Teeny Santorini - Greece

Next stop - Santorini! I was so excited about the stop in Santorini. I have considered myself a novice volcanologist/geologist, so to go to an island that blew itself up in one of the world's largest volcanic eruptions is pretty cool on my list.

We were porting into Santorini early in the morning so I got up even earlier to watch the ship glide into the bay of Santorini. If you haven't ever taken a cruise in the Aegean Sea and then gotten up early and watched the sunrise over the islands of Greece, do it. I highly recommend it.

Santorini is the southern most island in the group of islands called the Cyclades. 

Santorini is too little of a port for our ginormous cruise ship to come into so we had to be tendered in by small boats. (A ship's tender is a small boat used to take people and /or supplies back and forth from the boat and port. Now you know.)

Santorini is a C shaped island, and it is actually a caldera, or volcanic crater. Steep, layered cliffs rise out of the ocean all around. A large eruption around 1600 BC destroyed the center of the volcanic island that was here. The sea rushed in and filled in the center leaving the sides of the volcano (the cliffs) as all that was left.

After we reached the island, we started a hike down the east side which has a gentle slope to the sea compared to the sheer cliff face that we ported at.

The gentle hills of Santorini.

The main town in Santorini is called Thira. Santorini has no rivers or natural sources of water. At all. And it is an arid climate. The locals were telling us that they collect what little rain water they do get in barrels and then bring the rest in on ship. 

The homes in Santorini are all brightly colored. This practice started when they would mix different colors of the naturally occurring volcanic sand into the plaster. All the reds, pinks, yellows, and oranges are sands found on the island. Santorini is filled with tiny churches, which all have their domes painted blue, like the one on the right of this picture.

On our hike back to the main part of town, we passed this little courtyard. Maybe they get the blue color from mixing in pieces of sky. Sigh... just a little whimsy.

The town's fish market was up and going, and filling the building heat of the day with the smell of a fresh catch, making you wonder how anyone could ever decide to eat fish at all.

Halfway through our visit, our kids started asking to go back to the boat. I think they had had enough of Greece, and the heat, at this point. What's the best way to keep kids going?

Feed them pizza of course. Even Greek pizza will do.

That's better. 

As we walked around, it was pretty obvious that Santorini's only economic industry is tourism. Which as tourists, was okay with us.

Thira and a view of the caldera.

The people of Santorini were friendly and kind. We had a chat with the man who ran the little Greek cafe that we ate at. He was very interested in where we are from and what we were doing there. 

Thira is a very exposed to the elements on Santorini's western face. There weren't a lot of places for shade. (The next time I have my picture taken, will someone please remind me to take my lens cap out of my front pocket so I don't look like I am carrying around a container of dip or chew?)

That volcanic hill to the right of me is evidence of continuing volcanic activity at Santorini. In 1707 this lava flow breached the surface of the sea. The small island is now called Nea Kameni and it had its last eruption in 1950.

Before we got to Santorini, everyone told us that we had to make it over to the village of Oia on the northern tip of the island. We never made it over there with our four tired kids, but we got a good view of it from the hill we climbed.

In the towns on Santorini, there really were no roads or streets. Just walking paths that linked all the homes together.

As we sat and enjoyed the view from the top, we saw all the boats tendering people back to the cruise ship. We felt we didn't get enough time in Santorini, but didn't really want to extend our visit by getting stuck on a small island in the Aegean Sea, so this is our last view of Santorini. After the hustle and bustle and Athens, the relaxed and easy going pace of Santorini was a welcome change. We heard about some great beaches here. The Red Beach, the Black Beach, and the White Beach. All colored by the volcanic sands that grace their shores. We didn't make it to them either. I guess we will just have to go back. Right?

ατvío,

Kelly

Attitude In Athens - Greece

Athens, or in modern Greek, AΘHNA, was our second stop in our Greek cruise whirlwind. Athens is located on a peninsula in southern Greece. There is so much to see and do in Athens. We knew that the eight hours our cruise gave us would not be enough time, so we had to carefully pick and choose our destinations. Because we are super cheap, we opted to not take our cruise ship excursions, but try to manage getting to all these locations by ourselves. That required a lot of walking and metro riding. For this trip we teamed up with another American family with four kids that we knew from Heidelberg. The Point Family. Have you ever dragged eight tired kids around down town Athens in 85°F/30°C heat? If you haven't, you should. It's really fun.

We started by walking the one mile hike to the metro station. As we walked along the small sidewalks in Athens from the port, we got points and stares from the cars waiting at red lights. 'Oh boy,' I thought. It's going to be one of those places. A place where we get stared at, and asked if they are all ours. In this case they weren't all mine, but with four adults and eight children, I'm sure we looked like a school field trip or something. The metro station was easy to find and the tickets were super cheap. €,70. That's like practically giving them away. And then I saw why.

Here is our train. If you are thinking it looks a little rough, don't worry. We thought the same thing. We rode it to the historical neighborhood of Pláka. 

The hill is called the Acropolis. The temple on the hill is called the Parthenon. Just to help clear that up.

Pláka is clustered around the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis. Since we didn't feel like climbing these cliffs, we hiked around to the other side. 

Wild, red poppies were blooming all over the slopes to the Acropolis. It was gorgeous.

This here is the Areopagus or the "Rock of Ares." The Romans called it Mars' Hill. In classical times the rock functioned as a court of appeal for criminal cases. Sure is different from the wood paneled court rooms I am familiar with. The Apostle Paul, from the New Testament, delivered his famous speech about the Lord of Heaven who made the world does not live in temples made by hands. Pretty good speech. Read the whole speech here starting at verse 16.

It was amazing to walk in the footsteps of an apostle. I walked off on one side of the hill and took a look around at the beautiful vistas that the rock provided.

The Temple of Hephaetus. Everywhere you looked, there was another ancient building reaching out, competing for your attention.

Athens, old and new.

Matt felt so inspired by standing on the Areopagus he delivered his own sermon. Probably sounded something like this: "Let us all find a shady spot, and drink water and rejoice in the shade for it is hot. Let us all eat cookies, for cookies should not dwell in packages made by man, but in our stomachs." It was close to lunchtime, after all.

We hiked up the stairs to the Parthenon and were rewarded with sweeping views of Athens with the blue Aegean Sea in the background. 

The Acropolis dates back to 447 BC when it was built as a temple to the goddess Athena. Other religions have also worshiped here. In 400 AD it was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. And in 1460 AD, it was turned into a mosque. Poor Athena. Seems people forgot about her.

The Parthenon is undergoing restoration right now. Apart from being around 2,500 years old, it was blown up once. In 1687, the Venetians were attacking Athens, who was under control by the Ottoman Turks. Those brilliant Ottoman Turks stored their gunpowder in the Parthenon. The Venetians launched a mortar, which wouldn't have done that much damage, if the gunpowder wasn't in there. The Turks said they didn't think the Venetians would attack a building of such great importance as the Parthenon. Apparently, the Venetians called the Turks on it by saying, "Oh yeah? Not only are we going to get all your gunpowder, but we are going to blow up the very important building you put it in." Goes to show you, not only should you 'keep your powder dry,' you should keep it away from things you don't want destroyed. Kind of seems like a no-brainer to me, but hey, I've made some mistakes too. Just not this big.

They are not trying to restore it completely, but just to restore the structural integrity of the building. They are using the original marble pieces whenever they can find them, and then filling in destroyed pieces with new marble, quarried from the same place.

The new, white marble will eventually yellow and age to match the existing marble.

This is north of the Parthenon and is called the Erechtheion. It is another temple and is dedicated to the Greek hero Erichthonius. It would seem he was born fully formed from the earth after an attempted rape of Athena that you can read about here. Yuck.

More Erechtheion. No more attempted rape stories though.

Further destruction of the site occurred when the Earl of Elgin looted statues and sculptures to take to England in the early 1800's. Because some of them were still attached to the building, the building and the sculptures were sawed and cut to make it easier to retrieve and transport the items. The stolen items are still located in the British Museum. A few have also turned up in the Louvre, and in Copenhagen. The Greek government has been asking for them back for 30 years, but it seems the British Museum is calling out the old rule of "finders keepers, losers weepers." Oh England. Didn't you ever learn you don't take things that don't belong to you?

Just like in Olympia, the site was patrolled by whistle blowing guards who watched you like a hawk. We knew not to touch a single thing. But we still got the whistle. Our gaggle of eight kids sat down in the shade of the Parthenon, off to the side. Apparently a big no-no. You are not allowed to sit around the Parthenon. Stand, yes. Sit, no. Not even hunch down on your feet. You must stay perfectly vertical to enjoy the shade of the Parthenon. 

This guard seemed to have it out for us because after this she followed us around with her whistle in her mouth, ready to tweet us into compliance. It was time to go.

We stopped in a little street side cafe and got some lunch of souvlaki, gyros, and tzatziki. Souvlaki is skewered meat and vegetables and tzatziki is a yogurt and herb dip. It was pretty good. It was at this cafe where the Greek guy behind us didn't like how slow we were ordering. He impatiently tapped his foot and gave us audible, loud sighs. When we were out eating in the street, he walked up to his friend and said loud enough for me to hear, "Some stupid Americans." To which I replied, "Hey, you suck." But only in my mind because I detest confrontation. 

Next we walked to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, or the Olympieion.

These few columns are all that is left of the temple. Construction began in the 6th century BC, but the temple wasn't completed until the reign of a Roman emperor in the 2nd century AD. Because of the large time lapse, different styles of architecture and adornment are quite evident on the columns.

After its completion, the temple was quarried to provide marble and other materials to build other sites around Athens. Out of the original 104 columns, only 15 are left standing and one on the ground that was blown over in a storm in the 1800's.  

From this temple you can look up and get a nice view of the Acropolis. But you can't hear their whistles of disapproval from here.

On to Pláka!

Pláka was fun and quirky old town to walk through. I warn you though. If you stop and look at anything in the tourist traps stores, they grab you and pull you in and say, "You like! You buy!" 

It was in this town that one store owner said to us, "All Greeks hate Americans. Except me. I love Americans!" After being told how stupid we were and all the whistle blowing I was beginning to believe that. But then we were told by another shop keeper, "Greeks love Americans! You are so happy! And you smile! And you spend money!" All I need to do to get Greeks to love me is to smile and spend money? Heck, I can do that.

Here is a set of six beautiful, Greek ceramic bowls I bought. While smiling, I might add. These ceramic pieces are for sale all over Greece. The blue color reminds me of the ocean in Greece.

After all the sightseeing and walking and eating and walking and shopping and walking, it was time to go back to the ship. On the metro ride back to the port there was some old, drunk, Greek guy singing and clapping to some song in his head. He sang for five stops on the line. All the Greek people on the train looked from me back to him back to me and all I kept thinking is he better not be saying I am a stupid American. So I just smiled.

αvτío,

Kelly

Ancient Olympia - Greece

On with the cruise! Our next stop was Katakolon, Greece, or Katakolo in Greek, located in the part of Greece called the Pelponesse. What's there? Not a whole heck of a lot except overpriced Greek trinkets. What makes Katakolon a note worthy stop is it's proximity to Ancient Olympia. 

Olympia is the site of the original Olympics held from 800 BC to 400 BC. The cruise ship dropped us off in Katakolon where we had a rental car, a tiny beat-up Fiat, waiting for us. We piled into it and raced down the highway, trying to follow a taxi because we weren't quite sure of the accuracy of the hand drawn map the car rental place (I really wouldn't call it a car rental agency) gave us. This taxi was hauling you-know-what and we eventually lost him at a red light. We followed a tour bus that passed us (that's how little and slow this Fiat was, tour buses were over taking us) and made it to the site.

We had absolutely perfect weather. Per-fect. When we left Germany, spring was just barely peeping it's little head out and about. Read about that here. But here, spring and Greece were having a full-fledged merry romp in the hay together. Wild flowers and trees bloomed as far as the eye could see. Blue skies and golden sunshine greeted us at every turn. Butterflies flitted around the site and landed on you if held still. I wanted to lay down in the grass and just laugh and roll around, sit and make daisy-chains (like this) and probably even sing Kumbaya. But I didn't, and my children are very glad I managed to restrain myself.

Ancient Olympia is described as a sanctuary and began to take shape in 1000 BC. 1000 BC! That makes the things we've seen in Europe that are around 800 years old look new. The sanctuary was dedicated to Zeus, and the early Olympics which followed were in his honor.

The site of Ancient Olympia is home to a host of buildings. Temples, priest's homes, baths, a gymnasium, and hostels were all found here. Hostels. It would seem that tourism was alive and well in Ancient Greece.

There were several centuries of building that took place here. From the Archaic period which started in 800 BC to the Classical period (500 BC - 400 BC) when the majority of the buildings were completed. Construction continued through until the Roman period in 150 AD.

This is the Phillipeion, built in 338 BC. It was left incomplete. Alexander the Great had it finished and even furnished the inside with busts of his ancestors. After reading that, I had visions of Colin Farrell in a skirt chiseling columns of stone. See what I'm talking about here. 

An earthquake in the 3rd century AD caused major damage to the majority of the site. But it was still in use. Invading tribes began to rob the site of building materials and its monuments. The last Olympic festival was held here in 393 AD when the emperor Theodosius banned the games.

River flooding over a thousand year period caused the site to be covered with 25 feet soil and sediment. It was lost until 1766 when an English explorer went poking around. The majority of the excavation has been done by the German Archaeological Institute (Go Germany!) since 1875. Lets hope these Germans archaeologists didn't look like this, or this, or especially this.

Probably the most impressive of the buildings that were here was the Temple of Zeus. See what it used to look like here. This is what is left of it now.

In a museum next door to the ancient site, they have the statues that used to adorn the peaks of the temple which told stories about Zeus and what a great guy he was. In this scene, some centaurs were invited to a wedding, got drunk, and then proceed to kidnap the women. I think I hear a possible story line for My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Part 2.

The scene was much more civilized as it shows people lining up for a chariot race. 

Back outside we continued to explore the ruins.

"It's all Greek to me..."

Here is some evidence of Roman influence in building. If someone today came and added some current architecture, it would border on vandalism, something they take very seriously here. That and looting. There are "guards" that walk all around the site keeping an eye on you and they have very loud whistles that they blow at you if you are committing any infractions. This is what happened when one of my kids picked up a small pebble from the trail and jiggled it in his palm while we looked around. Tweeeeeeet!!!! We got the whistle. And of course everyone looks around at you and my poor son is standing there and the guard takes the whistle out of her mouth and yells "Put down the artifact!" All eyes watched him drop the pebble back on the trail and turn five shades of red and go hide behind a tree. So if you ever decide to travel here, touch absolutely nothing. Not even the pebbles on the trails beneath your shoes. You never know, Zeus himself may have walked on them or something.

That's our story of Ancient Olympia. We saw beautiful, old, meaningful things. We learned that the flame for the modern Olympic torch is lit here by sunlight reflected off of a mirror. Upon hearing that, Matt started asking questions like, "What if it's cloudy that day?" Or "What if it's raining? Do they have a Bic lighter in their pocket just in case?" To which I answered with a deep sigh and telling him to go ask the lady with the whistle. All in all, a fabulous day. And we managed to only piss off one Greek the whole time we were there (Don't touch the pebbles!) 

Off to Athens next! (Yes, I know I look stupid with those white sunglasses on. No need to tell me. My kids already did.)

αvτío, 

Kelly*

αvτío - Greek for good bye. Pronounced athio. 

* Stole no artifacts on her trip to Olympia. May have picked up some illegal ancient dust on her shoes though.