Greece - Part 2 - Paros

On Sunday (8/1), we took a ferry from Mykonos to Paros. This was a quick ride, just over an hour.

Here comes our boat!

Backing in and putting the loading platform down

People and cars get off first before we can board

Patiently waiting to board

Paros is sort of central to a lot of islands, so a lot of ferries stop in there. It's a busy port! A lot of people were getting out at that stop!

Check out all these cars!

These cars are all facing inward (how they drove on). To get out, they start having them turn around on the ship while the platform is going down. This is what I like to call the "asphyxiation phase" of the trip! We all wait near the exit with our luggage while the cars turn on their engines to start turning around and drive out. It seems like mass chaos, but somehow it all works and the boats get in and out pretty quickly.

Anxiously waiting to get the heck outta there!

We made it off the boat and through the hoards of people trying to sell us hotel rooms. I had already booked all of our hotels before we left. Now, the place we were staying at on Paros was in Parikia, the port you arrive at. But, Parikia is a city with a lot of streets and not a lot of street signs... typical Greece.

My directions seemed simple enough, but it took us forever and two phone calls to the hotel to finally get there. Again, lugging our bags and covered in sweat. Ugh! We must have looked pathetic because some Greek woman stopped us on the road and said "Where are you trying to go?" and ended up calling our hotel for us to find out where we needed to walk.

Once we got to the hotel, the owner told us a better way to walk there from the city. The hotel was called Panorama Paros and it was up on the hill above the city center (hence the name Panorama - there's a view). This is when the wheel on my suitcase just about crapped out. It is forever damaged and was acting up the rest of the trip. I don't think it was made for the kind of punishment I was putting it through! : )

Anway, we dropped off our stuff and hit the pool to cool off. The pool was pretty small, but wasn't crowded. I ended up falling asleep for a bit. Love those afternoon naps!

We walked into town that evening to watch the sunset and have dinner. In the book of randomness, we saw this sign outside a restaurant.

100% Pure Meat - The Original American

That's not exactly very comforting... what kind of meat is it??? We didn't eat there. We walked up to the windmill to watch the sunset and have a drink.

Near the windmill in Parikia

The view back of Parikia

Another pretty sunset

We had dinner at a restaurant the hotel recommended, Ambrosia. Not the best food we've ever had. Probably the worst meal of the trip. But, the owner was super nice and even waved to us the next night as we walked by.

On Monday, we took the bus to a nearby fishing village called Naoussa. We walked around the town for a little bit and checked out the beaches there.

A fisherman with his catch of the day

Another boat with crates of fish on ice and squid hanging on the fence

Naoussa Beach - much smaller than the other beaches we've seen

Creepy illusion dude! This guy's poster was everywhere!

We came back to Parikia and hung out at the beach there for the rest of the day. That night, we went to a rooftop bar to catch the sunset before dinner.

Hi Matt!

Another pretty sunset! Can we ever get tired of these???

We had dinner at Christo's and it was fabulous! I had lamb souvlaki and Matt had lamb stifado (lamb with a lot of sweet onions).
 
It was a pretty quick stop in Paros, but definitely nice to see another island.
 
TO BE CONTINUED...

Greece - Part 1 - Mykonos

So, I happen to have been up for the last few hours... starting around 3am this morning, I could NOT sleep. I tried, but no luck. I'm not a fan of jet-lag! I played Scrabble on my iPhone. Then, I finally decided I should just get up and post some pictures on this here blog!

I'm apologizing in advance for my wordiness and the length of the next few Greece entries... I thought if I broke this up into pieces that would be helpful! : )

We left for Greece on Tuesday 7/27 and arrived on Wednesday. Our flights went really well (we got an exit row!), we had a short layover in LHR. Getting into Athens was a little bumpy. I kept thinking we were going to have one of those unexpected big drops in altitude where people fly around. Luckily, nothing like that happened.

Athens bound!

Matt loves it when I take random pics like this!

We were staying in Athens one night before heading out to the islands. I had booked this night with Marriott points, so the hotel wasn't really in the tourist center, more the business center. Well, it was NOT easy to find, which is true of a lot of things in Greece. We walked around with our luggage forever. By the time we finally found the hotel, we were tired and covered in sweat! Nice.

After a short snooze, we went to the city center to get our ferry tickets to Mykonos for the next morning. While we waited for the hotel shuttle, we stopped off at the Hard Rock Athens. : ) Then, we had a drink on the rooftop of our hotel and watched the sunset.

The first of many Mythos beers of the trip!

Since we were tired and had to be up early the next am, we just had dinner at the hotel. There wasn't really a lot around us anyway... unless we wanted to visit the "Kinky Opera" across the street. Hmmm... I think not.

Umm... is this Amsterdam???

On Thursday am, we cabbed it to Piraeus (the big port in Athens). Holy moly! This place is a zoo! There were so many HUGE ferries! I was totally expecting a small little ferry boat, but I was so wrong. Cars and trucks go on these things. These ferries have everything down to a science... getting off and on the boat at the ports is nuts.

Checking out the other boats from ours

One of the ferry stops - I think this island is Syros

We got into Mykonos and hello craziness! Like I said, getting on and off these ferries is a real trip! Then once you are off, you are accosted by people trying to sell you hotel rooms.

We stayed at the Argo Hotel, which was 50 m from Platis Yialos (a beach). The staff was so friendly and helpful. And the bus to the main Mykonos Town stopped about 20 m away. We had a transfer from the port to the hotel, so no problems locating this one!

Platis Yialos Beach

We grabbed lunch at a beachside restaurant and then veg'd out by the pool for a few hours. The weather was gorgeous - hot and not a cloud in the sky!

I had read in my guide book that a great place to watch the sunset in Mykonos was this bar Caprice. So, we took the bus into town and despite the crazy winding "roads" throughout the town, we managed to find the bar. Actually, I think we just kind of stumbled upon it and were surprised to see it. But, whatever.

The back porch is right on the sea, with the waves crashing up and splashing our feet. The bar had some fun drinks (all about 11 EUR a pop!). It was the perfect place to watch the sunset! This was one of our favorite places the whole trip (we went there all three nights we were in Mykonos!)

Enjoying a drink at Caprice

The porch with the famous windmills in the background

Mostly the waves splashed straight up!

Mykonos at sunset

We had dinner at Nikos Tavern. I loved my food (lamb kleftiko - which is like lamb pot roast with potatoes, carrots, onions topped with feta cheese -SO GOOD!). Matt was not as thrilled with his choice. This might have been the only seafood he got on the trip. It all came as the full fish, eyes and all.

Eat me!

We walked around through the town a bit afterwards. It's all a pedestrian only zone, and there were a lot of pedestrians!

Busy streets of Mykonos Town

We had a nice balcony at our hotel, so we sat outside and had some of our duty-free Baileys. : ) Our neighbors at the hotel were a group of early 20-ish guys from Australia on a 2-month vacation. They were having a great time! Apparently in Mykonos the cool people go out around 1am. So, when we would be getting home from our night out, these folks were pre-partying on the balcony and planning their escapades for the night. They would get home around 9am and then crash.

On Thursday, we set off for Paradise Beach, which is a larger beach that has some bars on it and is supposed to be more party than family-friendly (like Platis Yialos). We decided to forgo the water taxi and just walk there. We made a few wrong turns, but finally made it. The hike along the way was nice, though!

The water was so blue!

Matt leading the way... we're almost there!

Made it! Love the view!

Enjoying a yummy drink with fresh fruit!

We hung out there for the day. Around 5pm, the place turned into a total party. The main bar (Tropicana) opened, music was being pumped loudly, people were dancing on tables and the bar, the Budweiser girls were there handing out "presents", shots were being passed out... and there was a go-go dancer up on a ledge getting everything going! So, naturally, this is when Matt and I decided to take off. We are old. : )

I caught her as she was taking a water break

That night, we went into Mykonos Town again and watched the sunset at Caprice. Love that place! Matt found a new drink - the Donald Duck. I'm not really sure what's in it, but he loved them.

Matt likes this pic because you can see the sunset in our sunglasses!

Afterwards, we went to dinner at Philippi Garden. Very nice, very romantic setting in a garden area with lots of trees, flowers, etc. The food was really good. I had pasta with salmon. Matt had the best lamb he's ever had in his life. He was in heaven!

Definitely beats the sorry looking fish from the night before!

Service in Greece is hit or miss... mostly, miss. Everything was usually really good until we'd ask for the check. Then the waiters would DISAPPEAR. And it happened at more than one restaurant. We got little shots of liqueur with our bills a few times as a "sorry for taking so long", so that was nice. Oh, and Greeks eat dinner really late, like 10pm is when the restaurants are crowded. We started getting on that schedule as well. Breakfast at 9am, lunch at 4pm, dinner at 10pm.

On Saturday, we hung out at Platis Yialos for the day. We got free lounge chairs there through our hotel, so that was nice. We had a few beers, listened to music, read books... it was so relaxing! There were so many peddlers on this beach. Someone was always trying to sell us CDs, DVDs, jewelry, clothes, fake purses and watches... and most of all, massages! I kept thinking I might get one, but I never did. : (

Heineken on the beach... perfect!

Afterwards, we headed into our favorite spot again, Caprice. Matt had a few Donald Ducks, I had a few champagne cocktails. It was lot more crowded this night. People gathered up by the windmills and all along the shore to watch the sunset.

Mykonos windmills

We had heard about the famous bird of the islands, the pelican. We kept seeing little pelican souvenirs but we never saw any pelicans. Until tonight... we thought it was a statue at first! It was actually not a wild bird, the trainer was standing by it.

Matt had to go check it out... seriously, he's like a big kid!

We took the recommendation of the waitress from Caprice (after a few Donald Ducks, Matt makes friends easily!) and went to Allegro for dinner. Good food, lots of good people watching!

Goofing while waiting for our bill

Saturday morning, we packed up and got ready to head off on another ferry to Paros. We LOVED Mykonos and had a great time there! We were sad to leave!

I took a few pics while we were waiting at the port.

The water was crystal blue... you could see the fish swimming!

Cruise ship in the port

TO BE CONTINUED...

We are home!

Greece was A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

I did not want to come back to Chicago!

I took tons of pictures (of course!) and I am sorting through them all. I hope to post some soon.

Ugh... now back to the daily grind.

Hitched!!!

Ross and Erin's wedding weekend was so much fun! And it went by SO fast! It was great to see so many of our family and friends! It's one of those times where you feel like you only get to spend about 3 minutes with each person and move on. Brett said he mastered the 45 second conversation this weekend. : )

Besides the extreme heat and a little rainstorm, everything was perfect! And the bride was beautiful! : )

I can't wait to see all of the professional pictures... I didn't take nearly enough myself! But, here are a few.

We got welcome bags with lots of goodies and some much needed water!



The rehearsal dinner was a BBQ - and they had their own sauce! My Dad's partner made all the meat in a giant smoker outside. Tons of pulled pork and chicken wings! The food was amazing!



There were plenty of other sauces ranging from mild to insanely hot! The guys were trying them all out on the wings. Maybe that's why the keg went dry pretty early!



All of the bridesmaids had our hair done on Saturday morning.

Keely, one of the flower girls, was having a blast!



Hany wanted to look like an "Asian Grecian goddess" for the big day (we thought our dresses were sort of Greek goddess-ish).



Ross' sister, Keely, warming up with some coffee. It was hot outside, but it was freezing in the salon!



Darre' with my aunt Jean, who was passing around breakfast goodies for all the girls.



Erin with her best friend from elementary school in Festus, Nichole. We moved away from there when Erin was in 3rd grade, but they've kept in touch all these years.



Before the ceremony, little Keely made faces in the mirror for a while!



I didn't take any pics at the wedding... not allowed to... so you'll just have to wait on those!

But I did get one of Erin and Ross during their first dance... Then by Brad Paisley.



Sisters!



The guys all serenaded Erin. "You never close your eyes anymore..."



Beautiful flowers!



The other flower girl, Kendra... she's a cutie!



On Sunday morning, there was a brunch at the hotel. I had quite the hangover (big surprise, right?), so I made a quick cameo and then went back to snooze off the booze. The food looked great, though. On a side note, I would like to apologize to my husband for getting sloshed on a night when I had about 1,000 bobby pins in my hair (which were hair sprayed so much with stuff that was about one level below actual glue). He had to help me take all those pins out, so I could go to sleep. Sorry, man.

After brunch, we all headed back to my parents' house to watch Erin and Ross open gifts. They pulled in quite a haul. Luckily, they could fit it all in Brett's car and theirs. The cat (Max) stayed in Rochester (he loved sitting on the gifts all weekend). Not sure where he's going to hang out now!