Greece - Day 2 - August 24th

On Monday, after we woke up from our morning nap, had breakfast, and walked around Kamari Beach (where we were staying) for a bit, we decided to rent an ATV to scope out the island and, more specifically, head to Oia (pronounced "ee-uh").

On Santorini, people (tourists) drive ATVs on the road, not on "all terrains". There are a ton of ATVs and mopeds on the road so the cars just go around. Often times, we felt like we were in the movie Dumb and Dumber, but it was still a really fun way to see the island!

Here we go!




We stopped to take in a great view and get some pictures. It was quite windy!






I hung on to my camera as Brian drove and took pictures at random.





We stopped at a dock and got a picture of Brian with the flag of Greece. It was so awesome to be able to stop when we wanted, eat when we wanted, sleep when we wanted - all without concern for our children's schedule!




Mmmmm... On the first day we hit the jackpot with our lunch! We stopped at a bakery and got a cheese-filled pastry (very common in Greece) and a cream-filled pastry. (Of course Brian's starting with dessert.) :) They were my favorite things we ate all week!





About Oia, from Wikipedia: "Along the cliff of Oia, houses have been delved into the porous volcanic rock (left over from a large volcanic explosion many years ago that sunk the center of the island). Parts of these houses are visible and the scenery that results from it is generally perceived as being typically Greek. The town is noted for its picturesque architecture..."

I think Oia is one of Brian's new favorite places on the earth (I think Moab's still up there too). He loved it. It was really beautiful! He took a bunch of (really cool) pictures with his nice camera, but I'll let him do a post dedicated to Oia when he gets a chance!






As we were driving by, Brian asked me to snap a picture of the graffiti. There was quite a bit of it around!

We headed back to Kamari and I took a nap at the hotel. (As if I need an exuse to nap on vacation, but I had also come down with a cold from the plane ride over. Seriously, on every trip Brian and I take, one - or both - of us gets sick!) Then we headed out to the Kamari Beach boardwalk for traditional gyros!

The happy couple! :)

Marathon Training - Week 10

Wednesday: 2 miles

Total for the week: 2 miles (215.2 to go!)

I had totally intended on getting my 34 miles in, even on vacation. In fact, I was looking forward to it. I was excited to have new, cool locations on my GPS watch. However, my immune system had other plans for me. I started with a sore throat in the middle of my flight to Greece and by the time Monday rolled around, I had a full-blown cold with sinus issues and the whole bit. It was rough even trying to get in the 2 miles that Brian and I did on Wednesday. (You know how it feels when you're running in the cold and your throat hurts really bad? That's how it felt.) Just as I was fully coming around from my cold (on Saturday), I got a stomach bug that Brian had had earlier in the week (he also got my cold - woo hoo!). That totally put me out of running. Bummer. I got to run along the Aegean Sea though! At least that's something! Now I'm just trying to get back in the swing of things. Time's running out!

Greece - Day 1 - August 23rd

On Saturday, August 22nd, I dropped these two cute kiddos off at Kevin and Noami's house with Brian's sister, Janna. After my 16-mile run in the morning, I got on a plane for a long trip to Greece.

I flew from O'Hare to London-Heathrow and then from there to Athens. Brian arrived in Athens from Sofia, Bulgaria about one hour after I did.

We took a bus straight from the airport on Sunday night to the Piraeus port where we hopped on an overnight ferry headed to the island of Santorini.

We left the port around 10:00pm. We had a room so we could sleep during the trip. It was more like a small cruise ship than a traditional ferry.

Our ferry arrived at 5:30am on Monday morning and we took a taxi to our little hotel. No one was awake yet at 6:15am - we were now on Greece time, after all - so Brian and I walked down to the beach to see the sun rise.

We headed back to the hotel to sit by the pool and relax until someone woke up at our Mom and Pop hotel! Brian looks a little sleeeepy.

Luckily, the proprietor came out around 7:00am and got our room situated so we could check-in.

As soon as we got to our room, we fell right asleep!