Our apartment in Athens

It is super hot here in Greece and we wanted better Air Conditioning so we moved.  We are now north of the Acropolis in a great one bedroom apartment with excellent A/C.  I call it grandma's apartment since it is furnished with antique style furniture.  It literally feels like we have gone back in time.

Everything about this apartment is unique and it is very inexpensive!

Varkiza Beach outside Athens

We went out on an adventure today!  We decided to go to the beach like locals...walk to subway about 10  min.  Take subway (the red line) to end of the line, 30 min.  Take bus 171 to Varkiza beach, about 40 min.  Walk to beach, 5 minutes.

It was a very warm day and we left about 9am after a wonderful breakfast of butter beans brought over by the airbnb hostess,  scrambled eggs with fresh mushrooms that Les made.

The beach was wonderful,  we paid 6 euros each to get in but I had a bad experience with a pickpocket the other day, Les had a woman on the subway  try to take his wallet the other day, so we were happy to pay for security.

What a  great day we had. Water was perfect and there was sand which was HEAVEN to me!!!

It is amazing how organized this beach is!  Each umbrella has a number and a huge menu.  Folks decide what they want and it gets delivered to them.  Now that is a vacation hahaha

Now, this morning as I went outside,  a pigeon flew off and look what I noticed in the dirt:

So I quickly went back inside and here is a photo taken moments later when she had already returned.

She spent the whole day there it seems,  but this evening she flew off. I guess the temp was OK for the egg and Mom had to eat!

Athens

I am behind OMG


we are so busy having fun

Athens is an amazing city.  Huge.  Tons of traffic which isn't really an issue for us since we are on vacation and have no set time to be anywhere but I bet it is enfuriating for the Athenians.

Turns out the car issue is more than just the water pump so HORRAY, we are stuck in Athens much longer than  intended.  Les is happy but not thrilled.  I am thrilled!!!  More time to get a feel for the beat of this town.

Since we have NO car,  we have been taking taxis everywhere.  They dont know anything but the big tourist areas, not like London where cabbies actually get tested before they can get behind a wheel.

This guy in the photo gave us the perfect ride to check on the progress of the car (and that begs for the story:   they call to tell Les that he needs 4 major parts, that they dont have them here, that they will cost a whopping 900 pounds and that it might take 10 days to arrive!  Les calls his  bro who says he can get the parts overnnighted to him and overnighted to us.  For about $100 dollars.  No brainer and that is what we are doing).

The next guy gave us the run around and promised a restaurant with music and dancing.  I mean, we all would like to see, to hear Zorba here surely? 

After 45 min, we get dropped off at Zorba (literally the name of the place), we get out and pay a fortune only to arrive at Zorba's door to be told they never have music. they never have dancing.

I am not happy but Les is furious and we start to look for a cab back 45 minutes.

Find a cabbie and he takes us for another ride and I am so frustrated that I start to cry.  Les is in the front seat, trying to calm me down since I am crying but I am  also saying OMONIA which is where our apartment is.  I am quietly yelling (believe me, there is such a thing)  the name of our street.  I am so frsutrated!

We eventually get home and we agree that a cabbie without GPS is useless.  You can only find out lovely apartment with GPS.  Today Les put it on his phone and the cabbie followed it all the way RIGHT TO OUR DOOR,  Bliss bliss and more bliss.

*********************************************************************

So, we are out and about today and we see a car that has parked on a corner.  This is common and as long as you are not blocking anyone's exit,  allowed or tolerated  (I am not sure which).  Well, this guy parked on the corner and the bus could not pass.  Police was called.  I hate to imagine the ticket this human got!

    BUS                                       PARKED CAR WITH NO DRIVER IN IT                COP



We are totally enjoying Athens, it is so big and so busy but it is music, by chance, on a street in the afternoon

It is looking around at lunchtime and noticing an 11th century church with an archaeologist digging away at the floor inside!

It is happy feet in new Greek shoes because the Italian ones were used to death and had to be trashed!!

and it is LOTS of local draft cerveza for Les and mostly lemonade or cappuccino freddos and sometimes wine for me

GREECE

When we were still in La Bocana, Nikki (who is part  Greek) gave us some pointers,one of them was to visit NAFPLIO because she said it was authentic.

IT IS really incredible but we were shocked when it was packed with people.  Every hotel room taken.  Restaurant tables taken.  No parking and the same deal with super narrow streets and two way traffic on them.

Stress to the max and since we could not find a hotel, we booked across the lake in another town.

Great choice, it turns out.  Small village only 8 km from Nafplio, the owner is Greek/Canadian and she and her husband are ever so friendly.

Recap of day:

Archeological site #1 was so exciting for me! I just eat up history and there was tons of it.

We were so lucky,  the fee was 24 pounds each to get in,  when Les asked for a discount, she gave us half off!  Les is over 65 and I got a piggy back ride.


Then we went to town and it was so packed with people that we left for another town.  We - it turns out - had arrived on one of the busiest Greek holidays!  Nafplio expected 100,000 people and we saw that all the hotels had no vacancies.   It is the last day of a 40 day period and all Orthodox Greeks pray for their ancestors spirits to rise to the heavens.  All go to church and pray for their ancestors, long weekend.

We are in a tiny village since there was no room at any hotel for less than $150 a night in town!

and right now we are on our way to NAFPLIO - same body of water,on the other side,  supposedly the most interesting and romantic city in Greece! 

Borsh, ALBANIA

I  am pretty sure this is going down as one of the top 3  new places we have visited.  It was hot and the water was cool, but NOT cold.  I went swimming before 8 am and it was not too cold.

The village is so cute.  The folks are friendly.  It is all about family and they all run their own hotels with mom cooking and daughter cleaning and daughter in law serving and dad barking orders hahaha

Water spews from fountains since there is so much of it.

Hotel was great.

It was such a fun 24 hours.

Miles and miles of beach

We made friends with the doctor for the health clinic next door and her assistant.  His parents and siblings live in San Diego.  What a small world.   I invited them to come to Mexico.

We are in Greece!

So many years dreaming about coming here and here we are!   It is beautiful, month of June and the weather is hot and humid but no abominable.  There are mosquitoes and flies,  comes with the weather.

The Greeks surpass themselves with their hospitality.  We are in the tiny village of Menini and we stopped at various restaurants to have a drink or a bite to eat.  Every single person offered us something for free

a dessert
a free snack
and lastly a free tsasouki (traditional booze drunk in a tiny shotglass with some ice).

I believe YAMMAS means  cheers, so yammas to all of you!   Our first minutes in Greece.

This gyros melted in my mouth, so good!

All hotels have a restaurant attached.  Not all restaurants have a hotel attached,  These are all family run and Les is under the impression that this once has been here since 1925.   The front is so pretty and their food is excellent, the rooms slighly outdated but it is RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE BEACH!


BTW  the beaches here are rocky too.  How come I never knew this?

I ran around to do some exploring and you know the spiel by now,right?  Les sits down with a beer and I run around and then we meet up at his table.  It works so well!

I love that we are here and tomorrow we head to Athens to get in the culture and art and architecture.  Will someone pinch me????!!!!  Is this real????!!!!

Llogara National Park in Albania

So,  we left Montenegro and crossed into Durres, Albania.  It is a horrible port city and the beach was awful.   Such a shock!

Stayed the night and left at 5 am to head to Borsh, way south.  We are here now and I am indeed in heaven!!!  Beautiful beach and our hotel is literally steps away from the water,  which is a perfectly cool temperature without being cold and the weather is really hot and humid. 

Can you ask for more perfection?  I think not!

The whole way from Durres south is really nice and green - so many farms.  Produce sold by the side of the road and honey too.


We drove through a national park that was stupednous.   In many ways:   I died a million deaths because the road is so darn narrow and locals drive it like maniacs, passing unsafely.  There are also buses and trucks and when they meet you,  it is a recipe for disaster!

The drive was amazing and here is a view of the hotel / restaurant (rooms for 50 euros there) way up in the distance.

The drive, BTW, is not for the faint-hearted.  One part has 26 switchbacks and is on postcards because it is so steep and was a feat when they made it.

I did go  around KOTOR in Montenegro and it was so interesting.

Makarska, Croatia

Another piece of paradise!    This is a fun town, not as popping as Split but more suited for families and older folks.

One one side of town is the harbor which is beautiful and has many party boats where one can eat and drink.  There are many restaurants and all  have outside tables.  Unfortunately,  so many folks smoke and it is allowed both inside and outside.

On the other side of town is the beach with a boardwalk full of fancy hotels, restaurants galore and great for people watching.

The days have been scorching at 33 C but the water is so refreshing!  I am sorely dissappointed that ALL the beaches are rocky.  It is vry uncomfortable to walk on rocks with jagged edges,  even when I wore my flip  flops in the water, it was horrid.

Today we took a ferry boat to an island since many said the beaches were the best on the islands.

Not true.  both Brazil and Mexico are a million times better, as beaches.  That being said, the color of the water here is unreal.   All of them have a bit of Bahia Concepcion colors and that make it so fun to look at.

What colors !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Makes you smile just looking at it!!!!!!!!!!!!

Split, Croatia

Who knew that there are so many magical places in this world???!!!   If my fiends hadnt come here, I dont think we ever would have thought about it...they raved and I became curious.

Thanks Jill and thanks Claudinha!

This town was build around a huge archeological palace built in the year 200 as a summer home for the Roman emperor at the time.  It is huge and the town simply grew up in it, around it and even under the palace.

There are so many people but it is a fun feeling anyway.  Restaurants are packed.  Beautiful people eveywhere.  Souvenirs everywhere and I mean everywhere!If you like to travel, make this a destination!  there is something for the history buff,  diving and snorkeling and biking and spending  and trying new foods and fishing!!!!  Forgot to mention that there are fish everywhere!

Our hotel:  we are in a airbnb place that sold itself as deluxe with a balcony.

I have realized that I have to re-define deluxe.  This place - are you ready for this?  - is in an ugly building,  I can live with that.  It is on the 5th floor with NO ELEVATOR.  Their loss,we did it for tonight but we will not do it another night.

Balcony is about 2 inches of balcony off the window hahahaha

It is 20 minutes plus out of town and the neighborhood is working class (no sweat)   when the photo for the airbnb ad for this apartment showed the beautiful beach that we had lunch at today.  Like I said, 20 minutes away and that is speeding in a car.  Ughhhhhhhhhhhh  redefining deluxe,  right now.

We took a 40 minute tour with a pedicab.  The guide was really funny and of course knew everyone in town.  Both he and Les thought I was crazy but I asked to stop at the post office to mail a postcard to my Mom, to the manager at our hotel in La Bocana and I mailed one to us.

Tomorrow we move on....just 45 minutes south to a smaller beach that sounds great.

Croatia

We arrived in Croatia yesterday, we really had planned on staying in Slovenia but Les didnt like the feel of it and we kept on trucking.  By the time we arrived in Rijeka, we were exhausted but we knew right away that we loved it.

Sat at a restaurant and looked to book a room.  He found a place that was reasonable but he was esp. happy that it said OCEAN VIEW.  I found a place that showed a garden:  it won my heart from the start.

We went with Les's (after a short argument of course) and ended up in a slum.  I am not kidding.  I actually felt sorry for Les - no one deserves to be so damn wrong after driving so many hours! We found the building and there were derelicts around....he called the guy who came within minutes and walked us up 5 five FIVE  F I V E flights of stairs.  Mind you,  it was a  steamy hot day yesterdaay. At this point I am so upset I am silent.  That does not happen too often. 

The guy takes us to an apartment in the back of the building and it is a studio and there in no ocean view.   Where is the ocean, Les gasps??????    That one is rented he answers.  We both can't fathom this response. This is not going to work for us and with one look at each other, the guy offers to refund our money (we had booked thru bookings).   He does within the hour, 100%, which was gracious.

We get in the car and i book thru airbnb -  it is out of town about 15 minutes and Les isn't too thrilled but I tell  him:  everyone's comments say it is a great place.  The photos look good.

Here we are and it is just beautiful!  It is also a studio,  Mom lives in back and son/wife who rent out live above us.  We have a garden,  2 beds,  a fully equipped kitchen, cable tv and fast internet!  The village is in the mountains and we are about a 5 minute car ride from a most gorgeous coastline.  Paulo is most accomodating and his Mom even washed our clothes today when we asked for a local laundromat.

The village is a 5 min walk away, and it has everything you could want:  a bank, an ATM, probably  4 restaurants  (and we went to one last night, best pizza in ages and their  local draft  beer which is really smooth!), a post office, a church that rings bells during the day....in other words, this little piece of paradise is actually less expensive than Ocean View was.

I laughed so hard remembering the fiasco at the ocean view lighthouse (Les kept saying, it is called the Lighthouse apartment  LOL)  that tears were running down my face.  I laughed so hard that my amore started laughing too.   Belly laugh worth the $45 dollar fiasco he commented!

I learned that HVALA (pronounced va-la) means thank you in Croatian. 

I cannot load any more photos except this last one.  It is what we were looking at as we had breakfast on the coast this morning.  I will start taking more photos with my phone.  Have a grand day, everyone!

Liubjana, Slovenia

Liubjana was pretty, but i think Les was underwhelmed after Salzburg and he did not want to stay.  There was a  lot of traffic and it was hard to maneuver the car.  We eventually parked and hunted for a restaurant as we were starving by then.

Impression of Slovenia

many smokers and they smoke mostly outside buildings and restaurants, but sometimes inside which is hard when you are a non -smoker.

they really enjoy cafes, sitting and drinking a coffee with friends.  It was incredible how many cafes on EVERY block, how many sitting at them,  and that there is no food served just toast or a piece of cake

That being said,  we found a local restaurant that simply blew us away!  The food was so good!!  The  portions outrageously huge and although different spices,  so delish.  Blog is not allowing more photos.  Oh well.

so much to share

folks, this blog will not allow me to post all the photos that need to be posted!

so,  lets start out by saying that Salzburg blew us away...it was so unexpected to find such a jewel of a village.  I thought it would be huge and it isn't.  It is small and personable, it is surrounded by snowy mountains that inspire awe every moment.

This is the view from the top of the fort.  I know I repeat myself but I dont care.  Love this view!'

This is the fort!

Our bnb was beyond incredible.  About 15 km out of town,  it had around 50 rooms and was ridiculously inexpensive.   A grand home that they have split up into apartments and individual spaces.  Our room was up these stairs.

It is in the lake region which one drives 10 min to see the first lake.

We tried to go to the Eagle's Nest which was where Hitler and gang met often to make decisions.  Les's GPS said it opened at 7 am.   

We woke up and hit the road early, probably 6 am.  This is what we saw on the way and we also had the most delicious breakfast at a fancy dancy hotel - I messed up transferring those photos so they will go in a separate blog another day!  Here is what we saw.  Simply no words to describe such beauty!!!!

When we got to a parking area and it was already 7  am and not a soul around,  we began to question what was going on???  turns out Eagle's Nest was closed til the next day so we skedadled and went to Slovenia.

Wouldn't this be amazing to wake up to every day?!

We are in Salzburg, Austria

We had such a great drive here.  Car did not act up.  No getting lost.   Some country roads and mostly freeways so we arrived in about 5 hours.  Parked right downtown and asked a woman for a suggestion for  a cafe.  She recommended an excellent place and wouldn.t you know it, we had not been there 5 minutes when a group of 4 Brazilians  came in.  Only one of them spoke English and not the other three.  They are from Espirito Santo, they are staying in Munich and each day they choose a town to explore.

I told them all about La Bocana and especially the whales. They will be there next year,  I so love the whales and that was an easy sell!

We are staying at a bnb out of town so we get a feel for county life.  It is so quiet here at the moment.  All I can hear are the cicadas!   Here we are at the top of a fortress we went to.  

Built in the Middle Ages,  they discovered an ancient heating system at the very top.

Here is another photo of us at the FORTRESS that overlooks the city.  The views are simply fantastic and take your breath away!

Tomorrow I will post EAGLE'S NEST photos.

Auf weidersehn,  mein friends.