How do you say "woof" in Greek?

Dogs are everywhere in Greece. And even more so in Santorini. While we were walking back to the villa the first night in Santorini, there was a dog that followed us almost the whole way back. Not only that, it managed to bump into us from behind several times. Imagine the shock when you are walking in the dark and suddenly something bumps into your legs. -_- That is why I don't like Greek dogs. lol

Here, for example, was when there were three dogs around us.

Can you spot all three?

Alex became good friends with one of the dogs.


And he even took a photo of his friend so that he wouldn't forget its face. :P


On a separate occasion (when half of us had already left Santorini to go back to Athens), Hsin Shen made friends with another dog.


And...uh, I think Adrian was jealous :P

Now he's happy! :P

I felt like a mountain goat!

I think it's time for me to write some more about Greece, before everyone completely forgets that I've written about it before. (or maybe it's already too late?)

The thought, the feeling of being like a mountain goat came to me several times when I was in Greece. So I just had to dedicate a post to it.

First, in Athens. From the Acropolis, we could see this:

See that white rock surface?

We saw some people walking around on it...so after coming down from the Acropolis we decided to go up there as well. There were stairs going up, but there were also stone steps, and we decided to be adventurous and climb up using the steep stone steps (after all, going up is easier than coming down...and we can always use the (metal) stairs to come down!) We happily took photos:

See my disembodied head? That's because my body was down there taking the photo :P
(nah, it was Alex's tripod and timer)

But, horror of horrors, upon reaching the top, there was no flat surface. But since we were up, there was nothing to do but to make the most of it.

Kai Lun and Alex taking photos of each other taking photos

See how rocky that surface was?!

Like I said...we had to make the most of it.
It was really windy too...

A nearby tree (after we got to flatter land); I'm not quite sure why we wanted to take a photo with it :P

After that we were basically in town, so there wasn't much climbing to do...until we got to Santorini.

This was at ancient Thira.

the road we climbed up

and it got steeper higher up...luckily there were steps cut into the rocks

see the path we walked up?

Of course, there was the view from the top:


And on the other side of the roundabout:

It would have been dangerous to slip!

Then, near the red beach:

Really. Like mountain goats on a cliff.
(the red beach is on the right)

Greek love story

Hehe, I just realised that today is the best day to post this. I already had it drafted but wanted to finish posting about my visiting Greece first.

It all started with Shobana saying "I'm waiting for my Antonio to fall from the sky." I wasn't there when she said it, so when she was relating it to me she told me that her Antonio had a brother called Frederic Andros for me. Then, hearing us talk about our Antonio and Frederic (or Andros, he goes by both names), Alex suddenly said that he missed his Sofia... Turned out that Sofia was Antonio and Andros' sister! And guess what, according to Sia Ven, their grandfather's a Japanese, called Ajinomoto! So they're mixed-blood!

Okay, you got it, it was our story (what else are bored single people to do on vacation? :P) But hey, the Greek gods were on our side...because while at the airport waiting for our flight back to France, we suddenly saw them.

Antonio and Frederic Andros with Ajinomoto Jr

Sofia with Mrs Ajinomoto Jr

And yes, the five of them were travelling together.

Greece, the land of myth and mystery...anything is possible. lol


Oh gosh, modern technology is so dangerous. You never know who's taking your photo. (and I am so ashamed of myself for being on the predators' side... :s ) I should like to extend an apology to those in the photos...should you ever some across this post.

The return to Athens

We went to the two Olympic stadiums. It was raining when we went to the first one, the modern one:

We look like ducks on a pond :s

under one...umbrella!

As you can see, besides being rainy, it was windy too!

Then this is the Panathinaiko stadium (the first modern Olympic stadium, used for the 1896 Olympics)

See the Olympic logo at the end?

just to show you the side of the stadium

Er...I don't know why Alex looked so fierce :P

Then this is Zappeion (I have no idea what it is exactly) We arrived there at dusk (as you can see from the photos)

inside

One of the places we really wanted to visit was the temple of Olympian Zeus. We had already seen it from Acropolis:


But the site closes at 3pm, so we only managed to enter it on the morning of our last day in Athens.

you can see Acropolis in the background

And this is the group photo you already saw in an earlier post.


Later that day we left for home...in France.

There will be further posts about Greece, because there are other photos/anecdotes I want to share. But this is the last of the must-read posts, the touristic posts.

Conclusion?

I love Santorini. More than Athens.

Athens is all old buildings. Interesting, but not breathtaking. And I'm not interested in museums or architecture. Santorini, on the other hand, is truly breathtaking. It was like, wow. Who would've thought that there were so many types of scenery, so different from each other on one small island? The cliffs, the buildings spread out over the countryside, the islands, the sea, the beaches (black and red)...and not forgetting the sunset we were lucky enough to see.

This Greece trip was my most expensive trip ever. It was to be expected...since it's not exactly next door to France, and also because it was so long. Seven days...I think Italy (my first European trip) was the only one about as long...six or seven days, I believe.

And I believe that this trip allowed me to get to know the Metz seniors better (namely Alex and Kai Lun), since we spent the whole trip together, unlike some of the others who were on the second flight to Santorini. (hehe, now I can see why Sia Ven loves the Metz seniors so much :P) It was pretty lucky since it's their last year in France.

So, as a curtain to my Greek adventures, I would like to thank my bodyguards on this trip, the five guys who were on the same itinerary with me, from start to end:

Just cruising

We woke up early the second day in Santorini (or at least I woke up earlier than the others)

early morning view from the balcony

Since the buses there didn't pass very frequently, we rented two cars.

the car I was in
It's a Hyundai Getz for those who are interested (hey WW, I looked at the name specially for you! :P )

with Alex and Kai Lun, my chauffeurs ;P

those in the other car

We went up to ancient Thira first.

on the way up

yes, the view is spectacular, so here's another

but the site was closed for work

We walked up a bit all the same, up to the closed gate.

looking down
Look at the cars parked at the roundabout...do you notice something strange? Actually we arrived when there were no cars there (except the one parked a bit outside the roundabout) so we (they? :P) turned left...but in Greece cars drive on the right, so we should have turned right! Hehe...so the other cars had to follow us :P

photo of me blocking the view...lol

and this was the road we drove up

On the way down Kai Lun was driving, so Alex could have fun taking photos and videos :P

Next we went to the black beach we had seen while driving uphill.

that's ancient Thira (you can see the winding road we went up; click to enlarge)

We had fun taking shots of us leaping up into the air (with Kai Lun's camera)

the guys

me with the guys

black pebbles on the beach (thanks to Sia Ven for this photo, I tried taking one too, but it didn't come out as good)

the guys posing with the pebbles they collected

Then we drove off to look for the red beach.

a building we saw on the way

I like this one better though.
There are so many churches like these in Santorini, whitewashed with blue roofs, I've lost count!

a nice view (guess who's the photographer? :P )

hehe, I wanted a photo too

We arrived at the red beach.

I love the contrast the whitewashed walls make with the red rock.

a photo with us!

the guys posing (I didn't dare to walk out there)

more red rocks

Then we walked beyond that white building, and saw this:

the actual red beach

Alex and Goh walked over there, but it was more of a climb than a walk, so the rest of us decided not to go.

After that we went to see a lighthouse, but it turned out to be a disappointment.

You call that a lighthouse?! -_-'

But at least we've been there :P

Later the other seven arrived from Athens and the rented themselves a car as well. We went to Ia with them (and that's where we took some of the photos in the other Santorini post)

the seven latecomers :P

That's all for Santorini, next will be when we got back to Athens.