I am coming to you from Santorini, one of the Greek islands. I'm sitting by the pool at our hotel watching the waves out in the Aegean Sea. It's been quite windy since we got here, reminding us of that Kansas breeze. :) The beaches here are black sand. I've, personally, never seen black sand beaches. It is quite hot in the sunny sections, but very gorgeous. The first day, the water was super clear and just peaceful. Since the wind arrived, it stirred up all the leaves and stuff in the water, so it's a bit less clear, but no less beautiful. Here's a couple photos...
Isn't the water gorgeous!?
The beach just a 3 minute walk from our hotel
We've been doing a lot of nothing the past few days and it's been amazing! We've literally been doing nothing but eating, sleeping, drinking, and lounging on the beach. One night, we went to a Greek restaurant and they had a show while we were eating. Traditional Greek dancing and plate smashing. We even got pulled up to participate in the dancing (Clint a couple more times than myself). We had a blast!
Clint doin' his thing... dancing like he loves to do!
Now, we started our Greecian adventure in Athens. I will lead by saying that I had really high hopes for Greece. It was one of the places I wanted to see the most. I'll also lead by saying that we were aware that Greece isn't in the best state and we knew that Athens had some dangerous spots. We were aware of what we were getting into. We thought. I say 'we.' I can't speak wholly for Clint, but I do mean me. :) My first feeling was terror. Maybe 'terror' is a strong word for what I was feeling, but I was instantly disappointed. We felt uncomfortable around nearly every corner. It's just dirty. The amount of graffiti just makes it looks completely unwelcoming. We stayed in Piraeus, which is the port city, because we thought it might provide us a little more comfort. Not so much. We weren't real excited to stray too far from what we knew. And we didn't. We made the decision quite quickly to get the hell outta there & head for the islands. I'm going to post some honest pictures just so you can get an idea of what we were able to see. It's not pretty. (Just a fair warning)
I'm not exagerrating when I say that this kind of stuff was EVERYWHERE. On the sides of the metro cars, the buses, the buildings, etc. Everywhere. It might be the nicest of places and people may be super friendly, but we already had our guard up about what we were walking into and it just put us off. So, we took off to the islands where you saw the view is a bit different. Some parts of the island has some sketchy aspects, but overall, the feeling of comfort is quite better!
We did take the chance, while in Athens, to go to the Acropolis. It is considered to be the birthplace of the Gods. I was super excited to see some of these ruins before coming here. I have always had a minor infatuation with Greek Mythology and was excited to see and learn a little more about it. I hate to say it, but I was disappointed. While it was nice to see (even though the weather was scorching hot!), the construction and remodeling being done around every corner was so distracting from that historical feel you should get when coming into a place like that. There was scaffolding and trailers all over the place and it just wasn't that picturesque. It was nothing compared to Machu Picchu or some of the other ruins I was able to see in South America. I'll post a couple pics, but I didn't take too terribly many. The museum was far more interesting and informative (and air conditioned), but I wasn't allowed to take photos. :)
See what I mean?
A pretty view of Athens... :)
I am going to close because we are going to go get some fresh seafood! We leave tomorrow for our next Greek island... Crete. We're staying there a few days and then will decide what happens next. We're thinking this island thing isn't too bad, so we may just stay until our flight departs on the 25th. Rough life, huh?
I will end with this...
Happy Father's Day to John Cook- my daddy! I am super proud (and lucky) to have you as a daddy. I couldn't imagine where I'd be without ya, Dad! While I am having a good time, I am quite excited to see you (and the rest of the fam) in a month! I LOVE YOU!!
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