Greek adventures

We're in Athens now, our last stop in Greece. The full tour included Samos, Naxos, Ios, and Santorini, all islands, then Athens for last night and tonight. Tomorrow we're headed by ferry to Bari, Italy and then to make our way to Naples.

Greece has been much fun -

Naxos was definitely not the green island as the guide books said, but exploring the island with one American, one scooter and one gutless ATV named "Seven" proved to be super fun. We also watched the World Cup final game in a busy square our first night here - it was great fun being in the European vibe for this game (hurrah Italia!) as well as the whole tournament!!!



Ios lived up to it's party reputation, but the campground we were staying at was more of a "Florida for College Spring Break" kind of destination. All the pretty people in the world with not much in their heads were there drinking copiously, so the whole scene got tired save for some super nice folk from Vancouver area who showed us the ropes of the Ios nightlife. Here's a shot of our unbelievably tiny wooden/canvas tent. I slept with my bag on my cot because there wasn't enough room for all 3 on the floor!

Santorini was rather impressive with the small white villages on top of tall rock, and black sand beaches (so weird). We ended up spending two nights there, and got to explore an active volcano island before going swimming in an ocean hot spring heated by the molten lava underground.

This picture is me trying to be all stealth and blend into the black sand beach.






We did the Athens sightseeing today. The Acropolis was more amazing than I really imagined. It was so unbelievable to see how grand everything was back then, and how horrible a job we've done of attempting to restore the buildings in the last 150 years.

New friends abroad as well as some at home will appreciate this wonderful gun show display in front of the Temple of Olympius Zeus.