The Road to Hanioti, Greece

The road through the countryside of Macedonia on our way to Greece was beautiful.  We passed through many quaint villages, green mountains and vineyards.  It was a 4 hour journey that was safely chauffeured by Sashko, a good friend of Tanjas.  Our trip ended up taking a while longer, as there are TWO border passport checkpoints.  One to leave Macedonia, and the next one to enter Greece.
 We passed the border into Greece at 8:58 am.  I'm here...
 I was a really overcome with emotion, as this has been a lifelong dream of mine, and you know how you always hope and wish something will come true, but it really may never happen...  but then it actually DOES? Anyway, it was an incredible feeling.  We caught our first glimpse of the Aegean Sea as we traveled by the town of Thessaloniki.  The water was a royal blue out further and a greenish teal up closer to the shore. The towns and cities we saw all contained white houses with red tile roofs.

Just a lovely setting.  When we arrived into the town
of Hanioi, we found the place we could be staying, The Hotel Polis, where we quickly changed into our swim suits and headed for the beach that was literally down the street.  Niecy took a picture of me almost running down the street to get to the ocean, followed by one of me in "heaven" as I walk out into the Aegean Sea.  It is the most beautiful water I have ever seen!  Crystal clear and cold as well! We stayed at the beach for the rest of the day, toasting with the Greek beer Mythos (mee thos).  We headed back to our hotel, as dinner was included in the amazing deal we received.  We ate and then got cleaned up and headed into the town's center to check out the layout of the town, and see its many beautiful sights.


The town center had many touristy type shops and many don't open until the sun goes down!  We looked around for a place to sit, listen to music, enjoy the cool evening, and have a cocktail.  The weather is gorgeous, warm and
sunny today and cool in the evening.  We walked back to our hotel around midnight, and opened the windows to allow the cool air in for the night.  We slept soundly (albeit on very FIRM beds!) and woke up the next morning ready for the adventure to continue...