Bury My Heart in Santorini

[Apologies for the delay in posting; we have been having some technical difficulties.]

It's Windsor again, posting from Santorini. We arrived here in the village of Oia on Tuesday evening, after a somewhat harrowing ferry ride and then a crazy taxi ride up the volcanic cliffs. Apparently you used to have to ride donkeys to the top of the cliffs, but I haven't seen any working donkeys so far (only a couple grazing on the side of the road).

Our hotel is called Canaves Oia. It's small; I'd compare it to a bed and breakfast in the States. Only here, the hotel rooms are little caves dug into the cliffside. Each room is really more like an apartment, made from the houses of the sea captains that used to live here.




















No matter how cool the hotel rooms are or how they were built, they're nothing compared to the view when you walk out of them:















We spent most of our first two days here reading on our little veranda:














....or reading by the pool:














For lunch and dinner we usually venture into the village to find someplace with a cliffside balcony to eat.















However, last night after watching the sunset off the west end of the island (still in Oia)....




















We walked down the cliffs on the end of the island to a little village called Ammoudi, which is where the fishermens' boats are tied up. There are a couple of tavernas down there where you can eat freshly caught fish and calamari.














Bo never thought I'd go for this but I like to keep him on his toes and anyway I actually loved it. The fish was delicious and it's the only fish we've seen in Greece so far (except the octopus we saw a guy in Mykonos banging against a rock to kill it). Here's proof:




















We went back to Ammoudi today and we followed a little winding path around the cliff base to a small (rocky) beach. We swam in the Aegean and out to a rock about 50 feet offshore where there's a sunbathing platform and also a little chapel carved into the rock. The water was really salty so we were surprisingly buoyant and just floated around for a long time. It was really cool; all the little volcanic rocks (pumice?) were floating along with us. We don't have any pictures of this yet but we did take a waterproof disposable camera with us so maybe those will come out when we get back to the U.S.

LINDSAY! They are filming "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" here today!!! No sight of Alexis Bledel yet but we are keeping an eye out. Also, per your email request I wore a blue dress into town the other night to try to get a picture with the white buildings. The pictures all came out blurry, so we'll have to try again. Here's the best one from the bunch:



















Also, someone show this picture to my mom so she'll believe me when I get back and tell her I brought a hat AND wore it (otherwise, this picture has no redeeming qualities):

Finally some beach--Mykonos

Well stop #2 on the Adams escapade was Mykonos, one of the 2000 islands that make up the Peloponnese. After our adventure driving to the Athens airport (come on, if there was a sign that said "Athens Airport- tolls" and one that said "Athens Airport- no tolls" which one would you choose?) we took a short 20 minute prop flight (kate, you wouldn't have liked it) to Mykonos. From the Mykonos airport (where we spotted Paris Hilton, or at least a lovely lady who thought she was Paris Hilton), we went direct to the Mykonos Grand, one of the Small Luxury Hotels of the world, and quite an amazing place. Built into the rocks on the west side of the island, the hotel offers some stunning views of the island of Delos, where the ancient Greeks barred anyone from being born or dying, and from the looks of it, no one lives there. Getting there in the evening, we first enjoyed cocktails in the hottub overlooking the Aegean. Then, we simply "settled" for dinner at the hotel restaurant (Ostrich filet, mmmm).

To our great disappointment, we awoke to cloudy skies and intermittent rain on our first (and only full) day in Mykonos. Windsor's cursing of the Athenians at the Numismatics Museum(see previous entry) must have angered the Greek weather god (that would be Zeus, for all you Edith Hamilton fans) because we got zero sun on Monday. We settled instead for books and beers at the poolside (covered) bar. Not a bad way to spend a rainy day, again testing out the local brew Mythos (needed several samples to be sure it was okay), learning a lot about Martin Luther (my new hero), and eating several hundred Smarties. The weather cleared enough for another evening in the hottub with several more cocktails. We decided to get adventurous and headed to Mykonos town for the evening. The town is about a 10 minute cab ride from the hotel. Mykonos is a strange combination of Cancun/Ibiza party scene and a destination for old folks on cruises. The town is pedestrian-only, with streets about 5 feet wide between ancient white buildings with gyro stands and Cartier-like stores. The young, nerdy, academic couple who don't go to clubs were a little out of place, but we were able to enjoy ourselves. We grabbed apps and beers along the water, then toured the stores, then settled for our best meal of the trip so far, a 3 euro gyro (amazing). We decided to end the evening with a nice glass of wine along the water's edge, but we were quickly told by the angry Greek waiter that if we were not going to order food, we could not sit by the water. We took offense and left. End of Monday...

Tuesday, the day we were leaving Mykonos, was beautiful, of course. We did get to spend the morning at the beach, but we had to pack up and head home. After a mob scene at the local port, we boarded the SuperJet, the 2 hour ferry to Santorini. If you thought Mykonos was nice, just wait until you hear about Santorini. But alas, I have to go enjoy more cocktails at the poolside bar, while overlooking the Aegean which lays at the base of the 500 foot cliff upon which our hotel is precariously perched (unreal). More later!

Here are some Mykonos Pics...
















Windsor enjoying the evening cocktails in the hottub.

















Rain, rain go away, come again another day (except not when we're in Santorini)
















Mykonos' weather gave us a chance to catch up on our blogging, emailing, and drinking skills.
















In the town of Mykonos. Great drinks (beer and wine), apps (spinakapita and feta), and people watching by the water in Mykonos.















The craziness of the Mykonos town scene. Lots of techno music, European guys dressed like European guys, and old people off the cruise ship. Needless to say, we didn't exactly fit in.
















Bo enjoying the local fare in the town of Mykonos- pork gyro and Mythos beer, better than Mauby's.
















Bo enjoying the beach in Mykonos, finally on Monday after the rain has passed. Delos is the island in the background (control yourselves, ladies)

















Windsor, waiting with the other 45 thousand drunk college kids at the Mykonos port. There were no signs, indications of which ferry went where, or any rule of law (people pushing, jumping fences, smelling bad). We're both about as happy at this point as she looks.
















Goodbye to the beauty of Mykonos. Would we find better views in Santorini? (um, yes) This is the view from the terrace of our hotel room at the Mykonos Grand. We spent quite a bit of time sitting here, reading, blogging, drinking, eating Jelly Bellies.

Athens

Bo has put me (Windsor) in charge of posting about Athens. This may be because I got into so much trouble in Athens. More on that below...

Saturday night in Athens we went to Plaka, the neighborhood right below the Acropolis, for dinner. Plaka is a lot like the Latin Quarter of Paris, so Tom probably wouldn't have liked it. We liked it though-- lots of Greek musicians playing on the sidewalks, restaurants with tables on the sidewalk and in shaded plazas. We picked a place called Platanos, a taverna serving traditional Greek food. "Traditional Greek food" apparently means gyros and souvlaki, except the gyros aren't lamb meat like they are at Shipfeifer's; they're pork or chicken. Anyway, here's a picture of Bo at Platanos:














Sunday morning we woke up really early (Charlie this means 6:30 am not 1 pm) and were among the first few people climbing up to the Acropolis when it opened at 8 am. Here is Bo hiking up:















You don't realize how high the Acropolis is until you're on top. You can see the entire city and the sea beyond. Here is the view:














And here is Bo, pondering the view:














The Parthenon is full of scaffolding because they're currently in the middle of a restoration. They are apparently repairing the damage caused by the last restoration (19th century). Anyway, it's still the Parthenon and it's still incredible, scaffolding or no:















We also visited the Acropolis museum at the top of the Acropolis. There wasn't a lot there because they are in the middle of building a new museum at the bottom of the Acropolis. The frieze panels from the Parthenon (the ones that weren't, to use the Greeks' description, "hacked off the Parthenon by British Lord Elgin and stolen away to England") and the other major carvings are all in the process of being moved to the new museum.

I nonetheless tried to document the museum visit by taking a picture of Bo with this statue, but this Greek lady started yelling at me, saying "NO POSING! NO POSING!" and she marched over and made me erase the picture. I didn't like her very much...















Despite being scolded by the lady at the museum, the Acropolis was very cool.















We spent the rest of the day in Athens visiting a couple of museums. First, the National Archaeological Museum, where we saw the Mycenaen treasure unearthed by Heinrich Schliemann. Here is Bo, posing like a statue outside the National Archaeological Museum (don't tell him I posted this one):



















Then we visited the Numismatics Museum, which was the second place I got in trouble in Athens. What are numismatics, you ask? Well, that's what I asked when Bo said we had to go there instead of going shopping. Numismatics = coin collecting. We arrived at the Numismatics Museum at 2:30 and it was supposed to close at 3. We figured we had plenty of time, half an hour to look at all the coins-- except apparently the employees wanted to get off work early, and they were mad mad mad that we arrived at 2:30. They decided to let us know how mad they were by following us through the rooms of the museum, en masse, and standing there watching us as we looked at the display cases. By the time we got to the last room, there were about eight Greeks standing at the door chatting loudly to each other and staring us down. I asked Bo how to say some cuss words in Greek but he doesn't know any good Greek vocabulary like that. All in all we spent about 15 minutes at the Numismatics Museum.

We headed back to the hotel around 3, got the car, got yelled at by a Greek lady in a car, and headed toward the Athens airport. This was an adventure because Bo followed the "Airport-No Tolls" sign instead of the "Airport- Tolls" sign and somehow we ended up at the beach in Rafina instead of the airport. This was a little bit stressful. However, we turned around and made it to the airport in plenty of time and by 7 pm we were in Mykonos. Hopefully they like Americans here better than they do in Athens...

Pictures from Corinth (Read Corinth Post below first)

Bo in front of the Doric columns of the Temple of Apollo in Corinth. In the background is the mountain of Acro-Corinth, with its fortress on the top. We decided the climb up there was a little too strenuous for our vacation.















Windsor conducting commerce at the Zara of Ancient Corinth.
















Bo, considering how much Greek he has forgotten since school got out. Oh wait, that's Latin...















Windsor in the museum at Corinth. The inscription on the bottom makes reference to good ol' JC.

Corinth by Car (barely)

First thing we did once arriving in Athens was head for the car rental place at the airport (well, actually, we had to go to 2 car rental places- note to self, don't go with the cheapest option on Orbitz.com...). We got the keys to a brand new Hyundai Accent then trekked 1.5 hours to Corinth, which is located on the Isthmus dividing the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland. Corinth was a dominant Greek city, destroyed in 146BCE, then was rebuilt as a Roman city by Julius Caesar in 44 BCE. Corinth is perhaps most famous for being the addressee of at least 3 (probably more) letters of Paul, and the place where he spent 18 months according to Acts. Windsor and I didn't see Paul there, but we did see a lot of stones laying on the ground (Corinth is not very well preserved), some gigantic Doric columns, some gross dogs, some Japanese tourists, and some Notre Dame fans. We spent about 2 hours exploring the ruins and the museum, then we took lunch in town, gyro for me (prepare to hear more about gyros), sausage for Windsor. I tested the local brew (Mythos), and I give it about a B- (think Michelob Light). After Corinth we headed back north toward Athens. Did I mention that all the road signs are in Greek and we are clueless as to where we're going? Thanks to Windsor's superb navigational skills, Bo's excellent shifting, and the Athenians' love for 80s classic rock, we made it back to the Intercontinental Athenaeum hotel (about as Greek as a Chevy Camaro). The place was nice, though, except for the convention of French Advertising Executives, who filled the lobby with lots of black ties, cigarette smoke, and snotty looking people. Regardless, we made it to our rooms, showered, and headed out for our first night on the town. We'll post more about our adventures, but we wanted to give a quick summary of our day. Photos to follow. Hope everyone is doing well!

Introduction

You might be thinking "Who brings a laptop on vacation?" The answer is: Bo Adams does. To make the most of the fact that Bo is lugging this machine around on every plane, train, and automobile in Greece, we decided to make a blog so y'all can know what we're doing while we're here. It is my goal to make sure this blog (as opposed to the last one) also has pictures of people and not just rocks. Hopefully you will appreciate this. Bo and I will both be posting over the next few days. Email Bo if you have any requests. For example, upon email request, I will be happy to order Bo a shot of ouzo and then take a picture for this blog. That's all for now-- keep checking this site for more!