Greek Honeymoon
Go ahead, say it out loud: "Thessaloniki." That's the town we flew into. Even better, the region of Greece we explored on our honeymoon: "Chalkidiki".
Our trip began by driving through scorched, craggy countryside, cyphering the Cyrillic alphabet and gazing upon the beaches and bright blue water along the coastline. There were olive trees and sunflowers in the fields between the mountains and decadent pink and white bushes of flowers in the median of the main highway that snaked its way down the "first finger" peninsula to Skala Fourka, the small sea town where we stayed.
The apartment we rented was a small, studio-style room and our dining table was outside on a covered balcony. It was one of four such studios on the bottom floor of the large house. The upper levels are used as a weekend getaway for our host and his family and friends. It was located just off the main road, and just a 5-minute walk to the beach.
We ate seafood multiple times, at different restaurants - mussels, shrimp, octopus, and real sardines (not the ugly little canned buddies). Exhibit A:
We had grilled eggplant with feta and diced tomatoes. We dipped our bread in authentic tzatziki. We bought way more olives than we could snack on. Last but not least, we ate "real Greek yogurt" with fresh fruit for breakfast! Exhibit B:
The majority of our time was spent on the beach, relaxing, swimming and even snorkeling. I'd never seen sea anemones in real life before, and we also discovered some tiny crabs scuttling around at low-tide. I felt like a mermaid. It was very warm, but not too hot. Around midday we'd get a few rain showers or some cloud cover, but then it cleared up again by sunset.
When the clouds were right, you could see Mount Olympus over the water. Once I swam out to the buoy, sat on it, and had a Zeus moment (which means I sang Disney Hercules songs and let the waves bob me up and down).
We noticed on the first day that the locals close up shop in the afternoon and open again in the evening. But we didn't realize that the cities basically come alive after dark until we went searching for a cafe that was showing the World Cup game. Fabi drank beer and I ate ice cream, surrounded by tanned old men. My husband was the only person cheering for Germany. When his team scored, he would throw his hands in the air and rejoice, and the waitresses would make eye contact with me and smile. When Ghana scored, the old men would say "Don'worryboutit" and give us a consolatory thumbs-up.
Our hosts arrived a few days after we did - two couples, each with a young son. They invited us to have coffee and breakfast with them upstairs on Saturday. They said to come around 8:00 a.m., which meant 10:30. They made us strong Greek coffee and toast, then we hung out on their balcony in pajamas. Two of them had worked near Frankfurt for many years. We chatted with them in German about the area, the economy and EU-related things. They gave us tips on what to see.
On our last night, our host's friend secured us a table and VIP treatment at a restaurant in the next town. The owner was his cousin, and since we were honeymooners and special guests, we got three extra plates of food on the house! I slurped mussels from the shell for the first time. The owner proudly showed off Greek cuisine and the skills of his chef, and patted Fabi on the back at least twelve times and told us his life story. "You have a beautiful wife," he said, "and she has eyes only for you!" We ate from about 9 pm to midnight, then took a photo with him before walking down to the beach one last time.
We squeezed so much into just 4 days, but we both agree that we could have spent much longer lounging on the beach. Our tiny taste of the Greek lifestyle proved to be much different than the fast-paced, punctual order of Germany. Who knows if we'll return someday, but if we do, we have a small group of people and a little town that would welcome us!
Our trip began by driving through scorched, craggy countryside, cyphering the Cyrillic alphabet and gazing upon the beaches and bright blue water along the coastline. There were olive trees and sunflowers in the fields between the mountains and decadent pink and white bushes of flowers in the median of the main highway that snaked its way down the "first finger" peninsula to Skala Fourka, the small sea town where we stayed.
The apartment we rented was a small, studio-style room and our dining table was outside on a covered balcony. It was one of four such studios on the bottom floor of the large house. The upper levels are used as a weekend getaway for our host and his family and friends. It was located just off the main road, and just a 5-minute walk to the beach.
We ate seafood multiple times, at different restaurants - mussels, shrimp, octopus, and real sardines (not the ugly little canned buddies). Exhibit A:
We had grilled eggplant with feta and diced tomatoes. We dipped our bread in authentic tzatziki. We bought way more olives than we could snack on. Last but not least, we ate "real Greek yogurt" with fresh fruit for breakfast! Exhibit B:
The majority of our time was spent on the beach, relaxing, swimming and even snorkeling. I'd never seen sea anemones in real life before, and we also discovered some tiny crabs scuttling around at low-tide. I felt like a mermaid. It was very warm, but not too hot. Around midday we'd get a few rain showers or some cloud cover, but then it cleared up again by sunset.
When the clouds were right, you could see Mount Olympus over the water. Once I swam out to the buoy, sat on it, and had a Zeus moment (which means I sang Disney Hercules songs and let the waves bob me up and down).
We noticed on the first day that the locals close up shop in the afternoon and open again in the evening. But we didn't realize that the cities basically come alive after dark until we went searching for a cafe that was showing the World Cup game. Fabi drank beer and I ate ice cream, surrounded by tanned old men. My husband was the only person cheering for Germany. When his team scored, he would throw his hands in the air and rejoice, and the waitresses would make eye contact with me and smile. When Ghana scored, the old men would say "Don'worryboutit" and give us a consolatory thumbs-up.
Our hosts arrived a few days after we did - two couples, each with a young son. They invited us to have coffee and breakfast with them upstairs on Saturday. They said to come around 8:00 a.m., which meant 10:30. They made us strong Greek coffee and toast, then we hung out on their balcony in pajamas. Two of them had worked near Frankfurt for many years. We chatted with them in German about the area, the economy and EU-related things. They gave us tips on what to see.
On our last night, our host's friend secured us a table and VIP treatment at a restaurant in the next town. The owner was his cousin, and since we were honeymooners and special guests, we got three extra plates of food on the house! I slurped mussels from the shell for the first time. The owner proudly showed off Greek cuisine and the skills of his chef, and patted Fabi on the back at least twelve times and told us his life story. "You have a beautiful wife," he said, "and she has eyes only for you!" We ate from about 9 pm to midnight, then took a photo with him before walking down to the beach one last time.
We squeezed so much into just 4 days, but we both agree that we could have spent much longer lounging on the beach. Our tiny taste of the Greek lifestyle proved to be much different than the fast-paced, punctual order of Germany. Who knows if we'll return someday, but if we do, we have a small group of people and a little town that would welcome us!
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