It is hard to believe that the long awaited Greece trip has already come and gone. Time sure flies when you're having fun, doesn't it? On April 30 we set off for Athens (via Milan...go figure) with our friend Josh. The rest of the group of 9 took a different route and the plan was for all of us to meet on May 2nd on the island of Paros where the 70 ft Stressbuster and crew were to pick us up. After arriving in Athens, we met up with our friend Erin for a crazy night out. We stayed out until 2am at which point we high-tailed back to her hotel to catch 1.5 hours of sleep (with all 4 of us sharing 1 queen sized bed ;) before waking up again at 3:30am to head for the Athens airport. The plan was to catch our flight at 4:30am to Santorini, spend the night there and then ferry to Paros to rendezvous with the crew. Unfortunately, due to some inclement weather the flight was cancelled. We wound up spending the entire day in the Athens airport hotel sleeping in the pool area (until we got kicked out!) and lounging on the bar couches while we waited for our alternate route to Paros. Sadly we had to skip Santorini, but it is a good thing the 4 of us have such an awesome time with each other - we really did make the most of it!
Long story short - we finally arrived in Paros and met up with the whole group. We spent two nights on the boat there in Paros which was a good way to get accustomed to the rocking of the boat in the harbor (I was pretty excited to find out this did not make me sick at all even without meds).
Finally on Sunday May 4, the boat set sail for Mykonos....Andy and I both made the mistake of not taking Dramamine this day (thought we could be tough) and both of us spent the 6 hour sailing day concentrating pretty hard on not losing our lunches...We did learn our lesson and the rest of the trip stayed on some non-drowsy motion sickness stuff that worked wonders. We were both able to keep it together the rest of the trip.
For the most part, the weather was beautiful. Crisp, clear, sunny...if only a little windy. Each day we would sail to our next destination in time to have dinner either on board the boat or at cozy little Greek cafe style restaurants on some of the smaller of the Isles.
One of our favorite days was spent on the island of Syros where we rented ATV's and Scooters to wander around the island. We found a great beach (where the 9 of us were the only people there). We parked our little rigs and laid in the sun for hours, only getting up for Anna to drive me on the quad over to the store to pick up more beer :)
We only ran into a minor snag on the last day when we tried to get from Kythnos to Kea. The waves were nearly 9ft high and the boat was rocking so much we all thought we might see the end! Thankfully Costa (El Capitan) knew better and turned us right back around where we got to spend another full day on Kythnos which was a lot of fun. We rented a little "jeep" if you can call it that and toured the whole island visiting about 6 different coves and beaches. The next morning, we were up at 6am to watch the beautiful sunrise and head for Athens...
A lot of people write Athens off since the Greek Isles are so beautiful whereas Athens seems to be just another European city. For us though, we just loved Athens. We got another full day there before flying back to Switzerland and spent the day wandering the little markets, drinking coffees and seeing an outdoor movie on the rooftop of one of the buildings. It was a beautiful evening and we could see the Parthenon / Acropolis from our seats.
We're now back in Zurich after 10 wonderful, relaxing days away and just wondering what our next trip will be....Most likely going somewhere this weekend but not sure where yet. Such is our life :)
I only posted a couple pictures of the Greece trip, but will add more as soon as Andrew brings home the memory stick. We miss you all and can't wait to see you in July!
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