Greece: Random Athens Adventures

Well I am finally getting around to finishing the sorting of our pictures from Athens. Being there for 2 months you tend to collect a lot of photos and I am realizing most of them people really won't care to see :)

Anyway - here are the random photos from Athens - they were accumulated by both Josh and myself on our walkabouts in the city.

Enjoy!

Ha - so as Josh and I were watching the sunset from Lycabettus Hill the night before we left Athens, we noticed the soldiers come out to take the flag down. So I thought - oh this picture would be so cool so I specifically went to the spot I am in for the picture, then the soldier decided to come and stand right in front of me. At first I was pissed, I mean - really - I am sure he saw me there with a camera, not like I have a small point and shoot or anything, then I realized - HOLY CRAP - what a great shot.

I must say I am extremely grateful that he came and stood right in front of me - kind of made the photo.









Those blue doors are the Irish pub that we found... At least this one had Guinness, although they didn't know what a Poor man’s Black Velvet was...
Ha - I was on a work call when I took this one - the joys of working abroad.



Josh was waiting at the bar.







We were bored waiting for the train (which is different than the metro we found out a month in a half into our time in Athens)







Best patio idea ever... there was this house that we used to run by in Athens and they had this front patio that used grape vines for shade. LOVE IT!



World cup fever - we snapped this the first week of world cup. All the kids were out paying soccer.



Backgammon was EVERYWHERE! It was great - every park you would go into you would see a group of older gentleman sitting around a table playing backgammon. So of course I had to sneak a picture.







Once our parents got to Athens we found this great little Tabepna (Taverna in Greek :) I loved this booth in this restaurant. Sorry - can't remember the name of the place (I should remember to take pictures of the names of places I go eat. Note to self for next trip) OH - PS - first time using my new lens (woo hoo - you will see more in later posts that do it more justice)













Like this one... This is of the Monastiraki station square - new lens is 16-32mm f2.8. Unfortunately it only worked on the f2.8 when I got it, but I was able to hobble through the rest of the trip and have since gotten it repaired from Canon (which was very surprisingly easy and quick)





This was a Tabepna we found in the Plaka (main shopping area around the Acropolis) which was so charming - we had live entertainment and the food was really good... Again - don't remember the name sorry.

Greece: Angistri a wonderful get away from Athens

Holy crap it has been so long since I posted I almost forgot how.... Sorry - time to play catch up AGAIN.

Well yet again I completely disagree with the "Greece Expert" on this one.... in his post he states there is nothing on this island to photograph and this is why you don't find it in the travel books...

Josh and I found this little island a great day trip to get out of Athens - it took about an hour to get there from Piraeus in Athens. We hopped on a Flying Dolphin one Sunday morning and as we flew across the water, I was able to pick up my "I'm on a boat" badge. We did come into a small port and not sure if this guy just wasn't paying attention or what but we found nets as well as fishermen mending their nets...

Oh well - we had a great day - we rented bikes from a shop in the main city and toured the island from one beach to the next check out the fun we had. Since it was cloudy we had a lot of the beaches to ourselves.

Enjoy!

We loved the fishing boats that lined the small harbor. They had so much character.





I quickly grabbed this one of a father and son looking over their fishing nets... Glad it turned out as well as it did; however also wish I could have taken time to actually compose it... Oh well.



As you walked down the coast you came across multiple public beaches and some great little Tavernas.



This was our view looking out from lunch.



So then I made Josh go grab this one... Love it.



MMMMM... lunch.









We rented bikes so we had the chance to tour the island - we found so many cool interesting worn down buildings - it was a dream... (I know I am weird)









And did I mention the beaches. This island had 5 main beaches, but along the way we found a path that led to a little hidden beach - so much fun. This is looking left down our beach.



OK - I guess we were not totally alone here...



And right.



Then we went and found some of the other ones.





This "Beach" was a rock about 6 feet up from the water with a ladder coming up from the water... this was I think one of the best beaches. I am not a huge fan of sitting on a beach with nothing to do... So it was fun trying to get a good picture of us jumping in the sea. You won't believe how many pictures we took... plus I might have almost dropped my lens into the sea.... ah all in a days fun.





Beaches weren't the only cool things to see. We came across this neat little cemetery if only pictures could do it justice. We almost missed it as we were biking back though we saw it tucked away in some trees on a hill side.











Josh was mad at me for taking pictures like this... ha ha at least it wasn't my new camera.