The fat duck bill

After a 6 hour connecting flight from Santorini we landed at Heathrow, despite all I had heard about LHR it was relatively painless going through passport control and customs. There were 2 ways to Paul and Laci's house(Paul and Laci from now referred to by their couple abbreviation Placi), either catch the tube, then a cab (this was the cheap option) or the Heathrow express train then a cab (expensive option). I was all for the expensive option to start with but Heidi said we should be thrifty. When we got out to where the trains were there was some advertising saying 45 minutes by the underground tube vs sub 15 minutes on the express. After 6 hours of already commuting Heidi was immediately swayed to the express option.

A short black cab ride later (which I was pretty excited about for a London cultural experience) we arrived at Placi's house in Islington which they had recently moved into only a few days beforehand. Laci made a Hungarian chicken dish called Csirke Pörkölt and it was awesome to finally have a delicious home cooked meal.

We went out exploring Islington as it was Placi's first weekend there too. After hitting up a few cocktail bars we ended up at this rum bar which had a pirate theme. Heidi was trying out some weird cocktail which is served in a monkey head glass. All I can say is spiced rum is maybe the best thing ever.
The next morning we got up had a small breakfast and caught the train to Maidenhead(lol) then hopped a cab to Bray to go to Heston Blumenthal's restaurant the Fat Duck. It usually places in the top 5 restaurants in the world, but this year it has slipped to number 13. When we got to Bray we walked around the town for a while as we were a bit early. There were graves all around the church there and you had to walk through the "lich gate" to get to the cemetery. The buildings around there were build circa 16th century. Apparently all the people were a lot smaller then as they were almost hobbit (or Heidi) size.
When it was 12pm we wandered back to the Fat Duck and walked in. This was another 16th century building so you had to duck your head or it would hit the rafters on the way to the table. Inside the restaurant it was smaller that we expected and apparently only sits around 30 people. No wonder it's so hard to get a booking!
We were seated and the champagne cart came around. Laci, our resident wine aficionado had the wine list with the prices and ordered the vintage Moet 2002, there was also Dom Perignon on offer but I realised it must have been pretty ridiculously priced for Laci to go with the Moet. After a toast and a chat the amuse bouche came out and I think it was some kind of really light macaroon puff thing but made with beetroot and had horseradish cream cheese in between the layers. 

A waiter wheeled out a trolley with a few soda stream bottles and a smoking pot of liquid nitrogen. The waiter offered us the choice of 3 "nitro poached aperitifs". The others ordered the vodka and lime sour or gin and tonic. I had the campari soda as I was already missing Italy. The waiter who made it squirted some foamy cocktail then threw it in the boiling liquid nitrogen and made it into a solid, once popped into your mouth it instantly melted. He also sprayed some citrus scent in the air I have no idea what this is for but maybe one of us forgot some deodorant.

Good cocktails

The first food course was a red cabbage gazpacho with pommery grain mustard ice cream. Let me just get this out of the way, every course was amazing and delicious. I will just describe the courses were freaking amazing or had theatrical value otherwise we'll be here all day and I don't want to make this blog sound like more of a pretentious foody blog than it already is. So if I just say what a course is and don't leave much description, it doesn't mean its bad, it's just average for Heston which in normal terms means it's fucking spectacularly delicious and has weird flavour combinations that work.

Red cabbage gazpacho with pommery grain mustard ice cream.

The first lot of matching wine was brought out by the sommilier and it was a 2004 Peter Lehmann riesling. I told the sommilier that we cain heaps of the $10 versions of Mr Lehmann's rieslings back in Australia. He smiled but was probably thinking that I was about the 50th Aussie to tell him that this year. A waiter brought out a box of what looked to be turf but on checking the menu it turned out to be oak moss. He poured some liquid nitrogen into it so it created this fog that spread across the table. Then they brought out the chicken liver parfait in crayfish cream with quail jelly that had been turned into a chip and some truffle toast. Then they placed what looked like a little breath strips on the oak moss. This turned out that they'd somehow got the oak flavouring into a breath strip which was supposed to go with the truffle toast, you know because the truffles grow on oak tree roots.

Chicken liver parfait in crayfish cream with quail jelly.

The next 2 "average" courses were snail porridge with iberico bellota ham and shaved fennel(kinda like a chunky pea and ham soup but with snail), then some roast foie gras with gooseberry, braised kombu and crab biscuit.

Snail porridge.

Oh man roasted foie gras.

The waiters brought out the next dish which was Heston's take on the Mad Hatter's tea party from Alice and Wonderland. A three tier high tea set was brought out with toast sandwich(like little club sandwiches but the middle layer was toasted, really cool texture). The waiters then stacked a glass teapot on top of a glass bowl filled with what looked like egg with mushrooms growing out of it, bits of  meat and other things, then filled the teapot up with hot water. They gave us all what looked like gold pocket watches. On the table there was a card with an illustration of the Mad Hatter's tea party and a quote "The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily then he dipped it into his cup of tea". So we put the "pocket watch" into the hot water and it dissolved into gold leaf and stock which created the soup base. Then we poured the stock into the soup bowl at the bottom and created the mock turtle soup. The mock turtle character illustration was on the other side of the card along with a paragraph about how mock turtle soup came to be.

The pocket watch going into the soup.

The finished soup with gold leaf and sandwiches. That nearly demolished stick of butter in the background is unpasturised. I was eating it like cheese. How come the French get to inflict pasturisation on us then don't even use the process to make their yummiest cheeses?

 

I kind of wish there was one of the previous non theatrical courses in between these 2 but the next course was titled "Sounds of the Sea". Basically if you haven't heard of this before you get an iPod in a shell with waves crashing and the occasional bird. While there's a dish with the surf foam, sand, seaweed and seafood that you eat while listening to the ocean sounds for a fully immersive experience. I was slightly skeptical about this dish before going in and thought it was a bit over hyped. Well believe the hype. It was amazing, it felt like I was at the beach, especially when I had a mouthful of sand and foam because I'm a crap surfer. There was 2 types of sashimied mackerel and halibut, some abalone sashimi and little sea cucumbers. The sand was made of tapioca and I think the foam was made with seaweed extract. The matching wine was actually a saki, ohhhh yeah.

Sounds of the sea.

Heidi and Laci listening to the sound of the sea with the conch shell iPods.

Course eight was salmon poached in a liquorice gel with artichokes, vanilla mayo and golden trout roe. Artichokes when done well are some of my favourite things. Even though I hate liquorice it was a really mild flavour and the salmon flavour dominated it.

Artichokes are supposed to put the flavour of wine off but I don't care because they are so delicious.

This was followed by a course just called "The Duck". I figured this must have been a signature dish as it beared the restaurant's name but not so by looking at other blogs. Anyway it came with bay, blood pudding and umbles. I have no idea what most of that stuff is but it was freaking awesome.

Best duck ever oh and the mash potatoes smashed Joel Robuchon's famous pommes puree.

The course before deserts was a "hot and iced tea". I have no idea how this works but the drink starts hot, then midway through goes hot and cold then completely cold at the end and the taste was the same the way through.

Hot and Iced tea.

I'm not a massive sweets fan, but these deserts were pretty amazing. The first was clove caramelised blackberries with hjicha tea ice cream cornet which was supposed to have a picnic theme I think and the second was just called "the BFG" which stood for Black Forest Gateau.

Clove caramelised blackberries with hjicha tea ice cream cornet.

The BFG

The waiters then brought out what looked like picture frames but on closer inspection was a map of the Scotland and a floating map of Tennessee in the USA, with little bottle shaped gummy things on them. WHISKY GUMMY THINGS! There were 5 whiskys from 5 areas the one from Islay was super smokey and tasted nearly like having a cigar. I don't know why they bothered with the American whiskey, it's lame.

The bracketed E in the photo is for the dumb American spelling for the Jack Daniels.

The last desert we couldn't even fit in but luckily it came in a carry bag. It was a bag of sweets called "Like a kid in a sweet shop". The card which told you what was in the bag had a message on it saying "sniff me" so we did and it smelt like walking into a sweets store. The thing I liked best was a caramel which you eat the wrapping at all but when it dissolved it tasted like apple pie. There was also Fat Duck coconut baccy (came in a tobacco pouch, but was coconut infused with an aroma of Black Cavendish tobacco), the queen of hearts playing card(who made some tarts - was white chocolate with a berry tart inside) and like an aero chocolate with jelly.

The queen of hearts.

Mmmm chewing baccy which didn't taste foul.

It really is like a Willy Wonka experience at Heston's and is well worth the big fat duck bill at the end of because you'd only do it once, (unless someone wants to take me there again).

Santorini sunsets

Monday morning we rose and set off for breakfast, this time defiantly going to the place where Ryan tried Greek coffee (and next to the guy we had been to previously who had said "Yes! Today is MY day!"). Us girls had our normal yoghurt/fruit/honey combos while Ryan had a sausage and pepper omelette. Then we checked out and got a ride down to the port to catch a ferry to Santorini.

Another acceptable balcony view

Back on to the little ferry we had been on before, but this time Kat and I were at least next to each other with Ryan just an aisle over and a few rows back. A 40 minute or so trip later we arrived at Santorini, with what seemed like a thousand other people, which was quite different to our arrivals at the other 2 small islands. Kat was flying out a few hours later back to London, so we got a cab up to the capital, Fira, for lunch. Ryan and I were staying in Oia at the north-west tip of the island, so since we had our bags we couldn't venture too far and pretty much stopped in at the first taverna we could get to, which somehow involved the waiters helping us haul our bags and ourselves over the back fence into the place. Not the most gracious of entrances, especially considering our exit just involved wheeling the bags out the front door, but hey, sometimes things are not always best done the easier way.

Oia - picture perfect

Some gyros, grilled squid and stuffed eggplants later, we farewelled Kat off into a cab to the airport, while we hopped in a cab to head up to Oia. The cab drived told us that we didn't need to wear seat belts (although I couldn't see any) because we were "safer without them". I asked him "You're a good driver then?" and he replied "We're ALL good drivers!". So we arrived at Maryloujohn Villas reception where Yannis the young and rather attractive manager was asleep on the couch. But after waking him from his slumber, he helped us check in to our room which had a balcony with postcard worthy vistas.

Oia panorama

We settled in and enjoyed the views, then went for a wander around the town of Oia, which was very touristy but also undeniably beautiful and a photographer's dream. And so we wandered and stopped in at a bar with amazing views for a drink and some baklava, and then picked a place, King's Neptune, with a rooftop terrace for a dinner of lamb and Greek salad as the sun set.

Nice spot for dinner

The next morning we went out for some coffees and fruit and yoghurt and wandered around the town again. For lunch that day we just went to the nearby bakery for some spinach pie and bread, and picked some olives and olive oil and enjoyed it on the villa balcony. We basically spent the next 2 days in  reading and internetting and blogging and just soaking up the glorious view!

Happy Ryan enjoying a Mythos at our villas

Oia's sunset

We finally asked a fellow tourist to take a pic of us

Pool cafe bar - good idea. There should be more of these in Sydney.

So basically we didn't do a hell of a lot in Santorini (except lounge around looking at the view and taking lots of photos!). On the second night we had some lamb and moussaka for dinner (capped off with a complimentary yummy panna cotta for dessert!) and on our last day we spent the afternoon at a pool cafe bar establishment on the western side of Oia where we were in the perfect spot to watch the famous sunset (without the hoards of tourists perched on the hill elsewhere), all washed down with a beer and/or bloody mary. Not bad, not bad at all.

Sunset at the pool bar away from the crowds!

Dinner that night, being sadly our last night in Greece and in fact in or near the Mediterranean, we enjoyed some grilled squid and meatballs. The following morning I set the alarm so that I could watch dawn crack in such a beautiful place. And later that morning we sadly packed and got a cab to little Santorini airport. Not too sadly though, as we were catching a flight to London where we still had another week ahead to cap off the end of this amazing trip!

Santorini sunrise

Aerial view of Fira, Santorini

This is folly

Katrina and Heidi dropped the rental car back and then met me at the docks to catch the catamaran ferry to Folegandros. Although it was very calm on the water from my seat I kept catching wafts of spew. At least this was a short trip.

We docked at the port and the hotel manager met us with transport back to the hotel. The hotel was awesome, it had these rooms which I think are called cave rooms and the view from them was amazing. The hotel also had a pool which was good because it's hard to swim in the ocean on this island as its mostly sheer cliffs down to the water.

View from the hotel, its alright I guess

Once we settled in we walked a short way into town and had some omelettes for lunch. Apparently only on Friday after this celebration they have they have this special soup which consists of chick peas which the owner gave us for free to try. I think it tasted pretty good but didn't have much because chick peas make me sick. We then went back home and lazed around and in the pool until it was dinner time again. Heidi had some stuffed veges and I had some grilled chicken which tasted like disappointment and bad decisions.

The next morning we went for breakfast and I tried to order a Greek coffee but the owner of the place was doing everything he could to try to talk me out of having one. Eventually he said he'd make me one for free and to just order my regular espresso coffee too as a backup. Anyway it came out and it kinda tasted like someone had made coffee out of Brisbane river water when they were still dredging it. It was thick and had a lot of sediment.

Here goes...

The guy was right Greek coffee is awful. Why don't they filter it?

Anyway we walked around the beautiful little town and replenished the beers/wine stores so as to make reading by the pool more enjoyable. For dinner we went back into town and I had some matsata with rabbit and Heidi had some stuffed vegetables for a change. Matsata is fresh made local pasta and is kind of like a short fettucini.

When we went for breakfast the next day we decided to go back to the place we went for lunch on the first day. The man that owns the place exclaimed "YES, today is my day!" Apparently there is a lot of rivalry between these guys. After breakfast we had a swim and then had some more stuffed vegetables and matsatas with goat this time at lunch (when you find a good local dish it is important to constantly eat it to avoid things tasting like disappointment and bad decisions). We then went for a walk up to the church on the top of the hill.

Church bells

Oldies doing the walk easier than us fatties.

We made a friend along the way.

After some beers in the pool we went for a dinner with more stuffed vegetables. They were out of matsata so I had to order some souvlaki. There was also some dancing and music in the main town, I think there was some wedding on.

The oldies putting us to shame again.

If you're wondering why there was so much pool lazing about and not enough "travelling" well I will answer this with the below photo. I am all about breaking up the touristing/travelling with some goddam holidaying, if I had unlimited funds and time a perfect trip scenario for me would be 20% travelling and 80% holidaying. That said, this trip has been super awesome and my darling wife is a very good trip planner.

I said "pssst I love you"

Aegean dreaming

I'll start this blog with a photo of the view we had while sipping cocktails at the Hilton for Ryan's birthday which Ryan for some reason didn't deem worthy enough to include in his own blog, but with the sun setting down behind the Acropolis it nearly justified the 20 Euro a cocktail price tag.

The Acropolis at sunset

Tuesday September 11 we woke to the alarm at 5:30am, as we had a boat to catch at 7am to Milos. For some reason all the boats seem to leave Athens for the islands at the crack of dawn. We cabbed it to the port Pireaus in the dark, driving past the Acropolis still all magically lit up. Once on board it was all a bit of a dog fight as the tickets were issued with seat numbers, but for some reason they like to issue out these seats completely randomly and so pretty much anyone that was travelling together was sitting at least a few seats/rows away from their companions. Due to some good thinking on my part, I had popped a travel sickness pill before I got on the boat, and thank God because unbeknownst to us it was an extremely windy day and the sea was really rough. The journey took nearly 3.5 hours, instead of 2.5, and at least a third of the passengers filled up the sick bags. I felt fine, and just closed my eyes trying to ignore the sights and sounds around me and the fact that the waves were crashing over the boat. Even Ryan, the 'salty old sea dog', looked over to me (from 4 seats away) and said he was feeling pretty average. But we finally arrived at Milos, greeted by my dear friend Katrina (who I used to work with at the Garvan but now lives in London), and who decided to join us on the islands for 6 nights!

Our balcony view when we arrived - you could virtually surf those waves. It was flat the next day.

Kat had flown in earlier that morning and picked up our rental car, so we dumped the bags in the car and then went for some brunch near the port for a catch-up and so Ryan would feel better! The laid-back waiter had some troubles with our order - he couldn't believe I didn't want sugar in my cappucino freddo, and he couldn't get his head around the fact that Ryan wanted some bacon and 2 eggs in between 2 pieces of toast. Anyway, it didn't matter that some crepes took 45 minutes to come out or the fact that he never brought the juices, because we had a lot to catch up on, and there was a mini-market next door where you could pick up a juice for 37 cents anyway. After brunch, we then drove to Pollonia where we were staying and checked into our respective hotels. Kat was staying at a place next to us as where I had booked was full, which is understandable when you look at the pic of our balcony view above.

We bumped into Ryan's doppelganger again in Milos. He's a funny guy.

After settling in to our accommodation, we hit the road in out little Fiat down to the south of the island (a beach called Paleochori I think) where it would be a little calmer on a windy day like that day. It was a small and quiet pebble-stoned beach with only a few other people there (which was such a nice change from the hoards of  tourists in Athens and Rome). So we relaxed on the chairs under the umbrellas, which yes we did pay for but it was so much cheaper than we had seen elsewhere and it definitely is a lot more comfortable! And so we swam and read and snoozed and chatted and did all the relaxing things that one should do when on the Greek islands.

It's a pretty easy job taking photos in the Greek islands

I had chosen Milos as our first island stop, as after visiting the islands (well, the Cyclades at least) ten years ago, I knew we'd end up at Santorini and I wanted to visit a couple of islands nearby that I hadn't been to before. I'm glad that we did because Milos was a small slice of heaven! So after our first beach stop, we drove to the capital, Plaka (which was the sleepiest capital I have ever visited), and we climbed up to the top of the hill where there was not one, but two churches. There are churches scattered everywhere in the Greek islands, particularly on the top of hills, and not only because they are very picturesque and make good photo opportunities, but also apparently because the higher up the hill, or the more difficult location the church is built in, the more likely the Greeks thought they would be rewarded by the powers that be. So the 3 of us climbed up to the top of the hill, to what was the highest point on the island with impossibly amazing vistas. Having the place to ourselves,  we hung out for a bit taking photos and enjoying being in such a spectacular spot on the planet.

Ryan doesn't like when I get on his case to do the next blog update - it is a very hard job after all

Back in Pollonia we showered the salty sea away, and walked into the heart of town for dinner. We'd picked a place which had been recommended to us as "only fish" so picked a table and ordered some grilled cuttlefish (me), amber jack (Ryan) and seafood pasta (Kat) accompanied by a bottle of Santorini white wine, and surrounded by some stray cats which seem to be prolific on the islands.

They don't all have to paint their doors and windows blue

The next morning we headed back to the south of the island to a different beach, this one being sandier although colder than the previous day. We lazed around, swimming, reading and chatting with some iced coffees and beers to boot, and then headed back near the port for lunch to a quirky little restaurant called Oh!Hamos! where we had tzatziki, lamb, wild goat and stuffed eggplant to complete the yummy Greek dining experience. The waiter was a funny and friendly guy, as most of the Greeks seem to be, and gave us a free little dessert each. Then we drove to a place called Starakiniko (which looked like the moon with all its white rock, but with more atmosphere), and with a narrow passage of water through the middle of it, which we of course went for a dip in. After returning home and again washing the salty sea away, we went out for a dinner of greek salad, prawns, and a seafood pasta which unfortunately for Ryan turned out to be squid ink spaghetti sans seafood. Kat made up for it by ordering a delicious dessert (white chocolate millefeuille type thing with caramelised strawberries I think). Then back home, with full bellies as is always the case, we went.

Underwater caves on the boat trip

The next morning we decided to go on a boat tour (OK I think this was our first official tour of the trip, but when it's a boat you don't have many alternative choices).  We hopped on the boat, which was a sail boat although we motored around everywhere rather than hoisting the sails, for what was a fantastic day sailing/motoring around the island of Milos. We sailed past some little towns, one which was particularly cute with all the little while buildings having doors painted different colours, around to the western side of the island where we anchored next to a little cave. We hopped off into the cool waters and swam through the cave into a still area of perfect Aegean water. I think that there are not many things better in the world than when I'm swimming with Ryan, a friend like Kat, and even strangers, in a spot where we were all floating and looking around us and saying "Awesome".

Sea gazing

We then motored on to another spot called Kleftiko which is only accessible by boat and which is another heavenly spot. We hopped off the boat, into some of the clearest and most turqouise waters I have witnessed, and swam/floated around, saw some wild goats scaling steep cliffs, swam through a cave where the water was so blue I thought they may have been shining a blue light onto it (but no they weren't, and I was glad that I didn't bother paying the exorbitant fee to see the Blue Grotto at Capri because there is no way that is the bluest water in the world. You can see it for free at Milos.)

Returning home from the boat trip

We had a delicious lunch on board the boat, and then gradually made our way back home after what was a spectacular day on the water. After watching the sun set from our balcony, we headed into town again for our last dinner in Milos. It is indeed a first world problem when you have a heavy heart leaving one Greek island for another...

Get him to the Greek

We got up and caught the train back to Roma airport. After rejigging some baggage we passed the sleazy jet weight restrictions on luggage even though when there was nothing on the scales it said 2kg. Jerks. We then went through security and found we couldn't take some olive oils on the carry on due to the liquid allowance, this wasn't signed anywhere in the airport until the security area. Signs saying you can't take guns/explosives aboard were everywhere though. Once again Italy's helpful signage got us one last time. Anyway we got into Athens and disembarked a few gourmet delights lighter.

We caught the train to Sintagma station which was a pretty good area to stay in, (good work Heidi) and hauled our bags to the hotel. We had a bit of a walk around and I had a burger because I was starving. We then found a place for a drink, Heidi ordered a half kg of wine and I got a beer. When a half litre of wine came out Heidi was shocked that it was so much, I was not sure what she was expecting. Maybe she was sick for the day of the science class about the metric system volumes vs weight.

The nice man who owned the place asked where we were from and when we said Australia he went inside and returned with a plate of carved meat for free. We did a bit more walking around and saw a few ruins that the city seems to be plagued by. One thing we noticed that was a bit worrying was parked around the city were buses full of police in riot gear and ready to go at a moments notice.

Surely this should have been cleaned up by now?

For dinner we went to this great place near our hotel. The staff were really friendly, one of the waitresses said she had family in Australia but her dad wouldn't let her go see them because he said she wouldn't want to come back. Anyway I had some pork belly with green beans and Heidi had a chicken kebab. Even though it was pork belly it was potentially one of the healthiest meals had this holiday because of the veges.

The next day after the complimentary hotel breakfast we went to see the changing of the guards outside parliament house. It happens every hour but the Sunday one at 11am is the best one to see because it includes a full marching band and they shut off the street for all the pomp and ceremony. It takes about 20 minutes and there's police yelling at people to form a line so the guys can get through. I was tempted to help the policeman by yelling out "HOLD SPARTANS!" but I wasn't sure how that would go down.

Yes, those are pom poms on their boots.

After this we walked up to catch a vernicular to this spot which has a 360 degree view of the sprawling mass that is Athens. There was a bar up there which was out of the wind, so we  went there for a beverage. When we got back down we went for lunch at the grill place who gave us a free plate of miscellaneous meats. We were welcomed back with a lot of hand shaking and pats on the back by the nice owner. After having some pork carvings he gave us some free yogurt with honey and a shot of miscellaneous booze.

Us and the sprawl

Since it was my birthday we decided to have some cocktails at the Hilton. On the way there we saw a protest, it looked pretty peaceful but there were a lot of police on hand to no doubt keep the working man down. Anyway we had a few drinks and cocktails overlooking Athens as the sun was going down and it was all very nice.

The next morning we went to the Acropolis before it got too hot as going to ruins in the heat of the day is not much fun. For the Acropolis you have get these tickets which they tear off a section every time you walk through an area. Europeans love the ticket validation. The Acropolis was a nice change of white ruins from the red brick ones of Rome which we were getting a bit sick of.

I think this bit was restored. There's a lot of restoration being done right now.

This was not right at the Acropolis but was apparently the best preserved building there.

For lunch we went to this bar that had an actual lawn, I thought Greeks despised lawn and loved the concrete which they can easily use a Greek broom ie. a hose to clean with, but this place was different and quite novel. We had a feta stuffed capsicum and some mince stuffed eggplant and a few drinks there.

We had a walk around then went for to a bar which was next to the place we went on the first night. Heidi liked it as it was dark and "ambient". I had a champagne since I didn't get any birthday champagne as a champagne at the Hilton was about 20  euros. I was a bit miffed about there being a massive strawberry in my champagne as I am like why are you messing with champagne? It does not need to be messed with, but what are you going to do about first world problems?

We then went to the same place as we did on the first night for dinner, except this time I had the lamb and it was awesome. Heidi had a whole sea bass awww yeah. They were really happy to see us as they recognised Heidi's favourable trip advisor review and asked if it was us. Heidi said yes she did review it and they were really happy.

Lamb rack with stuffed tomato

So far the Greeks have been really awesome, from the hotel service to the restaurants they're all really friendly. We didn't have to drive in Athens so maybe we would have a different opinion then, but Athens was a really cool city to visit.