We had been planning to go to Greece in April of 2020, but Covid hit. Fast forward two years and we finally made it happen! It's not lost on me how lucky we are to go on these kinds of trips. I never take it for granted.
Anyway. There is no way to describe a trip like Greece, but I'll do my best!
{Day 1 - Travel}
The travel time to Athens from door to door was just shy of twenty four hours. Yikes. There were two things that I was nervous about during the planning phase. The first was the travel time to and from Greece, and the second was a bus tour we booked for the end of the trip. All I can say is I don't know how. I don't know how these kids went from St. George ---> Pheonix ---> London ---> Athens with no incidents. Four airports, three planes, and no meltdowns.
(I will forever have a special place in my heart for the angel employee in the London Airport who overheard us talking about our three hour layover and mentioned we might really enjoy the kids/toddlers jungle gym room at the end of the other terminal. Because yes. We needed it, and thank you thank you, you saved us.)
Beginning.
Middle.
End.
The Ride Safer vests are a game changer. Safe little taxi zombies!
Side note: We ended up with the best taxi driver from the airport. We texted him for rides multiple times throughout the rest of the week, and he became our pseudo car service. On our last ride with him, he even brought the boys three toy cars from his house that he sent us home with. He said they were cars his kids used to play with. Even months later, he texted us just to check in and wish us a Merry Christmas! All around the world, people are remarkable.
{Day 2 - Athens}
Our first day in Athens was a total blast! We couldn't have picked a better Airbnb. It was situated right at the base of the Acropolis, and the neighborhood was the cutest.
Don and I always take turns running when we travel. It's our favorite way to explore! There isn't much that can top the feeling of running around in new city. It's excitement and awe, and it's a happy endorphin-filled hour of adventure at the beginning of each day. In a place like Athens, around every corner is something ancient and google-able. The Arch of Hadrian was my google moment on this run.
Pa-pa-patio! Pa-pa-patio! Pa-pa-patio...a little Auggie and Owen inside joke from our trip, ha. But this patio really was our favorite. We had a relaxing breakfast routine of enjoying fresh-squeezed juice and pastries out here in the mornings. It still makes me smile just thinking about it.
Neighborhood.
The Acropolis was first on our list! Through some mistake by the company of cancelling our audio-guide tickets the day before (I was stressin'), we somehow ended up with group guided tour tickets for the same price.
All the group tours we took were big wins because everybody treated the kids with such kindness. Rather than being annoyed that they were there, people sort of adopted us in a supportive and helpful way. This was the case the whole trip, and I'm grateful for all the new acquaintances that genuinely cared about our kids.
The Parthenon! Missing those Elgin Marbles though...👀
O's, stealing the show with that smile and pose!
The Caryatids of Erechtheion! I learned about these columns in my art history classes. I love seeing things in real life that I learned about from school.
We brought both the hiking backpack and the Ergo. That's how we survived all the walking, and Auggie especially loved when we carried him.
The best dinner full of fresh olives, tomatoes, and the largest block of feta cheese.
That night we took a cable car to the top of the highest hill in Athens, Lycabettus Hill. The view of the Acropolis was beautiful.
{Day 3 - Athens}
Uuummmm...a morning run in the Panathenaic Stadium? Yes, yes, please. I think our taxi driver initially told us about it, but then I spotted it on my run the first day and knew we had to come back. The Panathenaic Stadium is the first Olympic stadium. From the first Olympic Games. Oh my gooodness.
Originally built by Athenians as a racecourse in 330 BC, it was rebuilt as a marble stadium by Herodus Atticus in 144 AD. In 1869, it was excavated and refurbished to finally host the first modern Olympics in 1896. Wow, what a history. And what a run.
Gold medal!
After our morning runs, Don and I both went back to sleep until the kids woke up...at 2 pm!!! We all slept the day away and didn't stir until Auggie woke us up. Jet lag to the max! We had tickets to go see the Ancient Agora (the "city" portion of the ruins, below the Acropolis) but entry closed at 3 pm. With a lot of adrenaline and a lot of running, we made it to the entrance in time.
I loved imagining the hustle and bustle of an ancient city right in from of me...libraries, baths, government buildings, markets, temples, prisons. So cool.
The Temple of Hephaestus is one of the most well preserved buildings in all of ancient Greece. It was stunning. Auggie and Owen learned about centaurs here, which Owen has since adopted as his name for when he dramatically flops on Auggie's bed during our nighttime routine.
"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh...CENTAURS!"
It's the hands in the pockets for me. I love him!
Happy happy birthday, Auggie! What a kid to walk around a bunch of rocks and ruins for his fourth birthday. I'm sure it wasn't his favorite way to spend the day, but he was happy nonetheless. When we asked him which birthday treat he wanted, his answer was unequivocally macaroons. Auggie was beyond thrilled to be the only one who got two.
Hike to the top of Philopappos Hill for the best sunset view of the Parthenon.
{Day 4 - Santorini}
Because we all slept in until the afternoon, the kids didn't go to sleep until 3 am that night. That was a doozy. As you can imagine, an early morning wake-up call for a flight to Santorini the next morning proved to be too much for the kiddos. And possibly too much for the parents too, ha. The whole day was a bit of a foggy-crying-blur until the evening. Don and I got the kids to bed and finally snuck out to take a breather and relax in the hot tub.
We had an hour and a half stress-free recharge, just in time to discover that we were locked out. At midnight. Cold and wet. Swimsuits on. No phones. An airbnb on the cliffside of a tiny, Greek island. Oof.
By some miracle and two extraordinarily compassionate Greek women (who love a good late night party, thank goodness!), we got in touch with the Airbnb host after six different phone calls. Because #miracle, she was obviously wide awake and had an emergency key code at the ready to let us back in, no problem. We got back into our room within twenty minutes of the initial lockout. My head is still spinning trying to understand how this didn't turn into the coldest, scariest, worst night of our year. What a way to start island life!
Loved all of the stray cats!
{Day 5 - Santorini}
Except for the other hot tub incident that I'll tell you in a sec, we were back to our regularly scheduled programming of happy fun and adventure!
Waking up to sunshine and this view was pretty epic.
The hot tub was an upgrade worth every penny. We used it multiple times a day, and the kids loved it as much as we did! So much fun.
Ok. The only other glitch of the trip was when sweet little Owen pooped in the hot tub. The good news...Don got him out quick as lightning so the water was safe. The bad news? The slippery bean wriggled out of Don's hands and plopped bum-side down right on the concrete landing. His cute little Euro diaper popped like a balloon. You can imagine. The fallout took about an hour to clean up, and we lost two towels, a hand towel, and swim diaper in the process. I mean. The highs are high and the lows are low.
That incident happened at night right before bed. But before that, we packed it up in the morning and drove to one of the famous black sand beaches. It was gorgeous!
Our second day in Santorini was actually Halloween, and I had promised Auggie for weeks that we would celebrate in Greece. And celebrate, we did! I packed all of our costumes, even the lightsabers. TSA stopped us in the security line and I had explain. I was actually pretty nervous until finally one of the agents figured it out. In a thick Greek accent, he exclaimed, "Ah!!! Halloween!" and everybody started laughing as they waved us through.
This was so much fun. We walked around Oía all night long, and it was like the kids turned into mini celebrities! People were taking pictures and commenting, and every time someone pointed at Auggie he swung his lightsaber with authority.
This will be my favorite picture for a long time.
We started talking with two shopkeepers at the end of the night, and they thought the boys were just so so cute. They promised Auggie that they would bring them Halloween candy, which we didn't think much of. But sure enough, they found us the next morning and had two bags ready for the boys, full of Greek candy! People truly are remarkable.
This entire Halloween experience was one for the books.
{Day 6 - Santorini}
There is a trail on the island that follows the coastline from city to city. Don and I had been exploring it for our morning runs. I took pictures of my last amazing trail run for our last day in Santorini! The saying goes, "run happy", and I was running happy.
Goodbye, Oía donkey!
We snuck in one last beach trip before our evening flight back to Athens where our friendly taxi driver picked us up again.
{Day 7 - Delphi}
No rest for the weary! The next day we were off on a long bus ride for a 2-day guided tour. We didn't quite realize how much time we would actually be on the bus, but wow the kids surprised us! They really showed up with good behavior and good vibes. I guess they got it all out of their systems in Santorini :).
Athens ---> Delphi. Delphi is another incredible archeological site, best known for the Oracle of Delphi. It's a city of ruins that is somehow nestled up in the mountains. I can't quite comprehend how they built everything so high!
It was fun to make friends with everybody in the group, but the cutest was Auggie's immediate attachment to our tour guide. She was especially nice to the kids...told them jokes, bought them cookies, and turned a blind eye to them eating on the charter bus. Auggie always found an excuse to talk to her at the rest stops and lunch spots.
The Stadium of Delphi is the best preserved ancient stadium in Greece.
Back on the bus to Meteora for the night. Olive trees, olive trees. Groves and groves of olive trees!
{Day 8 - Meteora}
Delphi ---> Meteora. We actually arrived in Meteora in the evening and stayed in a hotel that night. Don took Auggie on a late night ice cream walk after dinner while I got Owen to sleep. We all zonked hard after a long day on the bus.
We woke up so excited for our Meteora tour. Meteora is an archeological site, a large area of rock formations, the tops of which are home to several precariously built Eastern Orthodox monasteries. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a very majestic one at that. The pictures simply don't capture how it felt to actually be there, on top of the world!
Can you spot the monasteries?
These views! I can't choose between pictures, so I'm throwing them all in there.
This monastery only has access via cable car. Well, there is a trail you can hike from the bottom to the top of the spire, but otherwise, it's a suspended tram ride. Yikes!
After a long evening bus ride, we were back in our familiar Athens apartment for a good night's sleep.
Our last day in Greece! We savored it and enjoyed fresh pomegranate seeds for the last time at the local juice spot. 
Our extra day in Athens led us on one last adventure down to the southern tip of the country. We rented a car and zipped along the coast to Cape Sounion, home of the Temple of Poseidon.
First things first...lunch on the beach and sand castles. We'd read enough to know that touring the temple at sunset would be worth the wait, so our timing was perfect.
It was magical to watch the sun setting, with its rays streaming through the marble columns. Standing at the edge of the land and ocean, I can see why this place was chosen to worship the God of the Sea. I can't imagine there wouldv'e been a better place than this to be perched, surveying one's own vast water kingdom.
{Day 10 - Travel}
Home we go! Another long day into a long night. Nineteen hours home, but we made it.
What an adventure.
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