Hydra-Not as Interesting in the Winter Time

So the third stop on our trip was Hydra, or Idra in Greek. This place is famous for not having motorized vehicles on the island and for everything being transported by donkeys. It is apparently a very popular spot in the summer time, an island hit on a quick 3 island tour that is popular and ports from Athina, and is SO DEAD in the off season!! We were the only ones in our hotel, which was fine I suppose, but we didn't really have much to do. It was a good place to stop; not sure if we will again even though the word is it's way nicer in late spring and early summer. Our venture to Idra started by getting on a ferry.....


Now it's no secret that I get MASSIVELY motion sick. I won't even go into detail about what I like to call "Maui Puke Fest 2010"-it was bad to say the least. Thankfully this is a quick 30 min ride and the boat was really like an airplane on the inside-cushy chairs that recline and barf baggies in the seat pocket-always handy for me!

Upon arrival, this is what we saw.....

I want to title this piece "Deserted Idra" because the town felt like an old west town-nobody around. There were the donkey men waiting to take the few tourists to hotels or to carry the townspeople items home for them but not many of us staying the night.

We decided to go check into the hotel and then walk around the town some. Now, this town was a typical island town, everything goes up the side of the hill. Thankfully our hotel was about 500 feet from port so not a long walk. But we did see a church all the way up at the top and said hey, let's go up there. So we took a little stroll through the bottom of town first before we headed up. First thing we see (again) are donkeys. Now I LOVE donkeys. Sure they're stubborn and noisy and make a mess, but if you think about it, so am I. Maybe that's why I love them ;) Here is a shot of a happy little guy who I thought was just too cute!


We then walked around the port some and took some "artsy" photos-I call this one "Man Amongst Cannons"


This is the other side of the port-we didn't explore that area at all. We did think it was odd that there was a wall just randomly situated in the middle of the houses. We figured it was a boundary of some sort.

So we started to climb up and up and up to the top of the village to find that church and just to wander around. It was one heck of a climb! Think of all the movies where people are ambling around a small little town with tiny streets and lots of stairs-that's what we were doing. And on top of that people were riding down the streets on donkeys and mules-one man was riding a small horse and her baby was following. Now these are cobblestone streets people-not the best footing for a hoof-this mare obviously had walked them all her life because she didn't slip or anything going around the sharp corners with a man (who was too large for her really) on top. He went by so fast I couldn't take a picture. This shot was taken about half way up our walk; I call it "Peek Between Houses to the Sea View"


We finally made it to the top!! Whew! We kept joking (the whole trip really) that we both need to start exercising more and get into shape!! Never mind that I teach horseback riding about 3 hours everyday, which entails be walking constantly for about 5 hours! Walking up and around these hills did me in!! And poor Matt-no contest there ;) The view was nice; Matt needed a break so he stood looking over the view, contemplative, and I was sneaky and got some shots while he wasn't looking or at least was pretending not to notice...


The BIGGEST surprise on this little island was THIS bad boy.....

One of the things that this little island brags about is that there are NO motorized vehicles. NONE! NADA! OXI (that's Greek for NO!) And yet, while we were on our walkabout-BAM! There is this blue truck just hanging out on the side of the road. Matt said he wasn't surprised at all because there HAD to be a way to get all the construction bits up the hillside without using donkeys but I said no-they only use donkeys and mules. Man was I wrong, once again. And to make matters worse, we saw ANOTHER one being driven when we left the following day. Bummer. At least we did see mules and donkeys being used and hear a bunch of roosters crowing (which was also promised).

As we ventured down back to town for dinner we passed by this home.

Nothing says welcome like a welcome mat all the way at the end of the walk way!! It was somewhat dirty and muddy along the path so I guess if you want to stay extra clean, have your welcome mat and the end of your path. It just made me laugh so I thought a picture was necessary.

There were so many nice views on the way down from our walk that we did stop and take a few pictures. Matt didn't want me to take one of him (party pooper) and yet he insisted that I pose for some. The people were home in the house to my left and we could hear them making noise-it was kinda funny. I wouldn't mind living in home that had a beautiful view like this-how about you??

We ate dinner, had a very tasty crepe, then went to bed. The next morning we woke up and stopped at a bakery in Idra to get some of the most tasty cookies!! YUM YUM!!! We ate them later, not for breakfast in case you were wondering! We had thought since it was Sunday morning that the shops would not be open-WRONG! Those shutters that were closed earlier were now open with people wanting to sell the tourists their goodies! We did buy a couple prints for our art collection-rather lovely ones I think! We saw one of those boats with hoards of tourists pull up, unload all their Americans (there were quite a few, we are easy to spot!) and then our ferry came. We loaded up and headed back to Ermioni to get the car and start off to our next spot, Epidavrous.

Next time I'll tell you all about the great amphitheater of Epidavrous!!

Nafplio-Greece's First Capital-But Who Cares About That Right?

So our second stop on our Grecian tour was Nafplio, which is in the Peloponnese peninsula. It was in fact the first capital of an independent Greece but now it is more famous for its 3 fortresses. That's right people, 3. Sadly, we only got to visit one; which just happens to be the biggest and best one anyway ;) This place was HUGE! Seriously. It had a great view of the village and the sea (which is it's point I suppose.) We stayed at this great little hotel called Pension Dafni. The owner was super helpful and gave us great advice on where to eat and even called the port where we needed to catch our ferry to Hydra to check what time the boat left. We would stay there again. The town itself is small but really nice. Apparently it gets really busy in the summer time so we visited at the perfect time. Not many people except the occasional tourist and all the locals. We got in kind of late so we just had time to eat, go to bed, get up, see the fortress, then hit the road to catch our ferry. So here are some photos of this cool fortress.

Athina; a City of Crowds, Cops, and Oh Yea, the Akropolis

So we went to Greece this last weekend for a mini-holiday. I've decided to do a post on one day at a time, so I don't overwhelm you with awesomeness! We arrived in Athina (Athens in case the Greek is too difficult to understand) Thursday night around 9 PM. This was after our 40+ minute metro ride from the airport, so needless to say we were a little tired. Thankfully our hotel was right by the metro station. Off to bed we went ready for our first day of exploring!

When we got out the next morning to see some sites, this is what we came across....

Ok Ok....just kidding!! It's pretty close though ;) There were a TON of cops. Later we asked the nice man at the hotel if that was because of carnival and he said "No, it's normal because of our crime rate. Too many robberies." To which I replied "Has it helped?" Thankfully, all the po-po's has helped bring down the number of pick-pockets in the areas where the cops are. They aren't everywhere, and where they are not, it was creepy. Thankfully we didn't have any close encounters of the robbing kind-my bag was safely tucked the entire trip!

So first stop on our Athina day was the National Archaeological Museum. Now folks, this treasure trove of ancient Greek art is hidden away in a sketchy area. We were concerned that we had wandered a little far to find it but alas, we did. There were a lot of famous and great pieces in this place-so many in fact that it was a little overwhelming how much they would put in one case! Out of all that we saw, this was our favorite...

it looks like they're having a dance party. We kinda almost did a mini dance right there to join in ;) So after moseying around for a few hours, we headed off to our next stop, the main event.....

We kinda got lost. Well, not really. We just got a little turned around and up side alleys and in funny places. We knew where the Akropolis was the whole time, just not sure where the stinkin' entrance was! Many of the streets we went down did look like this.....

But we FINALLY made it!! And oh boy was it a site to see. It really is as awesome as people say it is. We are soo happy that we have a wide angle lens-it allows us to get shots like this....

We goofed off for quite a while trying to get that perfect shot. You'll have to check out our shutterfly account to see all those bad boys! We did get some good views of that dirty, dirty city.

And some that look like we are respectable, nice Americans, unlike some of our countrymen who we encountered and wanted to clobber because they are so stupid and ignorant. You know who you are out there.....no more shenanigans!!


Now I know some of you will not like this photo-too bad! I LOVE IT!! I really don't know what it is about it that make my little heart go "hey that's an awesome pic!" but I think it's great and you can keep quiet if you hate it!


Just a little more Akropolis view with some Athina behind it. They are doing some restoration on the whole site which is awesome! But the view of scaffolding around the place did deplete the sense of awe.



On the way back to the hotel to grab our rental car and go forth into the unknown, we walked by the Olympic Stadium. Matt didn't want to pay to go in so we just looked from the outside. I wanted to stand on the gold medal winners podium but I guess I'll just have to make do with jumping like I've won Olympic gold. Watch out world, this is the pose that I will strike, when I win the gold for being a total idiot!


Stay tuned for the next installment-Nafplio!!!

Traffic Jam on the Trail....

So a couple weekends ago Matt and I went on an adventure. We went to the Akamas Peninsula to walk around the Baths of Aphrodite and the "wilderness." The peninsula is the furthermost western point of the island, so we're knocking out some of the "most points" of where we live; Akrotiri is the southernmost point, Akamas is the western point. It was a lovely drive through Paphos and some villages through the hills of Troodos. Our guide books says that this area and the villages near by are becoming some of the best beach spots on the island so we're going to have to plan some beach days once the weather heats up.
The Baths of Aphrodite is where Aphrodite was bathing and had met her lover Adonis. Once upon a time people used to bath here to restore their youth but you can't do that any longer-bummer, I need to look younger ;) It was an easy little stroll to the grotto-there were lots of people out that day. Than we walked in the hillside and almost got lost and had to turn around because the sun was getting ready to set-we will have to return to finish the hike and really explore more.
After the hike we went into the village near by called Polis for dinner. We had a great meal at this pub-Matt had a small grill with the best sheftalia we've had yet! Yum! I had a grilled fish stuffed with spinach and feta cheese-super yum!! We drove home in the dark but thoroughly enjoyed the time together.

It's like the sign is saying "Aphrodite could help you get beautiful but we won't let you"

Matt's thinking about going for a dip-he's pretty enough and gets plenty of love ;)

Aphrodite picked a good spot to bath! Looks so refreshing!

Beautiful view of the shore and villages

An even better view with this handsome man!

Rednecks aren't just in Southern Maryland

So this was the traffic on the trail!! There were goats everywhere!! They had bells around their necks so we could hear the tinkle of the bells all around us as we hiked.

Just an FYI in case you didn't know about things blowing up

Cool old boat in the village of Polis. I wonder how long it's been there.

Fast Update

So life is getting a little wild for me here. It's been a couple weeks since the last post and that is mainly because my time and life is being consumed with one thing.....HORSES! Yes, I spend all day every day (except Wednesdays) at the "yard", as those crazy Brits call it. We haven't even really adventured around the island much lately. I think this weekend we need to go somewhere new. Here are the major updates as of right...now!
1. Christmas and New Year were fun and quiet spent at home doing not too much and skyping with family and friends
2. It feels like a bunch of my friends from CO are getting engaged/married this year. This year I will have had 3 previous roommates getting married-and I'm missing all those weddings :(
3. I'm planning a members only show next month at the barn and I'm SUPER excited about it. I am also being forced into competing (my instructor has given me no other options).
4. I've been taking lessons with a really tall, crazy, and awesome Brit who makes me laugh all the time with the exception of when she's trying to get me to fall off during a lesson. But I feel as though I am improving in leaps and bounds which is something that hasn't happened in years!
5. The big update is I'm coming home to get my dog in March! I'll be staying for 3 weeks, visiting friends in AZ and CO while I'm there. Also, my mom is having a BIG b-day (not saying what number) so we're having a big party for her which I am so happy to get to be part of!
And as always, we are looking forward to the loads of people who are coming to visit us in the very near future!

Holiday Season

So this year we didn't get to spend it with you, our beloved family and friends. We had a wonderful time with some coworker/friends eating a low key meal and playing some board games. We definitely missed spending the holidays with our family, especially after last year's fun time with my family for all three events. However, we are extremely grateful for this opportunity to live here and experience new things. 2011 has lots of promise for new and great things and adventures for not only us but our family and friends. We look forward to friends getting married, having babies, moving, and most of all, visiting us! As for life here on the island we look forward to taking an intro to Greek conversation class together (good thing I'm taking it with Matt, he's not the best at languages ;) ), traveling around the island more and finding new and fun places to visit, going to Paris in June to see our parents at the airshow and traveling with my parents after the show, having friends and family visit us, and most importantly, me going home to get Joey! It's been a very quiet and lonely house with out our boy! It will only really become our home when he gets here!
We are so blessed and thankful for your love and support, even though it comes from so far away. We love you all so dearly and want to hear from you! Have a very Happy New Year and we pray for only amazing and wonderful things in your lives this coming year!

ENGLAND!

So, we went to England! It was SOOO FUN! We met up with some friends (Peter and Kristi Kingsley) and had a fabulous time with them! We visited 4 areas; Peter's mum lives in Southport, Liverpool, Skipton, and of course London. Skipton has one of the best preserved castles in all of England so that was really cool to see. We saw the Cavern where the Beatles played. And the main touristy stuff in London. We are looking forward to going back when it's not so cold and there isn't some great "blizzard" to disrupt things. The weather really wasn't as bad as they made it out to be-they're just big sissies! Here is a small portion of the thousand or so pics we took while there. Remember to go to http://thecypruslife.shutterfly.com to view all the pictures!

Buckingham Palace for Changing of the Guard

So excited!

No tourist was going to get by him!

I don't blame this little one for being asleep already!

Matt's Christmas preset to me!!

Millennium Bridge connecting to St Paul's Cathedral

In front of Parliament

In front of Big Ben

London Eye at night

Peter and Kristi-that's true love there...

Beatles started out here

On England's second longest pier in Southport. It was REALLY REALLY COLD!

Sun setting by the pier

The wild "blizzard" of England. Worst December they've had in 100 years!

Skipton town and hillside view from the castle

Inside the castle

On the medieval potty!

Skipton had these sheep all over the town and the placards said "flock to Skipton"

On the train from Manchester to Southport