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Published: November 29th 2008
034 - Greece - Santorini, Hydra, and Athens
10/21/08 - 11/25/08
Picture Perfect
written by Hannah
The question on everyone's mind when we left San Diego for parts unknown was “when will we see you again?”, especially so for my mom. After 9 months of waiting to see where we could meet she finally 'sacrificed' and bought her ticket for Greece. Those who know me will say I live a pretty full life and am involved in many different things, well, I learned it from my mom, and true to form she had 1,001 things to do before she jumped on the flight for her first visit to Greece. Sadly she could only get away for 8 days, so our trip happened in fast-forward. We had an additional guest, one of my mom's friends, Katie, who recently retired from over 30 years of teaching and dreamed of seeing the places she'd only read about. They arrived on the same day, slightly jet-lagged yet full of enthusiasm to see what the city had to offer.
Mom came and stayed in Yiayia's apartment with Nico and I, while Katie rented a great room right next to the Acropolis
in downtown Athens. We spent one day visiting the ancient sites with Katie, and planned a trip to Santorini so they could enjoy a little island time.
Santorini must be one of the most photographed islands in all of Greece, and we found out why! You can't take a bad shot! The island itself is very dry and barren, but they are famous for wine, so of course we tasted at a few wineries and toured one very interesting wine museum that showed the history and viniculture of Santorini. We also found a smal town and climbed through the tiny walkways, battling the million cats for seats and views.
Mostly though, Mom just wanted to spend family time - no matter where it was, so we made the short time count! We even squeezed in a great lunch with all Nico's grandmas and aunts who live in Athens (and if you think I'm tall compared to his family you should see my mom! Made me proud!).
After saying goodbye to my mom we had time for another short island trip, so we chose the quietest island we could find - tiny Hydra who uses mules for transport!
We really enjoyed our stay and went on a long hike up to a Monastery and then up to the highest point - 5 km in all!
After getting back to Athens we met up with two of Nico's cousins, Nico and Barbara. No, that's not a typo, Greeks name their children after their parents so Nico has two cousin Nicos!! Well, this Nico and Barbara were amazing, and along with Nico's girl Maria (also amazing!) they took us out for some good times in Athens after dark!
Well, I finally finished my Greek lessons (I still think “it's all Greek to me”) so we packed our warmest clothes for our next stop: Milan, Italy and then Lugano, Switzerland!!!!
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Anne C.
non-member comment
Ahh... family!....Greece!
Two of the best things of life! Happy Holidays!