It's Greek to Me

I decided to go to Greece on a whim, and it has been on the back-burner of my mind ever since. As it approached, I became more and more nervous about my decision to go there. I was hoping that Brenna would be ok with it, and I was hoping that both of us would like it. Thankfully, Brenna and I are having a blast! I can't even count how many times we have turned to each other to say "My life rocks!"

Santorini Islands
As soon as we stepped off the plane, we saw a new alphabet. But fortunately, a familiar alphabet is right underneath all the Greek pretty much everywhere we go!

Hotel
This place is so cute! We had a room to ourselves, a deck, and plenty of towels (which is a luxury for sure). The receptionists drove us to and from the airport. It has been so nice to not worry about transportation!

The View
Bren and I were just walking around town when we first looked over the cliff. It took us by surprise because it came out of nowhere, and it was so beautiful that we just couldn't help but smile! We stayed there for a while because we enjoyed the view so much.

If you are skilled at Where's Waldo, you can spot about 10 islands at one time.

The City

We visited this church. Most families on the island are mixed between Catholic and Greek Orthodox, and Catholics are a minority.

Tour of Santorini
Santorini is an Area which includes 5 different islands. They suffered a bad earthquake in 1956, and everything was rebuilt. We went on a tour of the islands! I think our guide was a little dramatic, but he said that everything basically exists for the tourists. 15% of the original city remains, but it's all in museums now. So everything, both old and new, is there for the tourists. Brenna and I are really stimulating the economy in Greece. That's our contribution to the world!

We started off hiking on a volcano.

Then we swam to some hot pots. They weren't very hot but it was still fun!

Then we went to another island for lunch and napping on a roof.

We finished up the day in Oia, where Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed! This is what we did there:

Baklava, a Greek Dessert. Neither of us liked it.

Brenna just spent a month in Italy, and she STILL wants spaghetti!

I opted for a Greek Salad. It tasted better than it looks!

We found the cutest bookstore in the world!

Moving On

Santorini was beautiful and we miss it already, but today we came to Athens!

Our new hostel. We miss our old one, but we can't complain because we have the room to ourselves!

My first time seeing an orange tree.

 

Stephan told me to try Risotto in Italy and I never did, so I ordered it in Athens and it was amazing!

Brenna went for pancakes.

I love how churches are everywhere in Europe! This is the second one I've seen in the middle of a shopping center. I also saw a chapel in a train station. Catholic churches feel different than LDS churches for me, but they still bring peace to lots of people and I respect that a lot.

There are stray dogs and cats everywhere. The dogs are huge and the cats are skinny. Go figure. Brenna is LOVING it!

Tomorrow will be packed with seeing ancient, famous stuff. We are so excited!

Antio and Loch Sloy!