j + j travelblog

It's hard to say goodbye to the lovely Greek islands, but Spain (and its sangria) is calling.

And here's the always requested good-bye list of the loved and not-so loved:

Stuff we found endearing about Greece:

• The Beaches of Mykonos - Wonderful sand, incredible landscape, clear and clean water. And of course, an incredibly liberal beach culture.
• The charm of Santorini - The picturesque and quintessential Greece postcard scenery of Fira town and Oai. The white washed buildings, domed churches, the sky, the sea, the narrow, twisted cobblestone streets. Beautiful.
• The dramatic landscape of Crete - Quite unlike the other islands we visited, Crete is lush and hilly. Beautiful drives across the island with its rolling hills and peaked mountains covered in pine. Not to mention the incredibly beautiful Samaria Gorge.
• Greek wine! - Tasty and cheap :)

Stuff falling somewhere on the amusing/annoying/disturbing scale:

• Grouchy Greeks - We don't mean to call all Greeks grouchy, but we met more than a handful of unfriendly ones - especially the bus driver who tried to physically remove me from his bus! Maybe they are sick of tourists after hosting the Olympics and the Para-Olympics? We can cut them some slack.
• Euro Sticker Shock! - A $8 cup of coffee? After spending so much time in Asia and Africa, Greece and the euro proved to hit even harder than expected. We are still adjusting.
• The ubiquitous Greek mullet - Now it's hard for a girl with recently pink hair to throw stones, but the mullet just doesn't look good, gentlemen. But the Greeks seem to love it. Got me.
• The lack of 'Road Rules' - or rather lack of drivers following the road rules. It certainly was no Cairo, but the Greeks are up there.

We head to Barcelona tomorrow, via Berlin. The plan is to spend a few weeks in Spain - moving west from Barcelona to Madrid and Seville on our way to Portugal. If we are lucky, we may hit Morocco for a bit too!