A Tiny bit of Athens

We arrived in Athens at about 3 o'clock ready to hit the hay or hit the sack whichever you prefer.

Of course we as children, had to do what our very much awake parents wanted us to do AKA: Let's get the subway and...

Go to the acropolis!

The most exhilarating part of the trip was the subway, it is so astronomically fast! We zoomed down the tracks and much too fast we had arrived at StAtioN aCropOLiS (jthe words are in Greek so I wrote them like that to indicate the difficulty understanding it) and sadly we had to disembark.

Drew's first subway ticket

 

 

Doctor who is real and here's the proof:

The angel assassins ! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

 

The people who live in Athens are categorised into 1 of these 3 categories

1. Friendly and nice: Does all work properly, willing to help anyone, doesn't cheat the schedules.
2. Nahhh mates: people who continuously try to cheat their customers out of any money possible, really don't care about other people, try to make your life harder, rude in the extreme.
3. Every one else: robbers.

90% of the people we met in Athens were type 2's such as the people who ran the opening, closing and admission times and tickets. the board says last admission is at 6:30 and the acropolis shuts at 7:00, the people at the desk said that they closed tickets already even though the time was 6:25. As you can imagine there was a massive outcry from all the people wanting to get in, but the workers didn't care. They just wanted to go home, so that was that except for one thing we saw on the way home. Mars Hill.

 

 

Mars Hill is at the back of the Acropolis and gives a PV (premium view).

 

The next day we set out to the acropolis museum because if we couldn't see the acropolis we might as well see what they found in it:

• Massive old statues mostly of Athena the goddess of the city
• The frieze of the pantheon
• Lots of mini figurines

Drew and I spent a couple of hours doing and educational and heaps of fun quiz activity finding the statues of Athena. As we were moving around, we saw many ancient cups, tools and relics of the old city.

When we looked down, we could see through the perspex floor into the ancient city being excavated by archeologists below the level of the museum. Every floor of every level of the museum is made of perspex. Cool.

 

Entrance. See ancient town below the museum level

 

Our completed tour activity sheet

 

 

 

We had a great time in the museum and were thoroughly disappointed when we had to leave but we didn't want to miss our plane to ROME!!!

I've enjoyed Greece with its gorgeous little peaks of happiness around every corner and am looking forward to all the new things in Rome

See you in Italy

(metaphorically of course)

Zozo

 

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Naxos

Hello again peeps

Here's what I did in my two days in Naxos:

1. Got lost (with the family) several times
2. Saw and where amazed by some kouroi (great mini project topic Mrs.Melville)
3. Found the great ute of Demeter (see later)
4. Saw the great Temple of Demeter
5. Saw the great Temple of Apollo
6. Drove past the great cave of Zeus
7. Saw the not so great marble quarry
8. Tried a souvlaki pita for the 1st time
9. Saw a shepherd with a mobile phone
10. Saw a sheep crossing, saw a goat devour something I won't mention
11. Saw an old pig in an old ute (not Demeter's)
12. Math
13. Yet more math
14. Saw (and heard) some loud Easter fire works
15. Mathania

KOURI

Kouroi are ancient Greek sculptures made from the marble of Naxos. There are only 200 known in existence, most of which are broken in 3-5 pieces. The reason kouroi are found on mountain tops or in pieces is that kouroi or kouros (singular form) are made from the fragile marble found on the tops of the mountains. archeologists and historians think he kouroi were abandoned for one of the four below reasons:

1. Breakage of the kouroi limbs
2. Undiscovered faults in the marble
3. The cancellation of an order
4. Political problems

Here is a kouros we saw on the mountain side:

Here is some information about this kouros:

Here is the other kouros we saw in the mountains:

After a lot of walking and rock spotting we headed back to our car. How many frogs do they have in Greece? I'm not sure but there going to have a lot soon!

Every black dot is a tadpole. ALL TADPOLES, ALL OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Hey Room 4 when you guys get back to school maybe you could tell Dr. Lewis about that.

 

 

THE GREAT TEMPLES AND CO.

Demeter's Temple

On our way to the temple of Demeter, the road signs not being very clear and they were, not surprisingly in Greek . Wouldn't have made any difference mind you because the maps have no relation whatsoever with the roads. We found ourselves completely lost on an old farm trail. As we rounded the corner expecting to see an old white marble temple, you could say we were somewhat surprised to see a farmer in his ute outside his house. Not cool at all. We named this dramatic discovery " Demeter's Ute"

 

 

Maybe useful, but definitely not as a map

 

 

As we finaly showed up at the temple of Demeter, she seemed to get quite angry at us for being late as you can see from the sky:

The temple of Demeter

 

Who was Demeter

Well...

 

 

 

 

Next... Apollo's Temple

The temple of Apollo

 

 

The temple of appolo is 2000 years old and is yet still standing, although I pity the jetty connecting the land to the monument, it gets totally bashed on one side and gently soothed on the other. I bet it wishes it could switch sides sometimes. Look at the difference:

Ouch

 

I thoroughly recommend Naxos to any traveler. It has the friendly atmosphere of Crete yet the beauty and culture of Santorini. Naxos demonstrates a quirky half style of perfection and is a little slice of family time between 2 of the biggest party islands in the Mediterranean. I recommend it to every weary traveler who doth sail the Mediterranean sea...

 

That's what I did in in Naxos, now I'm heading to Athens and then to Rome and Italy

See you later

Zo- on- go-

P.s I'm reading these books right books now: A wrinkle in time and I'm researching tuck everlasting aka, watching the movie

 

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Santorini in a child's eye

This blog will be a bit different from all the others because I'm just telling you what I did and what it's like here, not in order.

 

Firstly, this is what happens to dads who shout at their lovely daughters about Maths homework

 

 

 

Itinerary

I've done so far:

1. Rode on a Cable car down a steep and rocky mountain
2. Taken a donkey ride up the above mentioned steep and rocky mountain
3. Taken a volcano tour on a rickety old boat
4. Went to Oia at e far north of the island which the Greeks say as Eeya
5. Witnessed two sunset weddings
6. Explored the acient Venetian capital
7. Took a ferry to Naxos

Firstly - this did not happen when we went on the cable car

 

Here's a picture from our cable car:

Isn't that incline beautiful

Santorini is in a Caldera, which is the roof of a volcano. Hundreds of years ago the volcano exploded and the island of Santorini was split up by the lava and molten rock. The once flat terrain of Santorini became mountainous and hilly but the real damage was what the ocean claimed.

The volcano erupting caused the demolition of the land around, leaving the city walls open rock hundreds of metres high. You can see all layers of rock, each showing a stage in time.

 

The legend of the lost city of Atlantis?

At the time of the great eruption, the land around the volcano sunk. The sea came flooding in to where the sinking land had blocked it from entering. The sea took its chance, and darting in, all this land was overtaken by the great blue. The city and dwellings of the region were destroyed. Lost into the treacherous, boiling ocean. Some say that this is where the legend of the lost undersea city of Atlantis was born!

I feel so dramatic!

This is also why the incline is so steep and it is hard for humans to walk up. To make it easier the path curves back and forth on itself so the angle is not so acute.

But it isn't so hard to trot up, so, Traditionally the folk of Santorini (and now tourists for 5 euros a ride) can take a donkey to the top. Or does the donkey take a human?

Drew really bonded with his ride!

Donkeys are thoroughly misunderstood creatures and are not stubborn at all, I love their eyes the most.

Here are some facts about donkeys:

Santorini is extremely beauteous and holds many surprises and pockets of happiness as my brother found out on the trip to the volcano on this traditional wooden and slightly smelly (fishy) boat.

The volcano view was so amazing to little Drew boo and i think to all of us as well although its hard to know because he is talking all the time.

Notice the more recent black stone at the back from 60 years ago and the older volcanic rock near the front of the picture.

 

 

Pumice stone is abundent here as well as a red iron ore ish stone and a mysterios porous black stone as seen in this picture. Pumice is light as a feather and chalky in consistency. You can pick up as much as you want from the floor around you or pay 1.50Euros for a small piece in the tourist shops.

 

There is one more active bit of the volcano. You can smell the sulfur but its not like you imagine. There isn't any large cone with lava at the bottom, all the activity is underground. There are lots of very steep rocky hills (pushed up by the volcano below). Drew almost slipped down a number of times. Do not want that to happen, right, right?

 

 

Skaros

Another amazing thing we did in Santorini was a self guided tour of king rock, the old Venetian capital of Santorini and that was beautiful! King rock or scaros

 

 

 

 

I've had a great time in Greece so far and I think that will continue in Naxos which is where we are headed next.

So goodbye for now

Zoe signing out

 

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Santorini

Itinerary

• Ferry from Crete to Athens
• Ferry to Santorini
• Relax on an iconic Greek island

 

The long way to go

As you can see from this map it would be most convenient to travel to the Cyclades from Heraklion. It's not the high season yet, so it is impossible as there are no direct ferries or flights yet. This messed up our planning I can tell you!

Instead of a short direct trip, we had to take the ferry to Athens and then another ferry to to get to our Cyclades island destination of Santorini. This all proved proved tedious as each take 8 - 10 hours ...not good.

A wayward journey

 

 

So we set off for a long sea journey.

At 7.30pm we left our apartment to head to the port of Chania. We were full of food and ready to go. We were also quite tired which was good because this ferry went over night! And what a ferry it was. Not at all like the Rottnest ferry.

The Ferry

It's huge. Ferry from Chania to Athens

 

Captin drew and first mate Zoe will show you our room in a jiffy

 

 

I was so pooped that I decided to try and keep awake and they didn't have any coffee.

 

 

Our cabin

 

 

The ferry arrived in Athens just after 6am. We had to be up quite a bit before that. I am not usually that awake that early on a Monday but I didn't want to get left on the boat you see. I'm not like this on school mornings, although mum and dad would love it if I were.

 

Early morning walk to ferry #2

 

Another 8 hours on a boat was not exactly how I wanted to start the day but I wanted to go to Santorini so I'm not complaining (much). Ferry food was very expensive but the hot chocolates were fantastic.

Through the ferry window.

 

Gotta love Santorini!!! So picturesque isn't it.

It's not exactly warm and sunny mind you. Dad's friend called it Santo-rainy. It's freezing here at the moment. The wind shrieks as it finds its way through all the little spaces between doors and window panes. In spite of the chill, the place is just gorgeous.

Santorini isn't like Crete with its tall walls and balconys, it's quite different. The houses are built onto a sheer cliff face. The island is in a Caldera which means its on a volcano! Thousands of years ago the volcano had a massive eruption. The middle of the island sunk into the ocean (where the boats now dock and where our magnificent sunsets occur). The missing island (some say), gave birth to the myth of the lost city of Atlantis.

The Santorini goverment has told the people of Santorini to paint their walls white and dome their roofs to attract tourists to their old unexciting port town. The people embraced the idea and now tourists flock to see the white washed walls and blue domed roofs of Santorini. It is the iconic Greek island now. That's pretty good marketing.

The religious theme is really nice too. Here the people get to lay slips of paper with there prayers written on them in the church. If god grants their wishes they must return favour and build a church or bell tower on their property. isn't that a nice way of thinking about it.

 

Did I mention it was windy?

 

 

Here are some iconic sunsets from our hotel

Sunset

Night 2

 

 

 

Tomorrow we'll probably do something like a donkey ride or a trip to oia the second biggest town here.

Bye for now

Zoe

Next destination: Naxos and then Athens to Rome

P.S I'm reading these books right now: I finished 2 and almost finished a wrinkle in time

 

 

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Bye bye Heraklion chocolate waffles

Today we

• Got up early
• Took a bus to Chania, Crete
• Got thoroughly lost
• Arrived at our top notch brilliant apartment
• Walked into town
• Found and ate the best baklava my family and I have ever had
• Went back and fell asleep

 

We ate:

• Buffet breakfast
• Cashews
• Baklava
• Amazing beachside lunch / dinner thing

 

Hello y'all

Friends, family, cats and kittens (especially cats and kittens)

 

Started of the day in a thorougly good mood until I realised that were leaving to Chania today and therefore leaving my free chocolate waffles [ sob ] these aren't, however, your run of the mill waffles, oh no, these are your extra premium high quality ultra double chocolate blackmailing mum ticket.

For example

mum: Zoe, why don't we walk that 16 km gorge walk today

Zoe : no

mum: why not

Zoe: (deliberately ignoring question) tell you what, if we don't walk the gorge today I'll give you my chocolate waffle tomorrow

mum: (instantly) deal!

Mum doesn't realise that if all else fails I can still use the diet coke bargaining trick.Sweeeeeeeet

Mum's weakness

 

Lesson one of a three hour bus trip to Channia: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GIVE DREW SUGER WITH IN 1 HOUR OF DEPARTING OR EMBARKING

whoops...

lesson two: OR ZOE FOR THAT MATTER

Sunscreen moustache

[banging head repeatedly] SO [bang] WITLESS [bang]

 

 

Double whoops

Finally the sugar rush was depleted leaving me and drew completely exhausted as we bent our heads and trudged out of town we got caught up in this: a fight for....CYPRIOT FREEDOM !!!

 

Protestors

Me and the protestors

 

 

Arms... So... Tired!!!

 

 

As we were walking back ( Ellen this photo is for you ) I saw this!

loh-leeees

 

 

The views here are incredible check out this beautiful Venetian lighthouse at sunset:

Climbing Venetian fort wall

 

 

 

When we were thoroughly spent we decided to have dinner on the waterfront. Lets just say I don't like calimari any more:

 

The reason these public eyesores are hanging here is because this is how they dry octopuses. They soak them in vinegar so the cats won't eat them and the flies won't touch them. Then after a couple of days drying, they haul them in and BBQ them on high heat turning them rapidly. The outside is crispy and the inside is soft.

I didn't realise Greek food was so good until I tried it (not the Octopus). Very calming stuff especially when you're eating it In the calmest and oldest harbour in the Mediterranean.

Any way I think y'all find that that concludes today

See ya round

Wait I'm in Europe sorry

See ya then

Zoe

 

 

Coming up: A long boat ride to Santorini.

Currently I am reading: i just finished "The boy in the dress" and am now starting "A wrinkle in Time"

 

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