Well, Robert and I made it safely back from Greece last night! Below is a day-by-day account of our trip for anyone who is interested. Since this is a food blog, my notes revolve heavily around what we ate each day. Overall, the food was really so-so and I hate say that I have had much better Greek food here in the United States. If I ate meat, I'm sure I would feel differently because a lot of the grilled meats I saw looked delicious. Vegetables were surprisingly hard to come by and were always overcooked for my taste. And, since I don't like tomatoes, Greek salads for me were nothing more than cucumbers with feta and perhaps a few olives. The most surprising thing: no pitas anywhere! Nearly every meal came with French fries and bread. We did have some excellent meals however. The broad beans in tomato sauce and yogurt with fruits were the most reliable foods. I drank lots of house wine, retsina and Mythos beer which tasted kind of like Singha or Sapporo. I am really looking forward to eating sushi and Thai food again. Here is my report (I am tired so I'm sure there are lots of spelling and grammatical errors - please ignore):
Click here for photos!
9/11
Arrived at Sea-Tac airport around 5:30 AM to an extremely long check-in line at the Delta counter. I was feeling pretty certain at this point that I would lose the $50 bet I made with Robert where I would not outwardly show my fear of flying during any of our flights. Flight to New York was on Song Airlines (part of Delta.) This is one of those airlines that has a TV for each passenger. You can make your own mp3 playlist from their jukebox or watch regular channels like CNN and Food Network. The "track your flight" channel was my favorite because it allowed me to monitor the airplane's activities. That helped keep me calm (or maybe it was the pills from my doctor.) It was weird to fly into NY on 9/11. Switched planes, ate a decent multi-bean curry with rice for dinner and fell asleep while flying over the Atlantic.
9/12
Landed in Athens around 10:00 AM. Took the bus to downtown Athens; pretty ugly most of the way. Hot and dusty with lots of graffiti and scaffolding. Walked around the Central Market, Plaka (oldtown district) and Acropolis. People drive like maniacs in Athens and I was afraid to cross the street many times. Had dinner outside in one of the many large courtyards. Dinner was just OK: good calamari and salad but our French fries and octopus salad were not that good. Drank about 1 liter of retsina that day.
9/13
Couldn't sleep; howling drunks, garbage trucks, honking and other random noises out the window all night long. Embarrassed myself trying to order coffee and then took the metro to the airport without issue. Flight to Santorini was only 25 minutes long in a little, tiny jet. It was actually fun! Took a cab to the cute little town of Oia. I finally got to speak some Greek with a hotel manager who only spoke "ligo" English. Everyone else can tell that we are tourists and speak English to us automatically. Found a tiny room (just a bed and toilet and a mini patio) hanging to the side of the cliff for 50 euro per night. Incredible view of the caldera and all of Santorini from our patio. There are abandoned dogs and cats sleeping everywhere so you really have to watch your step. Oia has an adoption program and will even ship an animal home for you if you like. Watched the famous Oia sunset but it was not as good as the sunsets in New Mexico Robert said. Slept outside for a couple of hours under the stars.
9/14
Woke up early went on a photo-taking excursion throughout Oia. Got to see some Greek life sans tourists. Walked down 214 steps to the fishing village of Ammhoudi where we saw fishermen cutting up their fish right there on the dock. Very picturesque. The volcanic rocks looked striking against the aqua sea. Went on a very hot hike along the cliffs and then sat out in the sun by our room for a while. Our nice room attendant, Adina, brought us some unusual, hard, black objects to eat. She didn't know what they were but we ate them anyway. I think they were some kind of whole black walnuts in syrup - pretty good actually. Skipped the sunset this time and instead parked ourselves at the pub for some prime tourist-watching. Had a delicious dinner at Skala restaurant: a very full-bodied Santorini white wine, lettuce salad with goat cheese and a pine nut-mint dressing, baked mixed vegetables and mussels in tomato sauce over rice. Fed Trader Joe's salmon jerky to my favorite family of cats before bed.
9/15
Couldn't sleep again so I went out on the patio early in the morning and, sure enough, along came some cats and dogs to hang out with me. They don't really care about being touched; they just want to be near someone. Took a bus to the Kokkino (red) beach. Not the nicest water for swimming but the beach itself was pretty neat; red sand backed by a huge red cliff. Buses are a little scary as they drive along the sides of the cliff, barely slowing down to pass one another. Robert excitedly showed Adina how to rip Cds onto her computer. Around sunset-time, we went to the impossibly cute Meteor cafe for more people-watching (they played the sunset song from Black Orpheus.) Had a decent but fatty meal at Thomas Grill: giant beans in tomato sauce and stuffed eggplants for me and Robert had grilled pork with bacon and French fries. They were out of all vegetables besides eggplant.
9/16
Had delicious yogurt with fruits and walnut cake for breakfast at Meteor cafe. Rained lightly. Took a boat tour (our first actual tourist activity of the trip.) Went to the active volcano island, Nea Kameni, followed by Palea Kameni which has hot springs that you can swim in and finally to Thirassia (formerly part of Santorini that you can only get to by boat now.) Walked up to the village on top of Thirassia (150 steps) and had a great lunch of grilled fish skewers with French fries and baked vegetables in tomato sauce. Walked back up the steps from Ammoudi where the boat tour ended (214 steps). Had a great dinner at Laokastri Grill just outside of town: lettuce salad with fried baby eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, green olives, large capers, and some kind of aged, tangy cheese, white wine, hummus, and a rice-currant-pine nut stuffed squid that was grilled and served with a cinnamony tomato sauce. Caught the end of the Greece vs. France basketball game (the 2005 Eurobasketball tournament) Tony Parker - I hate that guy! Greece won.
9/17
Hilarious cabbie took us to the port to catch our ferry to Naxos. Ferry was very grimy but we were excited to go somewhere new. Naxos seemed as crazy as Athens at first. The people at the docks trying to get you a room are overwhelming. We went with one of them to see a room which we ended up hating. Of course, being the way we are, we had a hard time saying no after she had driven us all the way out there. But, we managed and then she took us to her "cousin" to see another room which was actually very nice and right in the middle of town (40 euro per night.) The whole experience was a little freaky. Walked to the nearby beach to calm down. Very shallow water; walked out far and saw fish swimming around me. Lots of Scandinavians visit Naxos; waffles are a big thing here. Had a bad dinner down at the waterfront: fried fish platter consisting of French fries, small whole fish which were decent, kalamari, one large fried fish, some random fish chunks and one whole battered and fried shrimp with shell which I wasn't too sure about. The free shot of ouzo was a nice touch though.
9/18
Had a good breakfast of Naxos cheese, fruit, toast and coffee at a little place run by some Canadians. Rented a 2-person scooter for the day. A bit shaky at first but, once we got out of town, it was fun. Went up to the mountains for the day. Tried to climb Mt. Zas, the highest point in the Cyclades, but didn't have appropriate shoes or enough water. Went to two villages, Filoti and Apiranthos. These were the most picturesque, pastoral villages you can imagine. Very idyllic and only a few tourists too. Stopped for beers and then headed back. Robert took his book to a taverna to read while I explored the Kastro, the marble Venetian castle above the town. Got lost in the maze but eventually found Robert. Had a terrible dinner at Apolafsis: boiled greens (finally something green but they were awful), giant beans (always reliable) and pre-fried saganaki which wasn't even warm. Went for gelato and coffee after (pistachio and chestnut for me and tiramisu for Robert.) Watched Greece beat Bosnia on the TV before bed.
9/19
Got up early and explored more of the Kastro while Robert slept. More delicious fruit and yogurt for breakfast. Went to an internet cafe to try to write an e-mail; used Firefox but with Greek menus. Scootered down south to the more private, "naturalist" beaches for the day. The beaches were amazing; like wild dunes with small trees, sheltered individual coves and crystal-clear water with hardly any people. Fantastic! Nice for swimming but then a wave splashed me in the eye and got salt in my contacts so then I couldn't see and fell down and cut my leg on a rock. Had a good dinner at Manolis taverna, hidden away in the oldtown district: Greek salad, olive plate, spanakopitas, barrel retsina and wonderful grilled swordfish for me and Naxos sausage and ouzo for Robert. Dinner came with bread, rice with peas and French fries (all of the starches together.) Fed leftovers to some very eager cats. Had more gelato, this time in a freshly-baked waffle cone.
9/20
Rode out to Kastraki beach and hung around for a couple hours. Checked out of our hotel, picked up our laundry and headed to a taverna on the beach near town to wait for our ferry to Syros. Had some beers, oily dolmathes and great tzatziki and hung around the beach for awhile. Lots of tiny fish and hermit crabs in the water (watched one crab switch shells.) Tried the Naxos kitron liqueur for the first time: lemony and very sweet, would be good with soda water. Much nicer ferry than last time. Watched giant red sun set over Paros. More craziness at the dock on Syros island but this time we had reservations. Our hotel was right in town and the room was large (30 euro per night.) Ermopoulis, the main town on Syros, is huge with giant Venetian mansions. Felt more like Italy than Greece. Went out for a simple dinner in the main square (pizza and pasta) and watched Greece vs. Isreal on the TV with some other folks.
9/21
Went out to the main square for pastries and coffee. Watched city life go by from our table - lots of police and business men and women in suits. Syros doesn't cater to tourists at all so everyone spoke Greek to us initially unlike on the other islands. They wouldn't rent us a scooter because the law since 1999 says you need to have a special moto license (apparently, the more touristy islands don't care so much about this law.) Went to Gallisas and Armeos beaches. Lots of metamorphic rocks at the beach; found some with tiny garnets in them. Had drinks at a little bar overlooking the square and then dinner at a German-inspired restaurant: bread, fried potato balls with dill, cabbage salad, mussels with rice, and pork cutlets in mustard sauce and, you guessed it, French fries. The couple next to us started to feed the cats whole small fish and probably about 20 cats showed up. Rained lightly.
9/22
Went for a long morning walk to Vrondado hill (the Greek Orthodox hill; Ano Syros is the Venetian hill and is over 800 steps up) and over to Vaporia where the wealthy shipowners built their mansions. Saw a lovely rainbow. Went window-shopping around town during the morning. Ordered beers at the dock and were served cheddar Doritos with a side of BBQ sauce. Caught the highspeed ferry to Piraeus and took the metro back to our hotel in Athens. Took some beers back up to room and watched Greece come back from behind to beat Russia (now Greece is moving on to the semifinals which I will sadly have to miss.) Went to one of the nearby cheap souvlaki places for dinner but then it started to rain really hard and there was lightning and all the people who had been eating outside had to run indoors but there wasn't enough room for everybody. It was a madhouse. The restaurant was out of every vegetable item on the menu and then ran out of giant beans as I was ordering them. The waiter took me into the kitchen to find something else and I finally settled on the grapes leaves figuring that, even if they contained a little meat, I would ignore it. They were filled only with meat - no rice. I ended up having French fries and bread for dinner. Went to the rooftop bar at our hotel and had drinks while watching the lightning storm over the Acropolis. That was a nice way to end the trip.
9/23
Back on the metro to the airport; we were helping other people figure it out by this point. Because we had packed so lightly and didn't have 5 bags to check in like everyone else, we raised some suspicions and had to get our luggage fully searched. Meanwhile, the guy with what looked to be a red plastic container of gasoline, passed right through security. The flight home was long and uneventful but I did win the $50 bet! Can't wait for some Thai food and pleasantly undercooked vegetables!