After a few days in Athens we traveled north to Volos (Βόλος) a beautiful coastal city backed by mountains - mountains which were topped with snow!!
The day that we went exploring up the mountains we hit some pretty icy terrain, on our way to the Ski resort at the top, and decided to turn back and visit a village called Makrynitsa, less high up, less snowy, but still bitterly cold.
The view of Volos from Makrynitsa was magnificent and I imagine looks even better on a sunny day.
We found the most gorgeous little coffee shop to defrost in and it served the best hot chocolate and chocolate souffle I've ever had - It didn't last long!!
We also had a lovely coastal walk exploring the lengths of the Volos seafront, which ended in some traditional Mezze and locally distilled Tsipouro. Tsipouro is a Greek Spirit and comes flavoured with or without anise. I prefered the Tsipouro with anise and was fascinated watching it change from clear to cloudy when you added ice (still not sure of the science behind this - could be magic).
The thing I think we’ll remember the most from our trip to Greece is the hospitality. From our hosts, to their friends and the people we met in the bars and taverns, every person we spoke with made us feel so welcome. We even sat for 6 hours in one tavern having dinner and no one hurried us out, even when we were the last table left.
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| Snowy trees |
The day that we went exploring up the mountains we hit some pretty icy terrain, on our way to the Ski resort at the top, and decided to turn back and visit a village called Makrynitsa, less high up, less snowy, but still bitterly cold.
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| One of the many cats of Makrynitsa |
The view of Volos from Makrynitsa was magnificent and I imagine looks even better on a sunny day.
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| Standard Jim in a tree picture |
We found the most gorgeous little coffee shop to defrost in and it served the best hot chocolate and chocolate souffle I've ever had - It didn't last long!!
We also had a lovely coastal walk exploring the lengths of the Volos seafront, which ended in some traditional Mezze and locally distilled Tsipouro. Tsipouro is a Greek Spirit and comes flavoured with or without anise. I prefered the Tsipouro with anise and was fascinated watching it change from clear to cloudy when you added ice (still not sure of the science behind this - could be magic).
The thing I think we’ll remember the most from our trip to Greece is the hospitality. From our hosts, to their friends and the people we met in the bars and taverns, every person we spoke with made us feel so welcome. We even sat for 6 hours in one tavern having dinner and no one hurried us out, even when we were the last table left.
People seemed genuinely interested in chatting to us and put our very minimal Greek vocabulary to shame with their very impressive conversational English! Our shouts of
'γειά σου' (Helllo)
'παρακαλώ' (Please)
‘ευχαριστώ’ (Thanks)
shouldn’t have impressed anyone but they seem pleased with our attempts.
Giannis and Stefania were so kind and considerate while we were there. They were fantastic tour guides and I definitely felt that we came away knowing more about Greek culture and history. I just hope we have the opportunity to show them the hospitality of the Irish soon!!
These posts have been a bit different for my blog, I hope you enjoyed them. We are also visiting Paris at the end of this month, my Christmas present to Jim, so there may be another.
I’d highly recommend a pre-weddingmoon trip to any couple planning a wedding. It was so lovely to put our planning and daily life to the back of our minds. Wedding planning can be stressful and with less than 100 days to go (?!) it was nice to take some time out and enjoy just being Jim & Amy.
Amy
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Love it. Have lots of fun and enjoy making all these fabulous memories together :) xx
ReplyDeleteThanks Lynette :) It was lovely to have some time together to relax!
DeleteOh this looks amazing! :) x
ReplyDeleteWe had an amazing time Karis and will definitely be researching another trip to Greece! x
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