our big trip: in instagram

Here is a look at some of the moments that I missed with my camera, but captured with my phone.

Sea urchin eggs.  They form the 5 points of a star!

Our view from our apartment at Alea.

We ate snails at the celebration in Lefkes!

 Grilled octopus at Karina.  The crunchy suction cups were the best part!

We played lots of board games with Dimitris.  We also played some with two guys from Athens who'd heard about Alea Apartments through boardgamegeek.com, Andres & George.

Playing 7 Wonders.

The octopus.

Poor thing was trying to get away.

Kenton brought the game we'd given him for Father's Day, Hive.  I beat him, as we played a game at the beach.  :P

Being herded like cattle, off the ferry in Santorini.

There were donkeys!

Cute boats at the port on Thirassia.

Our cheap meal of choice: Gyro for €2.50 & an iced coffee for €2.50.  Not too shabby & oh, so tasty!

Taking a swim in our pool at the hotel in Santorini (Oia Sunset).

A common sign near the toilets.  We weren't supposed to flush our toilet paper, but I always thought it was funny that they include photos of a bottle & some other plant/octopus?? :P

My phone had a timer for the camera!  Plus, the photo shoot in the background is pretty funny!

Some of the artifacts that were discovered at the Akrotiri dig site.

A portion of a fresco discovered at the dig site.  I got corrected for trying to take a photo of Kenton "in front of the monument".  Apparently, that is not allowed.  :\

Our dangerous walk down to & back from Oia's port for a swim.

The long, steep stairway back up to Oia town.

Our much appreciated ferry cabin for our overnight ride back to Athens.  This was actually bigger than our hotel room in London!  :P

A nice, shady street, where we ate lunch in Athens.

 Heading off to Hogwarts!  :)

 Our last look at London before heading underground to ride the tube back to the airport.  What an amazing, unforgettable trip of a lifetime!

our big trip: mud beach, naoussa, lefkes

 August, 18th - After getting ready for the day, I came down to the reception area to find Kenton & Dimitris playing board games.  Just what Kenton's been waiting for!  ;)  We visited & drank coffee, then Dimitris offered to take us to a beach that would be more protected from the wind.  This time of year in Greece, it's very common for the winds to pick up & it was best to avoid beaches in the northern part of the island.

He took us to a beach near Isterni that overlooked the island of Naxos.

 This beach is known for having good mud for spa-like exfoliating treatments, so Dimitris mixed up a batch.  :P

 We'd seen some other people spreading the mud across their entire nude bodies, so we were relieved to when that was not the expectation.  Ha ha!  :P

After rinsing the mud off, we swam & sun bathed while Dimitris fished.  He brought back Greek delicacies - sea urchins & something he called bubble that even the locals don't realize are a delicacy.  Dimitris forgot his knife, so he used his trident to pry open the sea urchins to remove their eggs.

 He squeezed lemon juice on the eggs & spread them on small pieces of bread with more lemon juice.  Kenton was brave & took the first bite.  Then I tasted it too & it really was quite good.  :)  Apparently, I'm no longer allowed to call Kenton picky.  He's eaten sea urchin eggs, afterall!

 We walked around Naoussa after we returned from the beach.  The sky was hazy, but it made for some fun photos.

 Piles of fishing nets.

 Love this one.

 There was always a strong wi-fi signal at the bridge.  :)

 More pretty boats.

Love the Greek churches.

 Windy, but still quite lovely!

 I took way too many photos, but I'm so thankful to have them!

 After dark, Dimitris picked us up & brought us to the town of Lefkes for an annual celebration.  We paid €15 each for dinner & all the wine we could want.  We sat with some of his cousins & met his 90 year old grandmother.  They thought we were probably the only tourists there & definitely the only Americans!

 Lefkes is the most traditional town on Paros & is inland from the sea.  All of the food & wine was made in town & all of the guests waited patiently for the traditional island music to start before the dancing could begin.

 We could tell the island music had started when the violin player joined in.

 We enjoyed the food & wine, but had to be brave again when we were served snails!  The garlic dip helped the flavor & they weren't too bad.  But I'm not sure I'll be cooking up any snails any time soon.  ;)