Olympia.

Temple of Zeus.

We all have Greece to thank for giving inspiration to what has become the world's most foremost sports competition, the Olympic Games.

The modern games were inspired by the ancient Olympic Games which, according to historical records, were held in Olympia, Greece from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD.

Meteora.

Moni Agias Varvaras Rousanou at Meteora (Photo from goista.com)

Kalambaka is a small town located about 350 kilometers from Athens.  The main reason for going to Kalambaka is to visit Meteora.  When I first saw images of Meterora, I thought it was a single monastery atop a freestanding boulder.  But in fact, it's a complex of monasteries located near Kalambaka and the neighboring town of Kastraki.

Nafplio.

Nafplio (Photo by Charissa Fay)

We had so much fun on our driving tour of the Baltics that I was curious whether or not self drive tours existed in Greece and of course, they do! I find quite a few tours online and started to look into the details. As with packaged tours, self drive tours generally cover going to the same places, with slight variations, and are similarly categorized e.g., "5 Day Classic Tour of Greece". So, it really wasn't hard to come up with a starting itinerary. Next, it was doing a rough check of accommodations and those weren't hard to find either. You can presume that if you are following the beaten tourist path, there will be places to spend the night. Factoring in the cost of renting a car and all the accommodations (very budget), I figured we could make our own way around for less than half of the price of an organized tour so we will be wandering about on our own.

The Greek Islands.

Sunset in Santorini.  (Photo from Exotic Place)

Wwe have about two weeks, give or take a day or two, to spend in Greece and in my opinion, you can't go to Greece for that long and not go to one of its famed islands.  Question is which one or ones?  With 6,000 (yes, 6,000) islands to choose from, making a decision will not be easy even after eliminating the uninhabited ones. Only about 230 Greek islands are inhabited and, of these, just 80 or so have more than 100 permanent inhabitants.

It's Greece & Turkey in 2014!

The Acropolis.

Last night, I got the good news that I had been hoping would come!  My brother's leave request was approved and I can now begin planning our travel adventure for this year!  Yay!