 The hot chocolate that Daddy bought us on the boat
Steve:
1 The Acropolis
2 The day cruise to the islands
3 Pizza Hut (pork laden pizza with beer!)
Me
1 The Acropolis
2 The day cruise to the islands
3 Going on our first family trip together in a very long time
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