Two and a half weeks in “paradise” wasn’t nearly enough.

Neo Karlovasi, Samos, Greece | 6/18/15 | 10:43 PM
I have just barely begun my adventures in Greece and I can already tell this place is amazing. The beaches have umbrellas and beach chairs nicely laid out, and an attendant walks by and collects money so you can use them. Kristos (sp?) was the attendant at Tsamadou beach, and he kept calling the place paradise. You, my friend, are 100% correct. (Except all of the beaches have rocks instead of sand, which makes water shoes completely necessary.)

Two countries, one trip?

If you look across the horizon in Arizona, what do you see? Probably Arizona. In the U.S (especially the west coast), states alone are large enough to be their own countries. In Greece, however, the islands are pretty small. So small, in fact, that much of the island of Samos can be explored in just one or two days. This, along with its proximity to Turkey, allowed for us to see the land of Turkey while we were on the Samos beach! I was told that refugees were coming across the water from Turkey, to find safety in Greece. Apparently they were escaping all the way from ISIS, but don’t quote me on that… I can only tell you this based on what I remember. And that isn’t much.

ΓΥΡΟ ΓΥΡΟ ΟΛΟΙ (Gyro Gyro Oloi)

On one of our first nights in Greece, we decided to try our first real gyros. Oh. My. Heavens. Yes. We stuffed our faces full, American-style. This was just the beginning of the massive amounts of food I would be consuming on my travels. Have you ever heard of the “Freshman 15?” Well let me tell you, there is also a “Traveler 10!”

Gypsies, gypsies everywhere!

“The gypsy sonuvabitch burned us!”

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is one of my favorite shows (see About Me page), and every time I hear the word “gypsy,” I think of one of my favorite episodes (S5:E2) where the gang stops to buy some fruit from gypsies. Now I had never witnessed a real-life gypsy before, but in Greece I did. They were selling homemade baskets! Of course we had to stop and haggle them for a good bargain. Thank you It’s Always Sunny, for being my voice of reason 🙂

The endless dance battles…

During our family trip to Greece, dance battles and dance parties seemed to be the norm. I wasn’t able to catch any on video, but they happened everywhere. And I mean everywhere. We blasted The 1975 at the house and had dance-offs… while we were driving, we put a spin to your standard Chinese-fire-drill by also including random dancing outside the vehicle until we saw cars coming… we had dance parties at restaurants… everywhere. It would definitely be seen as strange in America, but over there, anything goes. And I like that.

Do you have any stories from Samos, Greece? Share in the comments below!