Greece 2005

We spent 2 weeks in Greece in 2005. I liked it / my husband STILL talks about how much he hated it. Go figure.

It was a Cosmos tour that covered land for a week and the islands for a week. Thinking of it now, remembering it and flipping through my pictures, I remember it even more fondly now then I did then (won’t be mentioning this to my husband).

We covered a helluva lot of territory over the 2 weeks!

And yet, somehow, I don’t remember feeling rushed. Maybe time has erased that memory, it’s been 6 years after all!!  Yet, I still remember feeling rushed in Italy and underwhelmed in Spain… and I don’t recall feeling that way in Greece.

In hindsight, I just remember liking it…  well, most of it anyway!

I remember that the food was fantastic. Best vacation food ever! Even better then Italy or France which are my favourites ‘cuisines’ (followed closely by German / Swiss / Austrian).  Everything was good all the time – that’s why I say it’s the best.  I don’t recall EVER having a bad meal, while I can remember PLENTY of them in Italy. Even in the Plaka in Athens, touristy restaurant central, the food was good.

The only bad memory I have is of an English man who tore a strip off of me, telling me that I was being so loud that I was “quite obnoxious really”.  While seething inside, I simply replied: thanks for letting me know.  Not worth perpetuating the argument. My husband wanted to murder the guy, I was just being dismissive yet polite. Over and over: Thanks, for letting me know. Until he left.

I was embarrassed – gotta admit.  It is off-putting when you are being scolded by a stranger in a public restaurant!!!!!! True, I am a bit loud sometimes… but we were outside in a lively place… Ah whatever!  The food was great!

Look at this AMAZING place where we had diner in Santorini (minus the stupid look on my face. My husband took the picture while I was talking) … AH! so BEAUTIFUL! high on a hill, a nice outdoor dinner, view over the water and a picture perfect sunset. Fantastic!  Gorgeous! Amazing!  Sigh…  wish I was there now!!!

The most amazing stop on the tour (non food related amazing stop) was Meteora. I’ve blogged about before, so I am going to be a little lazy here, and refer you to that post to fill you in on the details!

Here I am in Mikonos, being dragged into the action by a Zorba Dancer… UGH can you tell I have NO CLUE WHAT THE HELL I AM DOING???  LOL ah well, what the heck - it’s good for a laugh!  But seriously, isn't this a quintessential touristy cliché?:

The LEAST interesting stop, was not really a stop – but a  stretch that covered Delphi, Mycenae and Olympia over 3 consecutive days. By the end of day 3, I was ready to shoot myself in the head.  It went something like this:

• Day one: Rocks on the floor. More rocks on the floor…  over there some rocks on the floor, and over on the other side, some rocks on the floor.
• Day two: Rocks on the floor. The site of an old temple, now just rocks on the floor.
• Day three: What was once a great city, now just rocks on the floor.

ARGH! that, plus, I gotta say: I am DONE with broken clay pots for life.  That’s not rhetoric, I am serious. To this day when in a museum, anywhere in the world,  and we enter the broken clay pots section, my eyes glaze over and I keep moving.

The tour was a ‘two-weeker” but we decided to spend an extra night at the end of the tour on our own in Athens. It was less then an extra hundred bucks and the clincher was that on the next day, we could catch a return flight directly from Athens to Montreal! No brainer!!

That extra day in Athens was one of the best days we had because as much as we like tours, it’s always more fun to be on our own, setting our own pace and following our own schedule.  And while Athens was a nice place to see, one extra day was plenty – it was so polluted, I remember feeling it in my lungs. I don’t think I would have appreciated more days.

I can’t really see myself going back…  because my husband hated it so much. And because I don’t want to travel with anyone else but him – I can’t imagine how it could happen!!!

Maybe one day on a Big Boat Cruise… I don’t really see any other way!