My Big Fat Greek Anniversary

Ok. First things first, a little clarification. No, we are not still in Greece, we've been in Bulgaria for about a week and a half. No, we didn't spend our anniversary in Greece, because we were obviously here in Bulgaria (more on what we actually did on our anniversary later). But an update about our time in Greece is better late than never, and our anniversary gift to each other was a trip to Santorini while we were in Greece, hence the title of this post. Plus we really wanted to use a derivative of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. So there you go. Now that we've got that cleared up, here's an update about our time in Greece!

Coming from Italy, it was a lot easier to just fly. I recommend Aegean Airlines...our flight from Rome to Athens was 1.5 hours, and they served us a delicious in-flight meal with free wine. Our flight from Boston to Iceland a couple months ago was over 5 hours long and we didn't even get peanuts. The only downside was that Tyler had to sit in 29D, and I was in 8E. Not exactly close. Anyway, we made it to Athens and then had to find where we were staying, which turned out to be a much longer and more complicated process than we were anticipating, but we made it there safely and were able to get a good night's rest before sight-seeing the next day.

On our way up the north slope of the Acropolis, a view of the city

More of Athens

The Theater of Dionysus

Dionysus himself

About to the top of the Acropolis

The Old Temple of Athena

Front of Athena's temple

The side of the Parthenon

Parthenon!

Theater of Dionysus from above

Temple of Zeus

Ancient Agora

Love that Greek flag!

He could've been a Greek Olympian. Back side of the Propylaea.

From Athens, we headed to Pireaus to catch a ferry out to Santorini. I've wanted to see the Greek Isles (specifically Santorini) for a very long time, so this was quite the dream come true. When we got to the port, we realized our ferry was more of a miniature cruise ship, which was fine with us since the boat ride was 8 hours.

Santorini was more beautiful than I could've imagined, and it just couldn't have been a better three days. Our hotel was perfect; the owners were wonderfully sweet and accommodating, providing a delicious breakfast and a balcony in our room (an upgrade free of charge because we were celebrating our anniversary).

The entrance to the hotel rooms

Our little balcony, complete with the smallest table and chair set I've ever seen. We enjoyed lunch and dinner out here both days.

The view from our balcony

The hotel's restaurant terrace

Delicious breakfast and a great view!

Our hotel was in Oia, the town in Santorini where everyone wants to go to see the sunset. We were just across the road from a breath-taking opening through the descending village looking down into the caldera, and it seemed like every time we stepped out of the hotel to explore the village, it was more beautiful. Different times of the day made it beautiful in different ways as well. This is a place we will definitely be returning. I will try not to overload you with pictures, but it might be difficult.

Our first glimpse of Oia. It was pretty great. This was in the evening light.

There was something about the lights at night on the white-washed buildings reflecting into the blue sea that was mesmerizing.

I love that you can also see some of the other villages dotted along the island...they look like jewels!

So beautiful!

Mid-morning light was also pretty wonderful.

I really think I could live here.

Catching some sun by the pool. The hotel is behind us, and our room was one on the bottom left of the four balconies you can see.

It was such a wonderful experience. What a perfect way to celebrate our first anniversary!

We decided to follow the crowds and walk to the tip of the island to see what the fuss was all about.

It was pretty spectacular. Although the sunset here would've been beautiful, it was also visible from our balcony, so we took dinner back and enjoyed it there while we watched the sun go down.

We couldn't not have gyros while we were in Greece!

After Santorini, we had another couple days back on the mainland of Greece, but we decided to stay in Pireaus instead of going back to Athens since our ferry got back into port around midnight. We decided to take some time to relax and enjoy our view of the harbor instead of trying to cram in more sight-seeing.

This is the view from our balcony in Pireaus. Not too bad, huh? We had all our meals out here while we were there.

A really cool church near the apartment where we stayed

Another cool building...this may have been a national embassy of some sort.

The beach in Pireaus

The journey to Veliko Tarnovo from Athens was kind of long and complicated. No international trains are running to or from Greece right now, so we took a national train to Thessaloniki in the aftenoon, then a 6-hour bus from Thessaloniki to Sofia at midnight, then a 7:45 a.m. bus from Sofia to Veliko Tarnovo. Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted, but we got settled and started the seminar. Look for another update soon on what exactly we've been doing in Bulgaria! Love you all.