Living The Life We Deserve, Part I

Trip Start Nov 02, 2006
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Trip End Dec 19, 2007


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Sunday, April 8, 2007

This has become the somewhat cheeky theme of my Easter trip to Greece. Liz told a story about a friend who made this statement as she was sitting at a lovely outdoor cafe on one of the many beautiful islands in the Med. While it is quite a bold statement, it became the mantra anytime we were particularly happy on this trip (which was quite often).

Liz, Ingrid & I decided to spend Easter on the "Athens Riveria," which is on the coast of Greece, about 30 minutes outside of Athens. We were meeting up w/ Ingri'd boyfriend and some other co-workers of hers from the US. On our 1st night, we also met up with Karen, my best friend from high school, who was vacationing here with her Greek boyfriend. The view from our hotel was gorgeous (though the hotel left a lot to be desired in terms of service) and the food we had the 1st night was the best - too bad we did not have local recommendations for the entire trip 01 - View From Room
01 - View From Room
 . Karen's boyfriend, Tasso, and his brother & friend ordered up tons of Greece delicacies tapas-style and made sure nearly every dish had cheese after I told them that all the girls loved cheese. The food was spectacular and I so wish I remember the name of the taverna (it was in Glyfada, a suburb of Athens) as we had a hard time finding a similar meal the rest of the trip.

Today, we headed to Hydra for the day. The hydrofoil takes about an hour to get there, and you also pass by Paros and Spetses. Each little island looks a bit different but equally inviting. It was on Hydra, as we were walking along the cafes & looking out over the boats and the ocean, that our mantra 1st began. The sun was shining, the weather was perfect (spring is a great time to visit Greece as it is warm, but not oppressively hot & humid yet), the water was clear and very blue and we all felt relaxed. We had lunch & drinks overlooking the small port/bay (Liz had at least part of a Greek salad at every meal) before exploring the winding back roads of Hydra. We climbed up to an abandoned church, giving us one a fabulous view of the rest of hte town, including the isolated houses way up in the hills. The rest of the day was more of the same - wandering, cafe-ing, window shopping, cafe-ing, hiking, cafe-ing. It was unbelievably relaxing and we all kept wondering if we should quit our jobs and just island hop for awhile. Or if we should just give it all up and live a simple life on an island like Hydra, where there are no motorized vehicles and you use donkeys to bring your groceries up to your cottage on the hill.

I think Ingrid summed up our day when she said, "This is so nice. It is so far from anything boring!"
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