Athens, Greece

Okay, I know...it's been too long since our last post, but we're back and we have lots to catch up on. We'll try to keep it in chronological order, so we start here with Greece.

Alex had some business meetings in November in Turkey and Greece, so I flew out to meet him in Greece and we spent a long weekend in Athens!

Athens is a HUGE city of 7 million people. It feels like a big city with crowded streets and a certain buzz of energy. Since the city hosted the 2004 summer olympics, you could see there were some recent upgrades and overhauls. Their new subway system is awesome. We went everywhere on the train (we even took it back to the airport while toting all our bags!) and it was very easy to navigate.

There is so much to see and do in Athens that 4 days was barely enough to scratch the surface. We managed to see the most famous landmarks, but there is so much more to see in Athens. I'm not sure an entire week would be enough time to get through all of the ruins, museums, temples, and parks.
In one of the parks we walked through, we looked over and saw something straight out of the movies, a group of old men sitting around playing chess! You've got to just love that about this culture!

I will say that climbing up the Acropolis and seeing the Parthenon perched atop the hill was one of the most memorable moments of our travels so far. This structure is depicted in history books, plays, movies, pretty much every aspect of our cultural lives so to see it in person was an absolute thrill. The parthenon was undergoing restoration when we were there. Even with a bunch of scaffolding this was one of the most amazing sites we've ever seen! The detail and technology that went into the structure is unbelievable.

It is lit up at night and this is the view we had of it from our hotel balcony. Since it's dark, you have to click and enlarge the photo to get a better idea!

We also went to the National Archaeological Museum and saw more famous relics from the region, including ornate marble statues, the celebrated mask of Agamemnon, the bronze statue of Zeus or Poseidon, statue of Aphrodite, the famous "horse and young rider," and much more.

We went on a "walking tour" of Athens guided only by our Lonely Planet book. Needless to say, we got lost somewhere after the temple of Zeus (which was supposed to be just the 2nd stop on the tour). After improvising, we still hit all the suggested sites the book mentioned- it just took us 6 hours instead of 3-4! We did stop along the way for some fabulous local greek wine and gyros (come to think of it, this may have been the reason we got a little "off track").

Below are some pics from our walking tour which includes the changing of the guard at Parliament and views of the Acropolis from the city below. Oh, there's also one of Alex at a local cafe waiting for his wine. :)

The temple of Zeus is almost as impressive as the Parthenon. It is in an open field area which enables you to really get a feel for the size and scale of the massive columns.

At the entrance to the temple of Zeus is the Arch of Hadrian.

Photos below are also from the Acropolis--amphitheater and Keratides (the building with the female stautes). Keratides is beautiful!!!

It was amazing to be in Athens and see all of this history in front of our own eyes. This was one of our most memorable trips (I say that about them all, don't I?)!

We hope to be able to get back to Greece during some of the warmer months so we can island hop. We really want to see Santorini!

Honeymoon

Alex and I finally took our belated honeymoon at the end of September. However, it was well worth the wait!

We went to Croatia and stayed in a small seaside town called Cavtat. It is just a short ferry ride from the larger and well known city of Dubrovnik. The view from our villa was unbelievable! See photo below. And that's Alex lounging on the front patio.

Dubrovnik is probably the most visited city in all of Croatia and is also where many cruise ships in the area dock. We actually saw a cruise ship come in one day while we were in Dubrovnik and it was quite a sight. The water is too shallow so the ships drop anchor off shore and then ferry all passengers to land in these big, futuristic looking boats that they lower from the side of the cruise ship. We were tempted to try and sneak on once we saw it's next port of call was Venice!

Croatia is known for it's beauty. We were in awe with one look at the red-tiled roofs and the translucent, turquoise water.

Dubrovnik is a very old fort city on the Adriatic. It is surrounded by huge, dramatic walls to protect it from invaders. These actually came in handy again during the 1991 conflict between Croatia and Serbia. Most people sought refuge inside the old city walls. There are places in the stone where you can see the walls were shelled in 1991.

Everything about the Old Town is beautiful. Marble streets are lined with old baroque style buildings and shops and cafes line the quaint alleys. The main street in Old Town is called Placa. It is marked with a clock tower at the end and Pile Gate is the entrance. There is a walkway on top of the city walls. Alex and I walked the entire length of the walls and admired the ocean on one side and the city on the other. There are many steep hills in this region (being from Colorado I just cannot call them mountains) so there were more stairs than we have ever seen in our lives. Alex and I climbed and walked off most of the calories of delicious food and wine that we consumed (most!). The local wine and seafood was amazing!

We had rain for the first 3 days we were there, but since we don't see that in Dubai we didn't mind too much. We actually had a waterfall coming down the back stairs in the villa we rented!

The last few days we had sun and warm temperatures. We got the best of both worlds while were were there. You can see from the pictures what a pretty place this is. There are even "swimming pools" that are literally just walled in areas of the ocean.

To get from Dubai to Dubrovnik, we had to layover in Vienna (I know, poor us!). We stayed the night there on our way to Croatia and visited the main street in Vienna. We were so excited to see some changing leaves and fall colors!

This town is very proud of it's musical heritage and being the home of Mozart. Mozart statues were everywhere and even kleenex for sale had little music notes on it. The other thing Vienna is famous for is chocolate. It was delicious! So, naturally the city combines its two main attractions and what do you get? Mozart selling chocolate! Mozart is on the wrapper of every piece available in the city!

Vienna is a typical beautiful, old European city. The lifestyle is very laid back. People seem to sit in cafes and drink lattes all day while their dog roams the streets or shops nearby. Even the McDonalds was in an ornate historic building!

Even though we only had one day in Vienna on our way to Croatia and another day on our way back, we managed to hit the highlights. We saw St. Stephens cathedral (a.k.a. Stephansdom - see pic below), we ate bratwurst and sauerkraut, sampled the famous chocolate, and sat at cafes drinking coffee while watching the horse drawn carriages trot past.

This is a city that would be very easy to live in. I didn't want to leave!

We had a wonderful and very memorable trip. I think we took a million pictures, but I somehow have managed to get it down to about 200. Click on the link below to see the entire album of our amazing honeymoon! The album starts with Vienna photos and then continues on to the Croatia pics.


www.vivianalex.shutterfly.com

Tommy Visits Dubai

So, obviously we are a tad behind on our blogging. Things have been a bit hectic lately with moving to a new villa and going on our honeymoon. Pictures from both of those great events to follow shortly (or whenever I get around to it as it seems lately!).

My brother came out to Dubai in August for a business trip with his architecture firm and stayed for a few extra days with Alex and me. It was a wonderful visit and was so nice to see some family!

Unfortunately, Tommy was here during the height of the Dubai summer and the heat was in full effect. If I remember correctly, the temperature was around 107 F with about 300% humidity the entire time he was here.

We went to the old town of Dubai and walked around to see some of the oldest buildings in the city (all while trying to hop from one air conditioned place to another in order to avoid heat exhaustion). We toured the Dubai museum downtown as well so Tommy could get an appreciation for Dubai's history and culture (or lack thereof!).

We had a sweltering dinner outdoors at Bab Al Sham resort and sat on camels

and smoked shisha from the traditional hubbly bubbly pipe. I swear this is legal, folks! It is an arabic tradition and when in Rome, right? This is a very popular past time for locals. Shisha is flavored tobacco. You can order almost any flavor you can think of from Strawberry to Chocolate, Mint, or even Cappuccino! The flavored tobacoo is smoked from water pipes called either shisha pipes or hubbly bubblies.

I bet our parents are really proud right about now!

Tommy also had the pleasure of experiencing some good ol' local Islamic country entertainment...see, not everyone wears a burka! :)

Speaking of Muslims, we took Tommy to see what I think is one of the prettiest mosques near our home, the Jumeirah Mosque.

As you can see from the photos, we had a wonderful time and some long overdue sibling time! Even as limited as we were in our activities, due to the oppressive heat, I think we managed to get out and see quite a bit of the fun side of Dubai.

Tommy also bought me a really nice coffee maker because Alex and I were retarded enough to bring ours from the States and forget that it doesn't work with the outlets here. As we are in the middle of Ramadan here, this coffee maker has saved my life over the past few weeks. In case you don't know much about Ramadan (it really deserves its own blog, so check back tomorrow or the day after), you cannot eat, drink, chew gum, basically NOTHING can pass your lips from sun up to sun down anywhere in public. You know me, I immediately asked Alex "or else what?" Well, apparently or else a nice big ticket or a fun little stint in the not so posh Dubai jail. Therefore, for the past 3 weeks we have not been able to eat or drink anything in public all day and all of the restaurants, coffee shops, all food outlets are closed for the entire month. If Tommy had not purchased this coffee maker for me, surely I would be writing this from a jail cell after highjacking some Starbucks. Thank you Tommy!!!

And thanks again to Tommy for being our first visitor way out here in the desert. We had such a great time and were thrilled to spend the weekend with you! Hugs and kisses!

Vivian and Alex