La Bella Vida: The land of Hercules

Greece was one of my new places to visit. Since I had done Italy and Ireland, my next conquest was Greece and I succeeded! Amanda (Westoby) flew half way across the world to meet me in Athens. We stayed in Athens for 5 nights and then on the island of Corfu for 2 nights. Athens was fun, but not what I imagined. It looked a lot older and dirtier than I had thought it to be, but the ruins of the Acropolis were just incredible. There were so many things we saw. We also went to a movie one evening, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was fantastic. My favorite part of Athens was walking down the small streets and walking into the little shops. For the most part, people were friendly with us. The gyros were wonderful and we even went to a restaurant where you were shown 18 different dishes and you picked 5 to share plus you got bread, a drink and dessert. We also went to a REALLY cool Flea Market.It was so much fun.

Amanda and I some place in Athens.

Park near the bottom of the Acropolis

Amanda playing a traditional Greek instrument: bouzouki

A view of the Acropolis from our balcony!

An adorable Greek orthodox church in the middle of a square.

Dionysis Theater, on the Acropolis

Entrance to Dionysis theater. We weren't allowed to enter.

The view of Athens from the top of the Acropolis.

This is at the top of Athena's Pantheon. Most of the statues/figures have been removed or fallen and placed into museums, but there are still a few remaining. What beauty.

The Pantheon. Amazing!

Not only did we see Athens, but we took two day trips. One trip was to Delphi, which is the location of the infamous Delphi Oracle and many other ruins. We walked everywhere and were able to get very close to the ruins.

This is the spot where the oracle of Delphi gave her advice to the Greeks.

I am standing at a look-out spot in Delphi.

More ruins in Delphi

An old amphitheater...I don't remember which god it was named after.

This small building, dedicated to Athena, was a place to pray.

Our second day trip was to Corinth. The "new" city of Corinth was beautiful. It looks very tropical and has a beautiful port. The whole time we were there, I kept saying how it reminded me of Yucatan. It was just a strange mixture of the smells, the weather and the water. We took a bus to the ancient part of the city, where the ruins are, and also visited the museum, where we saw pottery and statues that were found during the excavation of the ruins. We had lunch in the ancient city and sat at a small restaurant where we could see the mountains and the ocean that were in front of us. The owner was very friendly to us and was telling us about Corinth during the summer. We also got some ice cream before we headed down to the "new" city. We walked around the port, took some more pictures and then headed back to Athens.

The ruins in Acro-corinthe, the ancient city.

The Temple of Zeus, this was the temple used for worship and prayer. It looks amazing against the blue sky!

The view of the mountains and ocean were incredible. I'm not positive, but the direction behind me is towards Athens.

The port- the water was contaminated or dirty so the boats weren't allowed out of the port. Lucky for us it made for a better picture!

This is the newer city of Corinth. It's cleaner and looks very tropical; this is why it reminds me so much of Yucatan.

For those of you who knew my original plans, we were supposed to go to Santorini, but the day of our flight, our trip was canceled because of the weather on the island. We were told that it was extremely windy and was raining so we had to find a new place to visit. We decided on Corfu even though we knew nothing about this beautiful island, but found a good hostel and just went for it. I was very happy and surprised with how much I enjoyed Corfu. It is a small island with the capital city being Corfu. We stayed in a hostel on the east side of the island which was beautiful and had a balcony and a view of the ocean. One day we walked all the way down to the ocean and just walked on the sand picking up seashells (there were very few that we found) and colorful rocks. I can't tell you how many pictures I took. We also took a short bus ride to the small town where we walked around the streets and Amanda bought some small treats for people back home. It rained for part of the day, but it added a great illusion to being on the island. At the hostel we made two new friends, dogs to be exact, who would just follow us around the hostel..I'm sure as most of you have guessed, that was an exciting factor for me!