More Greece pictures. Enjoy!!!

Safely back in the USA

We all got home safely last night at 3 am. The trip was wonderful and I hope you enjoyed following along on our trip.
Dr. D.

More pictures....

Pictures from the trip so far...

Well we are still in Turkey :) We saw a bunch of sites in the last couple days, wandering through the Taurus mountains, seeing the shrine of St. Nicholas (yes Santa Claus !!!), Aphrodisias, Pamukkale with the insanely beautiful calcium carbonate formations, and many more. We have trekked all over this beautiful country and enjoyed every minute, though a few of us did get a little bit of food poisoning. We are all better though and doing well. So here are some pictures from our trip so far:

Hey everyone! Sorry again! Time and internet are not always easy to come by here... in Turkey!!! We are all here safe and sound, we explored Istanbul all day Saturday and Sunday, drove to Troy, Pergamon, and Ephasus. Of course not all in the same day :) We are now staying in a beautiful resort that is right on the Aegean. Some of us swam yesterday in both the hotel pool and the ocean. Tomorrow we go to a few other sites as well as a leather factory, which should be lovely. Everyone is having an amazing time so far. We will update again when the keyboard is not in Turkish :)

Getting all caught up...

Hey everyone! Sorry it has been so long since we have written, but we have been going nonstop. Everyone loved Crete more than anything, for it was beautiful, educational, full of culture and hospitality, and all around amazing. We saw Heidi's house and ate dinner in her village, climbed another mountain, discovered a temple on said mountain, and ate fantastic gelato. We were all devastated to leave Crete, but our last day we explored a Venetian fortress and then baked on the beach until it was time to board the ferry for Athens.

Athens was lovely, as it was when we left it last, and the Acropolis was as amazing as promised. We climbed to the top and saw the Parthenon and other temples, learning how to identify the different orders of columns and the stories on the friezes. We all sat down and wrote down ten things that we had learned from that day and I am sure we could all name many more than just ten. We saw the Acropolis Museum, with the rightly returned Elgin Marbles, and ended the day with another lovely dinner.

Now we are exploring the mainland, looking at the Mycenaean tombs today. We ended up going in a few, but pictures speak louder than words, so here is a photo journal of our trip :)

Here we all are at the cave!

Easter is awesome in Greece. We stayed in Athens on Saturday and Sunday to celebrate Easter around the Acropolis. Dr. D took us out to her favorite restaurant and on Sunday they served us some delicious lamb (the traditional Easter meal) in the afternoon. Dr. D showed us the ruins of the city including the Library of Hadrien, Temple of Zeus, Temple of Hephaestus, the Agora, and the Acropolis. After the tour we watched the guard change in front of the parliament building then wandered through the national gardens and the original Olympic Games stadium. We left Athens at 7:30 pm and traveled to Crete on a huge overnight ferry boat ride.

Early this Monday morning we got off the ferry and went to a little family-owned cafe outside of the ruins of Knossos. We toured the site afterwards and Dr. D and Amy taught us about Minoan culture and the importance of Knossos itself. Later on we visited the Heraklion Museum and saw some famous artifacts that are easily recognizable in any Greek history book.

Finally we spent the afternoon traveling through the winding mountains of Crete to the Idean Cave. This is the mythological cave in which Zeus was raised on the island of Crete. The hills and mountains were beautiful and it seemed like we passed through a variety of climates and terrain. Nate and Brian climbed up to the snow on the mountains and then we all hiked to the cave for exploring and group photos.

We can't wait to see the rest of Crete and Greece. We will keep updating whenever we can :-)

Here at last!

Hey everyone!!! We made it safely to Athens. Most of us are catching up on a little sleep right now, but later we are going to go out to celebrate a midnight Easter mass. It should be wonderful! Our hotel is right in the heart of the city and the weather is warm with a nice cool breeze. We have all been taking pictures and itching to go out and explore the city. Hopefully tonight will be our chance :-)

Only 1 More Day...

Hey everyone!! So we leave tomorrow for our Greece/Turkey trip!!! Our flight leaves around six and we will be in Athens sometime on Saturday. I know I am really excited and I am sure everyone else is too. Make sure to follow this blog, as we will be updating it as frequently as we can. Hope everything is going well for everyone!!! See you all in May :-)

24 days to go

All of us are counting down the days ........................ ΕΛΛΆΔΑ ΕΡΧΌΜΑΣΤΕ!!!