Rhodes and beachy times

Due to a crashing of iPhoto while in Greece, this post is long over due.

After Athens we traveled to our first island: Rhodes or Rodos. It was completely amazing and was the beach holiday I never knew I could have. Days and days full of reading, swimming and eating some of the best food.

Some pictures:

Our first meal in Rhodes. Omg, it was the bomb.com. The fish from the Mediterranean is probably the best in the world. I had a very nice guy explain to me the the Mediterranean is the saltiest body of water, which makes you not only SUUUUPER buoyant, but you can taste it in the fish. The fish is extra flavorful and tender. And happy, doesn't that fish look happy?

After our incredibly delicious dinner, with the sun setting and no transportation to take us to the beach we opted to  sit at the pool. This is how both Shai and I literally could be found for three weeks: swimsuit, book, sun and smile.

Or like this, but in the Sea.

Day 2 pictures from Rhodes.

Starting the day off right with a Gyro. Please notice the french fries. French fries are served at every meal. Seriously. I'm not joking.

Beach #1

We started here, at Beach #2, got in the water and then choose to find a different beach with sand. 

Beach #2

Searching for our "perfect" first beach day beach. I still can't get over how turquoise/brilliant blue the Mediterranaen is.

I mean, wow.

We finally took a road off the main hwy and followed signs  to a beach. Right before we got to the beach there were these mountain goats, just hanging out on the road and on the rock face right next to the road. I though it was a good sign.

 And it was awesome.

Happy vacation smiles.

Europeans

More Europeans

And us.

<3

After beach day we went out in search of food and had the SECOND most delicious meal, most note worthy of the meal: the dolma.

They were so good I had to ask what made them so delish. The answer: a grandmas recipe, the stuffing consisting rice and pork. These were not vegetarian as it turns out, but so much better than any other dolma I have ever had.

Look at the size of that guy, HUGE!

Devoured

Can you pick out my favorite part this photo (besides Shai of course)....
Have you found it yet?
Okay, here's the answer.

Hammock kitty! Right above our heads. It turns out that Greece DOES have cRats. Not so much in Athens, but definitely, to my delight, on the islands. please expect to see many more pictures. 

This was my first order of baklava in Greece.   it was as big as my head and took me days to finish. More like baklava pie.

Stuffing my faaaaaaaace.

Another very note worthy thing that happened during beach day #1....Shai learned how to drive a stick shift. Woohoo.

Look how cute and happy he is about it. OMG, I love him.

And to close this post out, a view from our hotel/apartment/hostel.
Not. Too. Shabby.

Okay, next up more beach times and some other great things about the Greek islands.

Acropolis, Parthenon and the Castro oh my!

Here are a bunch of pictures from the rest of our time in Athens

View from our balcony

Morning ritual: coffee, reading and writing.

First stop: gyros. Yum.

Are we going to have to hike up there?

The answer was yes. This was our first stop/rest half way up. Preeeetty.

The old theater of the Acropolis, at our second stop/rest.

There is supposed to be a video here of the Parthenon, but unfortunately our iPhoto has recently crashed. As soon as we can figure out what has happened, a video with go here.

My own personal payoff for getting to the top....cRats!

cRats like ruins too.

cRats and the amazing view of Athens. So big!

"hot dog", Shai's favorite.

Day 3, we took the Metro to try to find a big Flea market but found this instead..

Yay, bikes!

We found out that our book that was published 2008 was a little out of date, so there was no big outside flea market. The neighborhood that we did end up in, both Shai and I thought, looked and felt like the Castro.

Right?!?

So we found a cafe and sat all day and read and drank Greek coffee.

That's right: Hellas Trans. I must live in Oakland, because this is awesome. (side note, we later found out that  Hellas is  Greece in Greek.)

Our last night in Athens we tracked down a movie theater. The theater was awesome,  but we saw  Bachelorette.  I wouldn't recommend the movie to ANYBODY. It was incredibly terrible and hit every single -ism. We talked about walking out, and we would have had we been in the US, but suffered through as to not be the rude Americans.

Okay, thats most of Athens.  Here is the last few photos of my favorite part of Athens, besides the food, the people that reside in Athens and the beautiful Archeological sites.

Two words: Street Art. Athens, you rock the street art for sure.

(Madonna at the Acropolis)

(This totally would be my tag if I was a street artist)

(wheat pastes I love you)

Next up: Rhodes and beachy times.