Today we left the Greek islands portion of our trip. A few last observations:

• Oregano is everywhere. Pull over to the side of the road to gaze at the scenic view? You can smell oregano. Want chips at the supermarket? Oregano Lays or Ruffles. Atop the feta in a Greek salad? Check.
• We didn’t realize honey was such a thing. All over the islands there have been old women and men selling honey roadside….everywhere.
• We also didn’t expect to see so many pumpkins and squash. We stopped at a roadside stand (see below) on the mainland to get some fruit (and a red onion for D) and for under three euros got plenty of snacks for the day.
• The islands are a prime spot for selfies and boyfriends taking pics of their girlfriends. We’ve seen so many girls in tiny bathing suits and barely their dresses posing for the camera.
• At one point D commented that we were living with nature. The doors to the hotel lobby are always open, there are no doors separating the outside and the hallways of each floor, no doors to the dining area, etc. At the hotel there were butterflies, cats roaming the hallways and rooftop pool/bar/dining area, we heard a rooster each morning, and because of the openness of the building birds had formed nests a top the electrical boxes strewn with wires.
• There are stray cats everywhere. D formed an affinity to a white cat who visited him each day at the sitting area outside our door. We’ve seen male cats praying on females.
• We’ve seen soccer and basketball courts every day of this trip, but no one playing on them.
• And finally, we noticed the bottom parts of trees are painted white. Google tells us it’s a combo of Lyme, salt and water used to prevent insects from crawling up the tree damaging the trunk and its fruit.

By 10am we drove through Lefkada Town on our way to the causeway to get off the island, and it was the first time we were in a place that to me felt authentically Greek. Everywhere we’ve gone there have been license plates representing what feels like every European country, people speaking Italian, German, Portuguese, the waitstaff speak English to us (and in one case Italian.) But Lefkada Town, being a city and not a beach town, felt much more authentic. Clothing and home goods stores, cafes, and all kinds of shops. And for the first time I saw people who looked more middle eastern Greek.

By lunchtime we were in Metsovo, an adorable little town that looked like a mixture of German, Japenese (with all the wood), and bits of Alberobello Italy in the style of roof. D scoped out a great place for gyros and we wandered in an out of shops for a bit.

Surrounding Metsovo the smell was intoxicating. We pulled over on the highway leaving town so D could hop the fence to pick a bouquet of the wildflowers that smelled so nice. Turns out they are spartium or “Spanish broom” which is an invasive species that flowers in late summer found mostly in southern Europe, southwest Asia and northwest Africa.

By late afternoon we were in Kastraki at the base of Meteora. Our hotel has a beautiful view of the monasteries and is the perfect place to spend the night since I needed to work again.

More on Meteora tomorrow.