Monday, August 29, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Our first visit on Sunday was to the Venetian Castle in Nafpaktos. It was beautiful and, since it's up in the mountains, the views of the town of Nafpaktos were breathtaking! We didn't spend too much time there because it was really hot that day. Explored a bit, took some great pics and then headed for the beach! This time, we went to Psani beach. No sand on this beach...it's all stones. Luckily, the As had told us that most of the beaches in Greece were stoney so we all had water shoes with us. The water - like the other beach - was crystal clear. Because this beach is situated in a cove, the water is very calm. Very little, if any, waves at all so it was great for the kids! Plus, there was a little water park right behind the beach. Sofia LOVED the water park! Rafi was reluctant to go down any of the slides. He finally did go down the small slide but that was all he was up to for that first day. We spent ALL DAY at the beach. It was wonderful! Later that night, we just chilled at the house.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Saturday, August 13
Woke up around 10:30 am feeling much more refreshed! We had a leisurely breakfast of waffles and then prepared to go to the beach. Decided to go to what we called the "sandy" beach that day. It's one of the few beaches in Nafpaktos to have sand vs. stones. Beach was about 20 minutes away. It was busier than usual since it was a holiday weekend in Greece (they were celebrating the Virgin Mary's day on Monday) but we easily found 2 tables and seats for all of us. The scenery around the beach was amazing! Beautiful mountains surrounded the beach. And the water was a beautiful blue-green color. The water temp was perfect! Just a little cool so that you felt refreshed but warm enough that you could walk right in without shivering. This beach had nice, gentle waves too so the 2 older kids, Sofia and Niko loved it! Sofia barely left the water! The other fantastic thing about the Greek beaches is that there are restaurants/cafes right there so the waiters come to you to take your order and bring the food/drinks right to you! We had a lot of chicken/pork souvlakis, fries, frappes and beer. And water of course. Spent all day at the beach. It was wonderful! Finally packed up and headed home around 6:30pm.
As soon as we got home, we showered and got ready to go out for dinner. Dinners are held much later in Greece than in the U.S. 8pm is considered very early for dinner there! 10pm is more the norm. However, our American stomachs couldn't wait that long so we headed out at 8pm. Went to a restaurant where our table was right on the beach. Magnificent view of the mountains and we got to witness a beautiful pink sunset! And the food was TO DIE!
Let me just talk about the food a bit. Everything in Nafpaktos is organic. It's locally grown/raised with no preservatives. So everything tastes AMAZING! The tomatos, eggplant, eggs, bread. Even the wine. I normally can't drink more than 1 glass of wine but I could drink non-stop in Nafpaktos without getting a headache. And I can't even begin to describe the feta cheese. The feta here doesn't come close! I wish I could've packed a huge chunk of it in my suitcase to bring home!
2 of Greg's aunts, an uncle and 2 cousins (Harry and Sophia) joined us for dinner. It was wonderful meeting them! We had calamari, greek salad, pastisio, moussaka, chicken souvlaki, spaghetti, green beans, feta cheese, bread. I'm sure there was more and it was all fantastic! Took about 3 hours for our meal. When the kids finished there was a great playground nearby so they could burn off some energy. Headed home around 11pm. It was a great, first full day in Nafpaktos!
As soon as we got home, we showered and got ready to go out for dinner. Dinners are held much later in Greece than in the U.S. 8pm is considered very early for dinner there! 10pm is more the norm. However, our American stomachs couldn't wait that long so we headed out at 8pm. Went to a restaurant where our table was right on the beach. Magnificent view of the mountains and we got to witness a beautiful pink sunset! And the food was TO DIE!
Let me just talk about the food a bit. Everything in Nafpaktos is organic. It's locally grown/raised with no preservatives. So everything tastes AMAZING! The tomatos, eggplant, eggs, bread. Even the wine. I normally can't drink more than 1 glass of wine but I could drink non-stop in Nafpaktos without getting a headache. And I can't even begin to describe the feta cheese. The feta here doesn't come close! I wish I could've packed a huge chunk of it in my suitcase to bring home!
2 of Greg's aunts, an uncle and 2 cousins (Harry and Sophia) joined us for dinner. It was wonderful meeting them! We had calamari, greek salad, pastisio, moussaka, chicken souvlaki, spaghetti, green beans, feta cheese, bread. I'm sure there was more and it was all fantastic! Took about 3 hours for our meal. When the kids finished there was a great playground nearby so they could burn off some energy. Headed home around 11pm. It was a great, first full day in Nafpaktos!
August 11 - Travel Day
Thursday, 8/11 was our travel day to Greece. It was wonderfully uneventful! Got to BWI with plenty of time to get through security. Flight left on time (2:20 pm) and got to Philly a little early. Plane was already boarding for our Athens flight so no delay at all in Philly. We arrived in Athens about 45 minutes early (~8:30am Athens time).
The kids did wonderfully on the flights! It was actually Rafi's 1st time on a plane and he was SO excited! Even now, if you ask him what his favorite thing was from the whole trip, he'd say the plane ride. Sofia got a little nauseous during our decent into Athens. Flight attendants were very helpful and gave her ginger ale and crackers. When I told them she hadn't eaten much, they said that causes a lot of people to feel sick when descending. Poor thing was just sitting in her chair with the barf bag up to her mouth. When I gave her gum though (to help with her ears popping), she actually felt better! Perked up and no longer needed the barf bag. Got through security and baggage claim in Athens very quickly. Greg was outside to meet us. Slight delay (about an hour) in leaving since Mr. A. was at the airport trying to get the last paper signed to have his hunting gun released to him. But then we were off to Nafpaktos! It was close to a 3 hour drive. The drive was extremely scenic. Unfortunately, we were all so tired that most of us slept through it!
Got to Nafpaktos and were greeted by Lissa, Mrs. A., Niko and Alex. And by a FEAST! Got a tour of their beautiful vacation home, ate and then Mario and I took a 3 hour nap. Woke up about 6:30pm. Found out Pops and Connie gave up and went to bed for the night at 5:30pm. So spent our first night in Nafpaktos on the balcony enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery.
The kids did wonderfully on the flights! It was actually Rafi's 1st time on a plane and he was SO excited! Even now, if you ask him what his favorite thing was from the whole trip, he'd say the plane ride. Sofia got a little nauseous during our decent into Athens. Flight attendants were very helpful and gave her ginger ale and crackers. When I told them she hadn't eaten much, they said that causes a lot of people to feel sick when descending. Poor thing was just sitting in her chair with the barf bag up to her mouth. When I gave her gum though (to help with her ears popping), she actually felt better! Perked up and no longer needed the barf bag. Got through security and baggage claim in Athens very quickly. Greg was outside to meet us. Slight delay (about an hour) in leaving since Mr. A. was at the airport trying to get the last paper signed to have his hunting gun released to him. But then we were off to Nafpaktos! It was close to a 3 hour drive. The drive was extremely scenic. Unfortunately, we were all so tired that most of us slept through it!
Got to Nafpaktos and were greeted by Lissa, Mrs. A., Niko and Alex. And by a FEAST! Got a tour of their beautiful vacation home, ate and then Mario and I took a 3 hour nap. Woke up about 6:30pm. Found out Pops and Connie gave up and went to bed for the night at 5:30pm. So spent our first night in Nafpaktos on the balcony enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Greece!!
So the trip to Greece is what prompted me starting a blog. Because this trip was completely INCREDIBLE and blog-worthy. A lot of people asked, "why Greece?" First of all, it's always been high on my list of places to see before I die. Second, my brother-in-law's parents just built a vacation home in Nafpaktos and graciously invited us to be the first guests. Even better, my sis and her family and my dad and his partner were all able to be there at the same time. Takes a bit of coordinating...and luck...to be able to manage that. We left August 11 and came back August 20. The following will be descriptions of each day. Must get this all down before my feeble memory forgets!
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