It's all Greek to me! (or Some other lame title I'm too tired to think of)

After my first boot camp class last night, I came in this morning thinking, "Wow, I'm not even sore!" I was feeling very proud of myself until right.....about.....now. Muscles I didn't even know I had are screaming with every step. My WRISTS are sore. Anyway, long story short, I'm sticking my pics up here, but they'll have to do without my waxing poetic for 10 paragraphs first. Pity, I know. Mama needs a hot bath and a low-carb meal, stat.

Anyway, here it is, in all its glory: The Holiday OckleShowdown.

After a very brief night in Athens, we headed down to Piraeus, home of nothing but a bunch of stray dogs, some office buildings, and a huge port for ships headed to the islands. We missed our reserved boat, so we spent a little more time than we'd hoped in this lovely metropolis.

Hello Moto...




If your genitalia looks like a wheelchair, enter here...

When we finally got on board and headed to Hydra, this is what we saw when we pulled up. Pretty big contrast, eh?

There are no cars, bikes or motorcycles allowed on the island, so this is the best form of transportation...


Happy to be out of Piraeus...

The cafes lining the harbour...

The quick walk to our hotel....

What we look like at night in Hydra...

The shops along the harbour, where we spent a lot of time checking out the jewelery...
...not to mention THE UGLIEST DOLL EVER invented. I had nightmares. if this were my doll, I'll call it Uncle Morty...After sweating all day, Kristen and I liked to take pics of ourselves at meals when we were clean for an hour...Even Santa goes on holiday...
I don't know why...There was much discussion about bougainvillea...I still don't know how to pronounce it, but ain't it perty?Every day, we walked 20 minutes to our favourite beach, which was called The Four Seasons......and this is it. Lovely, but not quite $425 a night...A nearby port...For some reason, this little girl's swimsuit top made me laugh hysterically...is that mean?Our favourite restaurant on the island, though not the one where we felt the earthquake...(be happy I'm sparing you the millions of pics of food we took)Does it still count as food if it's still in life form? One of several choose-your-own-fish adventures...Because we had been spending ridiculous amounts of time lying on the beach and stuffing our faces, we decided to take a hike to the top of the island to see a monastery. Little did we know that we'd be doing so in the blazing heat (no shade) for three hours straight uphill. Good thing the wayfinding was so clear...(what you can't tell was that this was at a fork in the road)The way up...believe it or not, those are steps...
The amazing view somewhat made up for the shaking legs and heaving chests...I stopped to take pics as an excuse to catch my breath. You are the lucky beneficiaries...


Sometimes the road looked like this...


The higher we got, the fewer we saw of these....

Finally, we arrived....the stairway to heaven...This better be the best darn monastery on earth...Kristen with the Turkish Delight and water the kind monk had left our for us...

What's a bunch of pics of Europe without one of a church?The lovely chapel outside the monastery walls...

After a brief visit, we then had to begin the arduous journey back down. The stairway to hell...

After a few glorious days in the delightful Hydra, we headed back to Athens for a night before heading home. Fortunately I was able to fit in a trip to the Acropolis before packing my bags.



Don't we look super-imposed?

All of the dogs in Greece look like this...like they are dead...

Athens....a great city with a lot of pollution...

Yeah, I'm not even bothering anymore...

Have...no....more....energy....for.....witty.....descriptions....



Our last night in Greece....boo hoo....Check out our watermelon and baklava combo. Yum. (in addition to being in pain, I'm also hungry)


Sorry for the lame commentary, but I'm sitting at a 45-degree angle to the left in an attempt to reduce the sharp pain across my back, so I'd best be off.

Man, I could so use a vacation....