I was in Greece but never got Greecy

Well it’s about time we update this blog of ours. As many of you know, we recently took a trip to Greece with a group of 46 people. 39 high school kids and 7 adults (6 acted like adults). I am posting a ton of pictures and will try to give a description of each, but make no promises. This is the longest post of my life. If you feel like reading it you may want to get comfortable, or you can skip to the next posts to see the pictures.

I do want to let each of you know that if you told us what you wanted, we did find it. But it most likely got lost with every body's luggage on the way home. Lala we did find you a Costas, in fact I think ½ of the men there were named Costas, but he wouldn’t fit in Tia’s bag. Russ, I looked all over and couldn't find a Grecco Roman, or a Roman Grecco. Apparently they aren't as popular as I thought.

The trip started out just great. All the kids made it to the airport and no one got left behind (like last year). Joey and I got matching jogging suits so the kids would not get lost. They were awesome. We wanted to look like the girls that wore matching sweat suits too. It worked…… (Definitely a misuse of …….)………..

……Those were good times. The rest of the trip was not nearly so smooth. We got to JFK to find out our flight to London was delayed because some crazy guy (not my dad) was running around on the runway. So we ended up spending about 8 hrs in the airport. That caused us to only have a short connection time in London SO…when we got to Athens we found out that the entire group’s luggage was not on the plane with us from London. We went to our hotel and ate dinner, then went to find some toiletries since we had none. Athens is not so pretty at night. I think they put us in a hotel in the worst part of the city (it was right downtown though). But I guess that is what you get when you’re looking for a good price on a hotel room. Sometime during the night 16 people received their luggage and within a couple days about 1/2 of the group had theirs as well. T-bird and I were part of the 1/2 still with no luggage. Luckily Hanny and Joey got theirs and we happen to wear the same sizes. We both know that next year (we’re going to Italy, thanks Joey!!) we only need a carry on the size of a football and we can survive.

Our first day in Athens, I realized that Athens is not so pretty during the day time either. The garbage collectors were on strike, as were the cab drivers and the countries utility workers. We were told not to ride in elevators (our room was on the 3rd floor) because the power might go off and you could get stuck in one for over an hour. FANTASTIC!!!

Our tour guide the first day was named Costas, as was our bus driver. We went to the Acropolis and took a picture that is surprisingly close to my personal rendition. That place was incredible. We also were able to stand on Mars Hill. This is the hill where Paul preached to the Athenians. It was truly amazing that such awesome archeological sites can be surrounded by such ugliness. One of the really cool things about Athens is that you can see the Parthenon on the Acropolis from just about anywhere in the city. We have some great pictures from all over Athens and the ruins that are strewn about the city. In the afternoon we were able to run around on our own and see some of the smaller ruins. That was superfuntastical.

The next day we drove about 3 hours to Delphi, which is up at the top of a mountian. About ½ the group stayed behind to go shopping for clothes and other supplies. We decided to go on the tour and tough it out with no clothes. Joey stayed behind to take the other ½ to the mall and me, Tia and Hanny went with the others. It was really beautiful up there and the place was spectacular (you like my word usage don’t you). The kids were really fun too.

This year we took a cruise for 4 days to see the Greek islands. That was really fun. We didn’t have to sit on our butts and sleep on a bus while we traveled. We got to lie in our beds and sleep while we traveled. Since Tia and I had no luggage and we were sharing with Joey and Hanny, we decided to sleep the boys together and girls together. This way we weren’t constantly running across the hall to borrow things. That worked out great. (Those aren’t pillows!)

On our cruise we stopped at Mykonos, which is a pretty island. This is the Greece you see on TV: pretty beaches, white houses on the hill side, and super blue water. We had about 4 hours to wander around town. There was not much to see there but the shops were pretty cool. Too bad it was dark because we didn’t get to wander around too much.

Our 2nd port of call was Kusadasi, Turkey. We decided not to go on the tour excursion that the cruise line offered and just go into town and look around. I believe this island is where the Ephesians that Paul taught lived. I wasn’t feeling too hot so Joey and I went back to the boat and left the girls to fend for themselves. They had a blast shopping and having all the Turkish men stare at them. We were there just for the morning and then headed to Patmos.

Patmos, our 3rd port of call was really cool. This is the island that John the Revelator was exiled. We visited the cave where he supposedly received the “Word of God” through a crack in the wall and wrote Revelations. I am not much of a historian, but they sure seemed to think that was the exact place. Our taxi driver then took us to a monastery at the top of this hill where we had an awesome view of the bay and the town below. We spent the rest of our time looking through the tourist shops and buying sodas and water to take back on the ship.

The next morning we arrived in Rhodes for out 4th port of call. This place was by far the neatest place we visited. We could have spent the whole 10 days in this town. It is divided into the new town and old town. Old town is awesome. The old city walls are still standing everything inside the walls was old school. We hired a taxi to take us to Lindos, another place that Paul visited. That place was one of the most beautiful places I have seen. The water was so blue and clear (can water be clear and blue at the same time?). We hiked up the acropolis to the monastery. There are lots of those in Greece. Joey and I found awesome matching Greek outfits (see pix). Our taxi driver was awesome and saved us about 100 euros by giving us his tour instead using the cruise line tour. Tia found this huge, and I mean HUGE, amber ring and made me buy it for her. It is a fabulous ring and worked out good that her birthday was last week. Rhodes is great, Rodos as the locals call it.

Our last day on the cruise we visited Crete, don’t know much about it. We got off the boat in the morning and looked around, but the city didn’t look like much so Joey and myself just hung out and talked to some of the kids. Then we played some hoops and got schooled by an 8 year old. Tia and her sister went with a couple from our group and hired a taxi to take them around. They didn’t report too much and the pictures weren’t even that good. We were there for the morning and then headed for our last port of call, Santorini.

This place was really cool too. The town is built on the edge of a cliff high above the ocean. They don’t even have a marina. We just dropped anchor about 500 yards out and had a tender boat pick us up and take us to a small dock. From there we rode donkeys up these awesome switchbacks. That was quite the experience. I wish we had more time there because we weren’t able to see much of the town as it was getting dark. We did, however, find a great little place that had delicious waffles and ice cream. Tia, myself, and a couple of girls from the group decided to walk down the same path that the donkeys took us up (they also have a cable car to take you up and down). By the time we got down our legs were shaking with every step. We were even able to avoid most of the donkey poop too.

The next morning we disembarked in Athens and immediately got on a bus for a drive to the Temple of Poseidon. This was our last full day in Athens. By the time we got this far, not having any luggage and traveling with that many high school kids, we didn’t care much about anything or anyone but ourselves. So we were very excited to take our pictures and leave. When we got done with the tour to Poseidon’s Temple we headed back into Athens and checked into our hotel. Guess what we found when we got there, the day before we left. That is correct. The remaining luggage was delivered to our last hotel on the last night of our trip. Woo hoo!!! We opened it and found that it was all wet and moldy. Great job British Airlines!!!

Our last afternoon Stacy and I took a few of the kids back into town so they could get some last minute souvenir shopping in. I think it’s always more fun to get out on your own and see the place you’re visiting. By the way, the greatest thing about the “city” part of Athens is the subway. It was really clean and easy to use. They also made it into a museum because they uncovered some ruins as they were building the subways. Really cool.

That is our trip in a really huge nutshell. Pictures are in no particular order but do tell a story.