Shopping day!

Today my brother and dad ventured off to go SCUBA diving, leaving the rest of us a free shopping day! It worked out perfectly since my dad is not a shopper and the rest of us were itching to get all our Greek stuff. I didn’t really buy anything except for some lotion made with olive oil, but some of the girls got pretty necklaces and earrings with the greek key symbol. I was pretty content thought cause Aryn and I got our baklava, which was AMAZINGG.

Pretty view of the town we went shopping in

The harbor area

The harbor

We all reconvened back at the villa, with my mom and Steve serving as the chefs for the night. They cooked delicious pasta primavera and we had good wine from the winery from the previous day.

After dinner and a game of Banannagrams, the kids went to the club/ bar in the nearby town called Sky Park. 

Best baklava ever... yes Aryn and I ate it all

haha typical 

The chefs of the evening

My brother and my mom

My mom and I 

Keba fam

My dad in his zone

Dinner!!!! 

Banannagrams-- whos word pile is that haha

When we got to Sky Park at 11:30 pm, there were still parents there with their little 3 year olds dancing. Therefore, we went nextdoor to a bar where Brian decided we would celebrate my 21^st birthday. We got free drink and when we eventually went back over to Sky Park, the bar stopped the music and sang me happy birthday as they gave me a huge drink with sparklers! It was fun and the first of my seemingly endless 21^st. I’ve decided that I should probably just celebrate in every area that I go to…seems like a good idea. I can cross Greece off, then I’ll be in Florence on my actually 21^st, then I’ll be with my friend Kelsey in Austria and Germany, so I should probably celebrate there too.

So I just think this pic is really funny, notice the outlet and the ridiculous number of converters and plugs

It's matching shirt day

We started off the morning with another hike/ walk around town. We found our friend that calls us America at his house. He invited us into his backyard and took this lovely pic of the whole crew in our matching shirts. Because you can’t see them, they all have the same emblem that says “Greece 2011 Hunts, Phillips, Keba”…. We have red ones from our Rome trip in 2008, they are pretty sweet. Our friend was pretty busy with all the animals that he has. There’s pics of his goats below, and of him taking care of his sheep.

The whole group...and a few dogs-- check out the sheep/dog on the left lol

Face-off

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Our friend feeding his sheep

After we went to Knossos, which was about an hour drive away. It’s an ancient palace in ruins, it was pretty cool, but not my favorite. We met two kids on our tour that are from Israel, one was 18 and about to go to the army in 6 months… they were so young but seemed way older than us. I couldn’t imagine going to serve in the army, it was just weird to think about, and especially not 3 years ago!

Knossos

Lunch-- had to get a pic of a gyro in here somewhere

 We then continued into the hills and down many random, windy roads to a winery. We got a little tour and then tried the wine and olive oil. The olive oil was my favorite, sooo good! I wish I had more room to pack stuff/ it was easier to bring home glass stuff.

View of the hills from the winery

Wine bottles

Yay, everyone again at the winery

On the way back, the kids and my dad stopped at a beach. It was a bit overcast, but we relaxed and discovered frappes with Baileys…yumm.

Dinner was back at the first Taverna that we went to in our village. Earlier that day we got a call that our friend Yonni had caught fish, so he made us dinner! The fish was really good, but it was hole and had tons of little bones in it. It was good enough though that it was worth the effort.

Waiting for dinner

Fish!!!

Hikes, monks and food

Our "Hello America!" neighbor-- he's great

Today started out very similar to yesterday— we took another hike, this time knowing which fence to go through to get the church on top of the hill. We learned yesterday from our landlord that all the little wire fences are to keep the goats and sheep out, so it’s chill if we just go through them as long as we close them after. We found the church which was all tiny and cute, then continued along the path that turned into a road. We followed the road for a while, just enjoying the gorgeous view. The pictures of the town and views don’t do it justice at all. The atmosphere here is so cool and everyone here is so nice that just adds so much character to the town. This morning, our neighbor greeted us with “Hello America!” and proceeded to help us find the right path. After our hike, we stopped at the village herb store, and Marianna, the shopkeeper, talked with us and put oils on us to sample.

We've seen this woman each day, she sits outside and crochets and attempts to tell us directions although she speaks no English

Finally found the church

Aryn overlooking the village

Our walk was lined by this wire fence that keeps the goats and sheep in/ out

You really can't even get a sense of how beautiful this place is....

Herb & Oil shop

We then went to a monastery not too far away, which was absolutely beautiful. We walked around there for a while before heading to lunch. The waiter at lunch was pretty funny, cracking jokes about Greece’s financial troubles, then gave us a history lesson about Crete which was interesting.

Flowers a the monastery

Some ancient tree that had shrapnel in it from a war

More pretty flowers

Monastery in the back

Walls that surrounded the church of the monastery

Front of the church 

Adorable kitty asleep in a tree

Finally--All the kids!

The reasons behind this amazing trip & villa

Then we headed off to the local beach, swam and laid out on lounge chairs. It was soo nice and relaxing. And it’s pretty cool that the sun doesn’t set here till about 9pm earliest. We were at the beach from like 3- 6pm and it was soo sunny and nice. Hopefully I got slightly tanner.

For dinner we headed up to the taverna on top of the hill that our landlord suggested that we go to. We had stopped by this morning on our hike to let them know we would be coming since some of the places around here need you to give them a two days heads up so that they can get fresh food--- it’s great. Anyways, we sat on the patio overlooking the entire town and ocean as the sun set. It was absolutely beautiful and the food was the best so far. 

Everyone!

The sky when we first sat down, the sun was already beginning to set

My brother and Dad

Cheers-ing to making it up huge hills, though tiny paths and past goats in our stick shift cars without dying 

Food Section (only got the appetizers... then I forgot once I started eating)

Spinach pies-- no cheese, so I was stoked 

Tzatziki  & Greek Salad 

Vine leaves stuffed with rice

Greek Salad

Homemade goat cheese-- our waitress's dad made it with his goats

The sun setting