Just how instagramable is Greece?

We've just returned from a holiday in Greece, we picked Greece due to the flight time and availability for me from the UK and Peter from Dubai. Neither of us have been to the mainland before and Peter hasn't been to the islands for 35 years. 
I didn't really do much research other than accommodation and car hire, which was based on price as well as avoiding 'family fun' and 'great entertainment' We were meeting in Greece to have a break, a rest, chill out on the beach and read a couple of books, enjoy the food and local beer. We weren't there to party. As soon as I arrived at the airport and saw the number of tour guides and buses, I knew we'd booked the wrong place.

We're also not beach goers really and with our starting point being that we live in Dubai which for a lot of people is a dream holiday destination and we're slightly spoiled when it comes to beaches and resorts and from seeing the gorgeous images that pop up on google when you search 'holidays to Greece' and knowing a little about the architecture, the buildings and aware of the recent economical situation, I was very disappointed when we arrived. It took a while to get over children purchasing alcohol and tobacco and all the real fur for sale.

It's been a long time since we've had a self catering holiday, most of our travel since the kids have left home are in hotels or staying with friends. But had we had the kids with us, they'd have loved it there. 

I didn't take many photo's. The beach pictures showed sun beds 5 rows deep, crowded beaches and other people, other people trying to recreate the pictures they'd seen on Instagram all trying to capture a unique beach experience.

Look closely and you'll see in the centre of the photo a couple recreating the same photo hundreds of people take on the beach, the woman in the white bikini, then had hers taken with her boyfriend. 

So is Greece instagramable? Yes of course it is, you just have to look hard. We captured a sun set and a few other selfies, as well as pictures from the restaurant terrace and of course our food.

You can click on any of the links below if you're interested in seeing more of the construction projects and unusual buildings I've seen around the world, most of them are in Dubai and I'll be back there next week to see how much has changed in the 3+ months I've been in the UK.

Week 158 Dubai Bluewater Islands and Dubai Eye. Man made island a 210m high Big Wheel
Week 159 Dubai Dubai Marina - Reflections
Week 160 Dubai Dubai Frame. A window between the Old and New Dubai and a 150m high glass floor.

Week 161 Dubai Dubai Marina 3 years apart.

Week 162 Dubai Dubai Water Canal Bridge Construction and reconfiguration of roads

Week 163 Dubai New Metro Line for Expo 2020
Week 164 Arizona and Nevada Hoover Dam 2002 - 2010
Week 165 Dubai Dubai Opera House What a difference a year makes
Week 166 Dubai Unfinished buildings. The Pentominium
Week 167 Coventry Mixing the old and the new. Coventry Catherdral
Week 168 Dubai New Dubai Metro Station 
Week 169 Dubai The new extension of the Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa 
Week 170 Dubai Hotel fire After the Address fire 
Week 171 Dubai Unusual designs The Opus Building
Week 172 Dubai District Cooling. Keeping the desert cool.
Week 173 Dubai Can I visit the Burj Al Arab
Week 174 Dubai The Almas Tower
Week 175 Dubai The Cayan Tower
Week 176 Toronto The CN Tower
Week 177 Nevada The Paris Hotel 
Week 178 Dubai Ibn Battuta Gate
Week 179 A Wedding
Week 180 Dubai The World's Tallest Tower
Week 181 Dubai and Wales Al Fahidi Fort and Chepstow Castle 
Week 182 Dubai New Metro Station in Al Furjan 
Week 183 Dubai Ski Dubai
Week 184 Another Wedding
Week 185 South Africa Life in a township
Week 186 Austria Ski Jump 
Week 187 Dubai Green Plant Bio Dome 
Week 188 Dubai Update on the Metro Station
Week 189 Dubai My view from the balcony changed in 8 months

One Daily Positive Week 34 A week in Greece

Well Greece hasn't been everything I'd thought it was cracked up to be, in terms of what I've seen of other peoples photos and from online, but we're staying on the beach on the mainland near Thessaloniki.

It's been a long time since we've had a self catering holiday, rather than staying in hotels and if I'm honest, it really isn't for me. I'm also not really a beach person and while there are some historic sites to visit, they're not really aimed at tourists.

231 Sunday Drove south for an hour and found a lovely exclusive beach restaurant where we had lunch than swam and snorkelled for the afternoon, spent the evening in a local bar watching the football and drinking beer.

232 Monday Visited the city of Thessaloniki, about an hours drive away, drank coffee, had lunch, explored some ancient sites and returned to the apartment to drink beer and read our books.

233 Tuesday Spent the morning on a packed beach, had lunch, showered and drove to another area about an hour away, had a walk, dinner and watched the sunset.

234 Wednesday Drove over to the beech on the opposite side of the coast only 15 mins away, much nicer over there, less people and more sun beds and shade available. Had a free dinner in the evening after the waitress threw a glass of red wine over Peter.

235 Thursday Back to the same beach as yesterday after a lie in and leisurely breakfast in the apartment. Had an afternoon nap then out for dinner, not impressed with my sea bass as I had to fillet it myself.

236 Friday I started the long journey home, an hour to the airport. I flew 2 hours ahead of Peter as I was returning to the UK and him to Dubai. My plane landed half an hour after the coach departed so I stayed in a hotel for the night.

237 Saturday Up early for breakfast, showered and repacked, blogged, drank coffee at the airport and arrived back in South Wales at 7pm.

On the blog this week:

Then and Now - How the view from the balcony has changed with the building of the new metro station.

How much should you give as a wedding gift? We will have had 3 weddings to attend by the end of this year.

The role of the Best Man's wife at a wedding - Tips to make you feel more included.

Speedy boarding with EasyJet - making the most of the hand luggage allowance.

Week 62 - My Sunday Photo

On the beach in Dubai.

My Sunday Photo - Week 59 From the beach

Another landscape of the Dubai Skyline, taken from the beach at the bottom of our street.

My Sunday Photo - Week 38

Seaton

Family Holiday to The Bay of Arcachon France 2004

With 4 boys and a disabled daughter finding holidays that suited our budget and the wide range of kids needs we spent a lot of time in France for our holidays, usually in Brittany taking an overnight ferry from Portsmouth on a Friday night so we could sleep on the journey, arriving in San Malo with a short car trip to reach our Gite for a week. As our daughter doesn't travel well, doesn't particularly like the beach and wanting to take the boys away for longer and to enable them to have some quality time with us, we opted not to take her on this trip and travelled further a field to spend 2 weeks in Andernos Les Bains in the Bay of Arcachon.

We rented a 3 bed self catering chalet and loaded the car with the bikes and 4 excited boys 

aged 5, 9, 12 & 15

11 years on we only have fond and happy memories of this holiday and it is one that the boys talk about often, however for me as I look at the photos I remember the arguing in the car, the fighting over who wasn't sharing a room with whom, the hours spent looking for a child who has stropped off and the afternoon spent at the police station when the 15 year repeatedly splashed a small child by running through the water despite us and the child's dad asking him to play elsewhere until eventually the dad hit him as he ran past for the 100th time.

There was plenty of beach time as well as bike rides round the local area and the kids were dispatched every morning to the local bakery to purchase fresh breads for breakfast.

We had picnics in the day and in the evenings hubby and I took it in turns to prepare dinner while the other supervised the kids at the pool.

One evening whilst I was preparing dinner, hubby took the 3 older boys for a walk and left the youngest with me playing outside.

5yo: Mummy I'm duck

Me: You're a duck 'quack quack'

5yo: No mummy I'm really duck

Me: Yes I know 'quack quack'

5yo: Mummy I'm duck, you know I can't say my S's

Me: Removes child's stuck head from A frame of bench

There were many trips exploring the local area and while hubby took the 3 older boys to the Great Dune of Pyla at 3km long, 500m wide and 100m high, the tallest of it's kind in Europe, to run and slide up and down, I spent the afternoon with the youngest at the local zoo.

We found a local fun fair one evening where the boys spent most of their pocket money.

A day trip into Bordeaux

An afternoon and evening in St Emilion and the boys loved the cellar tours.

Hubby and the older boys spent a morning at Bisc'Aventure for fun in the tree tops and zip wires

And we all spent a day at AquaPark Biscarrosse

My favourite photo of the holiday and in fact probably my favourite photo of our youngest was taken on the beach at Biscarrosse, the waves were pretty fierce and the youngest kept walking up to the shore line then running away squealing as the waves approached him.

This turned out to be our last family holiday in France as the following years we went further a field, to Turkey, Tunisia and America. 

Week 9 Project 365 Sea Shells

What a fab end to the week. Our visitors left on Monday and I was sad to see them go, when we lived in South Africa I would spend the run up to a visit worrying about how I'd cope when they left, rather than just enjoying every moment. in Dubai 'home' doesn't seem so far away (7 hour flight) and of course it is much cheaper so hopefully i'll be able to make more trips. I received my Emirates ID card and applied for my own bank account. This afternoon we collected our new car and can now go exploring a bit further afield and I won't have to manage the weekly shop on the bus.

Day 53 #onedailypositive #macro #fmsphotoaday #friends #snaphappybritmums #project365

Last day with our friends on the beach, in the rain, in Dubai. The morning was spent at Dubai Marina playing in the fountains, go karting and a spot of lunch. On the beach we collected shells and made some Beach Art and practised our cartwheels, a trip home on the train, bath and dinner.
Sad to be seeing my friends leave, but I will see them again when I visit the UK in April and our youngest son is visiting us over Easter, so not all bad.

This is my first attempt at macro and I'm still on automatic settings on my Nikon, I'm sure I'll get there, eventually.

Day 54 #onedailypositive #fix #fmsphotoaday #choc's #snaphappybritmums #project365

Fantastic photo prompts today, what else could I do other than buy some ice-cream on my way home from dropping my friend at the airport, after a fantastic, fun filled week and have my chocolate fix.

Day 54 take 2 #onedailypositive #fix #fmsphotoaday#cheers #snaphappybritmums #project365

Having misread yesterday's prompt as chocs and not cheers I'm having a second go at it. Nope I'm not drinking a Bacardi and coke, neither is the glass filled with red wine. We still don't have an alcohol licence and we don't care how many people flaunt the rules openly and get away with it, we don't want to risk heavy fines, possible jail and likely deportation. So my fix and cheers is vimto. In South Africa we could buy this from selected super spars but it cost around £7 a litre so we used to bring it back with us from trips to the UK for the boys. I'm not a big fan of squash, I drink far too much coke and fruit juices don't quench my thirst.

Day 55 ‪#‎onedailypositive‬ ‪#‎12oclock‬ ‪#‎fmsphotoaday‬ ‪#‎justbecause‬‪#‎snaphappybritmums‬ ‪#‎project365‬ 

Trying to keep in touch with family back home has just got a little harder as now we have a 4 hour time difference and a 2 hour time difference with our previous home in South Africa. I often have no idea of what day of the week it is, let alone what the time is. The kids have left home, I don't work and I eat when I'm hungry, go to bed and get up whenever I'm tired. These clocks are in different rooms in the house just brought together for the photograph and yes they are set at these times, just because they are. I can't bring myself to alter them after so long, I do sometimes confuse myself with the time though.

Day 56 ‪#‎onedailypositive‬ ‪#‎reflection‬ ‪#‎fmsphotoaday‬ ‪#‎nails‬‪#‎snaphappybritmums‬ ‪#‎project365‬ 

I couldn't be any more positive today if I tried. The house is spotless, dinner is prepped, caught up with letter writing and blogs and spending the afternoon on the beach. The sun is so bright it is causing a reflection on the screen so I have no idea how this photo has turned out. I have purple toe nails that need re painting

Day 57 #onedailypositive #grow #fmsphotoaday #allthingsred #snaphappybritmums #project365

These plants grow in a variety of colours in every garden in Dubai, in ours we have white and deep pink, walking around I see most gardens are the same and the plants/trees grow everywhere, but there are very few red ones. I've no idea what they are called, just that they flower all year round and they add a splash of colour to what would be a rather dull looking countryside of beigeness. 

Day 58 still life and hard at work 

Day 58 #onedailypositive #StillLife #fmsphotoaday #HardAtWork #snaphappybritmums #project365 

I love sea shells, I've collected them from the West Coast of America, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, France, Spain, South Africa and now Dubai. The variety of shells here is very small, but the quantity is great. My favourite shell collecting place is Mossell Bay in South Africa, the variety there is amazing. I spend my days alone and love to visit the beach for Beach Art, collecting unusual shells, swimming and walking as well as sitting and writing letters and having a picnic. I've always wanted to live by the sea and I'm very happy here. The Mollusks create these external structures form the salt and chemicals from the water, they process them and secrete carbonate which forms a hard outer shell, the shell is not part of the mollusk as it is formed from minerals and not mollusk cells. the mollusks are hard at work excreting carbonate in order for their shells to grow with them.
When you find a shell washed up on the shore it's because the mollusk has died.
A shell has an outer layer of a substance called scleroprotein which is similar to our fingernails.

Day 59 #onedailypositive #thankyou #fmsphotoaday #mytown #snaphappybritmums #project365

I currently live in Dubai, we live in the suburbs, we are no more than a 15 minute bus ride from a large mall, 15 minute walk from the beach, 5 minute walk to local shops and restaurants. We moved from Centurion, Pretoria, South Africa after 4 wonderful years, we lived in a security estate, but again no more than a 15 minute drive (no walking or buses) from a large mall. There are no towns, just malls and this is my favourite one where I can post letters, pay bills, shop and have a coffee. From birth to age 23 I'd lived in various towns, cities and villages across the UK.
I don't feel like I have a 'My Town' I don't actually fell that if you asked me where I was from I could answer that question. But I can say that everywhere I've ever lived has been home no matter how long I lived there for. I used to say home was where my children and family were, but it's just hubby and I here in Dubai, yet it is still our home. So in line with these 2 photo prompts I nominate Dubai as My Town (for the moment) and I say thank you to my husband for helping me feel at home here, until the next time we move.