Jumping Jax: Athens, Greece

For almost three months, this little blog has sat idol. I think it's in the water in India. Many of my teammates' blogs seem to be suffering from the same laziness that has consumed me! In all fairness, I did have a computer hard drive crash on me, and I had to reinstall and set up this baby from ground zero! Anyways, hopefully, this post will be just the kickstart I need to get Jumping Jax back up and running!

In what seems like another lifetime, but really not so long ago, our family took the trip of a lifetime to the Mediterranean. I managed to capture our time in Venice before I took my long blogging hiatus. So here's a little more of what we saw while we were away.

After boarding the boat, we were at sea for a couple of days before we landed in Athens, Greece. I'll be completely honest. I'm not much for looking at old buildings. This trip mostly allured to me because of the unlimited array of food, beautiful, clean locations, sun, and pampering. But the sights we saw were absolutely beautiful and amazing, and so hard to believe they were still standing!

When at all possible, we took public transportation off the boat. Living in India has equipped us with the ability and freedom to jump on random buses and trains, and they are way cheaper than taxis! Some people took this time to make up for lost sleep!

First we saw the Parthenon. We had read stories of long lines, grueling heat, and big crowds, but when you arrive first, none of those are a problem! There were no lines for tickets, and the crowd was very slim! It was a beautiful structure. It was hard to get a great picture of it, because they are doing lots of restoration work on it, but I managed to capture a few for our memories at least!

I was amazed at the detail work. Nowadays, these sorts of details are done by machines, but I'm guessing this was done with lots of elbow grease and practice. So intricate!

One of the smartest things we did was bring Jack's iPod along so that he could take his own pictures. He probably took more pictures than I did, but it kept him busy and entertained, where he might otherwise have been complaining. This guy, on the other hand, only wanted to sit and took advantage of every possible opportunity!

When he wasn't sitting, he was collecting "treasures!" It's sort of an addiction he has. Don't ask me how many sticks and rocks I carried back on the boat to avoid the tears!

We also saw a huge amphitheater located near the Parthenon. I love my Canon dslr camera, but I probably used the camera on my iPhone 5 just as much, if not more. I took way too many of these panoramic shots!

After all the viewing of old buildings, it was time for my favorite activity.... eating! My kids were clearly starving. They found grape vines on our walk down the hill and enjoyed eating the "not so ripe" grapes, until a local told them they'd make them sick!

The food we found was amazing! These gyros were so good. I'd give my right arm for one right now. My favorite thing (as I mentioned on my Venice post) was the brightness and color of their produce. And notice the empty bowl above my plate... it once contained "fried cheese"- a Greek specialty, that obviously didn't last long on our table!