Sunday, September 9, 2012

our big trip: athens to paros

 We woke up before the sun rise on Friday, August 17th & rode the metro to Piraeus to catch our ferry.


 I may have gotten a little teary eyed walking across the bridge to get to the port.  I was so excited to get to where we've been dreaming of going for so many years!


 11 years ago, we traveled to Europe & when we were in Italy, we promised each other if we ever got to go back to Europe that we would go to the Greek Isles.  Now we were boarding our high speed ferry (because the regular speed ferrys were sold out), on our way to the our first island: Paros.


 More back story: over a year ago, Kenton heard about a Board Game Hotel through a website he frequents (www.boardgamegeek.com).  A fellow boardgamer, named Dimitris, was sharing about his family's hotel & it got Kenton's attention, since we were hoping to visit Greece.  We ended up making plans to stay there & Dimitris picked us up near the port & brought us to his family's home for coffee & cake.  We visited with Dimitris & his father; they taught us how to drink Greek coffee.  After our visit, we went to the hotel (the Alea Apartments) & checked into our room.


 After we got settled, we walked around the town of Naoussa to get familiar with the area.


 Our hotel was in walking distance to two beaches, so after picking up some lunch at the grocery store, we headed straight to the beach!


 Just what I'd been waiting for!  My dream vacation!  :)


 The port of Naoussa.


 Greek windmills.


Timer portrait.


 Nice gate.


 A lot of the restaurants have seating indoors or right on the beach.


 These streets were just for pedestrians, so we didn't have to watch out for speedy cars & motor bikes.


 The white buildings!


 Octopuses (htapodi in Greek!) drying in the sun.


 After eating dinner (way too early, according to Europeans), we went to a different beach near by for a sun set swim.


 Souvenir beach towels.


 Pretty sunset!


 Kenton on the rocks.


 The water felt so refreshing!


 This is the street we crossed when leaving or returning to our hotel.  We had to watch for speedy vehicles, but it was never a problem.


 On our way back to our hotel, we stopped at a bakery very nearby & had some desserts.


Yummy!

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