We flew EasyJet from Rome to Athens Monday afternoon.  As a budget airline EasyJet’s tickets are insanely low at about only $30, if you are not checking in luggage. They hit you with high fees for everything but you still end up with a pretty reasonably priced fare.  The airline doesn’t  bother with things like reserved seating, it’s a free for all when getting on the plane.

Savanna likes to say “travel is hard”.  She’s right.  We’ve been traveling at a vacation pace for the past 6 weeks and it’s wearing us down. Our plan for Greece is simply to relax.  We will hit a few sites, the Parthenon maybe an island or two but the primary objective is to recharge and get a better handle on exactly what we will do in Africa beyond our skeleton of an idea.

Sierra and Savanna with Chico

For whatever reason the girls have chosen this trip as the time to push getting a dog.   We’ve heard choruses of “can we get a dog” along with all the reasons why getting a dog is a good idea, completely undeterred by our year of travel and absolute inability to get a dog.  In the interest of quenching their dog desire we thought perhaps a house with a dog and a pool somewhere in Greece would be a good find.  I decided to look for a house sitting arrangement since we do want to stay in place, spend more time relaxing rather than site seeing, and a softer blow to the bank account would be appreciated.  A search for “dog pool beach greece” on mindmyhouse.com found what turned out to be exactly what we need: a very nice house, a dog, a pool, solitude, beaches close by and a friendly host who is an excellent cook. Located on a hillside about a couple miles from the center of town, the house is surrounded by Olive and Orange trees, about a mile from the town of Epidavros.

Helen, the home owner, has been scouring the internet in search of house sitters so she can get away to France for the winter.  While our timing and length of stay didn’t match up with her needs she offered to host us as “house sitters” while she remains on the property, charging a nominal fee in exchange for us contributing to the house work.  While we were not too keen on the idea at first, staying as someones house guest for two weeks, part of the reason for this trip was to push boundries, get out of our comfort zone so we will give it a try.  The arrangement has turned out to be excellent for all parties, we are giving her needed help with various household chores, the girls have a very friendly Chesapeake Bay Retriever to play with  and we are minutes away from the small town of Epidavros, complete with a few small beaches.  To top it off Helen is an excellent cook.  We buy the groceries, she does the cooking.

Sierra with Chico at the pool

We will be here for two weeks followed by a week of island hoping, probably starting in Santorini and working our way back with an island or two, depending on time. There’s not a whole lot to do in the immediate area. We can visit an old amphitheater that’s a World Heritage site, an island or two close by and a couple other small attractions but what we want most is a couple weeks of R&R.  The girls have a dog who loves to swim in the pool with them and 5 cats to chase.  We are eating excellent food while enjoying Helens company.  I don’t want to leave.

Epidavros from up the mountain