Doors of Greece

I love museums and I love seeing great scenery when I travel, but I tend to be really taken by something more unusual - like food, or architecture... in Greece it was the doors!  So much of the architecture there is the typical white washed material that you see in movies, and it's beautiful, but I found so many unique doors as we walked around the islands, that I was just taken by them and started photographing them.  I am planning to make a "Doors of Greece" poster - inspired by this poster that I've seen in New Orleans...

via

So, here are some of my favorite photos of the doors of Greece -  

The last one might be my favorite photo of my whole trip... 

Greece: Crete & Santorini

After a night on the ship, our next stop was Crete.  We were only there from 7:30 am-11:30 am, which was definitely not enough time - especially since we slept until 9:00 am.  It was also kind of an icky day, so although we did leave the ship and walk a little ways in to town, we didn't get to see much of Crete.

Crete - on an icky day   :(

From there, we set sail for Santorini - the island that we were all looking forward to the most, and it did not disappoint!!  When we got there, we were scheduled for a tour - our tour took us up to the highest point on the island as well as around the island with stops in two small villages.  It was a really great tour and we got to see a ton of really cool things!

View from the highest point

The first place we stopped was Oia (pronounced ee-yuh)Village.  It was beautiful!  I took SO many pictures on this island and there are so many that I loved!  We stopped in to a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church before we started through the villages small walkways...

As we walked through the village, there was beauty every where you looked - between the white washed houses and the beautiful blue water, it was such an amazing place to just walk and look around.

This little book store was so whimsical - I took this pic because
I knew my cousin would absolutely love it.

On the bookstore wall

After a little while in Oia, the bus took us back to Fira, which is on the same side of the island as the port, but WAY above it.  This was our last stop and we had a little over an hour to enjoy a wine bar with a great view and even better wine - and of course, our last chance for some great Greek food.

Wine, Saganaki, Pita, Tzatziki and a view
I also got to FaceTime with J while we were here

View from the wine bar

A little dessert wine - on the house

If I lived in Greece, I would drink wine EVERY DAY - it is by far the best wine I've ever had and I didn't try any of their wine that I didn't like... it is so smooth, but also has so much flavor, especially Santorini grapes.

To get back to the train, we took the cable car from the top of the island (Fira) down to the port...

We had to get on smaller boats to take us back to the ship, and I could not sum up our time in Santorini any better than this...

It was a great last day - I would go back to Mykonos or Santorini in a heart beat.  We finished our last evening on the ship by having dinner with a Turkish family - a husband and wife who were both engineers and their two kids, a 14 year old a the cutest 6 year old ever.  They were so friendly and we talked and laughed and it was a great "last night".

We packed and got our suitcases out before midnight so they could take them, and we had an early breakfast and then went to the airport.  We were REALLY early for our flight so we had a good amount of time in Athens to kill... I would not recommend spending too much there - it's pretty boring.

We had a really nice flight back - pretty good food, and more great movies!  On the way back to the states, you're supposed to stay awake to get on US time... it was much easier when I was watching movies.  We got delayed at JFK, but finally made it back to Chicago about 24-hours after we had gotten up to leave from Greece.  It was a really long day, but I took a shower and slept great in our hotel and felt back to normal the next day!  It was a trip of a lifetime!!

Greece: Rhodes

After having a day split between Kusadasi and Patmos, it was really nice to get to Rhodes and have a whole day there.  It is a nice island with a number of churches and ruins, but is also very well known for their beaches, which is where we spent our day!

We had a pretty good walk to the beach, but there was some scenery along the way...

When we finally got to the beach, we picked where we wanted to be an rented a few chairs!  The beach that we were on was really rocky, so it wasn't exactly the kind of beach you walk on, but it was still a relaxing day and a chance to lay in the sun, read a book and enjoy the beautiful water!  I preferred to enjoy the water from my chair for most of the day - it was cold, and it hurt our feet to stand on the rocks for very long.

We set up camp right in front of a little cafe, so they brought us lunch and of course, a Mythos beer  :)

We walked back to the ship along the coast and got to see some more of the scenery that we didn't see when we walked through town the first time.

I really wish I wouldn't have gotten a new tattoo right before I left because on the way back, we saw a place where you could get one of those pedicures where the fish eat your dead skin off... I totally would have done that!!!

We got back to our room to find this cute little guy on the bed...

And here are some of the other friends that we made on the cruise - or should I say the friends that were made for us...

We got this extra special guy because my mom bought a
towel animal "how to" book from our housekeeper  :)

We had dinner with a very nice lady from New York, who was traveling with her father and a Japanese tourist group - she spoke English - and it was really nice to talk with her!

Next Stop - Crete and Santorini

Greece: Kusadasi & Patmos

We left Mykonos and headed to our next destination - Kusadasi, Turkey.  It's a cute little island that thrives on the tourist traffic and has a really fun Bazaar area with shops and cafes.  We did a lot of shopping here, and just walked around and enjoyed the environment.

Welcome to Turkey!!

I loved the Turkish eyes in the sidewalk.
The host at a cafe saw me taking a picture and told all of us to
put our feet in, and he took a picture...

... and then he took a picture the other direction.
He reminded me of Fes from "That 70s Show"

Yes - there is McDonald's everywhere!!

There were a number of women making rugs around the city.

After a few hours in Kusadasi, we got back on the boat, enjoyed some time at the pool and then stopped in Patmos, Greece.  We walked around a little, but really just wanted to sit at a cafe on the beach and relax.  Patmos is a small island with not a lot of stuff to see, but it was a relaxing afternoon!

We were back on the boat in time for dinner, and set sail again for an overnight voyage to our next destination.

OPA!