We woke up in Kalabakah to an overcast day, but we were not complaining!!
Nearby rock formations that are really tall mountains were majestic! Our bus drove us up a road that was made in the 1920's to get to the monasteries in Meteora.
We got to visit two of the monasteries! The monks and nuns used to climb up there and would use a net basket to get up and down.
Many of the fresco's (paintings) were destroyed during war... And have been restored. They wouldn't let me take photos! Even without a flash!!! (dang it!)
We learned a lot about the Greek Orthodox church. Saw many paintings and the SKULLS of saints!!! St. Stephen was one of the them and one of the monasteries was named after him!
After a 5 hour drive we are back in Athens! We had a wonderful dinner and then saw the Pantheon lit up at night! We are so excited to go on our greek island cruise tomorrow!!!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Nutty Gals
We woke up on time today (kind of a problem for us!) and made it to breakfast in our hotel in Delphi.
We were SO lucky today! The weather was wonderful! It has been so hot and today the clouds were covering the sun and we got to explore the Oracle of Apollo without sweating our butts off!
Melissa and I were very proud as we understood the greek symbols that our tour guide was reading to us on the alter of Apollo! We saw his sanctuary and the stadium where athletes competed every four years much like the Olympics honoring Zeus.
While visiting the museum on site we got to see all of the gold that was given to Apollo and his twin sister... It was amazing!
For lunch we went to a cute seafood restaurant down the mountain! It felt so nice with the breeze over looking the sea!
After a long bus ride, we finally got to Kalabakah where we are staying tonight. We ordered two glasses of wine and sat back to enjoy the views. We were given an assortment of nuts with our wine.... Melissa threw one in her mouth and then said "this nut is so hard, it could break your teeth!" i almost died laughing when i told her "yes, because you are eating a pistachio with the shell on it!!!!"
We are going to see some monasteries tomorrow and then we will be driving 5 hours back to Athens!
We were SO lucky today! The weather was wonderful! It has been so hot and today the clouds were covering the sun and we got to explore the Oracle of Apollo without sweating our butts off!
Melissa and I were very proud as we understood the greek symbols that our tour guide was reading to us on the alter of Apollo! We saw his sanctuary and the stadium where athletes competed every four years much like the Olympics honoring Zeus.
While visiting the museum on site we got to see all of the gold that was given to Apollo and his twin sister... It was amazing!
For lunch we went to a cute seafood restaurant down the mountain! It felt so nice with the breeze over looking the sea!
After a long bus ride, we finally got to Kalabakah where we are staying tonight. We ordered two glasses of wine and sat back to enjoy the views. We were given an assortment of nuts with our wine.... Melissa threw one in her mouth and then said "this nut is so hard, it could break your teeth!" i almost died laughing when i told her "yes, because you are eating a pistachio with the shell on it!!!!"
We are going to see some monasteries tomorrow and then we will be driving 5 hours back to Athens!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Running with the Gods
Hello from Delphi! We are here after an exciting day in Olympia!
In Olympia we saw the Sanctuary of Zeus, Zeus' Temple, Hera's (his wife) Temple... all sorts of amazing things! We saw where the Olympians Trained back then... and most importantly...
WE RAN IN THE OLYMPIC STADIUM!!! We were both in skirts/dresses, but hey, when will you ever run where Naked Olympians once ran again?! We say naked, because that is how they competed back then... and no women were allowed to compete or even watch!
As Melissa said after her run, "You can just feel the gods pushing you along!" We took it a little far...
We visited the museum on site where they had many of the statues that were once displayed on the buildings we saw, but were destroyed by earthquakes or other things... We saw tons of cool weapons that soldiers would leave on the alter for Zeus... really cool Corinthian style helmets! ((I WISH WE COULD POST PICS, BUT NO WAY TO UPLOAD!! ))
We ate lunch in Olympia, which is a very quaint town, and did some shopping... As we all know, Melissa is a pro and swindled herself into a few good deals.
A beautiful bus ride along the coast of Greece filled up the rest of our afternoon, stopping to visit sea ports and take in the views.
Melissa was very excited when we went to one of the stops.. There was a duck house on the water and there were 3 Aflac looking ducks! Two of them came onto the street a little bit later and she got a picture with them... we are definitely sending that to Aflac headquarters!! haha
Our bus driver might as well be Dale Earnhardt... I have no idea how he got us around all of the hair pin turns up the mountain into Delphi... There were times when I looked down and thought if we moved just a smidge we might tumble down the mountain...
night night.
J & M
In Olympia we saw the Sanctuary of Zeus, Zeus' Temple, Hera's (his wife) Temple... all sorts of amazing things! We saw where the Olympians Trained back then... and most importantly...
WE RAN IN THE OLYMPIC STADIUM!!! We were both in skirts/dresses, but hey, when will you ever run where Naked Olympians once ran again?! We say naked, because that is how they competed back then... and no women were allowed to compete or even watch!
As Melissa said after her run, "You can just feel the gods pushing you along!" We took it a little far...
We visited the museum on site where they had many of the statues that were once displayed on the buildings we saw, but were destroyed by earthquakes or other things... We saw tons of cool weapons that soldiers would leave on the alter for Zeus... really cool Corinthian style helmets! ((I WISH WE COULD POST PICS, BUT NO WAY TO UPLOAD!! ))
We ate lunch in Olympia, which is a very quaint town, and did some shopping... As we all know, Melissa is a pro and swindled herself into a few good deals.
A beautiful bus ride along the coast of Greece filled up the rest of our afternoon, stopping to visit sea ports and take in the views.
Melissa was very excited when we went to one of the stops.. There was a duck house on the water and there were 3 Aflac looking ducks! Two of them came onto the street a little bit later and she got a picture with them... we are definitely sending that to Aflac headquarters!! haha
Our bus driver might as well be Dale Earnhardt... I have no idea how he got us around all of the hair pin turns up the mountain into Delphi... There were times when I looked down and thought if we moved just a smidge we might tumble down the mountain...
night night.
J & M
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Road Trip
The start of our day was well, interesting. I woke up Melissa a.k.a Mom up at 6:30 am telling her we were late. I made her get out of bed and start getting ready. She got ready for about five minutes before I looked at the clock again and realized I was wrong.....it was 6:30pm US time!!! So we had only been asleep for about an hour...
When 6am did roll around we got our wake up call and made it out on time! We hopped on a huge tour bus (all 9 of us...) and headed towards Olympia! Our first stop was the Corinthian Canal which separates Northern and Southern Greece. They were offering bumping jumping, but we declined... Jumping out towards rocks at 8am isn't our idea of fun!
We drove a little bit longer and came to Mycenae. Its more than 3,500 years old and all that is left is the stones on top of a mountain, a burial site, and this beautiful gate when you walk in with two lions (now they have no heads, they were destroyed or fell off somehow.) An archeologist excavated the burial site and found all of the men were burried with gold masks on their faces... And we got to see one of the masks in the museum nearby.
Across the way, there was a beehive tomb for Argememnon. The tomb was amazing. I don't know how they built it back then with no heavy machinery!
We kept driving along passing thousands of olive trees! The countryside of Greece is gorgeous!
We stopped in the first Capitol of Greece, Naptleon. The city is located in the mountains and on the sea. There were sailboats everywhere, and a CASTLE built on the island in the middle of the ocean!
There has been something that has come to our attention... GREEK MEN LOVE SHORT-SHORTS!!! I mean these are shorter than any shorts I have ever seen.... Shorter than the JORTS (Jean-shorts) you can find on KA's on Fort Building Day!
Lots of driving has taken place today. After Naptleon we drove for 3 more hours only having one stop at a family owned coffee shop. There was the cutest little stray puppy there who looked just like a little Punky Brewster (my black lab).
**SWITCH TO MELISSA:**
we were sitting outside and the puppy was wanting attention... Jill decided she would try to see if the dog would respond to voice commands, such as "sit"
Jill commanded the Punky look-a-like to sit.
The whole group burst into laughter realizing that the dog most likely hadn't been trained at all, much less in English!
-----
Tomorrow we are seeing the sites of Olympia and traveling to Delphi! We hope everyone is doing well!
-Jillopolis and Melissaopolis.
When 6am did roll around we got our wake up call and made it out on time! We hopped on a huge tour bus (all 9 of us...) and headed towards Olympia! Our first stop was the Corinthian Canal which separates Northern and Southern Greece. They were offering bumping jumping, but we declined... Jumping out towards rocks at 8am isn't our idea of fun!
We drove a little bit longer and came to Mycenae. Its more than 3,500 years old and all that is left is the stones on top of a mountain, a burial site, and this beautiful gate when you walk in with two lions (now they have no heads, they were destroyed or fell off somehow.) An archeologist excavated the burial site and found all of the men were burried with gold masks on their faces... And we got to see one of the masks in the museum nearby.
Across the way, there was a beehive tomb for Argememnon. The tomb was amazing. I don't know how they built it back then with no heavy machinery!
We kept driving along passing thousands of olive trees! The countryside of Greece is gorgeous!
We stopped in the first Capitol of Greece, Naptleon. The city is located in the mountains and on the sea. There were sailboats everywhere, and a CASTLE built on the island in the middle of the ocean!
There has been something that has come to our attention... GREEK MEN LOVE SHORT-SHORTS!!! I mean these are shorter than any shorts I have ever seen.... Shorter than the JORTS (Jean-shorts) you can find on KA's on Fort Building Day!
Lots of driving has taken place today. After Naptleon we drove for 3 more hours only having one stop at a family owned coffee shop. There was the cutest little stray puppy there who looked just like a little Punky Brewster (my black lab).
**SWITCH TO MELISSA:**
we were sitting outside and the puppy was wanting attention... Jill decided she would try to see if the dog would respond to voice commands, such as "sit"
Jill commanded the Punky look-a-like to sit.
The whole group burst into laughter realizing that the dog most likely hadn't been trained at all, much less in English!
-----
Tomorrow we are seeing the sites of Olympia and traveling to Delphi! We hope everyone is doing well!
-Jillopolis and Melissaopolis.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Georgia Gals Discover Athens!
We have had a big day of sight seeing today, we woke up early had an amazing breakfast and went to see the sites!
We started off our tour with seeing the first Modern Day Olympic Stadia built in 1896. It was beautiful, made of marble and still had the award podium in the middle... The whole time i wanted to jump the fence and stand on it!
Next was the Temple of Zeus! 16 of the original columns are still standing and it is breath taking! Apparently back in the day, Grecian folk were uneducated and would just go grab marble and supplies for their own houses from the Temple... So most of the deconstruction is from people rather than natural disaster or war.
Before I move onto Acropolis I need to admit that all day I was mad at myself for not paying more attention in World History in the 9th grade... (( Blaire, Meg- who was our professor? All i remember was making some kind of formation out of gum and meg and i performing a Christmas carol to the class!-- yikes!!)
Acropolis means highest point in the city in Greek... It used to be the highest point in Athens and is the home to the Parthenon the home to Athena. Everything in Acropolis is made of marble, with lots of Corinthian style architecture.
The Parthenon has been stripped of most of it's decor and is all over the world in different museums...Mostly because of the power struggle in Greece and also the change of religion over the years. St. Paul stood there and preached to the Greeks in 500AD, he could speak Greek and about 400 years later Christianity became the religion in Athens.
I could not get over how OLD everything is! The Temple of Zeus, Acropolis, and Parthenon were built over 2,500 years ago! Our country is so young!
I think my highlight of the day was seeing an Oklahoma fan at the Parthenon and talking football with him... Turns out he has only missed one game in 12 seasons- serious dedication!!
Melissa's favorite part of the day was seeing the Parthenon, she says it is "majestic!"
We had lunch in the quaint area of Plaka... Lots of tourists and shopping around and beautiful Catholic churches.
Tomorrow we are off to Olympia. For now, it's time for Happy Hour to celebrate our adventures!
We started off our tour with seeing the first Modern Day Olympic Stadia built in 1896. It was beautiful, made of marble and still had the award podium in the middle... The whole time i wanted to jump the fence and stand on it!
Next was the Temple of Zeus! 16 of the original columns are still standing and it is breath taking! Apparently back in the day, Grecian folk were uneducated and would just go grab marble and supplies for their own houses from the Temple... So most of the deconstruction is from people rather than natural disaster or war.
Before I move onto Acropolis I need to admit that all day I was mad at myself for not paying more attention in World History in the 9th grade... (( Blaire, Meg- who was our professor? All i remember was making some kind of formation out of gum and meg and i performing a Christmas carol to the class!-- yikes!!)
Acropolis means highest point in the city in Greek... It used to be the highest point in Athens and is the home to the Parthenon the home to Athena. Everything in Acropolis is made of marble, with lots of Corinthian style architecture.
The Parthenon has been stripped of most of it's decor and is all over the world in different museums...Mostly because of the power struggle in Greece and also the change of religion over the years. St. Paul stood there and preached to the Greeks in 500AD, he could speak Greek and about 400 years later Christianity became the religion in Athens.
I could not get over how OLD everything is! The Temple of Zeus, Acropolis, and Parthenon were built over 2,500 years ago! Our country is so young!
I think my highlight of the day was seeing an Oklahoma fan at the Parthenon and talking football with him... Turns out he has only missed one game in 12 seasons- serious dedication!!
Melissa's favorite part of the day was seeing the Parthenon, she says it is "majestic!"
We had lunch in the quaint area of Plaka... Lots of tourists and shopping around and beautiful Catholic churches.
Tomorrow we are off to Olympia. For now, it's time for Happy Hour to celebrate our adventures!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Airplanes.
Hello from Melissa and Jill. As most if you now, we have decided to take a trip to Greece to celebrate my Mom's (Melissa) 50th Birthday and also me being done with graduate school. We chose the blog name because, why not? I'm unemployed, and my Mom is starting the second half of her life!!
Like any good trip, you have to pay your dues. For us Georgians, this means traveling through or from the Atlanta airport.
It was a rainy night in Georgia (Thanks Ray!).... We knew we would be a bit delayed and we were okay with that. We boarded the plane, found our seats, and said a little prayer (Gib you know which one!).
I (Jill) was the "chosen one" of the night. I had a seat in between me and my neighbor... But not so much for Melissa to my right... **** disclaimer, on trips i refer to my mom as Melissa because she doesn't respond to Mom****
Melissa had the unique opportunity to sit next to a daring three year old who liked to remind her how old he is every two minutes.
Thanks to baby Jesus, 6lbs 8oz, baby Jesus ( and to British Airlines for supplying socks, blankets,eye covers, and ear plugs)... We all slept the whole way to London.
The flight was uneventful from London to Athens... But we got here safely.
Melissa did not know where to go to find our luggage, luckily, her daughter, yes me, was born with street smartz.
We made it back to the hotel with thirty minutes to drop off our stuff and have a group meeting for our tour.
The meeting immediately felt like freshman orientation at FSU, except they gave us wine... Which I think the tour guide was regretting when Melissa and I couldn't stop making jokes the entire time. Feeling like the black sheep of the group, we vowed to drink and eat as much free food as possible throughout the trip!
Here is a quick assessment of our fellow touristas:
1. Couple from Australia, cute mid 70's.
2. Australian family of three... For sake of the blog we will call them SHORT NAME FAMILY because all of their names are 3 letters long.
3. Two women who are from New Zealand... Pretty sure they like wine as much as we do.
That's it for now. It's way past our bedtime.
Like any good trip, you have to pay your dues. For us Georgians, this means traveling through or from the Atlanta airport.
It was a rainy night in Georgia (Thanks Ray!).... We knew we would be a bit delayed and we were okay with that. We boarded the plane, found our seats, and said a little prayer (Gib you know which one!).
I (Jill) was the "chosen one" of the night. I had a seat in between me and my neighbor... But not so much for Melissa to my right... **** disclaimer, on trips i refer to my mom as Melissa because she doesn't respond to Mom****
Melissa had the unique opportunity to sit next to a daring three year old who liked to remind her how old he is every two minutes.
Thanks to baby Jesus, 6lbs 8oz, baby Jesus ( and to British Airlines for supplying socks, blankets,eye covers, and ear plugs)... We all slept the whole way to London.
The flight was uneventful from London to Athens... But we got here safely.
Melissa did not know where to go to find our luggage, luckily, her daughter, yes me, was born with street smartz.
We made it back to the hotel with thirty minutes to drop off our stuff and have a group meeting for our tour.
The meeting immediately felt like freshman orientation at FSU, except they gave us wine... Which I think the tour guide was regretting when Melissa and I couldn't stop making jokes the entire time. Feeling like the black sheep of the group, we vowed to drink and eat as much free food as possible throughout the trip!
Here is a quick assessment of our fellow touristas:
1. Couple from Australia, cute mid 70's.
2. Australian family of three... For sake of the blog we will call them SHORT NAME FAMILY because all of their names are 3 letters long.
3. Two women who are from New Zealand... Pretty sure they like wine as much as we do.
That's it for now. It's way past our bedtime.
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