Day 1 

At long last the day arrived where Cat and I could finally see each other after 4 long weeks apart.  When I got to the Athens airport I was a bit worried when I looked around for Cat and didn't see her.  I tried using the pay phone to call her cell but alas I don't speak Greek and couldn't understand the directions for making a call.  After abandonning my attempted call, I finally saw this little blonde girl carrying a backpack which looked as big as she was – she didn’t miss her flight after all. 

We carried our bags – I should note that I ended up carrying Cat’s bag with all of her books and computer – to the new metro system into Athens.  Fortunately, tour hotel, Hotel Attalos, was easy to find considering that we were super tired, the bags were heavy, and I must admit little faith in Cat’s navigational skills. 

For our first night together we went to the quaint, but touristy, shopping area beneath the Acropolis called the Plaka.  We found a cute outside restaurant and Cat wowed me with her language skills as she ordered our meals and chatted up the restaurant owners in Greek.  There’s something to be said for not looking like stupid, lame American tourists. 

After dinner we went on a tour of some of the ancient ruins near Plaka like Hadrian’s Arch, the temple of Olympian Zeus, and some Roman baths that were discovered during the subway excavations.  One would think that seeing these ruins that are a couple thousand years old would be the highlight of the night, but I was actually much more excited about the motorcycle wreck that we saw 10 feet in front of us.  Ironically, Cat and I had just been discussing renting a moped and she explained to me that the Greeks drive like maniacs and that there are tons of accidents in Athens.  Not even two minutes later…..BANG… a guy on his motorcycle was taken out. 

Day 2 

Much like all kids, I had learned about the Acropolis years ago in school, and as such was super excited to finally to see it in person.  Cat and I walked up the hill to the Acropolis but before getting to the top, Cat showed me Mars’ Hill where a part of the Athenian government met and where Paul the apostle preached to the Athenians.  Finally I can look in the maps at the back of my scriptures and say "I was there."

After my spiritual moment, we continued our promenade up the Acropolis where Cat played tour guide.  I was fully educated (and tested!) on the three styles of columns: Iconic, Doric, and Corinthian.  I also got a crash course in Greek mythology.  Let me just say those Greeks believed some funny stuff.  And people think the Mormons are wack?  I think my favorite thing about the Acropolis was thinking about all the great historical figures that had once stood where I was then. 

After lunch, we wandered through the National Gardens and made our way to the old Olympic Stadium which was built on top of the ruins of the ancient Panathenaic stadium.  This new stadium was restored and was used for the first modern Olympic Games. 
 

Day 3 

We spent the morning at the National Archaeological museum where Cat showed me some of the wall paintings that she’s been studying for the last 5 years.  She showed me her favorite, the Spring Fesco from Thira, which shows sparrows playing next to clusters of lilies.   

Later that day we had scheduled a tour out to Sounion where we saw the temple of Poseidon.  Originally we wanted to go out there for the sunset, and were promised that the tour guide would stay that late.  As it turned out, we got shafted and the tour left two and half hours before sunset.  Guess we should have rented a car…oh well. 

Later that night we went on top of the hotel where there was small café with a great view of the Acropolis (see Greece photos).  We met some nice people with whom we discussed our travels.  I must say there's not much better than a view of the Acropolis while sipping back a cold Diet Coke.   

Day 4 

We woke early to go on a 3 island tour…sounds like a Gilligan Island song.  As we were waiting for the tour bus we met a Father (Dave) and his daughter Heather who had been traveling through Europe in celebration of Heather’s graduation from college.  We hung out with them for a lot of the day which was nice because it made it more fun., 

On the tour we went to Poros, Hydra, Aegina.  On Poros we wandered through the small tight street and took some cool pictures.  On Hydra we found an awesome place to swim and I even jumped off the 15 foot cliff into the sea.  On Aegina we rented our first moped of the trip and cruised around the island.  Our plan was to ride up to the top of the island and see the temple of Aphaia but somehow on our way up we took a wrong turn and ended up trying to climb a dirt road that the moped refused to climb.  Fortunately, we back tracked and found the correct route.  Funny enough when we went back to the ship we didn’t see Dave and Heather so they might have been left on the island.  Maybe for them it was a version of Gilligan's Island.

Day 5 

Our original plan was to take the 7 PM flight from Athens to Santorini but we decided we had pretty much seen everything in Athens that we wanted to see, so we decided to take the 6:05 AM flight instead.  Let me just say for the record that although I’m a morning person, waking up at 4 AM sucks.  Fortunately, our hotel picked us up at the airport and allowed to check in early so we could take a nap. 

After we were sufficiently rested we rented the “Orange Bullet” and our adventures on Santorini began.  We cruised out and found a nice black sand beach.  I must say the European men are pretty funny in their tight little Speedos.. 

That night we went out to Oia for the sunset.  The town is very cute and is in fact the town where most of the island postcard pictures are taken. 

Day 6 

Cat got to play museum guide as she took me to the Museum of Prehistoric Thira which houses all of the objects found in the city of Akrotiri which was destroyed by a volcano.  There we saw more of the wall paintings that Cat studies.  She was really excited to be able to see them all for the first time.  For me it was also good to see her excited about this because it helped me understand the passion behind the big D(issertation).   

Later on in the afternoon we went on a boat trip out to see the Volcano on the island Nea Kameni.  To get down to the boat, we had to walk down a very steep cliff with a trail that switch backed.  The whole way down we were thinking this is going to suck to have to climb back to the top of the city. 

The crazy thing is that the volcano is still active which further highlights our desire to live on the edge of danger.  The island itself was barren and super hot and in some spots we could smell the sulfur coming up form the craters.  The boat then took us to go swimming at some hot springs at Paleo Kameni.  We actually had to swim about two hundred yards from the boat to the springs.  The swim in towards the warmer water was easy, but was definitely more difficult on the way back.   

When we got back to the island we decided to take the donkeys back to the top rather than walk or take the cable cars.  Catherine apparently chose the grey hound of donkeys as hers sprinted off ahead of the rest of us.  Meanwhile, mine must have been a re-incarnated NASCAR driver as it kept hugging the wall and trying to bump me off.  

Day 7 

We decided to go down to see the archaeology site of Akrotiri but the site was closed because last year the roof collapsed and actually killed a tourist.  Oops… So then we had a morning with nothing to do, so we took off on the orange bullet to wander around the island. 

We found a really cute little town called Pyrgos.  It was one of those classic Cycaldic towns with all the whitewashed architecture and twisty streets too narrow for cars.  Really picturesque. 

Later in the afternoon we made our way down to Kamari Beach, where we got an umbrella and spent a few hours napping and reading.  The sand on the island is all black (because of the volcano!) so it was really hot, but sort-of a cool experience.   

Finally, for dinner we hit the high point of Cat’s whole vacation: Senor Zorba’s – a Mexican food place a bit out of town.  It wasn’t real Mexican, of course, but it was close enough, and after a month a Greek food, it was pure heaven.  We talked to the owner for a bit afterwards, who used to live in Colorado and has a huge collection of U.S. license plates back behind the counters that people have sent to him over the years.  Pretty cool.   

Day 8 

We woke up with the grandiose plan of going to see the ruins of ancient Thira and then spend the rest of the day at Perissa Beach.  On our way to the ruins the Orange Bullet suddenly stopped running.  I had looked at the gas guage before leaving and it seemed like we had plenty of gas so I was thinking that something else was wrong.  We got off and opened the gas tank to find that indeed we were out of gas.  The unfortunate thing is before we ran out of gas we had passed a gas station but to get back to it would mean that we would have to push the scooter back up a hill for about a kilometer.  We decided to test our luck and coast the scooter down into Kamari with the hopes that we’d find a gas station.  We got into the town and unfortunately found out that the closest gas station was the one we passed earlier.  Another rental company offered to call the one where we rented the Orange bullet and ask that they bring out some gas.  After waiting for a half an hour or so, the guy showed up to save the day.  Needles to say I felt like a complete jack ass. 

After that debacle we continued on our journey to the ruins only to find out that on Mondays the archeological sites are closed.  Catherine actually knew this but apparently she was having such a great time on vacation she lost track of what day it was.   

The day was not a total bust.  We ended up going down to Perissa beach.  What can I say, more topless women is never bad.  It was a very relaxing afternoon and a great way to spend the last day in Santorini. 

That evening we flew back to Athens where we spent $250 to spend five hours in a hotel near the airport.  My flight left at 5:05 in the morning so we figured it wasn’t worth the travel time plus the additional taxi fares.  The saving grace of the cost of the room was the ridiculously soft and comfortable bed. 

 

Epilogue: 

We had been talking about doing this trip for a long time but we continued to oscillate between wanting an experience of a lifetime and knowing that we would be broke for the next several months.  When all was said and done, the trip was epic and worth every penny.  Ok maybe not the $250 dollars for the hotel room at the airport but who’s counting at this point. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Just thought I would let everyone know how things are on Crete just incase anyone was wondering.

 

Actually, things are going really well.  My friend Elissa and I have managed to conquer the art of driving standard (more or less) and pretty much figure that if we can do it on Crete (where half the roads aren't paved to begin with, the other half end up being like San Francisco, and half of all of those tend to be no wider than the car and winding up mountains with a cliff to the side and a herd of goats in front of you that have heard honking cars too much to pay any attention to them). 

 

The weather was pretty cool when I got here, but it's warming up nicely now, and we've been down the beach for the past couple afternoons when we get home from out site visits. Right now we're on Eastern Crete in a town called Palaikastro, when the Brits have an excavation, so they've let us stay in the dig house for awhile while we get stuff done.  It's a crazy old 19th century Cretan farmhouse turned archaeological haven where the plumbing barely works (toilet brushes have an entirely new function here than anywhere else I've ever been) and yet we have internet access.  It's pretty funny, really.  But the two of us have it all to ourselves, so it's great. 

 

We've been visiting sites all over eastern Crete -- when we see a mountain road somewhere around, it's a pretty good bet we've been on it.  A couple mishaps where a winding road through a village suddenly ends in a very nice bush, but generally ok.  Maybe we're even getting enough work done to actually finish our dissertations one of these days. 

 

Photos will have to wait I'm afraid, but when I an get my own computer hooked up to somewhere, I'll send some along.

 

Love you all,

 

Cat