Today was a down day. We walked up into Fira and strolled around shopping and sightseeing the sites, churches, overviews, and myriads of up and down walkways. There are only two main streets in Fira, with a few connecting ones. The rest are dozens and dozens of narrow walkways up, down, and across, mostly crowded with shops, taverns, and people. There were two major cruise ships in port today, so it was even more crowded than yesterday. We ate lunch in a placed called Ouzeqi, where I had dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), Manoli had tomato balls, and we both had a Greek salad. About 20 Euros with drinks. Afterwards, we hiked up to Firostephani, the next small town above Fira. We then walked back down hill to the hotel. For dinner, we ate at a small ... read more

Woke up pretty much on time and headed for the port. Arriving early, we had capuccinos at a cafe across from the port and decided to buy lunch there too. A couple of "pies" (greek sandwiches) at 1.70 and 1.90 each. We'd been told food was expensive on the ferry, but it turned out we could have bought the same sort of food onboard for just a bit more, and they would have been still warm. Oh well, live and learn. We boarded the ferry, along with several hundred other travelers, and cast off. The trip was not that bad, but having to do it over again, we would have found warmer, less windy seats. The boat was so crowded there were people sitting and sleeping in the passageways and stairs! Along the way, we stopped ... read more

We left Pensacola on time, after a near catastrophe.. I left my backpack in the Jeep. After failing to contact Tanya to return, Monica got her on her cell phone. She was already returning because she forgot to give us our anniversary card. The flight from Philadelphia was long (9 hours) but smooth. We slept very little on the plane, arriving in Athens at 9am Friday. Upon arrival we discovered that my suitcase hadn't made the trip with us. Saturday morning and w'ere still waiting for it to be delivered! We took the airport express bus, for 3.20 Euros each, to downtown Athens, a very long, so well worth the money, trip. Athens is huge and it was quite a ways before we saw the downtown area. We got off at Syntagma Square and found the ... read more

Kali Mera! My wife (Manoli) and I (J.C.) are on our way to Greece and the Greek Islands. Taking the 6am flight out of Pensacola for Atlanta, then Philadelphia, and finally Athens. I'll try to make an entry every day, with some interesting photos. Feel free to communicate. See ya in a month...almost... read more

Since I didn't convince Manoli to do another tour, the ruins of Uxmal, today was pretty much a chill and do nothing day. First we went further downtown to the main market, where they had dozens and dozens of booths selling meat, fruit, vegetables, handicrafts and anything else you can imagine. Next, we decided to head uptown to the ritzy district and check out the local Wal-Mart. Very different in both appearance and products from the stores back in the U.S. We bought a bunch of local fruit; papaya, mango, watermelon, cantelope, oranges, pineapple, and a strange guanabana. We also got two types of local cheeses and bread. The manchego cheese was almost goopy by the time we returned to the hostel and the gonela or somesuch as very sharp and pretty much inedible. We ... read more