Bangkok

We finally made it to Thailand, but it was a long and quite bizarre journey.  We flew from Athens to Amman, Jordan and it was quite an interesting adventure.  We were supposed to have a 9 hour layover in Amman, and apparently the airport has a policy that any layover over 8 hours earns the passenger a free hotel voucher.  We had no idea, so the guys in suits talking in different languages pointing at 2 Americans in the middle of The Middle East didn't sit too well with us.  When a man approached us and told us about the hotel, our spidy senses were tingling, but we also thought it might be nice to have a bed for the night, so what the heck?  Hopefully we don't get kidnapped and beheaded, but I guess we'll take our chances.  Not the smartest thought process, if I'm being totally honest, but what can I say?  I wanted to see what would happen, which is also a horrible thought to have.  The point is we did it, against our better judgement.  Thankfully, it turned out fine (spoiler alert!!!).  

It was a beautiful hotel with a full buffet (everything was free, I might add), and we were throughly surprised by the hospitality.  Thanks Amman!  

After an 8 hour flight, we were in Bangkok and ready for the night! 

We got a ride to our hostel and unpacked.  The hostel is super nice and equipped with a full kitchen and lounge area with books, a PS-4 and tons of movies.  

Each bunk has a huge bed, equipped with your own outlets and light (it doesn't sound like a luxury, but for a hostel it is).

We met some really nice people from England staying in our room and we all decided to go out together to Khao San Rd (a tourist hot-spot for drinks, dancing and all-around frivolity).  It turned out to be a super fun night (from what I can remember).  Aaron has all the good pics on his phone and is taking forever to send them to me, but I'll try to get them from him ASAP!  Here's what I got:

Yup, both crickets and scorpions were ingested:

Again, Aaron has all the good pictures, so I'll be posting more soon!

My big, fat Greek vacation

Greece was an incredible, once in a lifetime experience and we enjoyed every second.  I'm so beyond sad to leave, so I thought I'd share a little bit of what it's like to live in Greece.

1.  The alphabet is crazy!  It looks like a cross between elvish and my old physics homework.  It's unreal that people actually use Greek symbols today.  It just seems like it should be an extinct, ancient scripture found in a cave somewhere.  Seriously cool though.

2.  The food is amazing!  From cloth napkin to paper napkin, no matter where you go, it's all good.  They have something for everyone.  They've got the best seafood and their traditional dishes are all delectable.  Some of our favorites were: dolmades (stuffed vine leaves-usually with rice, sometimes ground beef as well), I'm obsessed with moussaka (kinda like a Greek version of lasagna replacing the noodles with slices of eggplant), stifado (like pot roast with a tomato sauce and lots of onions), stuffed peppers and tomatoes (usually with rice, sometimes meat), falafel and last but not least the gyro (pronounced hero), which is shaved meat (usually pork) with tatziki (yogurt/garlic sauce), onion, tomatoes and french fries all wrapped in a pita.  Yum!!  They also have world-class honey, feta cheeses, Greek yogurt and olives (and olive oil).  

3.  There are cats everywhere.  I'm now understanding those "Cats In Greece" calendars I see all the time.  Everywhere you go there are tons of cats, some have owners, but I think most are strays.  They tend to keep to themselves and seem well-fed, so I don't think it's any sort of national problem, but it just caught me off guard.

4.  Since it's mostly islands, lots of things must be imported.  Things that are imported are obviously more expensive.  One of the things that was crazy expensive was chicken.  If you go to the grocery store to but chicken, be prepared to shell out!  2 small chicken breasts were 9 Euro!  Madness!  The Queen better be coming to dinner if I'm gonna pay that much for chicken!  I don't think Greeks typically eat a lot of chicken, I figure they mainly have it on hand for tourists.  However, eggs were still cheap.  Hmm, I wonder how that works.

5.  I've said it for years: the water here is a clear blue unlike anywhere else.  It's clearer (and probably cleaner) than a swimming pool.  However, even on a hot day, the water is chilly.  It's gotta be really hot for me to stay in the water, but Aaron loved it.

6.  Island-hopping proved to be cheap and easy.  You can visit quite a few islands and not break your bank.  Each island is similar on first glance, but they're actually pretty unique and each island is known for something different.  Whether it be for beaches, certain dishes or special crafts, each has something different to offer visitors.  It was fun to explore (especially in a car, as driving around an entire island can usually be done in a few hours, tops).

7.  Greeks are so friendly and all speak almost perfect English.  We barely learned one word of Greek because we spoke English to everyone all the time.  I know tourism is the biggest thing they've got going for them right now, so speaking English makes sense, but none if them seemed at all peeved by it or by all the tourists invading their land (which I have felt sometimes in other places we've visited).

8.  Their economy is in the shitter, but you would never know it.  They are happy, relaxed people and from the looks of things as a tourist, everything seemed just fine.  I felt completely safe and welcome, and saw nothing out of the ordinary.  Obviously, things are not fine, but they put up a good front.  

9.  Lastly, Greece is the most beautiful place I've ever seen.  They have all sorts of different terrain in different areas, it was a trip!  While driving, you pass beaches and ocean views, mountains, forests, deserts, grasslands with goats, ancient ruins, big cities and tiny beach towns.  They've got it all, but the commonality amongst them all is paradise.  They all remind me of an absolute paradise.  When I close my eyes and imagine the perfect place, I'm in Greece.

We're at the airport and already exchanged our Euro for Thai Baht:

$1 Is about 36 Baht.  Stuff is going to be quite a bit cheaper in Thailand, so we're very excited!  We got our apartment in the city of Patong on the island of Phuket, pretty far south of Bangkok.  We'll be in Bangkok for a few days before flying to Phuket.  Beyond stoked!  See you in Asia!!!

Acropolis and more Athens

We visited the main attraction in Athens, The Acropolis!  The last time I was here was about 11 years ago and if you look at my background picture on this blog, it's me in front of The Acropolis (I was taking selfies before they had a name.  Man, I'm too cool).  It looks the same as I remember, except all of the reconstruction and scaffolding ruining every picture.

Magnificent!  

That night (Friday), we partied Athens-style.

Super fun bars, clubs and people everywhere, but it was kind of a blur and we were so hungover we slept all day Saturday!  We were supposed to go to The Archeological Museum, but didn't make it.  Oh well, there's always next time, Athens!  

We had a low-key date-night instead, doing dinner and a movie.  I had moussaka one last time (sigh):

at this gorgeous tree-covered restaurant:

Then we saw The Man From U.N.C.L.E. at an outdoor rooftop theater right next to our hostel.  Neither of us cared about the movie, we just wanted to go to an outdoor rooftop movie theater (although it turned out to be action-packed and super fun!).  Giant screen: check!

Full snack bar: check!

Perfect view of The Acropolis: double check!!

Throughout the movie, I would occasionally look to my left and see it there in all its glory and just think what a crazy-cool experience we were having.  We did get rained out eventually, but it was still officially awesome!  

We are now on our way to Thailand, via Jordan.  We have an 8-hour layover in Amman, but can't leave the airport because we don't have visas.  We will then fly to Bangkok and arrive on Monday at 3pm.  We'll stay in Bangkok a few days and on October 1st we'll fly to the island of Phuket, where we booked an apartment in the city of Patong.  We are so pumped!

Athens

We made it to Athens and I gotta admit, I was nervous to be here because of the Greek financial crisis and I thought it would probably be the worst here.  However, nothing could be further from the truth.  Athens is absolutely amazing!  We are loving every minute!  It's vibrant, fun and totally safe.  The people are super friendly and seem glad that we're here.  We are having the best time.

We got here a couple days ago and checked into our hostel in the touristy Plaka neighborhood.

Our hostel is one of my favorites; the staff are so nice, they serve a great breakfast, the rooms are really spacious and you walk out the door and anything you could want to do or see is right in front of you:

That's literally right outside our hostel.  When we don't have transportation and we're staying in a place only for a few days, I'm totally down to be in a tourist neighborhood.  It might mean prices are a bit higher, but it also means you're close to all the good stuff (The Acropolis is a 15 minute walk away).

I did a bus tour of Athens and Piraeus, just so I could hit all the highlights.

Temple of Zeus:

Acropolis (we didn't go in until the next day):

A few different museums:

Stadiums from the 2004 Olympics:

The port is the largest in The Mediterranean.  I've never seen so many cruise ships in one place, I'm guessing there were about 20:

Piraeus:

Back in Athens, shopping areas:

Meat/fish market:

Monastiraki Square:

You can see The Acropolis up above on the mountain:

Isn't the city just incredible?  If I didn't know about the financial crisis and impending doom they speak of in the news constantly, I would never have found out from being here.  I'm so beyond sad to leave Greece (and Europe, in general).  I'm going to go drown my sorrows in a gyro.