Day 2

So here is another long post....Seriously, it's like one day is one week. It doesn't help that I'm obsessed with pictures. So hopefully whoever is reading this likes pictures.

Our second morning started out leisurely. We woke up around 9am, then we stopped at a grocery store near our hotel, and then ate at a Starbucks-type place near the subway station. We decided to be adventurous and get some crazy flavors of yogurt. This one is apple-pomegranate. It was really good! So Greek yogurt is definitely something you should eat if you ever go there...and if you like yogurt...

Then we went to Piraeus and got on a ferry to Aegina. Pronounced Ay-eena. Not like a certain part of the female anatomy. We were going to try and go to Hydra, but the ferry was booked. So the travel agent lady told us to go here. I'm really glad we did. My travel book said that this island doesn't get a lot of tourists, I don't know why. It was great! Here is the harbor...

Another view of the harbor. I really loved this place. I guess Aegina was the old capitol of Greece back a few thousand years ago...This is Aegina town. It was really cute...

This was our first view of the famous white buildings of the Greek Islands...I love the contrast of the white buildings and blue water. This was only a hint of how beautiful Santorini would be...

It was SOOOO hot on Aegina. Even more so than in Athens. It was insane. We decided to celebrate us melting by toasting with some nice, cold, refreshing lemon fanta. The stuff was everywhere.

This is Angela and I at the bus station. We were waiting, and waiting, and waiting for it to leave so we could go to the temple of Aphaea. It was so hot that I rolled up my pants. That coupled with my sexy 5 euro hat (I needed something bad, I was sweating to death), made me one smoking lady...kind of like the lady in our picture...

The bus showed no sign of leaving and since we only had 3 hours until our ferry came back, we rented a car. It was like 20 euros. So worth it. It was awesome and little and European. It was great. We got the teenager who took us to our car to take our picture. I'm sure he thought we were insane. But luckily Greek people are awesome and nice, so they aren't too mean about it. Mostly, they just laugh at us.

Angela and I in the car. This was staged. I was in the back seat, and Dawn drove. But we had to get a picture.

I loved the blue water, and I LOVE this picture. I don't even know why. I mean it's mopeds and a parking sign. Goes to show there is no accounting for taste.

We drove along the coast on the way to the Temple of Aphaea, and I basically hung my head out the window and took pictures. I was really jealous of this woman. She was swimming all by herself in crystal clear water. JEALOUS!!!

Here is another picture of a harbor. If you look closely, there are some people swimming here too...

We stopped at this intersection to look at the sign, but still couldn't really figure things out. Then this taxi pulled up next to us with a stereotypical looking Greek man driving it. I have to admit he was a little intimidating with his hairy chest and gold chain. He was like "Where you go?", we told him and he responded, "Follow road, to end!" Say this in a Greek accent, then you will understand how awesome it was!

This is a view of the back half of the island on top of the hill where the Temple of Aphaea is. It was so beautiful. I love the Islands. I think I need to go back and see more of them. Like Rhodes, Naxos, Crete, and Hydra.

Here it is! The Temple of Aphaea! It was so cool! It was beautifully preserved, which was even more amazing because it's made out of limestone, not marble. And there was hardly any tourists, so we mostly had it for ourselves. We spent about an hour just walking around, taking pictures, and just looking at it.

This is me at the back of the temple. I'm hiding behind the rock so you can't see my rolled up pants, white socks, and hiking shoes. Again the stark contrast of the colors just blew me away.

A different view...me being artsy. Deal with it, lol.

A view of the back end of the temple, without me. I just love pillars. It's so interesting to see these pillars and then to come back to the states, or when we were in Paris and see the Greek influence all over. Very interesting.

Here is a view of the back end of the temple and the ocean. This temple was built on a hill/mountain that had an amazing view of the ocean and island.

This is the inside of the temple. The way the light was hitting everything was beautiful. Don't worry, not everything in Greece was beautiful. I just didn't take pictures of it, lol.

Dawn took a picture of me, taking pictures. She had a lot of these. I had to wear my hat backwards all the time, so I wouldn't get the brim in the way. And I couldn't not wear a hat because I was sweating like a mother.

After we left the temple, we just decided to drive back to Aegina town, but the back way. We passed this awesome Greek cemetery. It's so colorful and almost cheerful. I liked that. It wasn't so somber to me.

We passed this monastery. I think it's Agios Nikolaus, or something like that. It's not listed in my book, and I can't find the paper that had it written down on it. It was really pretty and interesting. It was my first experience in a Greek Orthodox church. The inside had all kinds of scaffolding, though. That was disappointing.

These pink flowers are ALL over the Islands. I loved them. I wish they were here. But I'm sure Utah gets too cold during the winter.

I also loved the mosaics. They were all over the churches and monasteries in Greece. I've always loved mosaics, so I took a lot of pictures of them. I also really liked the Greek Orthodox iconography. Just the aesthetic of their religious pictures were cool to me.

This was inside the church. It was full of these intricate carvings and pictures. Birds, flowers, and all kinds of things were carved into this altar.

This is me buying pistachios. Aegina is known for their pistachios. They were really good! They tasted different than the ones you buy from the store. I bought some for my dad, too. I didn't know what else to get him, lol.

Our ferry was a little late, so we just hung out in the square in Aegina town until it got there. This was before I was sick of pigeons. Gross story, so that fountain right there, I'm fairly sure that it's not potable water. Well this tourist came over and filled up her water bottle out of it. It was all cloudy and stuff. Blech. All she had to do was walk a few feet over to the shops across the street and spend a euro on a bottle of water.

I loved the fishing boats and nets. I wanted to go on a ride and go fishing on one. If I had known how awesome the fish were, I might have just taken it and gone!

After we got back to Athens, we went back to what we thought was the Plaka and ate dinner underneath the Acropolis. This restaurant was at the top of all these stairs. It was kind of corny. They had dancers and singers, but they had an awesome Greek Salad! And we were starving, so we didn't really care.

This is our waiter, Angela, and Flat Theresa (Dawn's thing for her friends, I'll explain later). He was awesome! We called him our Greek Grandpa. When we showed him Flat Theresa he laughed so hard! He was really great and taught us how to say thank you in Greek. Ef Kharisto!

This is the stairs up to the restaurant. It was cute.

As we were walking around, we found Hadrian's Library. Unfortunately, we never got to go back during the day when it was open. But we did buy our Santorini skirts from a store across the street. It was a great day. It already felt like we had been traveling for two weeks! Stay tuned for day three! Santorini!