Europe part 1

Our Trip To Europe

part 1

In May of this year, my husband and I decided we wanted to go to Europe to celebrate his college graduation. My husband had lived in France a few years back, and has been dying to go visit ever since. so, we decided that now seemed like the perfect time for an adventure! We went for three weeks, and visited five countries along the way. Here are some highlights and recommendations for you to plan your own trip! enjoi

ATHENS

        

This was our first stop on our trip. Athens is going through a tough time right now, which if you keep up on world news then you are probably well aware. I don't know every detail, but i do know that they are having some huge financial troubles. They are also trying to care for a lot of refugees and the country is overall just poor. Which is so sad. And i think people are really scared to go there right now because of all of the unrest in Europe right now, however we had an amazing time! i don't have enough good things to say about Athens. It isn't on the surface the prettiest place i've ever been to, but the history here and just the pure knowledge of how old this place actually is is just amazing to me. i mean really some of the oldest civilizations from the beginning of time are here, and that is beautiful to me. We stayed in Airbnb's all over Europe, and it was seriously the best choice. So that would be my very first tip if you were traveling to Europe, if you are or are not on a budget, Airbnb is the way to go. i really cannot emphasize this enough. The important thing to remember when using Airbnb is to REAd THE REVIEWS. If it has great reviews, then great. You are all set. We saved so much money and had huge apartments all to ourselves. it was so nice to feel more like a local and get the real cultural experience of going to the small grocery stores and cooking dinners. I will hopefully post some pictures of our place we stayed in. It was right underneath the Acropolis, so naturally, this is where we started exploring.

 So if you are going to visit here, be sure to be here early.  I don't know if it is because no one is travelling to Greece right now, or not, but we basically had this place to ourselves. Which was a dream.

So, a little background information, my Grandma is full blooded Greek. Her mom immigrated over here to the United States when she was 19 yrs old. So my roots are here in Greece! I don't think i mentioned before, but my parents came with us on this wild trip, and my mom was desperate to go looking for our ancestors in a little tiny town an hour and a half outside of Athens. So that is just what we did! 

We hired a private taxi service called George The Taxi Driver and this made the biggest difference in the world.We didn't know where we were going exactly when we hired this service and we also don't speak a bit of Greek, so we were pretty out of our league. This man who drove us around not only took us to where our ancestors are from, but took us on an entire day from 7AM to 8PM around the countryside of Greece. If it was on our way coming or going to this man took us there and everywhere in between so that we really got an understanding of this beautiful country.

This is literally the size of the town

The Greek church my great grandparents attended

My families Grave sight

This is the family grocery store, and in english the name of this store translates into "the 5 roads store" meaning that there are five busy streets that all intersect at this little store. This was run by my great uncle until he died 10 years ago. It hasn't been opened since he passed away. IMAGINE WHAT IS INSIDE

This is my great grandmothers house! how crazy is that.

We found out a lot about my family. It turns out that the last living member of this family who lived in this home just passed away in July 2015, so we missed her by just about a year. But what was amazing is that all of the neighbors came out to see who we were, because i mean really no tourists would ever come to this place... its the size of an ant. haha and there isn't anything to see. but meaningful for my family! Our taxi driver talked to all of the neighbors and found out that they had known them their entire lives, and in pure Greek style took us in like family. They were so excited and thought we were going to come take over the back taxes on the store and the house and move in. hahaha not a chance. but so interesting to run into people who knew them all by name and gave us stories to put to each face who we recognized from pictures. we were so desperate to break into this house to see if there were any family pictures or anything left of the family, because believe it or not we are the closest living relatives to these people. and we never even knew them!

The rest of this day our driver took us on a road trip around Greece to some amazing places and we saw incredible things that we never would have if we had not made the journey to check out our fam.

This place is called Nafplio and it is a city by the sea. it looks a lot like the south of France. it is charming, hot, beautiful, and romantic. i mean, i'm sorry i posted so many pictures of the flowers, but are we serious?? look at how amazing they are! i could cry because i miss the flowers so much. We ate lunch here and decided we could forget the rest of our trip and stay here for the next three weeks. okay, not really, but it seriously was that beautiful.

Our last stop in Greece was an island about 30 minutes away from Athens called Aegina. This is such a cute little fishermans town with tons of boats, fish markets, and pistachios. They grow the most amazing pistachios, and i crave them to this day. This island was beautiful and scenic just as it should be. We walked a lot, ate a lot, and sat by the beach for a lazy day, which we desperately needed.

i wish i could tell you that the Mediterranean Sea was warm, but i can't. 

ITALY

Rome.

So Amazing.

Maybe i can move here?

okay great.

We flew from Athens to Rome and it was super easy and fast. We did carry on luggage for our whole trip so that always made flying super easy. Once we got to Rome, we hit the ground running. We went to the Forum and Colosseum and spent literally the entire day exploring and learning all about the history that Rome is. If you are looking to see some ancient European ruins, then Rome is definitely the place for you to see. I mean really, there are ruins everywhere. Our Airbnb was inside of ancient ruins. it was incredible. there are ruins as you walk on the sidewalk. there are ruins in between houses in the middle of neighborhoods, really everywhere. which is so cool. i loved walking through the Forum, because it really gave you an idea of what the city was like way way way way back in the day and how it might have been laid out. amazing to think that people lived that way, and that those ruins were their homes.

The Forum

Colosseum

Our next day in Rome i would recommend to EVERYONE. We started out at the Borghese Gallery which not many are super familiar with, but let me tell you it is so worth it. it is a gallery, which used to be a Cardinals home. He loved art, and collected everything that you will see in pictures below. This "gallery" was the cardinals home way back when. You need to get tickets in advance because only so many people are let inside at a time. it is beautiful, it is worth it, and as an added plus, it is a fast museum. You are only allowed in for two hours, and we were there only an hour and a half. The marble in this place by far steals the show.

even the floor is beautiful

Trevi Fountain is a must when in Rome. Just be prepared to share it with 5 million of your closest friends. xoxo

Trevi Fountain

Rome is just charming everywhere that you go. Like every street is magical and every town square is beautiful, and really you just can't go wrong turning down every street because you will not be disappointed.

this is what the vatican looks like

just kidding. it is more like this.

st. peters basilica

so we climbed to the very top of the basilica. i wish this picture showed how high it actually was. we were all a little sweaty by the time we were done lets just say that.

see the very tip top of that dome? we climbed it.

our Airbnb <3<3

 

bye Rome

VENICE

Are you looking to fall in love? okay great, because if you are then i have just the place for you to visit.
venice.
omg.
my brain almost couldn't process how beautiful it was, because there wasn't one part of it that wasn't pretty. we took the train from Rome to Venice, and it takes about 2 hours. Which is fine because the scenery cannot be beat on the way there. 

Our next day in Venice we took a boat out to an island nearby called Burano. It looked like candy! every house is painted a different color, and if that doesn't make you happy then i don't know what will!

Stay tuned for part 2 of our European adventure where we visit Switzerland, London, and Paris! and feel free to ask questions, i would love to answer them!