Welcome to Xios!

My sister and I decided to go to Greece a few weeks ago.

It was a bit of a spur of the moment trip, actually. But what's wrong with taking a little R&R on the beach?

I don't think there's much that could keep me from that view. Could you turn it down?!

It was so spur of the moment, actually, that when my friends texted me to get together Thursday night and I politely declined saying, "have fun but I'll be in Greece tomorrow!", I received a smattering of texts asking what, exactly, I was talking about since I hadn't yet mentioned the trip to anyone.

It all came together quite quickly but often times I've found those spontaneous adventures are the best ones!

We packed a few bags and headed to meet our cousins for the last ten days of their summer hiatus on the island of Xios (Chios).

The flight was not as smooth as I would have hoped for. Delta is a wonderful airline and their service on board was fantastic but I actually ended up getting quite sick from the food served on the flight. It was a rocky landing to say the least...

One five hour layover and 10+ hours of airtime later, we touched down on Greece's fifth largest island.

Our cousins were waiting for us in the one room airport with hugs, baklava, and kisses.

Baklava is actually a Turkish dessert but is very prevalent in Greece as well. It's a very sweet pastry made up of filo dough (also known as phyllo) filled with chopped nuts and honey. It's all very sticky and incredibly rich. I've never been able to stomach more than a few bites because the sweetness is just overwhelming but it's delicious for as long as you can last!

Not ones to waste precious vacation time, we headed out immediately to put some food in our bellies and some sun on our skin.

We settled on a tiny little kitchen right around the corner from our apartment called Dionysus Taverna where we had our first tastes of true Greek salad.

They put capers in their Greek salads which quickly became my favorite new fun fact! So fresh and delightful - the perfect welcome to vacation.

All gone!

After cleaning the plate, we walked along the length of the beach and then retired for a quick nap before heading out for more bites with the rest of the family.

Markos, Tina, and Adriana

babels!

We got a table at Bahari and sat down for a feast.

I absolutely adore how all of the restaurants are so open. There are essentially no walls and the breeze from the Aegean Sea drafts back and forth, acting as natural air conditioning and wafting the salty smell of the water over all of the food. You feel like you're sitting at the beach when actually you're dressed up in a restaurant!

We let the Greeks do the talking and waited for the platters of fresh Greek goodness to arrive in front of us.

There was tapenade and tzatziki, stuffed grape leaves, and Greek salad.

Grilled octopus and fried cheese.....which was like a mozzarella stick's trendier, cooler, cousin.

Let's get a close up shot of that baby, eh?

There was chicken souvlakia and calamari, vegetable fritters and potato croquettes.

This "Meat Variety" monster came out towards the end when most of the table had leaned back and started yawning.

I was not going to let anything called a Meat Variety Plate go to waste.

It was all quite overwhelming!

The meal went on and the company was wonderful.

Particularly my side of the table :)

We finished with a complementary dessert tray which we gobbled up in less than a minute!

After relaxing a bit more at the table, we sipped our cappuccinos and headed out to dance under the Grecian sky while Tina took Adriana and Markos home to sleep.

The pictures didn't come out too great but what can I say? I was too enamored with the fact I was in Greece with two of my best friends, embarking on the trip of a lifetime.

A perfect first day in Greece!