Carry On...: Greece

So, I'm finally getting around to sorting pictures from Greece, posting a bunch of them on facebook (supposedly if you click this link you can see them even without a facebook account (mom)), and thinking about scrapbooking. I am also eating sesame seed covered peanuts from Santorini while writing this post, to make it more authentic. Greece was awesome; marble everywhere (seriously, the streets, sidewalks and buildings are made of it) much more of a dry landscape than I was mentally picturing, but very picturesque, and awesomely full of ancient things. There were plenty of ancient Greek ruins; the parthenon and acropolis in general, Delphi, where the ruins currently visible are mostly from the 4th century BC, but the most ancient, mind-blowingly ancient if you think about it, were the minoan ruins on Crete (palaces of knossos and phaistos) which date from around the 15 or 16th century BC. Along the same lines, one of my favorite places was the St Anthony Gorge, also on Crete, where there was a tiny little chapel tucked under an overhang, on the site of an older place of worship, going back 25 centuries (if I remember correctly). The gorge itself was beautiful, with lovely little waterfalls, very rocky, pink blooming oleander (shrubs), and many frogs. The frogs all played that game where they think you can't see them if they hold still...

On our trip we spent some time in Athens, then went to some of the islands (there are a bazillion), Tinos, Naxos, and Santorini, which are part of the Cyclades group. After the end of the group tour, we went on to Delphi, and then Crete.

We saw a lot of cool things, not just ruins, but also lovely scenery (since it was a hiking tour), and we ate a lot of delicious food (bonus for going during ripe veggie season). I really loved the picturesque little hillside villages, white-washed and climbing with blooming vines, though they introduce an idea of communal living that is completely foreign to the american way of life.

By way of honesty, not everything was fabulous, starting with my residency-induced lack of physical fitness, which led to a lot of out-of-breath puffing and blowing up the (very steep) hills to the ancient venetian fortresses (btw, excellent placement; who can fight after climbing a small mountain if full armor?) on my part. It was also hard to stay hydrated, because I seemed to be sweating my weight in water on a daily basis, even without the hiking. I also had some luggage difficulties at the beginning of the trip that I will not detail, but which were very distressing at the time.

What is really amazing is how much has been actively destroyed over time, mostly by people attempting to do the right thing, usually in the name of religion. Sometimes its a pompous englishman *cough Lord Elgin cough* *cough Sir Arther Evans cough* (don't ask what they did unless you really want me to go off an a tangent), but to me it is just incredibly sad when a building like the parthenon stands for thousands of years, only to get practically demolished by some (four letter word) turks storing ammunition in it....

Anyway, here are a few pictures, click the link above to see more :)