The Sawyer Stories

Happy birthday, Michael! Sorry of all the days, it’s a travel day that started at 3:30 am. We all got a broken 4ish hours of sleep before the alarm went off. Luckily our hotel was right across the street from the airport. Ready or not, Greece, here we come!

Highlights from Day 9

• We had much more success with sleeping on this flight. Liam was asleep in the airport and then again on the plane before take off.
  

-We touched down in warm, sunny Athens to our fancy pickup; cold water and juice ready in the car. You can’t drink the tap water in Greece, so there are always giant water bottles instead. The drive to the port gave us a quick peak at Greece’s landscape.

• Our first destination in Greece is actually on the island of Naxos. To get there, you take a 4 hour ferry out of Rafina. We grabbed some lunch while we waited for our ferry. The ferry was a huge rush off of people and cars and then a huge rush on just the same. We joined the herd.
• Hold on, I must say more about lunch. We began to walk down a sidewalk to check out the different restaurants. However, we were quickly scooped up and ushered into the first one we passed by 3 kind and persuasive Greek men. They moved our luggage to the side and gave us cold water and warm bread within minutes. We will soon learn this is common everywhere in Greece.

-Let’s talk about the ferry. Boats and Amber are a mixed bag, so she was glad we had nice reclining seats. We each took turns napping, but we also enjoyed paying games, watching shows together and going out on deck to see the passing islands. No worries, Amber survived without throwing up.

• When we finally reached Naxos, they called out our stop. Us along with hundreds of our best friends and dozens of vehicles anxiously ventured to the steaming hot underbelly of the ferry awaiting our exit. The giant garage door opened and we could see a Greek flag waving from a sailboat. As the ferry lined up with the dock, we then say the Temple of Apollo out in the distance followed by beautiful Greek homes on the side of the hill. We are almost there! Or so we thought. The ferry driver then proceeded to back up and we saw these same gorgeous landmarks in reverse…and then again 4 more times as the heat in the ferry garage continued to grow. Finally the boat stopped and the crowd collectively cheered as we all found our way outside and on the island of Naxos at last.

• We were instantly hit with a major culture whiplash from Sweden. Everything was a bit more chaotic with sights, sounds, and vehicles everywhere. We began to make our way from the port to our Airbnb. We were anxious to drop our stuff and find dinner (we arrived 2 hrs later than planned and it was already almost 8:00).
  
• When we finally found our new home away from home, the keys weren’t where they belonged. We had to call the owner to let us in, but it was worth it! Look how cute!

• We ended the night like Amber’s family always does on the first night of vacation, with pizza! Once again, we had incredible catered service from the owner who insured our vegan pizzas were up to par. I think we are going to like it here.