Street View: N37°57.918’ E23°43.559’

We spent three nights in Athens to explore Greece’s capital city, our last stop in Europe before making our way southeast to Australia.  On Saturday after a fantastic few days on Kerkyra we arrived to meet up with one of my childhood friends, Jim Staridas, who has been living in the northern Greek town of Ioannina for a couple of years.  I hadn’t seen Jim for probably close to 10 years but it was good to catch up over a few beers in Athens’ Pangrati district.  Jim plays the trombone in a band called Spiros Grammenos, spending his time split between gigs in his university-centric home town of Ioannina and traveling across the rest of Greece with the band.  We organized our arrival in Athens to coincide with a Spiros Grammenos gig at Cafe Alvastron as part of the venue’s Native Tongues Festival.  Greeks have astonishing stamina when it comes to late night drinking and partying, Spiros Grammenos didn’t start playing until around 11:30PM and were still playing when we left around 2:30AM!  A really fun concert, the crowd packed into the hip cafe venue sang along to a lot of the songs and even though we couldn’t understand a word of what was being sung we had a great time.  Spiros Grammenos performs a mix of comedy and jazz fused together, as long as we laughed along with everyone else we didn’t feel too out of place!  As with other bars and cafes in Greece, by the end of the night we’d inhaled enough secondhand smoke to equal smoking about a packet of cigarettes each!  Californians and Australians don’t realize how lucky they are when it comes to smoke-free public places.  It was a little tough to take photos in the dim lighting of Cafe Alvastron, but we snapped one of Jimmy playing (shown to the right) and also managed to take a couple of videos of the band with Lisa’s point-and-shoot camera which can be viewed here.

We stayed in Athens’ Koukaki district, a quiet area of the city just south of the Acropolis and old town area of Plaka.  We were a little wary of staying downtown after hearing horror stories from our friends in Santorini about drug peddlers and prostitutes sitting on the steps of their hotels in Omonia, but Hotel Tony (N37°57.918’ E23°43.559’) in Koukaki proved to be quiet and safe for our few days in the capital.  Athens’ metro system was fantastic for moving about the city.  While Athens itself isn’t the cleanest place in the world, with graffiti lining most of the streets in the center of the city, the metro system and buses were extremely clean and efficient.  The metro trains seem to run almost constantly and offer a very cheap and quick way of getting around, €3.00 allows unlimited travel on all trains for a 24-hour period.  We spent a day exploring Athens’ famous Acropolis which was a short walk uphill from our hotel in Koukaki.  The views of Athens from the Acropolis were great, 360° panoramas of the entire city.  We spent an hour or two exploring the grandeur of the Acropolis’ ruins, then walked down around the edge of Monostiraki to the Ancient Agora.  The amount of effort the Greek authorities put into keeping the Acropolis presentable was quite evident during our visit, the Parthenon had one entire face covered in scaffolding as the wall was being transferred to one of the city’s museums to be replaced by a copy.  It was interesting to see the ancient ruins and imagine the civilization during the time of their construction; while the Acropolis was a sight to behold we didn’t rate it quite as grand as some of the ruins in Turkey, namely Termessos and Ephesus.  Definitely worth a visit, all the same…

After some time walking around the Temple of Hephaestus (the three photos above) we were beckoned to Monostiraki by the sounds of street performers and the bustling flea market.  The walkway bordering the Ancient Agora was filled with vendors selling everything from antique knickknacks to cheap kids toys, so much to see and so many different types of people.  The flea market is an interesting dichotomy of hip and trendy clothes stores mixed amongst some of the most junky antique stores we’ve ever seen.  The Greek teens love American clothing brands, with WESC shirts in almost every store as well as a number of Converse and Vans shoe stores dotted throughout Monostiraki’s narrow alleyways.  Another of Athens’ famous ruins, Hadrian’s Library, is located in the center of Monostiraki next to the metro station.  When we were there the columns of Hadrian’s Library were in the process of being reconditioned; to do so, new sections of marble are inserted into the ancient columns where the existing pieces require mending (pictured left).  Lisa had a keen eye in Hadrian’s Library, spotting a couple of the local reptilian inhabitants, one of which is pictured here (above right).  The tortoise here was the largest one we found, measuring around 30 centimeters (12 inches) across its shell!

From Hadrian’s Library we continued our walking tour through central Athens, making our way through more of the Monostiraki flea market and into the old town of Plaka.  We feasted on another €2.00 gyros (yiros) along the way and returned on another day to dine at one of the plethora of tavernas littered through the central tourist area.  Our walk through the old town toward Syntagma Square took us along a section of Ermou, Athens main shopping district, which houses stores of pretty much every designer label you can imagine.  Lisa couldn’t resist all the wares on offer and shelled out for a top at the Zara store on the main drag.  A coffee at Syntagma Square next to Greek Parliament and a walk through the Greek National Gardens took us to the Temple of Olympian Zeus (N37°58.178’ E23°43.954’).  The temple is a gigantic structure in the center of a large grassed area, another ruin that boggles the mind to think how it was constructed hundreds of years ago.  The Temple of Olympian Zeus is visible from the Acropolis, the view of it from the Parthenon is included up at the top of this post.  After the Temple of Olympian Zeus and a quick look at Hadrian’s Gate our feet had pretty much had it for the day, so we trudged the kilometer or so back to our hotel for a quiet dinner.   

One could spend a month in Athens exploring the overabundance of museums spread about the city but, given our (my!) attention span for museums, we instead opted to explore only one of the most lauded museums: the National Archaeological Museum.  The National Archaeological Museum was a few metro stops from our hotel, we ventured up to the Exarhia area of Athens early Monday morning only to find that the museum opens later (12:30PM) on Mondays.  We killed an hour or two walking about the streets of Exarhia, making our way to the quiet courtyard-like square of Plateia Exarhion amidst the concrete jungle of high-rise apartment buildings.  I can’t quite remember its name, but if anyone reading this finds themselves around Plateia Exarhion in the Exarhia area of Athens make sure to have a bite at the gyros (yiros) shop on the western side.  It had, hands down, the best chicken gyros (yiros) either of us sampled throughout our travels in Greece, whole chicken breasts on the spit made for scrumptious fare.  The National Archaeological Museum isn’t as large as some of the other famous museums we’ve visited on our travels, but what it lacks in square footage it definitely makes up for in the sheer number of artifacts it houses.  We spent the whole afternoon viewing the expansive collection, everything from Egyptian sarcophagi to gold-leaf crowns and, my personal favorite, intricately detailed ancient bronze statues.  If we took our time we could have spent a couple of days there, I’m not a huge fan of museums but some of the wares at the National Archaeological Museum and especially the historical excerpts explaining most of the exhibits were absolutely fascinating.  One particularly eye-opening display was that of a 3000+ year old sarcophagus in the Egyptian section of the museum; upon examining the feet of the mummy we noticed that the toe bones of the skeleton were poking out of the tomb!

Athens completes our travels through Europe, we thought a month would be a long time to explore Greece and Turkey but it sure went by fast!  Next stop on our adventure is my home town of Adelaide in South Australia, where we’ll be for some time with my family before deciding what comes next.

We have received a few comments that there are not enough pictures of Sam on the blog.  Well, here are a couple pictures of the master photographer at work.  While I stick with my cute red point and shoot camera, Sam is kneeling on the ground, crouching into precarious spots and climbing over walls and fences that he probably shouldn’t.  I have been given the opportunity, however, to snap a few of what ET calls ‘angles’ when I happen to see a good shot which is usually accompanied with a few lessons on using the polarizer and setting the lens aperture properly.  So (Mom) as I learn more, you will start to see more pictures of The Photographer but I thought you would enjoy these red poppies and the Temple of Zeus for a start.

Street View: N39°35.191’ E19°49.175’

First off, a little explanation of the post’s title: most tourists know the island of Kerkyra by its tourist name, Corfu, which was instantiated because English-speaking tourists had trouble with the traditional Greek name of Kerkyra.  So if you’ve heard of Corfu before, it’s actual name is Kerkyra, so that’s what we’ll use here…  We traveled to Kerkyra from Santorini to explore one of the Ionian islands off Greece’s west coast.  We also wanted to see where my mum spent her summers teaching water-skiing and romping about in a bikini when she was in her twenties, I’ve heard a lot of stories about her time on Kerkyra so we thought a visit was in order.  Kerkyra’s landscape is markedly different to that of the volcanic Cyclades islands (Santorini is one of the Cyclades): the black rocks and barren landscapes are replaced by lush greenery and rolling hills on Kerkyra, its limestone base makes for excellent coves and beautiful sandy beaches all around the island.  We left Santorini in the midst of horizontal rain and gale-force winds (we were a little concerned that our plane wasn’t going to take off!) to arrive in Kerkyra under clear blue skies and 32°C (90°F) weather.  We stayed at the Rolling Stone above Pelekas Beach (N39°35.191’ E19°49.175’) on the island’s west coast, a small hippie-inspired hotel of six rooms and a couple of apartments run by German-born Ira and her friendly Greek ever-so-stylish husband Themis.  Themis picked us up from the airport for a hair-rising ride across the 17 kilometer stretch between Kerkyra Town and Pelekas dressed in his pointed cowboy boots, tight jeans and  a stylin’ t-shirt that would make Todd Baldwin jealous.  The Rolling Stone was great (if you don’t mind a bit of late night music in the courtyard now and then), we were even invited to eat dinner with Themis and Ira’s family on our first night, a scrumptious Kerkyran specialty of stewed veal and pasta.  Lisa fell in love with Rolling Stone’s seven month old pup named Maggie, a couple of times Maggie would be waiting outside our bedroom door in the morning as she quickly learned we were always good for attention.  Kerkyra is only about 150 kilometers from the eastern coast of Italy, it’s quite a big island, during our four and a half days there we only managed to explore the top half of its 58 kilometer span.  The island is absolutely covered with olive trees, 99.9% of the harvest is devoted to making olive oil due to the small size of the fruit produced by the particular species of trees on the island.  The olive groves on Kerkyra are the tallest olive trees either of us has ever seen, they tower 30 or 40 feet tall with trunks that resemble the oaks in California.  The harvest is performed by laying black synthetic netting over the ground throughout the entire grove and then catching the fruit as it falls (we couldn’t quite gather if they shake the trees or wait for the olives to drop naturally).  The groves were really a sight to behold, everyone we met who was a local seemed to have a grove somewhere on the island.

The island’s west coast was the most picturesque area we explored: beautiful rolling green hills dotted with white-walled, red-roofed villages and limestone cliffs that make for fantastic coves and beautiful beaches.  Pelekas, where we stayed, is in the center of the west coast and is one of the best beaches we found during our time on Kerkyra.  The beach was about 100 meters down the hill from the Rolling Stone, white sand stretching for a kilometer or so hemmed in by limestone ridges at either end (typical of all the beaches on Kerkyra).  The water was warmer than Santorini but still a little chilly, the clarity and turquoise color was second to none though.  The town of Pelekas was a (very) steep walk up the winding road from the beach, about 45 minutes each way.  We ate in Pelekas twice at Alexandro’s Pizza, probably the best pizza either one of us has ever tasted, the second time we dined we ordered a whole pizza each and prepped by fasting from breakfast to make room!  We also made the drive up to Paleokastritsa (pictured to the left below) (N39°40.369’ E19°42.062’), one of Kerkyra’s most famed coastal areas, to take a look at the amazing array of coves and beaches dotted along the nearby coast.  These days the area is littered with beachfront restaurants and bars as well as a myriad of hotels catering to the western European package tourists that flock there during the peak of summer.  The natural beauty of the place is still in tact though, we made a short walk north of the main strip to find a small cove to ourselves where we spent the afternoon on the beach and snorkeling in the crystal clear Ionian Sea.  While on our way home from Paleokastritsa we took a bit of detour and found a gem hidden away in the west coast’s hills, the town of Doukades (pictured here to the left) is a sleepy mountain village with a couple of small tavernas spread around the center of town.  We enjoyed a great dinner, scrumptious home-made dolmades and our first time sampling oven-baked feta.  On our second to last day we made a trip south down the west coast from Pelekas, we passed another famous bathing spot on the way, Agios Gordis, recognizable by the small rock island of Tholeto at the southern end of the beach (pictured here to the left).  We were searching for more beaches and coves along the coast but didn’t find anything as spectacular as Paleokastritsa or any stretches of sand as nice as Glyfada or Pelekas (where we were staying).  Fun to make the drive though, and the quaint mountain village of Agios Mattheos was interesting to drive through.  A bit of an eye-opener we encountered a number of times on Kerkyra, something we didn’t see anywhere else in Greece or Turkey, were mobile chicken markets: small trucks with their cargo sections turned into chicken hatcheries!  They’d drive around the island with loudspeakers attached to the roof hooting and hollering about their chickens for sale.  We had to pull over to let the one pictured here pass us on one of the skinny streets of Agios Mattheos.

We made the trek to the island’s north coast a couple of times during our stay on Kerkyra: once to visit Sidari and Roda Beach, the other to hike part of the Corfu Trail from Strinilas to Moni Pantokratora (Kerkyra’s tallest peak).  Our trip to Sidari and Roda was a little disappointing, the once beautiful beaches and picturesque seaside towns have been turned into masses of English pubs and gaudy souvenir shops, there wasn’t much Greek to see at either spot.  Mum had told me stories of her painting the Roda Beach Hotel in her bikini, at that time the first hotel in Roda, as well as spending time sunbathing on the beautiful beaches around Sidari.  But now, just like Bodrum, both locales have been overrun with package tourists from western Europe and the towns’ charm has mostly disappeared.  We didn’t even take any photos, and on this trip that’s a stretch!  Not to be deterred, we talked to some locals about the Corfu Trail, a hiking trail covering some 227 kilometers around the island, and ventured back to the island’s north on another day to walk a section of it up to the peak of Moni Pantokratora (N39°44.027’ E19°50.853’).  The road to Strinilas (N39°44.656’ E19°50.226’), the starting point of our hike, follows the east coast of Kerkyra until Pirgi, at which point it veers off the main drag and winds up into the mountains.  The road after Pirgi has bends that, in the words of one guide book, make the Monaco Grand Prix look like a walk in the park!  We do agree, it’s probably one of the windiest roads either of us has ever been on, Lisa had that pale ‘I’m going to be sick’ look plastered across her face a number of times.  But the drive was worth it, as we reached the highlands we were greeted with fields of beautiful wildflowers and views across the entire northern end of the island.  We found a taverna on Strinilas’ central square and talked to the waiter about the Corfu Trail; turned out that the trail passed through the taverna’s courtyard so after lunch we made the roughly 12 kilometer loop to the peak of Moni Pantokratora through some beautiful farmland and very picturesque fields of highland wildflowers.  At times we were following the blue markers, others we had to use the surrounding hills as a guide and wing it to the next blue marker, at which point one of us would yell “blue paint” with some relief.  Similar to our trip on a portion of the Lycian Way in Turkey the blue markers of the Corfu Trail were lifesavers.  We walked back along the road to the east of our route up and were rewarded with some fantastic views of the island’s east coast.  For our drive back that day we took the long way around the northern and eastern edges of the island, taking in the beautiful beach at Almiros, the town of Kassiopi and finally stopping for a beer at a waterfront taverna in Nissaki.

Kerkyra Town (Corfu Town), the main village on the island, was a real highlight for us.  The bustling central location of the island is in the middle of the east coast just next to the airport and is where most of the Greek inhabitants of Kerkyra reside.  Unlike Santorini, which effectively becomes a ghost town during the winter months, the majority of the Greek population live on Kerkyra year round.  Kerkyra Town is about 17 kilometers from where we stayed on Pelekas, a quick drive across the island in our little rental car.  The roads were extremely confusing, I don’t think we took the same route twice during our five days on the island, once ending up having a heated finger-pointing match as we tried to figure out how we found ourselves on the east coast heading up to the mountains when we were supposed to be heading back to Pelekas!  Kerkyra Town is a mix of old and new: Palaio Frourio (the old Venetian fortress) and Italian-inspired architecture of the old town intermingled with up-market cafes and modern apartment buildings to the town’s west.  We read about the plethora of cafes lining the Liston and quickly found that it’s quite an institution amongst the Kerkyrans to enjoy a coffee for an hour or two at one of the strip’s establishments.  We did so ourselves on two mornings, enjoying our Greek coffees which, in Kerkyra at least, are usually served with a croissant or biscotti.  The cafes are so popular in Kerkyra’s old town that we actually had trouble (a lot of trouble) finding any form of restaurant or eatery that served food during the morning!  The Liston was a fantastic people watching spot, all of the cafes serve alcohol in the evenings and we sat there for quite some time late one night just watching the people go by and adrenaline-fueled kids racing their bicycles through the crowds.  The narrow walkways between the Spianada and more modern quarter of Kerkyra Town were great for a walk, we could have been somewhere in Italy instead of an island off Greece. Kerkyra was another great stop along our way, thanks Mum for the idea and also Vassilis for some local knowledge.

Street View: N36°25.386’ E25°25.696’

Santorini is the southernmost of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea, sitting just north of Crete smack in the middle of Greece and Turkey.  The island is the caldera of an active volcano, it’s well known for its sugar-cubed houses perched precariously on the cliff edge with spectacular views of the Aegean and surrounding islands.  We spent almost a week on Santorini, making the trip for Tariq and Andrea’s wedding, which was on May 2 at Tholos Resort (N36°26.024’ E25°25.253’) in the town of Imerovigli.  They couldn’t have ordered better weather, the ceremony was held on the edge of the caldera with a beautiful sunset as the backdrop.  It was great to be able to share their special day with them, as well as catch up with a few mates from Saint Marks who made the trip from locations including New York, Glasgow, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.  A lot of fun getting us all together for the occasion (thanks Tariq!).  The wedding party stayed at Tholos Resort, we stayed one town south of Imerovigli in the village of Firostefani at Gaby’s Apartments (N36°25.386’ E25°25.696’) run by Katerina and her sister Maria (not sure where Gaby comes into it).  The location was fabulous, we were right on the caldera edge with 1000 feet of cliffs directly below us, the sunsets and views were exceptional.  The apartment was great, extremely clean (it’s something we notice after trudging through Turkey and northern Greece!) and a fantastic location only 400 meters walk from the main town of Fira.  The picture above to the left was the view from our deck, can you ask for more?!

Hens and Bucks Night

We arrived in Santorini on Wednesday, April 29 and the following day set out for the hens and bucks nights in preparation for the wedding on Saturday.  The hens spent the afternoon riding horses on Kamari Beach on the island’s east coast while the bucks took a boat trip from Ammoudi at the island’s northern tip to explore the caldera and surrounding islands.  Both Tanja (the maid of honor) and ET (the best man) put a lot of effort into the day, I know both Lisa and I had a fantastic time and appreciate their work.

The hens didn’t have a lot of experience riding horses, only Lisa had ever ridden a horse before so it was quite an ordeal.  They were dropped by a taxi near Kamari Beach and then walked down a dirt road to find the stables.  A number of the girls were a little timid to start, Sally ended up the with stable owner’s horse and Andrea (the bride) had a horse with an absolute mind of its own.  Dinner at Nikki’s in Fira was thoroughly enjoyed by all (I heard about the grilled squid at Nikki’s for a number of days afterwards) followed by dancing at Tropicana and onto Murphy’s Bar (where the bucks ran into them).

The bucks were picked up in Imerovigli around 1:30PM and taken to the port of Ammoudi at the northern end of the island.  Our faithful captain George, one of the only people I met who stays on Santorini through winter and also one of the only people I talked to who has more than a single generation of family history on Santorini, showed us a great afternoon.  We cruised past Manolas, the main town on the neighboring island of Thirasia, and then to the hot springs (N36°24.058’ E25°23.331’) on Nea Kameni, which is an island in the center of the volcano.  The hot springs were unlike any I have seen before: instead of being isolated pools they were simply a cove in the ocean that was far warmer than the surrounding water.  But we knew we were near hot springs as the typical overpowering smell of sulfur was ever-present.  We cruised around to the eastern side of Nea Kameni for a swim, witnessed a near-drowning of Squino and, if I couldn’t swim as well as I can, a possible fist fight in the water, followed by a slow motor back to Ammoudi for dinner.  (An afternoon of beers is always better with a Squino incident of some sort.)  Ammoudi is evidently the best place on the island to view the sunset as it’s the last place on Santorini with a view of the sun before it disappears over the horizon.  We couldn’t have asked for a better sunset during dinner (a couple of shots below).

We all ended up at Murphy’s Bar at some point in the night (I nabbed Lisa’s camera to get these photos) and then moved on to the Koo Club before grabbing a late night gyros (yiros).  The Koo Club is quite the place, a waiter we talked to later in the week said that during the peak of summer they will cram in 3000+ people!  It has huge outdoor seating areas and multiple floors inside.  At some point during the night ET thought the masses might like to see him undress, the beginning of which is pictured below.  We ended up drinking the night away in the bars of Fira, I walked home around 3:00AM; Squino still can’t remember how he got home or what happened to the €100 he had in his pocket at 1:30AM!

Santorini Island

The island of Santorini is an extremely picturesque place, the caldera rearing up out of the sea into 1000 foot cliffs overlooking three islands in and around the edge of the volcano.  It has to be one of the most photographed of the Greek islands, the sugar-cube white houses lining the edge of the caldera and crystal clear deep blue water of the Aegean below.  It is one of George Meis’ favorite islands on which to shoot his famous 360° panographs, reproductions of them are littered all over the islands and we’ve seen postcards of Santorini taken by Meis in every souvenir shop elsewhere in Greece.  The island is the eastern portion of the caldera of an active volcano, the sugar-cube houses are connected by a maze of steep, cobbled walkways.  As the island is volcanic there is very little dirt and thus the island is quite barren, there are no grazing animals, it’s a very stark landscape. 

We rented a 100CC quad motorbike for the time we were in Santorini, it was a lot of fun to cruise around on and saved us waiting for the bus or paying for taxis.  And for €10 a day it wasn’t a tough decision!  During our six days on the island we pretty much saw it all, from the lighthouse at the island’s southern tip to Oia and Ammoudi in the north.  The main town on the island is called Fira, which is located in the center of the west coast and melds into Firostefani and Imerovigli to the north.  Most of the restaurants are located in Fira with a few littered on the edge of the caldera in Firostefani and Imerovigli between the plethora of hotels and apartment rentals.  We were expecting Santorini to be very expensive as it exists almost exclusively as a tourist destination, but were surprised that the food and accommodation was very similarly priced to the rest of Greece.  We ate almost every lunch at probably one of the best gyros (yiros) shops in the world: Gefsis Souvlaki in the center of Fira (business card to the left).  Gefsis serves up scrumptious pork, chicken and lamb wraps for between €2 and €2.50 each.  By the end of our week on the island I think ET was at serious risk of turning into a gyros (yiros)!  The food elsewhere was very good, so much to explore for such a small island.  And so much to photograph… 

We spent three afternoons on Kamari Beach (N36°25.185’ E25°28.863’) during our week on the island.  All of the beaches in Santorini are composed of black pebbles as opposed to sand due to the volcanic nature of the island.  The days we were there it was around 30°C and the pebbles were almost too hot to walk on, I can imagine they get absolutely scalding in the heat of summer.  Kamari is one of Santorini’s most popular beaches during summer, it stretches for a couple of kilometers and its western location protects it from the winds that often whip the towns on the eastern edge of the island.  The southern end of the beach, where we spent our time, is located directly below Ancient Fira and is framed in by the limestone cliffs of Cape Mesa Vouno.  ET, Tariq and I had some fun jumping off the cliffs with some of the local Greek schoolboys.  I had my snorkeling gear with me, the visibility was amazing but unfortunately not too much to see under the surface except for a few schools of mullet.

On our last day on the island we had a bit of wet weather so were forced to trade in our motorbikes for a little hatch back.  The weather gave ET, Sally, Lisa and me a chance to explore the southern reaches of Santorini, the four of us visited the lighthouse at Cape Akrotiri as well as the town of Akrotiri and the Red Beach recommended to me by a mate of mine in San Francisco.  The Red Beach would have been very cool to visit on a sunny day, the black beach is hemmed-in by bright red cliffs and the surrounding points looked great for some snorkeling.  Maybe next time…  We also explored Oia at the northern end of Santorini; a little ways from Fira, Oia came across as a lot less touristy and boasted some fantastic art galleries. 

We both had a fantastic time in Santorini, such a picturesque location and so much fun sharing the week with a big group of friends.  Corfu next to explore the island where Mum spent the summers teaching tourists to water-ski when she was in her twenties, then the sights of Athens and after that we head Down Under to Adelaide.

We then ventured across the island to the west-side and enjoyed a tasting at Santo Wines. The tasting room has an amazing view and we enjoyed tasting the wine accompanied with some cheese and olives.  The winey is literally perched up on the edge of the caldera and looking out from the tasting room you can see the water on both the west and east sides of the island.  We tasted a few wines and liked it so much that we went back with ET and Sally to enjoy a few more.  The second line-up I tasted was their Assyrtiko Grand Reserve, Nykteri, Mavrotragano, Kameni, and a sip of Sally’s Imiglikos.  The Assyrtiko was similar to that explained above except this particular one spent some time in oak.  I found it interesting that they called it the English words “Grand Reserve” (which is one of Kendall-Jackson’s wines) when all of the other labels are in Greek.  As a result of spending time in oak, the wine was less light and fruity and had more vanilla and apricot flavors but still had a mineral finish.  Nykteri means “stay up all night” and is a blend of the varieties: Assyrtiko, Athiri, and Aidini.  The wine is fermented in oak and had the aroma of lime leaves.  Mavrotragano was a lighter style red wine with cherry aromas, this was my third favorite.  The Kameni is the heaviest style red they make and definitely the heaviest that I have tried in all of Greece.  It had dried fruit characters, a hint of olive and a subtle astringency.  This was my favorite of all wines I tried in Greece.  Lastly, the Imiglikos was a medium-sweet wine that reminded me of the juice in canned peaches. 

The Greek house wines were pretty good and very affordable.  In most cafes or tavernas you can enjoy 0.5 liters of wine for €4-€5.  At first I was a little intimidated about consuming an entire carafe myself, but the wines have much less alcohol than ours at home and it really wasn’t a problem to finish a carafe during a meal. We did try the popular Greek wine, Retsina, once and let’s just say once was enough!

Street View: N39°42.653’ E21°37.791’

Definitely one of the best places we’ve visited so far, Kalambaka is a small mountain town nestled amongst surrounding granite monoliths.  The surrounding peaks are home to a collection of orthodox monasteries, the way they are perched atop the rocks is an amazing sight.  One of the monasteries, Moni Agios Triados, was the venue for the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only.

We arrived in Kalambaka on a late train from Thessaloniki and trudged up into the mountains through town laden with our packs.  Koka Roka Taverna, our home for the two nights we were in Kalambaka, is owned by Katerina and Nick who run the place along with their son Arthur.  Nick was born in Kalambaka and Katerina a town nearby, they both moved to Melbourne many years ago and returned to Kalambaka with Arthur when we was 12 to start Koka Roka.  Koka Roka was fantastic, we enjoyed our dinner so much the first night that we ate there on our second evening as well.  All the meat is cooked over an open flame, we’d sit there enjoying our tzatziki while our dinners cooked, at the same time knocking back a few Amstels and some homemade wine.  Nick is quite happy to sit on his table out the front of the taverna all day and evening (he’s pictured doing so above), consuming either coffee or beer along with his Marlboros.  Katerina and Arthur seem to handle the main operation of Koka Roka and do a fantastic job, the rooms were some of the cleanest we’d had throughout Turkey and Greece (although it was a bit of a challenge to battle Sally for the hot water whilst we both happened to have our showers at the same time!).  ET and I sampled Nick’s homemade Ouzo after hiking through the monasteries, I don’t think I’ve ever seen ET wince as a result of alcohol quite as much as he did when he knocked his back, it was sure hot on the way down.  After we’d drunk the ouzo Nick enjoyed showing us how well it holds a flame by dipping a cotton bud in it and setting it alight!

Our day in Meteora was devoted to exploring the monasteries of the area.  The seven monasteries of Meteora are all perched precariously atop giant granite monoliths, it boggles the mind to think how they were constructed centuries ago.  Up until about 10 years ago the road connecting the monasteries was a dirt track, and most of the monasteries have only had paths leading up to them for 30-40 years.  Prior to that the only means of connecting each monastery to the  outside world was via a winch and cradle (pictured here a couple of times) that transported people, goods and food the hundreds of feet to the valley floors.  Koka Roka is situated at the very top of the town of Kalambaka at the beginning of the hiking trail connecting town to the first of the monasteries we visited, Moni Agios Triados (the one from For Your Eyes Only) (N39°42.799’ E21°38.196’).  It was misting rain during our hike up, but it’d stopped by the time we reached the  monastery.  Agios Triados, as with all the other monasteries in Meteora, incorporates a winch and cradle, various prayer rooms, and a small two-roomed chapel.  Iconography completely covers the walls from floor to domed ceiling of each of the chapels, the intricacy and realism of the images was amazing.  We ran into a couple of Aussie Greek Orthodox lads from Melbourne on a pilgrimage through Israel and the monasteries of Meteora who filled us in on the history and meaning behind some of the iconographs, it was great to get some inside knowledge from people who had studied the Meteora sites from a very young age.  Evidently, at the time when many of the Greek monasteries were constructed illiteracy was extremely high so iconographs were used in place of script to convey the gospel.  The Aussie brothers also clued us in on the caves we saw in a number of the monoliths: the caves are actually hermitages used by monks (to this day) who are studying to be conveyed the full priesthood, monks can be sent to the hermitages for lengths of time ranging from one week to 50 years until the elders decide they are on the correct spiritual path!

From Moni Agios Triados we followed the road to Moni Varlaam (N39°43.556’ E21°37.851’) and Moni Megalou Meteorou (N39°43.595’ E21°37.646’).  Unfortunately Megalou Meteorou was closed for the day when we visited (each monastery is closed for one day per week), Megalou Meteorou is the largest of all the monasteries due to the fact that a Serbian emperor once donated his entire wealth to the monastery and became a monk!  We were still able to see the structure from the outside, however, and what a sight to behold.  After Varlaam and Megalou Meteorou we started to make our way down to Moni Agias Varvaras Rousanou (N39°43.299’ E21°37.925’), which is inhabited by nuns instead of monks and the four of us agreed was probably the prettiest of the monasteries we visited.  The grounds were covered with potted flowers and beautiful ferns, Sally and Lisa were sure we noted the feminine touch.  Last on the trip was Moni Agiou Nikolaou Anapafsa (N39°43.418’ E21°37.489’) which is almost in the village of Kastraki.  A few kilometers around the granite monoliths behind Kalambaka took us back to town, where we enjoyed a fantastic afternoon snack of tzatziki and melitzanosalata as well as enough fried zucchini to sink a ship (we ordered three servings and could have done with one!).

Kalambaka and Meteora are probably the highlight of our trip so far, there aren’t many places in the world I’ve visited that make me stand back and stare at the landscape in awe.  The fact that we drank our fill of €1.50 500mL beers and ate scrumptious Greek food cooked over an open flame was icing on the cake!

Street View: N40°38.559’ E22°55.879’

Whew, what a ride we had to get to Thessaloniki!  We caught an 8:30AM train from Sirkeci Station in Istanbul to the border town of Edirne.  In Edirne a Turkish police officer came through the train and collected everyone’s passports (we weren’t too keen on him taking our passports in the middle of nowhere, to say the least!).  About 15 minutes later they were returned to us and the train proceeded to the Greek side of the border where we were left on the side of the tracks (literally) for around two hours to wait for the Greek train to Thessaloniki.  The 14-hour train ride made for a fairly long day, we managed to sleep here and there on the way, but neither the Turkish or Greek trains had food available so we were quite famished when we pulled into Thessaloniki at 10:50PM.  ET wasn’t going to bed until he’d feasted on a gyros (yiros) so at midnight we went trolling the streets of Thessaloniki for some meat on a spit!  We found a great gyros (yiros) shop called Bapdapas and it didn’t disappoint.

We stopped off at a few of the local tourist spots during our day in Thessaloniki, basically spending the day doing a walking tour of the city.  We visited the Church of Agios Dimitrios, purportedly the holiest church in Greece, as well as the crypt underneath the church where the saint was martyred.  The crypt was originally a Roman bath, but after Saint Dimitrios was executed for practicing Christianity the church was built on top of the baths in the eighth century and the baths turned into a crypt.  The crypt was a great spot, a maze of underground rooms that are maintained very well by the church.  ET also discovered that the house in which Ataturk was born (the founder of modern-day Turkey) is located in downtown Thessaloniki; after seeing Ataturk’s statue plastered all over Turkey and witnessing the Turks’ reverence for him during our time in Turkey it was interesting to see his birthplace.  We spent the afternoon strolling the waterfront of Thessaloniki, starting at the famous White Tower and making a circle back past the Church of Agios Dimitrios then to our hotel for the late train to Kalambaka.