WHO: Dia, 54, and Basil Chigas, 56, of Bedford, and their children, Alex, 19, and Nicholas, 23, of Bedford; Jason, 25, of Boston; and Chloe, 28, of Gilmanton, N.H.
WHERE: Greece
WHEN: Ten days in August
WHY: To see the Olympic Games and visit relatives. Basil's father is from outside of Trikala, in central Greece. "When [Greece] got picked for the Olympics, we said we'd go together as a family," Basil said. "I'd been with Nicholas two years before and had promised my relatives that I'd return with the entire family."
ATHENS FIRST: "It was cool to have been in Athens two years before and see the completed changes," Basil said. "The city was so immaculate. It's really entered the 21st century." Added Dia, "His cousin used the new highway to the airport for the first time to pick us up. Other relatives went on the subway for the first time when we were there. And it really wasn't crowded at all because there was such a concern about terrorism."
FIT FOR A KING: "Basil has six cousins in Athens, and we were alternating between all these relatives. They kept us out late every night," Dia said. Basil continued, "In the beginning, we stayed in one of my cousin's houses only a couple of blocks from the Olympic stadium. Boris Yeltsin was supposed to have rented the place but backed out, so we were upgraded big time. It was a compound set around one of those infinity pools. We could see the fireworks from the opening ceremony."
THE GAMES: "Dia gave each of the kids an event to pick out," Basil said. "The first we went to was ping-pong, because the kids grew up playing it. The guys went to judo and boxing. Americans were keeping a low profile."
PINS, ANYONE? "Trading pins is a big thing at the Olympics," Dia said. "If you make your own, you can barter them. But they weren't set up to trade the way they usually are, I guess because of the security." Dia had pins made up with all the family members' names on them.ISLAND BOUND: They left Athens for Mykonos. "We were on a . . . beach where they have different levels of happenings," Basil said. They stayed at the Petinos Beach Hotel. "We had a pool and were right next to the docks," Dia said.
BACK IN ATHENS: "We went to the Acropolis twice, and got our Christmas card photo there," Dia said. "The night of our going-away party, we had these long tables of relatives at a taverna and Basil had a family tree set up. Some of them met for the first time. We handed out some of our pins. Basil read a speech his father [who lives in Florida] had written out. He wanted to tell all these relatives, 'We love you, we miss you.' "
To see more reader vacation snapshots, including pictures and extra trip details, visit www.boston.com/wheretheywent. Send your own story suggestions to ddaniel@globe.com.
