Have you ever seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding? If you haven't, you need to watch it...RIGHT NOW. The loving, hilarious, and relatable movie sometimes feels very true to my life after meeting my boyfriend, George in high school. After almost five years, I've learned two important things, Greeks take pride in their culture and heritage, which is still woven into most Greek Americans' traditions. Second, family is highly valued and appreciated.
I am also proud to say I can quote the movie, have prepped a full lamb for Greek Easter, eaten a lamb eyeball, seen windex used for everything, learned to make incredible Greek food (and eating WAY too much), Greek danced the night away, joked about bundt cakes, learned how each word comes from Greek lineage, celebrated Greek traditions and am constantly being surrounding by extremely loving, wonderful people.
With all these amazing memories we continue to create, we always talked about visiting Greece to see where his family is from (and where some still live!) As we accepted our college diplomas and prepared for adult life, his parents were coordinating a once in a life time trip to Greece for his family and us.
For two weeks we traveled around Greece, living a real life fairytale. The first week we spent in a breathtaking villa on the island Crete with George and his family, touring the island together, visiting historic sites and capturing our adventures. After Crete, we flew to Athens to meet George's grandfather and drove to their family village, Filitra. We stayed with at his grandparents' stunning house, exploring the town, visiting Olympia, spending a few nights in Zakynthos and touring Athens on our last day.
I am beyond thankful for the experience we had. It was magical seeing where George's family is from and I picked up a few Greek words along the way! Can't wait to visit again, and for now, see below for some of our trip highlights.
