Flying North

As we’ve mentioned before it was really HOT in Egypt. We knew it was going to be hot but maybe not this hot. We sat around a lot of the day because it was so difficult to do anything from about 11am until 5pm. The hottest day we experienced was 118 degrees F (47 C). It was painful and easily made me feel sick. The wind would blow which made it worse because the air was so thick and…hot.  As July approached we realized the heat was only going to get more intense and my tolerance of the heat was getting less and less.

We finally made up our minds that we should go somewhere else that wasn’t as hot as Egypt. We aborted our plans to travel to Jordan, Isreal, and the Nile Valley and started looking for cheap flights away from the heat! We searched every city possible….London, Madrid, Frankfurt, Prauge, Vienna, Bangkok (not so north), even Moscow! We finally found a very reasonable flight to Athens, Greece. While still hot (as my sister reminded us!) it wasn’t 47 degrees.

Athens is a clean and modern city with a lot of history.  It is recorded as one of the oldest cities in the world and historically the center of development for art, philosophy, and sceince. The history is obvious as large monuments are in the city center. A few days in Athens was enough to see the Parthenon, the Acropolis, the Temple of Zeus, the amazing Archeological Museum (the best museum I have visited), and explore the vegetarian world of greek food. Please pass the Feta cheese!

Downtown Athens

The Acropolis of Athens

The parthenon (built in 447 BC0 at the acropolis is a temple dedicated the the goddess Athena whom the people considered their protector

The temple Erechteum built around 420 BC

In the pics you will notice the clouds in the sky. It actually rained the first day we were in Greece which we both LOVED after being in HOT Egypt. Nick’s comment was ”Trees, clouds, and tap water! I love this country.” It was a nice change from Egypt even though we both missed traveling in a developing country.

We then headed to the Greek Islands for a few days. Two Americans we met in the Cairo airport were going to the same island as we were. We ended up traveling with Liz and Ryan in the Greek Islands, hanging out on beches, telling stories, sharing an apartment, renting a car, and cooking food together. It was so much fun to make new friends and share stories and have new experiences.

We took ferries between the islands. I don't really like boats but it was a nice way to get around the area.

We visited picturesque Santorini, white sugar cubes built on the edge of a steep cliff. We rented mo-peds and cruised around the islands for the day, stopping in towns along the way and visiting a few black sand beaches.  We made it the the special spot where everyone on the island comes to watch the sunset. It was beautiful!

It was really fun to drive the mo peds!

Liz and Ryan crusing around the isalnd of santorini

the cliff side town Fira on the island of Santorini.

The main religion in Greece in Greek Orthodox. Little churches are scattered throughout the islands. They all have light blue domes on top.

the black sand beaches

watching the sunsunt in Oia

The next stop was Milos. A more quiet and quiant island with a few sleepy fishing villages and the island with the best beaches. This day we rented a car and drove around to enjoy the different beaches, have a picnic,  cliff jump, and swim in the Agean Sea.  We enjoyed making some good meals with Liz and Ryan and drinking cheap Greecean wine.

I really liked the mellow and quaint feeling of Milos

A beach on Milos, we swam in the crystal clear and very salty Agean sea

Nick and Ryan cliff jumping

Cooking yummy food with Liz and Ryan in our shared apartment

While in the islands we started brainstorming where we would go next. I started dreaming about Denmark which is on the same continent as Greece.  It didn’t seem realistic that we  fly to far north when we could visit Italy, Croatia or Slovenia.  Over a few days of searching, we found a really cheap ticket that took us to Copenhagen. A few rushed emails to contact family and friends were sent and then…..we had the next leg of our journey planned.

Nick sleeping in the Athens airport. Our flight to DK left at 3am