Well I am finally sitting down to take a break to write about our trip so far. It's been interesting to say the least. No hiccups really just one last minute change of plans. I wouldn't say that it's been a cultural shock.. but it's been an eye opener for sure. My eyes have really always been open to just how good we Americans have it in the states. We are fatter, more boisterous, and apparantly there's only a few things that are important in life to us.. house, car, and money. But hey isn't that the American dream after all?

We landed in Athens on Tuesday and I was so glad to get off of the airplane. The flight was uneventful and as pleasant as any 10 hour flight could be. Before boarding in Newark, the asian boarding agent announced that we would all be boarding for "Continental Fright 104" in just a few moments. "Fright" !! Do we really want to get on this plane?! All of our bags made it without any problems so after gathering up, we headed outside to the public transport ticket office. No need to drop 40 or 50 Euros on a cab ride at a minimum. Two bus tickets for the X95 to Syntagma Square was less than 7 Euros. Not a bad deal. We could have paid full price, but why waste our money on that. We didn't skimp on our lodging but certainly weren't coming here to spend everything we had either. After a short walk from the bus stop to our hotel, mostly downhill - LOL, we checked in at the Hotel Electra Palace. I must say, I loved this hotel, except the bed was way too hard! It was beautiful and the staff was so friendly, well, except for the bugged-eye guy at the reception desk on our 2nd day.. he reminded me of Telly Savalas! I just googled him and I didn't even realize he was born to Greek parents in NYC! LOL. I swear this guy must have been a relative. He was just a little too rude on the second morning (Wednesday) when I asked about the train timetable to Kalambaka. He finally looked it up and told us there was only one train at 8:20 a.m. the next morning.

Tuesday evening we just walked around the Plaka area and found a great little hole in the wall joint that had cheap Gyros. They were awesome too! Lots of street vendors and tons of suvenior stands - all of which we just passed on. Don't anyone think we are bring back a bunch of cheap crap! LOL - we can do really awesome photos but not the typical suveniors. Sorry!

Wednesday we spent the entire day out. We hit most of the sites that we intended too and had a really good dinner on our way down from the Acropolis. We were pooped when we got back to the hotel and decided there was no way we were going to get up at the butt crack of dawn, take the metro to the train station, buy a ticket and get on the train by 8:20! It was about 3:30 p.m. back home so I just picked up my cell phone and called up my travel agent. He immediately reserved us a car to pick up at the airport by noon the next day and return it on Saturday in Thessaloniki. It cost a little more than it would have to have taken the train but I am so glad that we did it. Even though I had to drive this little tin can for over 5 hours from Athens to Kalambaka, it was still the best choice.

After breakfast on Thursday we hiked back up to Syntagma Square and caught the same bus back to the airport. We had a little confusion finding which car rental company to go to but it didn't take long to figure it out when they were all side by side. After making a quick call to let Mara & Arthur know we were not coming by train, we loaded up in the little car and off we went. It was about 12:15 p.m.

I have never driven in a foreign country. I cannot speak nor read the language here but the signs are pretty self explanatory. Bryan was the navigator and the GPS on our Blackberry was right on target. I also haven't driven a standard on a regular basis in almost 10 years but it's like riding a bicycle. I certainly miss the power behind the 5.7L DOHC 32V i-Force V8 engine of the Toyota Tundra at home. That's 381 horsepower to be exact! Much better than the Chevrolet Matiz I was sitting behind the wheel of. Oh well, I knew it would be tiny and there would be no place to park a big truck - this is Europe after all.

I guess it was about 5:30 in the evening when we made it to the Koka Roka. We pretty much drove right up to it. It was really nice to finally meet Mara & Arthur, and of course, Nik. He is really a cute little boy. I split a beer or two with Arthur and chatted about this that and the other.

On Friday, Bryan and I drove up into the Meteora. We didn't visit any of the monasteries specifically. That is, we didn't go inside them. Not really our thing. But we did enjoy driving up the rocks and photographing some really cool stuff. It was really starting to get crowded around Noon - there were tons of tour buses everywhere. Time to head back down for a late lunch and a much needed nap. We took a little walk down into the town later in the evening and turned in relatively early.

Rain was the wake up call this morning. We left Kalambaka about 9:30'ish and headed toward Thessaloniki. I don't even remember what time we got here. It rained most of the way. The weather is really nice here. It's probably 70-something. The drive was pretty interesting since the road tunneled through many mountains. We again took the public bus from the airport to our hotel just off the harbour and Aristotaleous Square. We are spending tonight at the Hotel Le Palace. We have an awesome room on the corner of the building with a great view of the streets and intersection below.

After settling in, we took a walk for a few hours around the area and had some great pizza at Locanda. Of course we are back in the room and Bryan has been photographing with the fish eye lens out the balcony. He just went down to this little bakery on the corner and came back with some to die for chocolate! Guess I had better go enjoy it!

Here's some pics from the first week. Tomorrow (Sunday) we fly out to Venice, Italy!