Choose Our Own Adventure

Paula has given me perhaps 10 different itineraries on where we should go for the next 10 or so days we have to spend in Greece. The problem is that there's too much to see. I mean, do we want to spend much of our time traveling around the Peloponnese penisula and see places like Napflio (Matt Diggs, Patricia Lenssen, and Joel/Denice Saxman loved it), make our way to the Ionian Islands to see Kephelonia (Mike/Katie Matesky loved it so much and their photos were beautiful), or go to Crete (a HUGE island with reportedly the friendlist people, located further south with warmer weather, and Zeus was born in a cave there). See what I mean? Too many choices.

So, we're taking our dilemna to you... Please vote in our pole on the right-hand side of our blog.

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Mykonos

Paula and I are enjoying our last day here on the island Mykonos before catching a ferry to the Santorini tomorrow. The weather has turned for the better for at least a couple days, so Paula is down at the beach now and I'm soon to follow.

Mykonos is beautiful with the main town (hora) of narrow, meandering streets. It makes for a confusing walk sometimes. All the buildings throughout Mykonos are white washed walls and roofs with typically blue windows. Very greek and beautiful. We found a great cafe along the waterfront where we could have dinner and desert while watching the Champions League games over the past two nights, so not much more I could ask for.

Yesterday, Paula and I took a day trip to Delos, a small island in the center of the Cyclades that is where Apollo and Artemis were born according to legend. For a long time, Delos was considered the center of Greek religion and culture. There were huge statues and temples on the small island to all sorts of gods and dates back to 8th century B.C. (although the first on the island dates to 3rd Millenium B.C. When the Romans took control of the island, around 200 BC, they turned it into a major port and its esimtated that 10,000 slaves were sold out of the port each day.

When we were in Boston, Paula and I talked about how great the history there was and what it was like to walk the Freedom Trail where Paul Revere rode. However, when you get to a place like Greece and explore sites like the Acropolis and and Delos, its such a long history that its hard to even appreciate fully without a better understanding of Greek mythology and the different civilizations that have lived here. Nevertheless, its very beautiful and interesting.

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Whirl Wind Tour

Yesterday, we landed in Athens after a 10 hour flight from JFK and officially began a whirl-wind tour of Athens around noon (Greek time). One thing we realized, is that Greece is not always hot and warm. Unfortunately, we havent' spent much of our time in anything but 2-3 jackets and our rain coats. Hopefully, we'll be able to wear those shorts and sandles we brought.

Athens is a huge city of about 3 million, but most of the city is essentially concrete apartments and communities that have sprung up since the 1970's. So, we spent all our time in the historic part of town where many of the ruins are within walking distance. Paula found a self-guided walking tour off Rick Steve's website that we decided to try out. It's designed for a full day of sight seeing, which we further compacted into 5 hours. Without boring you of all the details of our tour, we ended up seeing the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Roman Agora (essentially the Roman town square) and the Temple of the Winds, Hadrian's Library, the Ancient Agora and the Acropolis of course. We enjoyed winding through the streets and taking everything in until the time difference caught up with us...we then took a 3 hour nap...oops!

We thought we'd try to get an authentic Greek dinner while in Athens. We shared a greek salad, Paula had a bowl of fish soup (essentially a full cod broiled with potatoes and carrots), and I enjoyed octopus in wine. The dishes weren't much to look at and our experience with Greek cuisine wasn't exactly like Anthony Bourdain's. However, we're unfazed and will try again.

Now, we're here on Mykonos in the Greek Islands. Despite the gray and cloudy weather, it's beautiful. We're excited to get to know the town and explore the island a bit over the next couple of days.

That's all for now from the McJohnson Times.

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A little wetter than expected...

We've been in Boston now for about 24 hours and our trip has started off a little wetter than expected. After seeing our good friends Drew and Kelli last night, the four of us went over to Eirik and Heidi's house to see them and our new nephew, Skye Roger Johnson. He's super cute (has Heidi's mouth and Eirik's nose, and Eirik's propensity of wetting himself).

Today, Paula and I dinked around town and walked part of the Freedom Trail. The history of this town is pretty amazing, although we were dripping wet since it happens to be raining. I just assumed it was sunny everywhere but Seattle. However, we're drying up now in time to grab Indian food for Paula's birthday.

After that, more Skye time!

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Packing

We're supposed to be packing right now; however, Holland v Macedonia is on and obviously a huge distraction. Paula's pretty much already packed (over achiever). Last minute laundry, packing, errands, cleaning, and cuddling our pooch is pretty much what we've got planned for the rest of the day though. Tomorrow night we'll be in Boston visiting our friends Drew and Kelli and getting to see Eirik, Heidi, and our new nephew (Skye). Very exciting...

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