Back at Home

I probably should have wrote this a lot sooner...but we did make it home safely from Greece. After 34 hours of travel we met Reg at the airport and headed straight to his house in Saskatoon to go to bed. Keith had a meeting in Saskatoon the next day, so I dropped him off in the morning and then I headed back to PA to unpack and do laundry. When Keith returned home, it was off to Meadow Lake for two days while Keith delivered some workshops to some clients. Greece to Meadow Lake....interesting addition to the itinerary! We then headed back to PA for a few days before heading to Melfort and Star City to visit family and pick up the Bichons.

Busy...busy...busy...

Thanks for following along everyone!

K and C Out

Delphi

Pictures:

The Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens....should have posted this earlier but the internet was not cooperating....You can't have a blog about Greece without a photo of this.

View from our hotel balcont in Delphi.

Here are the remains of the offeratory to Zues at Olympia...this is the location where the Olympic Flame for the Vancouver Olympics was lit the day before we arrived.

This is the sancutuary of Athena in Delphi...looks like a postcard.

Here are some picutures from inside a Greek costume museum we saw in Delphi.

This is the Rio bridge. It was built to link the Pelloponese to the rest of mainland Greece. The pillars in the see have circluar bottoms that have diameters the size of a soccer stadium.

This is a chandelier inside the Church of St. Andrew.

This is a Greek Orthadox Church dedicated to St. Andrew. The church was built on the spot that St. Andrew was crucified on an x shaped cross for preaching Christianity.

Here we are standing in front the Temple of Zeus at Olympia archeological site. This loan pillar was put back into place. All the other pillars are lying on the group. The whole area was flattened and covered with dirt for many years before it was excavated.

Here you can see the length of the ancient Olympic stadium grounds. The first Olympics consisted only of races. The laps were not on a circular track...instead the athletes ran back and forth.

Christina at the offical starting line of the ancient Olympic stadium....192.something metre race...disqualified in the end for wearing clothes! Remain of bronze statue of a bull in museum of Delphi....likely created as an offering to the God Apollo
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Hello again.

Today we were allowed to sleep in....only an 8:45 start!

We began the day in Delphi. We first visited the archeological site and then the museum. Unfortunately, some of the archeological site was closed down. The Hungarian ladies on our tour were disapplointed as they wanted to see the theatre and it was one of the closed off sections.

After Delphi we went for lunch....Greek salad and souvaki....I must say that the Greek food we have been enjoying has been awesome....too awesome over the past week and a half when we have been eating alot. We decided yesterday that the treadmill is really going to get a running when we get back....I am sure we have both gained weight!

Anyway....after lunch we said goodbye to three people from our tour which meant we were down to 8 people. However....that changed quite quickly when we picked up 30 other people who will join us for the remainder of the tour. The most interesting thing was that two of the new people sitting right behind us on the bus are from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. More interesting...the husband (Glenn Gillis??) knows mom. Does this name sound familiar, mom. I think he said that he works for SK water. His wife is from Tisdale and the other couple they are travelling with are from Nipawin. We have met very few Canadians during our time in Greece so this was very bizarre!

We then drove through the mountains, valleys, and olive groves to Kalambaka. There are impressive rock formations outside the small city (10 000 people). On the cliffs there are monastaries that we will visit tomorrow. Apparently there are strict dress codes in the monastaries. Woman must where long skirts or dresses. Since I have no skirt or dress in my backpack...I will be borrowing one from the monks! They apparently have skirts you can borrow.

We just finished having a great supper with an Australian couple we met on our bus tour. They are really great people and we have exchanged addresses so that we can look eachother up. who knows....maybe we will get to Australia some day. Wouldn't that be great!

Tomorrow evening we will arrive back in Athens. We plan on looking around a bit more...catching a later supper, and then catching the midnight metro to the airport. We will hang out there until our fight which will be at 6am. We then have 6 hours in Amsterdam which we will probably spend in the city. I think I will try to get Keith to conquer his fear of the Dutch Coquet....AKA Deep Fried Weirdness!

Once we leave Amsterdam, we will head to Minneapolis and then home.. We should arrive in Saskatoon around 11 pm. We plan on staying at Reg;s for the night. Keith has a meeting in Saskatoon the next day so we will just stay in the city until that is over.

I can't believe that we have spent over three weeks in Greece. It has definately been a trip of a lifetime. We have really enjoyed the bus tour we have been on. It was great to be with a small group for so long and we really like our guide. She gives great information and she is always looking out for the interestes of the group. She is not afraid to tell other guides and their groups to quiet down. Of course....this is all done in Greek!

We will have internet at the airport in Athens so we will give an update of our day tomorrow. For now....enjoy the pictures!

1st day bus trip

Have to be short again as paying for internet -

Here is a short update of the past few days.

1. We made it to the Singing in the Rain concert. We scoped out the location in the morning since I had had a few nightmares about not finding it and being lost in Athens. The show was supposed to start at 9 but we forgot about allowing for "Greek Time." Needless to say the show started at 9:20 and would have went to almost midnight....we ended up leaving before it was officailly finished so that we would be able to take the metro....

2. I had the best crepe of my life....chocolate and banana...mmmm

3. We are now on the bus tour. We have a 50 passenger bus with 11 people plus one guide. I am surpised they didn't cancel this tour. Four people are Australians, 2 are Hungarians, 2 are Americans, and one is Lybian but living in America. We are getting to know eachother quite well.

4. The tour guide is very good. The bus driver is a good driver but on the grumpy side. I saw him bring a coffee to go on the bus and went to get one myself. He made we throw it out....NO coffee on the bus. Now sure how he was allowed coffee and not me seeing his didn't have a lid and mine did but oh well.

5. We have seen the following sights: Corinth Canal...a canal built to link the Agean to the Ionian sea....amazing, Theatre of Epidaurus....amazing acoustics, anciet palace of Mycenae, the bee hive shaped tome of Agamemnon, Olympia....sight of the ancient Olympic games....interestingly the flame for the Winter Olympics was lit at Olympia yesterday! The country side is very scenic as well.

6. Tomorrow we go to Delphi and then we head to Kalambaka to see the monastaries the day after that.

We are both enjoying the tour....can't belive our time in Greece is almost up!

Oh....we also each bought a pair of Greek sandals....we met the man who made them and everything. Mine were not fitting properly so he took them apart and cut the leather so that they would fit to my feet perfectly! What service!

Well...we better go....internet time is precious!

Leaving Athens

Good Morning all.

Just a quick note that we are leaving Athens for a four day bus tour of inland Greece. The bus should be here in the next ten minutes. I am not sure what our internet situation will be but we will definately have internet at the airport on Sunday night.....we fly Monday morning.

More later

Athens day 2

Quick post - Went on the trip to the three islands just out of Athens - long day, islands very pretty, not much to do, a little too touristy, but okay. Got back just in time to go to supper with a friend/co-worker from the Estevan office and his dad.

Monday in Athens

First full day Athens

Well, we’re here and we didn’t get lost (or very lost)…After the 3.5 hour ferry ride to Athens, we asked a couple of people about the metro and made it on there. We had been warned that the first section of the metro was highly dangerous for pick-pockets, so we were extra careful on the ride. It turned out to be very easy to use the metro. Once we got off at our station, we exited the building to a square full of people and street performers, as it was a Sunday night and the locals were out enjoying themselves. It was very busy compared to where we had been. As well, all the shops were locked up and there was street graffiti everywhere - not as picturesque as were used to. Therefore, we were a bit nervous about where we were staying. After finding our hotel and checking in (nice room), we went up to the roof top bar and had a milk shake. The view from the roof was spectacular - to the right was the Acropolis and Parthenon all lit up in bright white, and to the left was Lycabettus Hill all lit up in a multitude of colors. Very nice way to finish the travel day.

During our traveling, we became aware of a broadway style musical opening this week. Therefore, the free internet got lots of use as we researched when and where. We decided not to get tickets on line and to go to the ticket office in the morning. We eventually found the ticket office and are now booked to go to Singin’ in the Rain on Wednesday night. It will be interesting to see how we get home, as the show is scheduled to finish just prior to the last metro for the night. Crossing our fingers that it all works out!!!

When we got up this morning, we went looking for breakfast, as we didn’t get it included in our hotel. On our way to the ‘super market’, we got sidetracked by the smell of souvlaki and stopped for a gyros pita (again…fourth in four days). After finishing off the pita, we made our way to the ‘super market’…not what we were expecting. On the right, there was a block of small market style booths selling mostly fruit or nuts on one side and convenience type stuff on the other. On the left, there was a block long booths of fresh meat (little did we know that was one of three or four rows!!! - including everything from fresh lamb with head still on, full chickens, and rabbits with tail still on…). We got some fruit and drinks for later and headed off for some exploring.
The lonely planet book had a walking tour of Athens, so we worked our way through that. After numerous wrong turns and seeing some very interesting stuff, we finished the one hour walk in three hours… J

When we were done, we were trying to decide if we should go on a one day tour of three islands just south of Athens tomorrow when we walked right by the travel agency Christina had been communicating with from Canada. We couldn’t resist going in to ask about the tour (which we had done three times already) and when we said if we paid cash she would give us a 20% discount, that put the price into our range and we signed up. So tomorrow we embark on tour where we have to be ready to go at 6:45 in the morning and return at 7:30 tomorrow evening (not sure why we keep doing this to our selves…).

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped and viewed the marble stadium that was the site of the first modern day Olympic Games in 1896 and used again in 2004 for archery and the end of the marathon. It was a pretty cool place, with seating for 70,000, all made out of marble. Amazing.

After realizing we wouldn’t get any breakfast or gyros pitas before going on our trip, we once again visited the market (which was mostly closed) and got some supplies for breakfast. After more research on google maps to find our musical, we went for supper on a trendy little area behind the hotel and it was pretty good. Finally, we went to a little café and got a dessert and brought it back to the hotel. Christina just opened it, so I better go. We will provide pictures and tomorrows story later.

Night.

(tried posting pictures, but not working...)

Mykonos Full Day 2 and 3

As mentioned before, full day 2 was a beach day. The weather was still a little overcast but we still took a bus to Paradise Beach....one of the packed party beaches during the summer. There definately was no partying and it was by no means packed but the crowd was on the younger side for the most part.

This evening we went for supper at a Mexican restaurant....we just wanted a change from the Greek cuisine. It was one of our best meals yet!

Today we checked out of our room and wandered around Mykonos Town a little more to take more pictures. We enjoyed a gyros pita....and now we are waiting to be transfered to the port for our 3.5 hour trip to Athens. There we will try to figure out how to take the subway to the hotel. It should be interesting.

Hope everyone is well.

C

Mykonos Full Day 1

Pictures:(May not be in this order)

View of the buildings at Platys Gialos Beach

Streets of Mykonos town

The famous pelican

The beach chairs

Six famous windmills of Mykonos

Keith body surfacing

Lena's house

Keith's body surfing injury.....on his knee....even though it kind of looks like his butt!

Keith swinging his worry beads...he always like to be fiddling with something so this is the perfect souvenir!

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Well they say that Mykonos is a crazy party island but at this time of year that is definately not the case. The island is about to pack it in for the season until the partiers and sun seekers start arriving again in April.

It is very quiet here which has turned to be good for us as we went fairly hard core for the first 2 weeks. It is nice to relax and recover.

Yesterday we walked around the maze like narrow streets of Mykonos town during the afternoon. Many of the shops and restaurants were closed. We then found a restaurant to have supper....mousakka and grilled octopus. Grilled octopus tasted a lot like really chewy bbq chicken. It was actually pretty good.

We then started to head back to our hotel and to our surprise...all of the shops that were closed were now back open....I guess Mykonos comes alive in the evening. The streets were all lit up and the streets were busy with tourists from the cruise ships parked in the bay.

Keith made his first shopping purchase of the trip. He bought a set of komboloy...AKA Greek worry beads. They are a string of beads that we see many Greeks swinging and playing with in thier hands. They apparently have destressing powers according to the Greeks and the Catholic rosary beads originated from them. There is a really cool shop that sells them. The man in the shop finds different stones from all over the world to make the beads. Other shops sell them but they are made of plastic.

We also saw the famous six wind mill houses and one of the famous pelicans that hangs out in the port. We visited Lena's house. A traditional Mykonian house that was donated by a Greek lady named Lena as a museum when she died. The house is set just as she had it and as her parents had it before her.

The evening ended with Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible Three with Greek subtitles.

This morning we had breakfast and then just relaxed in our hotel room until about noon since there were some darker clouds in the sky and every once in while they would open up and spew rain. We then packed up and headed to a beach called Platys Gialos. Again....it was very quiet...only a few restaurants and mini markets open but we found some great beach loungers right in front of the sea. We read and swam in the waves free from sea urchins! Keith even did some body surfing. We came back to our hotel to enjoy a quick gyros pita and the sunset and later we are going to head into town for supper.

Tomorrow I think it will be another beach day.

Mykonos

We are now in Mykonos until Sunday when we will go by ferry to Athens.

We have unlimited internet access so we will be able to write frequently.

Our hotel is nice and by the sea. It is very quiet....we thought we were the only ones in the hotel but we just saw another lady come by the desk to get a key. I think this will be a good relaxing stop. Maybe not by the beach because we have already been warned about sea urchins in the water.

We have already made friends with the hotel kitten. He is black so I think we will call him Souvlaki....wouldn't Yoda and Itchy like him if we brought him home!

Here are some pictures of our hotel room.

Take care everyone and we will write more later.

Last Day Santorini

Pictures: From bottom to top

Keith about to get back on the ship.... "hot springs" in the background cove

Feeling the heat of the volcano in a shallow hole

Christina on the volcano

Eating pita bread with tzakiki

A plate of dolmanthes

Kalamari and more tzakiki

Donkey ride up the cliff

Sunset

Cathedral in Fira

Fira town...see cathedral in town

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You know you are in Greece when:
1) You walk out your hotel room door and the first thing you see is a donkey
2) At the police station, the officers are busy cooking a lamb on a spit.

Today was our last day in Santorini. We awoke to nice weather and after breakfast we met our bus for our volcano tour. The boat was like a pirate boat. It wasn’t as big as I thought it was so needless to say…Gravol was the saving grace of the day!

We first sailed to the nearby volcano where we hiked to the summit and the crater. This volcano is not like what we traditionally think of when we think of volcanoes. In the dome or cone shaped volcanoes, lava gently spews out of the crater as pressure builds. In this volcano, pressure builds and builds until it can’t anymore and then it explodes with great force. Lava, gas, and big chunks of rock fly into the air. It is similar to Mount St. Helens volcano.

The last time this volcano exploded was in 1956 and it destroyed the towns of Fia and Oia across the caldera sea. There are monitors all over the volcano monitoring it. They think that they can predict when it will explode a few months to a year in advance. They figure that it will be ready to explode within the next 20 years. Maybe we won’t be coming back for our 20th anniversary!
On many parts of the volcano you could see steam rising. Our guide told us that if we dug down 30 cm into the ground….it would be hot enough to boil an egg! Wow! You could also smell the sulfuric gases. The entire volcano top was covered by pumice and dense black rock. Sometimes the rocks were red and other times they appeared yellow from the sulfur.

Once back on the boat, we sailed across from the volcano to the “hot springs” heated by the volcano. We were expecting hot tub water…but instead the water was at most 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the sea. The sea is quite warm so the warmest warmer in the springs was like room temperature water. We had to swim 30 metres from the boat in 6 metre water to reach the springs. We swam for about 25 minutes and then boarded the boat. The water in the springs was yellow from the sulfur but the smell was not strong at all.

From the springs we sailed to the island of Thirissia….a part of Santorini formed from the explosions from the volcano. We stopped in an old fishing village full of restaurants. 170 stair steps above was the village. We stayed in the fishing village and enjoyed Greek fast food….Gyros in a Pita along with French fries, and two colas. The Gyros was pita bread filled with chicken (a big piece of chicken was on a vertical spit and the cook kept slicing pieces off as they were done), French fries, tomatoes, onions, tzakiki sauce, and spices. Sounds kind of weird but very tasty! We also enjoyed gelato…icecream…before boarding the boat.

We were then dropped off at the Old Santorini Port called Fira Skala where we road donkeys up to the cliff tops. Christa, neither of us rode your donkey….our donkeys stayed close the walls instead of the cliff edge!

We then went and took pictures of the large white washed church and bought some chocolate banana cream pastry from the bakery before watching the sunset. Today was a much clearer day than when we were in Oia. They are not kidding when they say that the sun plunges into the sea.

We enjoyed our pastry and some of our Vin Santo vine and now we are doing a little packing. If we are hungry when we are finished, we may head to the restaurants to find some Greek appetizers….kalamari with tzakiki (fried squid with a sauce made from cucumbers and something else) or dolmanthes (rice wrapped in grape vine leaves covered with a lemon sauce). We are slowly trying more and more Greek dishes. Keith ate lamb again last night and I tried Moussaka (eggplant, potato, and ground meat cooked like a lasagna).

Tomorrow we are leaving in the morning for a ferry to Mykonos. It is hard to believe that we are visiting our last island. Time sure flies when you are having a great time.
Hope everyone is well at home. Take care!
C

Santorini

Hello everyone. We are now in Santorini. We arrived yesterday by highspeed ferry. It took an hour and 45 minutes. Since we have backpacks we were able to avoid the chaotic luggage loading and unloading of the ferry. We then took a winding bus right up to the top of the cliffs to get to Fira Town. The scenery is unbelievable. Unfortunately I can't post any pcitures of it as we put a new camera card in our camera and left the old card at the hotel. We didn't expect to find internet access today.

Anyway...the story of Santorini is this...Santorini used to be a round island with an inland sea. There were people living here as early as 3000 BC. In 1650 there was a big volcanic eruption that wiped out all human life (the Minoans) and sunk most of the land surrounding the inland lake. Since then there have been a series of eruptions that have continued to alter the landscape of the island including building new offshore islands. The last eruption was in 1956 that destroyed the towns of Fira (just down from where we are staying) and Oia (above where we are staying). Hopefully no eruptions while we are hear! Below is a pictures showing how the island has changed shape. The picture on the far left is Santorini today.

Anyway...now that we have arrived in Santorinin it actually feels like we are now in Greece. Rhodes and Crete were wonderful but the hotels we were staying at were like Mexican resorts so it really felt that we were in Mexico or the Dominican. The hotel that we are staying in now is a small bed and breakfast with few amenities. It is very Greek and the owner is a very friendly and helpful man. The bathroom is a typical style with a small tub that you sit upright in and spray yourself with a spray nozzle attached to a hoze. The windows are complete with locking shutters and we have a small balcony with a clothesline....perfect considering last night was round two of laundry. From the balcony you can see the sea from both parts of the island. There is a Greek church with a blue roof where the bell rings every hour on the hour. We really like this hotel unlike some of the other Canadians who are on similiar travel itinaries. Like the owner says.....you don't come to Santorini to lay around at your hotel.....it is not the Bahamas.

Yesterday upon arrival we decided to hike the 12km along the caldera from Firastefani (where we are staying) to Oia to see the sunset and have supper. It took us about 3 and a half hours but it was the most scenic hike We have every been on. We hiked along the sea cliffs the entire way and often times we were hiking on volcanic rocks called pumice. There were many churches along the way and many hotels with patios looking over the cliffs and the sea. We saw one hotel where the people were sitting in a hot tub over looking the cliffs and the sead drinking a bottle of wine. We decided we were going to stay there on our 20th anniversary!

In Oia there were many craft, art, jewllery and pottery shops. We settled down in a lounge overlooing the sea to have a drink and watch the sunset. The lounge definately likes to take advantage of people wanting to sit and watch the sunset. Keith had a beer and I had the smallest glass of wine ever for the cost of 25 Canadian dollars! Pricey but the sunset was fantastic. I had read about the wine I ordered in my book. It was called Vin Santo and it was the best wine I had ever tasted.

After the sunset we went to have supper at Skala...a restaurant recommended in my book. it overlooked the caldera but it was getting dark and quite windy and cold so we sat in a warm spot. I had chicken and Keith had lamb. Both were good. We then took the bus back to our hotel where we relaxed for the evening...watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit with Greek subtitles.

Today we were to take a tour to the volcaone, the volcanic hotsprings, as well as the island of Thirassia that rose up from the sea after one of the majr earthquakes. However, the weather was quite windy and there were some dark clouds to the north so our excursion was cancelled. In fact....all ferries leaving the island were cancelled! Out trip will run tomorrow if the weather is fine and otherwise we will be refunded as we leave on Thursday for Mykonos.

Instead we walked into Fira where we went to the Prehistoric museum to view some of the findings from the ancient site on the island called Akrotiri....which was also inhabitated by the same Minoans from the Knosses site we visited in Crete. In fact...the two cities used to trade with eachother. The site here is closed as walls collapsed in 2005...killling a visitor...however the museum holds many artifacts from the site that is only 3% excavated. There were lots of clay pots. They had ovens, furniture, tools, and bathtubs. I would post some pictures but apparently....the camera just went dead. I will post more later.

From there we took a bus to the Santo Wine factory....to see how the Vin Santo wine I had in Oia is made. We toured the production factory and then were served a sample of 6 wines with cheese, olives, and bread. It was awesome. We made sure to visit the shop before leaving to purchase some wine.

We then joined 2 Asian couples to share a van taxi to Perissa to see the black sand beaches. We are now in a small cafe enjoying a nice drinks that cost about $11 Canadian which seems expenisve but we get to use free internet for as long as we want and free beach chairs on the beach in front of us.....probably the best deal yet!

Anyway...that is what is happening here. The weather is starting to cloud up and get windy again...we will probably hang out here for a while and then take the bus back to the hotel.

Tomorrow...hopefully our trip will go...if not we will head to Kamari...another black sand beach area.

Sorry no pictures....should have charged the camera....I will try to post tomorrow. The ones posted here are not the ones we took but they look alot like them.

C

Beach Day on Crete

After the 16km hike over rocky terrain we were glad to take a beach day today. We actually don't feel too sore....just our calf muscles. After breakfast we headed to the beach which is very close to our hotel. We rented beach loungers and an umbrella and set up shop. The water was warm and beautiful with an old corral reef in front of it. The weather was about 27 degrees and the beach had some sand but it was mostly light coloured small rocks.

At about 5 pm when went back to the hotel and had a showers before going for a walk up the hill into the old villages. There were many restaurants, shops, bars, and small hotels. By the way....never come to Greece in July and August. Right now is the perfect time. The weather is not too hot, the hoards of tourists are not here, and also prices are much lower since it is the end of the season. Many of the restaurants are empty and the owners are outside trying to convince you to come in. Unfortunately our dinner is included in our hotel. We are looking forward to visiting the small greek restaurants and tavernas when we are in Santorini, Mykonos, and Athens. We did get a shot of the Crete liqour called Rakki....we thought of buying some to bring home but after tasting it I think we have decided to save everyone from it....it burns all the way down! Mind you....I think we were served some Rakki home brew!

Tomorrow we leave early in the morning to take a ferry to Santorini. I don't think we have internet access there. We will try to find some but we may need to write once we are in Mykonos. We are only in Santorini for 3 nights.

C