Our last 2 days….Bye-Bye Greece🇬🇷💫

We celebrated the Greek Independence Day, or I should say got stuck in some holiday traffic of parades. Learning that the Greek got their independence from Turkey. Love that we are with such a genius…..Miss Tabitha must know all of the facts. Drum roll please..….. a bit out of order of this entry, but the BIGGEST news from our trip…..she got into DUKE UNIVERSITY, this was a BIG shock to her. Such an exciting way to wake up on our last day—-at 6am I heard screaming from the next bedroom- Whaaat Whaaat WHAT- joy, tears, shock, and excitement. So exciting!!! This child has been accepted to 8 freaking schools. Incredible!! CONGRATULATIONS to Tabby!!!🎉🎉🎉🎉

Okay, back to our adventures. As we were checking out of our Santorini Cave-like suite, most beautiful hotel, my Whats App buzzed and it was our George from our long touring day, letting me know he was waiting for us at the top of the hill to say a proper good bye. We were all like, why? I had told him we arranged our own transport. To our delightful surprise he had picked us up more Melitinia desserts for Tracy & I, and brought Tabby her own fav jelly filled cookies. He wanted to wish us safe travels and give us all hugs w/ a proper farewell. Im telling you, The Greek are all so service oriented and beyond kind! We loved them all. 

Today is a beautiful day in the mid 70’s, the sun is shining and we are all wearing our island clothing. Good bye to the winter beanies & jackets. At the Santorini airport we all had our first greek style coffee, a bit sludgy and very strong. The full cup I drank of the double greek coffee caused labor pains for me. Uncomfortable, yet a bit of a silly episode. I would love to know Tabby’s honest version of my eating & drinking habits. She likes ice too, but says I demand it. Lol…The Aegean Air stewardess’s made us check our now over-expanding carry-ons, which meant baggage claim in Athens. All good…..we are an excellent traveling trio and jive so well together. 

My dad always shows his presence while traveling and it’s funny that Tracy noticed him before me. As we were sitting in a cafe in Oia, “Fly me to the Moon started playing, she says this song is your dad to me, Bruce is saying hi- it’s my parents wedding song. I like louder messages, and sure enough when Timos(american version Timothy) scooped us up from the airport he requested my father’s name? Strange…..I had made the reservation, Greece has strict rules, in order for him to leave the airport he needed to scan my passport and needed my father’s first/last name. Bruce Shelton, and we were free to proceed for our 40 min drive to the Plaka area(City Ctr)of Athens. Timos was so nice and provided us with many restaurant suggestions and some brief history as we passed by unreal monuments. He is a Taurus and his sister went to school in Boston and is now living in Maine. He follows american football and knew all about the AZ Cardinals. Such a small world, this gave us so much to all chat about on our drive. He dropped us at our new home in the heart of the Plaka. We are staying in an apartment hotel- 2 bedroom/2 Bath w/ doorman, rooftop bar/restaurant- on top of a Starbucks with views of The Acropolis. Insanity- truly, sooooo filled w/ gratitude for this life!

To me, all of Athens is a pretend movie set, yet it’s real that we are walking around ruins where Greek God’s & Goddess’s seriously roamed the streets in Ancient days. Mind- blowing when you really sit and ponder the thoughts. Our doorman showed us a place to grab a quick lunch, he warned us of the gypsy’s and suggested a table in the middle section of the outdoor dining in the open-air, crowds of tourists & locals lunching at 2 pm. More greek food, pitas, chicken gyros, tzikiki,and chicken souvlaki skewers. We then strolled the streets for the Cohen girls to do their shopping. 

We all LOVE fancy hotels. It’s my favorite sight seeing activity in a new city. We made our way to the Grande Bretagne to enjoy a luxurious experience. This place reminded me of the fancy hotels in Paris. We decided to have an afternoon tea and share a dessert. Seriously soooo delish! After, we wandered to The Dolli, a new luxury boutique hotel that Mrs. Fancy had read about in an Architectural digest magazine. Wow, this place was stunning….we loved it so much after receiving the grande tour from such a delightful hostess that we made a lunch reservation for the next day in their rooftop restaurant with more stunning views of the Acropolis. It was time for a rest, as Tabby needed a nappy. I keep telling her she is like a lil baby who needs her precious sleep. The girl definitely had a lot on her mind…she knows how to rally! I spent the next 2 hours researching restaurants to find us a worthy dining spot. We did not have a plan, as we wanted to see how the day unfolded. The place I wanted was fully committed, but avail the next night. I reserved it for tomorrow, but still needed tonight. Found another after many to choose from. We had a 930pm dinner, everyone wore a dress. So excited to dress up on vacation. This dinner place was called Feedel Urban Gastronomy Experience…it lived up to the name. Once again, impeccable service, Alex our waiter told us how much he LOVES Americans.  He told us his most difficult customers are the Middle Eastern or Israeli’s. He shared most people from the USA are friendly and want to be chatty. The food was odd, yet delish! A beetroot hummus w/ dollops of hazelnut creme & peanut butter, a celery root soup( my fav), a beef cheeks dish that scared me-but was good, fried cauliflower, and the moistest chicken w/ a sweet Tahini sauce. We all had a cocktail here, as the drinking age is 18. We said no to dessert and opted to try the Greek fried donut balls sold on the street in honey & cinnamon. Too bad we live so close to all this insane food, Im in serious need of exercise and to get back on my diet program starting 4/1. Praying my scale has not risen to much, 🙏🏻🙏🏻This little piggy needs to be reined in again. Oink oink 🐷

Last Full day of trip started with a 3 hour Segway tour of Athens. My absolute favorite activity and the only way to truly see so much of a new city in record time while having fun with a new group of friends. We took the elevator down from our flat to exit directly into the Starbucks. What a treat…..we all got drinks, I was a good girl and had one of my bars, while my partners got a treat. We walked the old alleyways, marble stone streets, passing store fronts just starting to open for the day. It was a quiet morning in ancient Athens. We met up with 2 guides and a family from North Carolina. I learned the population of Greece is 10 million, with 4 million residing in Athens. The meaning of the word Acropolis means ‘Acro'(hill on the edge ) ‘polis”'(city) Parthenon is the main Temple on the hill. Athens is a very spiritual place, as every structure has to do with religion. Athena was one of the 12 gods…Zeus was her father, as she was born out of his head with no mother. She was the “goddess of wisdom”. We zipped around to many historical sights to mention- another cool one being the first olympian stadium ever. It holds 76,000 people and hosted the first world olympics in 1896. Every 4 years they still pass the torch at this location, even the year of the USA Utah winter olympics.

The tour ended and we made our way back to our infamous Dolli Hotel for our leisurely late lunch. Oh my yummy…..mini cheeseburgers, a goat cheese arugula salad, grilled grouper, french fries, steamed veggies, and Tabby got a mango salmon. I know we are all now turning into the 3 little piggies. We went back to change, regroup and head back out for shopping & The Parthenon. Wandering these ancient narrow roads reminds me of a small Italian road, that or Portugal. Tracy & I keep comparing it to other places…it’s truly a European city. A must have gelato in a cone calls all of our names, while we try to get lost in the alleys with tons of cats all over. Sadly we arrived at the top at 5:05 pm, to our disappointment last tickets sold at 5. Tabby the most sad, since never having climbed around. Tracy tried to beg the police and actually sneak beyond the gates. We got very close up for photos, but no repeating of my actual photo from 20+ years ago with Jackie, my mom &dad for me. Oh well, another reason to return. We walked back home a different way so we could experience the village/town area of Thissio- according to Segway guide a more fancy locals hang out area to live and play. All the cafes, markets, stores, hotels, and coffee shops are instagrammable. one was so alluring we had to go in for photos against their flowered wall & get a greek freddo espresso. Back at home, Tabby rested a bit, while Tracy & I  watched the sunset at our rooftop bar called City Zen . A quick face-time to my mommy and off to our last dinner at The Ergon House, Mrs. Fancy got to wear her Grecian dress. A hip happening place with yet another dining experience. I seriously can’t write about anymore food- lol. (A quick pic from my last visit to Athens-☺️)

We made it home to pack and go to bed for the 6:45am alarm. Back to the top, I was awoken by screeching voices screaming with so much excitement at 6am…..Tabby being accepted to Duke. We boarded this 10 hour flight to JFK, I got to finish the Meg Ryan film called, What Happens Later. I LOVED it so much….it had a very short, but touching adoption part, is a genuine romantic sweet story of old loves running into each other years later in an airport. The entire movie takes place in the airport. Sounds weird, but highly recommended. 

Sending out this post from the JFK Delta Sky Lounge, the absolute best place to ease back into reality after a trip. We will land in AZ at midnight and have the weekend to acclimate back to real life. Good thing, I love my job so much and am looking forward to Monday.

See you all soon…..

Love Dora, Mrs Fancy, and Lil Smartie Pants ❤️

Laurie Sue xo

Extra Photos for anyone interested……