Most Americans celebrated Easter last Sunday, but since I married into a Greek Orthodox family (which I highly recommend) we’re celebrating today — on Orthodox Easter (Χριστός ἀνέστη!). In keeping with the Greek theme, here’s a blog I first composed during our second trip to Greece in 2010:

Ahh, Greece.

My husband and I are spending a week on Andros Island, about an hour’s highspeed ferry ride from Athens. It’s the island where his great-grandmother grew up before coming to the United States in 1912.

The island is close to Athens, but off the main ferry routes. It’s far less touristy than nearby Mykonos. We love the authentic look at Greek island life, particularly from our apartment just steps from the “Exemplary Beach at Batsi” (I didn’t make that up, it’s what the sign on the beach across the street says).

We arrived completely exhausted after the 24-hour trip from Frederick, Maryland and used the last of our energy getting settled in and grabbing dinner at the first taverna in the row along the water’s edge.

We’re still working on getting our clocks turned around, we’ve been sleeping in until at least 10am for the past two days. That’s very late for us, but then again – we don’t have a schedule to keep!

So far our routine includes coffee and fruit on the balcony, several hours of sun and time in the cool, calm, clear water, showers, a light lunch, nap time, walks to explore Batsi, dinner and bedtime. It’s delightfully devoid of anything that “needs to be done”.

It’s been a lovely, restful vacation, just what we needed.