So, here is the second part of our travel experience. Check out the first part of our Mediterranean Grand Adventure if you haven’t already. After a week filled with destinations in Spain, France, Italy, and Tunisia, we were excited to to discover the next ports – all in Greece. I just love Greek food and unfortunately never seem to be able to find a good restaurant in L.A. So, this vacation was the perfect opportunity for me to indulge in all the garlicky, herbal goodness Greek cuisine has to offer.
Above is a picture I snatched of our cruise ship while tendering. Her name is Ocean Princess and she’s the smallest ship in the Princess fleet, which was great because getting to the food and on shore was always really quick.
I love all the blue in these pictures. The sky and sea had so many different shades and the clouds were always fluffy and white. No wonder the Greek flag is blue and white. And what really impressed us was that the water is super clean and clear everywhere. It was remarkable!
The next picture is one of my favorites. I took it during our day on Cephalonia. The water almost looks like a mirror – there are barely any ripples on the surface. It gives the scene such a serene feel.
One of my favorite days was the one on Santorini. It’s the famous Greek island with the white and blue houses that are on the cover of most Mediterranean travel catalogs and guide books. Here, we booked a semi-private catamaran trip around the island. It was fantastic! The island was once a volcano that erupted and then filled with water, so the water is very deep. That’s us, so happy to be relaxing in this beautiful place…
We stopped at a few places to jump off the boat into the water. At the place pictured below we were able to swim in the hot sulphur pockets created by the volcanic underwater vents. It really wasn’t that warm, but it was still fun!
Since the water was so deep, we could look right down into the abyss while snorkeling. I have never seen anything like it. It makes you feel like you are swimming over the top of a mountain looking down. It was such an amazing experience: beautiful, quiet, and a bit terrifying at the same time. Snorkeling is definitely a hobby I’d like to take up!
The last day of the cruise was on Crete. It’s one of the more southern islands of Greece and the temperature here was almost unbearable. You can’t really tell from the pictures but it was so hot that we had to stand in the water to refresh ourselves from time to time.
Freshly caught octopus. Somebody’s lunch…
The last day before flying back home, we spent in Athens where it was raining heavily. Nevertheless, we made a trip up to the Acropolis, which was magnificent, and ate our way through some more delicious Tzatziki, Saganaki, and Moussaka. Let me know if you are in the area and need some restaurant recommendations; we found quite some jewels. For now my appetite is satisfied – until our next Mediterranean adventure. Hopefully soon : )
