Santorini, Crete, Paros

We are loving Greece!

Today, for the first time since we arrived, the weather is overcast but still a good temperature. I am hearing significant wind right now -- perhaps we'll get rain!

We enjoyed Santorini for 4 days without doing anything except enjoying the view from our balcony and eating.

Then we moved on to Crete. This is one of the biggest islands and we spent 8 days there. We rented a car for a couple days which was only $30 per day, but gas is $8 per gallon! We enjoyed some archaeological sites and an amazing little organic winery as well as wonderful scenery and quaint towns.

The food is still grand, although it seems to be a Cretan tradition that after they stuff you with large portions of amazing food (until you think you might explode) they bring you some delightful desert and a small pitcher of ouzo FREE! It would be rude not to continue to eat, drink, and be merry, right? Ugh! The owner of one of the restaurants we went to lived in the U.S. for 18 months in 1971. After we ate, he enjoyed chatting in rusty English while matching ouzo shots with us. Daina gave out when he brought the second pitcher...

Now we are on Paros. Yesterday we rented a quad motor bike to bop around the island. The bike was great fun and the island had more good scenery, but the hours on the bike were hard on the butt!

Our next ferry will take us back to Athens. We are hoping all the hostility over the "Austerity Measures" have cooled and we won't be caught up in protests. For much of our trip we have left disasters in our wake (earthquake in Chile, cyclone in Australia, earthquake in Indonesia, Red Shirts in Thailand), but now the disasters seem to be catching up! Hopefully the volcano will let our flight (which routes through Ireland) take us home without incident!