Since I can't stop singing this song in my head, even almost 24 hours after leaving Greece, I thought I'd share it with y'all. Here it is "Pes To Dinata." Destined to be a global phenomenon...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm0A7CXNezI&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpolyperiodiko%2Epblogs%2Egr%2F2007%2F05%2Fdespoina%2Dolympiou%2Dpes%2Dto%2Ddynata%2Ehtml
Monday, June 4, 2007
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Goodbye Greece
Last day in Greece, so, so sad. We've had a marathon (ha!) day, though, so we have definitely fit in everything possible. We spent last night enjoying the sunset over Santorini and a nice, quiet dinner. Every night at about 815, hundreds of people scramble to the west end of the island and literally crawl all over one another to see this amazing sunset, as the sun passes into the Aegean over the Greek isles. Unfortunately, there is not enough smog in the Peloponnese to get the real good reds and purples of a Birmingham or Atlanta sunset:
End of the day in Santorini.
We had to wakeup super early to catch a flight from Santorini to Athens. We were joined on the flight with 150 very old and very slow midwesterners, so that was an adventure in an of itself. We made it to the Athens airport and rented a car, though. Our intention was to head northwest to Delphi, the religious center of the ancient, pagan world, home of the famous oracle. This time our ride was a tiny red Peugeot, just barely big enough for the two of us and our two suitcases. I took the wheel, Windsor took the maps. Not sure whose fault it was, but we would spend the next 3 hours on a wild goose chase for the oracle, taking us well into the mountains of Greece, in an absolutely beautiful, yet absolutely frustrating drive:
Bo behind the wheel. Frustration level is about a 9.7 at this point.
We did finally make it to Delphi, though, and we got some great ruins in. The oracle was housed in the ancient temple of Apollo, which is in fairly good shape on this enormous archaeological site. If you needed to know the future, you'd head to Delphi, make a sacrifice, and then go into the oracle, who would be a young girl who would breath the natural vapors which came out of a fissure in the earth, she would scream something incomprehensible, and the priests would tell you your future. Generally, the oracle was not very specific or helpful. Ancient literature is full of stories where a general visits the oracle, asks if he will win in battle, and the oracle replies "There will be great victory today"- Thanks oracle.
Bo with map and guidebook in front of the temple of Apollo in Delphi
Windsor in front of the Thelos, a temple in lower Delphi. Notice the mountains in the background. Delphi is perched on the edge of these mountains, just above the gulf of Corinth. It is absolutely breathtaking (and when I say breathtaking I mean when you walk up and down all these hills in 90 degree heat, you are gasping for breath).
Bo posing on the Via Sacra, the road that leads through Delphi.
Well we got back to Athens eventually (via a much better route home) and we had one final night on the town. We did a bit of shopping (some of you are getting terrific presents- sorry Charlie, the Gerrard jersey was out of our price range, especially after having to send you that $100), and then we had one final meal of kebab and beer (terrific):
Bo on the town
Tomorrow's another long day, but we should be back in Hotlanta (that's what the kids are calling it) around 5:45. We're sad to leave, but we've had an amazing time and are excited to share it with others. If anyone's still reading, thanks for paying attention to our blog. There are lots more (over 500) pictures to share, so we'll get them to you soon.
Bon Voyage (or, uh, however you say that in Greek. Have I really studied the language for the last 4 years?)
End of the day in Santorini.
We had to wakeup super early to catch a flight from Santorini to Athens. We were joined on the flight with 150 very old and very slow midwesterners, so that was an adventure in an of itself. We made it to the Athens airport and rented a car, though. Our intention was to head northwest to Delphi, the religious center of the ancient, pagan world, home of the famous oracle. This time our ride was a tiny red Peugeot, just barely big enough for the two of us and our two suitcases. I took the wheel, Windsor took the maps. Not sure whose fault it was, but we would spend the next 3 hours on a wild goose chase for the oracle, taking us well into the mountains of Greece, in an absolutely beautiful, yet absolutely frustrating drive:
Bo behind the wheel. Frustration level is about a 9.7 at this point.
We did finally make it to Delphi, though, and we got some great ruins in. The oracle was housed in the ancient temple of Apollo, which is in fairly good shape on this enormous archaeological site. If you needed to know the future, you'd head to Delphi, make a sacrifice, and then go into the oracle, who would be a young girl who would breath the natural vapors which came out of a fissure in the earth, she would scream something incomprehensible, and the priests would tell you your future. Generally, the oracle was not very specific or helpful. Ancient literature is full of stories where a general visits the oracle, asks if he will win in battle, and the oracle replies "There will be great victory today"- Thanks oracle.
Bo with map and guidebook in front of the temple of Apollo in Delphi
Windsor in front of the Thelos, a temple in lower Delphi. Notice the mountains in the background. Delphi is perched on the edge of these mountains, just above the gulf of Corinth. It is absolutely breathtaking (and when I say breathtaking I mean when you walk up and down all these hills in 90 degree heat, you are gasping for breath).
Bo posing on the Via Sacra, the road that leads through Delphi.
Well we got back to Athens eventually (via a much better route home) and we had one final night on the town. We did a bit of shopping (some of you are getting terrific presents- sorry Charlie, the Gerrard jersey was out of our price range, especially after having to send you that $100), and then we had one final meal of kebab and beer (terrific):
Bo on the town
Tomorrow's another long day, but we should be back in Hotlanta (that's what the kids are calling it) around 5:45. We're sad to leave, but we've had an amazing time and are excited to share it with others. If anyone's still reading, thanks for paying attention to our blog. There are lots more (over 500) pictures to share, so we'll get them to you soon.
Bon Voyage (or, uh, however you say that in Greek. Have I really studied the language for the last 4 years?)
For Lindsay: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
(Windsor again.) Alright Lindz. Since you sent your photo requests to "adamsingreece@gmail" I didn't hear about them until too late (except for the blue dress/white bldgs request). So, to make up for the fact that we didn't get a chance to take the other 2 pictures you requested, we took some stalkerazzi photos of the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" shoot last night on our way to dinner. If you look closely you can see Alexis Bledel in these 2 pictures...
Friday, June 1, 2007
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Bury My Heart in Santorini
[Apologies for the delay in posting; we have been having some technical difficulties.]
It's Windsor again, posting from Santorini. We arrived here in the village of Oia on Tuesday evening, after a somewhat harrowing ferry ride and then a crazy taxi ride up the volcanic cliffs. Apparently you used to have to ride donkeys to the top of the cliffs, but I haven't seen any working donkeys so far (only a couple grazing on the side of the road).
Our hotel is called Canaves Oia. It's small; I'd compare it to a bed and breakfast in the States. Only here, the hotel rooms are little caves dug into the cliffside. Each room is really more like an apartment, made from the houses of the sea captains that used to live here.
No matter how cool the hotel rooms are or how they were built, they're nothing compared to the view when you walk out of them:
We spent most of our first two days here reading on our little veranda:
....or reading by the pool:
For lunch and dinner we usually venture into the village to find someplace with a cliffside balcony to eat.
However, last night after watching the sunset off the west end of the island (still in Oia)....
We walked down the cliffs on the end of the island to a little village called Ammoudi, which is where the fishermens' boats are tied up. There are a couple of tavernas down there where you can eat freshly caught fish and calamari.
Bo never thought I'd go for this but I like to keep him on his toes and anyway I actually loved it. The fish was delicious and it's the only fish we've seen in Greece so far (except the octopus we saw a guy in Mykonos banging against a rock to kill it). Here's proof:
We went back to Ammoudi today and we followed a little winding path around the cliff base to a small (rocky) beach. We swam in the Aegean and out to a rock about 50 feet offshore where there's a sunbathing platform and also a little chapel carved into the rock. The water was really salty so we were surprisingly buoyant and just floated around for a long time. It was really cool; all the little volcanic rocks (pumice?) were floating along with us. We don't have any pictures of this yet but we did take a waterproof disposable camera with us so maybe those will come out when we get back to the U.S.
LINDSAY! They are filming "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" here today!!! No sight of Alexis Bledel yet but we are keeping an eye out. Also, per your email request I wore a blue dress into town the other night to try to get a picture with the white buildings. The pictures all came out blurry, so we'll have to try again. Here's the best one from the bunch:
Also, someone show this picture to my mom so she'll believe me when I get back and tell her I brought a hat AND wore it (otherwise, this picture has no redeeming qualities):
It's Windsor again, posting from Santorini. We arrived here in the village of Oia on Tuesday evening, after a somewhat harrowing ferry ride and then a crazy taxi ride up the volcanic cliffs. Apparently you used to have to ride donkeys to the top of the cliffs, but I haven't seen any working donkeys so far (only a couple grazing on the side of the road).
Our hotel is called Canaves Oia. It's small; I'd compare it to a bed and breakfast in the States. Only here, the hotel rooms are little caves dug into the cliffside. Each room is really more like an apartment, made from the houses of the sea captains that used to live here.
No matter how cool the hotel rooms are or how they were built, they're nothing compared to the view when you walk out of them:
We spent most of our first two days here reading on our little veranda:
....or reading by the pool:
For lunch and dinner we usually venture into the village to find someplace with a cliffside balcony to eat.
However, last night after watching the sunset off the west end of the island (still in Oia)....
We walked down the cliffs on the end of the island to a little village called Ammoudi, which is where the fishermens' boats are tied up. There are a couple of tavernas down there where you can eat freshly caught fish and calamari.
Bo never thought I'd go for this but I like to keep him on his toes and anyway I actually loved it. The fish was delicious and it's the only fish we've seen in Greece so far (except the octopus we saw a guy in Mykonos banging against a rock to kill it). Here's proof:
We went back to Ammoudi today and we followed a little winding path around the cliff base to a small (rocky) beach. We swam in the Aegean and out to a rock about 50 feet offshore where there's a sunbathing platform and also a little chapel carved into the rock. The water was really salty so we were surprisingly buoyant and just floated around for a long time. It was really cool; all the little volcanic rocks (pumice?) were floating along with us. We don't have any pictures of this yet but we did take a waterproof disposable camera with us so maybe those will come out when we get back to the U.S.
LINDSAY! They are filming "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" here today!!! No sight of Alexis Bledel yet but we are keeping an eye out. Also, per your email request I wore a blue dress into town the other night to try to get a picture with the white buildings. The pictures all came out blurry, so we'll have to try again. Here's the best one from the bunch:
Also, someone show this picture to my mom so she'll believe me when I get back and tell her I brought a hat AND wore it (otherwise, this picture has no redeeming qualities):
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Finally some beach--Mykonos
Well stop #2 on the Adams escapade was Mykonos, one of the 2000 islands that make up the Peloponnese. After our adventure driving to the Athens airport (come on, if there was a sign that said "Athens Airport- tolls" and one that said "Athens Airport- no tolls" which one would you choose?) we took a short 20 minute prop flight (kate, you wouldn't have liked it) to Mykonos. From the Mykonos airport (where we spotted Paris Hilton, or at least a lovely lady who thought she was Paris Hilton), we went direct to the Mykonos Grand, one of the Small Luxury Hotels of the world, and quite an amazing place. Built into the rocks on the west side of the island, the hotel offers some stunning views of the island of Delos, where the ancient Greeks barred anyone from being born or dying, and from the looks of it, no one lives there. Getting there in the evening, we first enjoyed cocktails in the hottub overlooking the Aegean. Then, we simply "settled" for dinner at the hotel restaurant (Ostrich filet, mmmm).
To our great disappointment, we awoke to cloudy skies and intermittent rain on our first (and only full) day in Mykonos. Windsor's cursing of the Athenians at the Numismatics Museum(see previous entry) must have angered the Greek weather god (that would be Zeus, for all you Edith Hamilton fans) because we got zero sun on Monday. We settled instead for books and beers at the poolside (covered) bar. Not a bad way to spend a rainy day, again testing out the local brew Mythos (needed several samples to be sure it was okay), learning a lot about Martin Luther (my new hero), and eating several hundred Smarties. The weather cleared enough for another evening in the hottub with several more cocktails. We decided to get adventurous and headed to Mykonos town for the evening. The town is about a 10 minute cab ride from the hotel. Mykonos is a strange combination of Cancun/Ibiza party scene and a destination for old folks on cruises. The town is pedestrian-only, with streets about 5 feet wide between ancient white buildings with gyro stands and Cartier-like stores. The young, nerdy, academic couple who don't go to clubs were a little out of place, but we were able to enjoy ourselves. We grabbed apps and beers along the water, then toured the stores, then settled for our best meal of the trip so far, a 3 euro gyro (amazing). We decided to end the evening with a nice glass of wine along the water's edge, but we were quickly told by the angry Greek waiter that if we were not going to order food, we could not sit by the water. We took offense and left. End of Monday...
Tuesday, the day we were leaving Mykonos, was beautiful, of course. We did get to spend the morning at the beach, but we had to pack up and head home. After a mob scene at the local port, we boarded the SuperJet, the 2 hour ferry to Santorini. If you thought Mykonos was nice, just wait until you hear about Santorini. But alas, I have to go enjoy more cocktails at the poolside bar, while overlooking the Aegean which lays at the base of the 500 foot cliff upon which our hotel is precariously perched (unreal). More later!
Here are some Mykonos Pics...
Windsor enjoying the evening cocktails in the hottub.
Rain, rain go away, come again another day (except not when we're in Santorini)
Mykonos' weather gave us a chance to catch up on our blogging, emailing, and drinking skills.
In the town of Mykonos. Great drinks (beer and wine), apps (spinakapita and feta), and people watching by the water in Mykonos.
The craziness of the Mykonos town scene. Lots of techno music, European guys dressed like European guys, and old people off the cruise ship. Needless to say, we didn't exactly fit in.
Bo enjoying the local fare in the town of Mykonos- pork gyro and Mythos beer, better than Mauby's.
Bo enjoying the beach in Mykonos, finally on Monday after the rain has passed. Delos is the island in the background (control yourselves, ladies)
Windsor, waiting with the other 45 thousand drunk college kids at the Mykonos port. There were no signs, indications of which ferry went where, or any rule of law (people pushing, jumping fences, smelling bad). We're both about as happy at this point as she looks.
Goodbye to the beauty of Mykonos. Would we find better views in Santorini? (um, yes) This is the view from the terrace of our hotel room at the Mykonos Grand. We spent quite a bit of time sitting here, reading, blogging, drinking, eating Jelly Bellies.
To our great disappointment, we awoke to cloudy skies and intermittent rain on our first (and only full) day in Mykonos. Windsor's cursing of the Athenians at the Numismatics Museum(see previous entry) must have angered the Greek weather god (that would be Zeus, for all you Edith Hamilton fans) because we got zero sun on Monday. We settled instead for books and beers at the poolside (covered) bar. Not a bad way to spend a rainy day, again testing out the local brew Mythos (needed several samples to be sure it was okay), learning a lot about Martin Luther (my new hero), and eating several hundred Smarties. The weather cleared enough for another evening in the hottub with several more cocktails. We decided to get adventurous and headed to Mykonos town for the evening. The town is about a 10 minute cab ride from the hotel. Mykonos is a strange combination of Cancun/Ibiza party scene and a destination for old folks on cruises. The town is pedestrian-only, with streets about 5 feet wide between ancient white buildings with gyro stands and Cartier-like stores. The young, nerdy, academic couple who don't go to clubs were a little out of place, but we were able to enjoy ourselves. We grabbed apps and beers along the water, then toured the stores, then settled for our best meal of the trip so far, a 3 euro gyro (amazing). We decided to end the evening with a nice glass of wine along the water's edge, but we were quickly told by the angry Greek waiter that if we were not going to order food, we could not sit by the water. We took offense and left. End of Monday...
Tuesday, the day we were leaving Mykonos, was beautiful, of course. We did get to spend the morning at the beach, but we had to pack up and head home. After a mob scene at the local port, we boarded the SuperJet, the 2 hour ferry to Santorini. If you thought Mykonos was nice, just wait until you hear about Santorini. But alas, I have to go enjoy more cocktails at the poolside bar, while overlooking the Aegean which lays at the base of the 500 foot cliff upon which our hotel is precariously perched (unreal). More later!
Here are some Mykonos Pics...
Windsor enjoying the evening cocktails in the hottub.
Rain, rain go away, come again another day (except not when we're in Santorini)
Mykonos' weather gave us a chance to catch up on our blogging, emailing, and drinking skills.
In the town of Mykonos. Great drinks (beer and wine), apps (spinakapita and feta), and people watching by the water in Mykonos.
The craziness of the Mykonos town scene. Lots of techno music, European guys dressed like European guys, and old people off the cruise ship. Needless to say, we didn't exactly fit in.
Bo enjoying the local fare in the town of Mykonos- pork gyro and Mythos beer, better than Mauby's.
Bo enjoying the beach in Mykonos, finally on Monday after the rain has passed. Delos is the island in the background (control yourselves, ladies)
Windsor, waiting with the other 45 thousand drunk college kids at the Mykonos port. There were no signs, indications of which ferry went where, or any rule of law (people pushing, jumping fences, smelling bad). We're both about as happy at this point as she looks.
Goodbye to the beauty of Mykonos. Would we find better views in Santorini? (um, yes) This is the view from the terrace of our hotel room at the Mykonos Grand. We spent quite a bit of time sitting here, reading, blogging, drinking, eating Jelly Bellies.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Athens
Bo has put me (Windsor) in charge of posting about Athens. This may be because I got into so much trouble in Athens. More on that below...
Saturday night in Athens we went to Plaka, the neighborhood right below the Acropolis, for dinner. Plaka is a lot like the Latin Quarter of Paris, so Tom probably wouldn't have liked it. We liked it though-- lots of Greek musicians playing on the sidewalks, restaurants with tables on the sidewalk and in shaded plazas. We picked a place called Platanos, a taverna serving traditional Greek food. "Traditional Greek food" apparently means gyros and souvlaki, except the gyros aren't lamb meat like they are at Shipfeifer's; they're pork or chicken. Anyway, here's a picture of Bo at Platanos:
Sunday morning we woke up really early (Charlie this means 6:30 am not 1 pm) and were among the first few people climbing up to the Acropolis when it opened at 8 am. Here is Bo hiking up:
You don't realize how high the Acropolis is until you're on top. You can see the entire city and the sea beyond. Here is the view:
And here is Bo, pondering the view:
The Parthenon is full of scaffolding because they're currently in the middle of a restoration. They are apparently repairing the damage caused by the last restoration (19th century). Anyway, it's still the Parthenon and it's still incredible, scaffolding or no:
We also visited the Acropolis museum at the top of the Acropolis. There wasn't a lot there because they are in the middle of building a new museum at the bottom of the Acropolis. The frieze panels from the Parthenon (the ones that weren't, to use the Greeks' description, "hacked off the Parthenon by British Lord Elgin and stolen away to England") and the other major carvings are all in the process of being moved to the new museum.
I nonetheless tried to document the museum visit by taking a picture of Bo with this statue, but this Greek lady started yelling at me, saying "NO POSING! NO POSING!" and she marched over and made me erase the picture. I didn't like her very much...
Despite being scolded by the lady at the museum, the Acropolis was very cool.
We spent the rest of the day in Athens visiting a couple of museums. First, the National Archaeological Museum, where we saw the Mycenaen treasure unearthed by Heinrich Schliemann. Here is Bo, posing like a statue outside the National Archaeological Museum (don't tell him I posted this one):
Then we visited the Numismatics Museum, which was the second place I got in trouble in Athens. What are numismatics, you ask? Well, that's what I asked when Bo said we had to go there instead of going shopping. Numismatics = coin collecting. We arrived at the Numismatics Museum at 2:30 and it was supposed to close at 3. We figured we had plenty of time, half an hour to look at all the coins-- except apparently the employees wanted to get off work early, and they were mad mad mad that we arrived at 2:30. They decided to let us know how mad they were by following us through the rooms of the museum, en masse, and standing there watching us as we looked at the display cases. By the time we got to the last room, there were about eight Greeks standing at the door chatting loudly to each other and staring us down. I asked Bo how to say some cuss words in Greek but he doesn't know any good Greek vocabulary like that. All in all we spent about 15 minutes at the Numismatics Museum.
We headed back to the hotel around 3, got the car, got yelled at by a Greek lady in a car, and headed toward the Athens airport. This was an adventure because Bo followed the "Airport-No Tolls" sign instead of the "Airport- Tolls" sign and somehow we ended up at the beach in Rafina instead of the airport. This was a little bit stressful. However, we turned around and made it to the airport in plenty of time and by 7 pm we were in Mykonos. Hopefully they like Americans here better than they do in Athens...
Saturday night in Athens we went to Plaka, the neighborhood right below the Acropolis, for dinner. Plaka is a lot like the Latin Quarter of Paris, so Tom probably wouldn't have liked it. We liked it though-- lots of Greek musicians playing on the sidewalks, restaurants with tables on the sidewalk and in shaded plazas. We picked a place called Platanos, a taverna serving traditional Greek food. "Traditional Greek food" apparently means gyros and souvlaki, except the gyros aren't lamb meat like they are at Shipfeifer's; they're pork or chicken. Anyway, here's a picture of Bo at Platanos:
Sunday morning we woke up really early (Charlie this means 6:30 am not 1 pm) and were among the first few people climbing up to the Acropolis when it opened at 8 am. Here is Bo hiking up:
You don't realize how high the Acropolis is until you're on top. You can see the entire city and the sea beyond. Here is the view:
And here is Bo, pondering the view:
The Parthenon is full of scaffolding because they're currently in the middle of a restoration. They are apparently repairing the damage caused by the last restoration (19th century). Anyway, it's still the Parthenon and it's still incredible, scaffolding or no:
We also visited the Acropolis museum at the top of the Acropolis. There wasn't a lot there because they are in the middle of building a new museum at the bottom of the Acropolis. The frieze panels from the Parthenon (the ones that weren't, to use the Greeks' description, "hacked off the Parthenon by British Lord Elgin and stolen away to England") and the other major carvings are all in the process of being moved to the new museum.
I nonetheless tried to document the museum visit by taking a picture of Bo with this statue, but this Greek lady started yelling at me, saying "NO POSING! NO POSING!" and she marched over and made me erase the picture. I didn't like her very much...
Despite being scolded by the lady at the museum, the Acropolis was very cool.
We spent the rest of the day in Athens visiting a couple of museums. First, the National Archaeological Museum, where we saw the Mycenaen treasure unearthed by Heinrich Schliemann. Here is Bo, posing like a statue outside the National Archaeological Museum (don't tell him I posted this one):
Then we visited the Numismatics Museum, which was the second place I got in trouble in Athens. What are numismatics, you ask? Well, that's what I asked when Bo said we had to go there instead of going shopping. Numismatics = coin collecting. We arrived at the Numismatics Museum at 2:30 and it was supposed to close at 3. We figured we had plenty of time, half an hour to look at all the coins-- except apparently the employees wanted to get off work early, and they were mad mad mad that we arrived at 2:30. They decided to let us know how mad they were by following us through the rooms of the museum, en masse, and standing there watching us as we looked at the display cases. By the time we got to the last room, there were about eight Greeks standing at the door chatting loudly to each other and staring us down. I asked Bo how to say some cuss words in Greek but he doesn't know any good Greek vocabulary like that. All in all we spent about 15 minutes at the Numismatics Museum.
We headed back to the hotel around 3, got the car, got yelled at by a Greek lady in a car, and headed toward the Athens airport. This was an adventure because Bo followed the "Airport-No Tolls" sign instead of the "Airport- Tolls" sign and somehow we ended up at the beach in Rafina instead of the airport. This was a little bit stressful. However, we turned around and made it to the airport in plenty of time and by 7 pm we were in Mykonos. Hopefully they like Americans here better than they do in Athens...
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