When you plan your next trip to the Mediterranean in January, don’t assume that it is always “summer” in the Mediterranean, Greece in particular. My friend and I made made the mistake of assuming this was true. Armed with our sun block and flip flops, we went to Greece for fun in the sun in addition to visiting the important historical sites that we had been learning about all our lives…..and me, in particular, since I was an art major. We arrived in Athens to cold and rainy weather and decided it must be warmer further south so we kept heading south to Crete where we did manage to escape some of the winters’ brutal edge for a few weeks.

For 35 years, not a flake of snow had fallen on the Parthenon in Greece and upon our arrival, it snowed for 12 days straight! Yes, it does snow in Greece…..who knew! The city came to a standstill and locals gathered at the local cafes to enjoy their forced vacation. Athens, covered with a thick blanket of snow takes on a whole new dimension…… it wipes out all the grayness of the massive city and made it look magical and precious and managed to slow this huge metropolis to a standstill.