Monday, September 13, 2010

Greece: Glyfada, Loutra Alinou, Kalamaki and Edem BEACHES

Our last day in Greece, It seems to have come much much too quickly! This has been a GREAT city to be in! Everything here is so inexpensive I don't feel really really limited in what we can do so I will be sad to leave for sure!

We woke up a nice late hour (about 8 am) and got ready for the day! Honestly we have been looking forward to today FOREVER, because today was our Grecian BEACH DAY! WE have both been dreaming of laying on a beach for such a long long time that nothing could keep us down today! Our journey started waiting 15 minutes for the bus, then spending almost 1.5 hours on the train THEN transferring to a tram that would take another hour... okay it was a LONG journey. This is a sculpture by our bus stop! Brent wanted me to sit on the chairs but I was scared!

This is the train from our hotel to the main part of Athens, it moves SO SO SLOW!

Finally we made it to our FIRST beach! This one is called Glyfada. It was a rocky beach that was open to the public! All I wanted to do was lay in the sun, which is weird because I am usually a pretty active person but this felt AMAZING!

We probably spent only an hour at the first beach just relaxing and playing in the water, until we headed for our next beach. The tram just went along the coast line so where ever we saw a beach that we wanted to try we would get out! This is at Loutra Alinou!
Very nice picture of us! I am not sure how it looks like we were alone because people were everywhere! Oh, for those of you who are wondering if we saw and speedo's and toplesness... Well... YES! SPEEDO'S were EVERYWHERE! Thanks to swim team I am used to this look but Brent just kept trying to find a safe looking place! We did see a few topless women. Honestly they were all really old, but the motto seems to be the more overweight you are the less you should wear. It really wasn't a big deal and we seemed to be the only ones who even noticed!

After our second beach we headed out to Kalamaki. We were going to eat our snacks for dinner but we have been so good with our budget and eating beachside sounded so good we couldn't resist! All that food, and the great view for less than 10 Euro's! I love how inexpensive Greece is!

Now relaxing on the Kalamaki beach! This is a pebble beach, which was nice to not have the sand but not slip on the huge rocks!

So many people in there!

The Aegean Sea is FULL of salt, which makes it really really easy to float. It was so much fun to swim in because you didn't have to work to stay up at all! Brent says he has to come back JUST for that alone! Best quote of the day was when Brent said "How do the fish stay under!" (in reference in how the water pushes you up! disclaimer: He was just joking)

I finally got all the way under... Anyone who noticed I have been to two beaches and still had dry hair gets 1,000,000 points!

Finally it was time to go. The sun was starting to hide behind clouds and we still have over a two hour journey home!

So to ride the bus you have to have a ticket that is validated, they almost never check but we did get checked on the tram. From Kalamaki our train was just leaving so we had to run to jump in and then we realized I didn't have a valid ticket, so we stopped at the next stop (Edem Beach) to validate mine so we wouldn't get a fine! This is the amazing view!

After our 2 hour ride home (we made great time!) showers, and packing (which we are getting INCREDIBLY GOOD AT!) Souvlaki came to mind. Our first night we walked from our hotel to this little place for Souvlaki skewers. We ordered one pork and one chicken skewer, paid 2.70 Euros for both and this is what they gave us! They were huge and delicious looking. I am not sure if there was a mistake but not speaking greek sometimes works to our advantage, we just said thank you and counted it good fortune, or a REALLY good deal!

After our "little snack" we went for desert. Mainly because Brent has to try Ice cream everywhere he goes! I am waiting for him to log on and give his Ice cream ratings, so expect that in the future! This was very tasty though!

It was the perfect last day! We are so relaxed, we saved a ton of money (15 Euro's total for the day!) It will be very sad to leave tomorrow, but alas Rome awaits and I have a lot to conquer there as well!

As always here is my:
Things I do not want to forget about Greece:
The city is NOT set up for tourism
Public Transportation is TERRIBLE, especially the green line and buses!
Public Transportation is INCREADIBLY cheap so maybe it makes the previous statement easier to swallow
Food is cheap, big and delicious
Dogs run wild!
Prices in tourist areas for clothes aren't great!
There is graffiti EVERYWHERE
Everyone smokes, and leaves their remains on the ground
There are convenient store type kiosk on almost every street corners
No one uses Deodorant
They put French Fries in everything
The fatter and older a women gets the smaller her bathing suit gets
The beaches make the entire trip worth it!
The Drinking water is really tasty (unlike London and Iceland)
Toilets flush by a push button or foot stamp
The Acropolis pass is only $12.00 euro's for 7 different archeological sites, less than 2 Euro's a place!
Old Women give Mallory a ton of dirty looks!
The Greek SUN is hot and turns you BRIGHT BRIGHT RED!
No one censors children
Motorcycles drive in and out and through traffic and run red lights
the train to the airport will go on strike even though the metro there is under construction and not working
People only hurry if its to cut in line, otherwise they walk so slow

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