The Statues and Sights of London

Back in England again: Jesse and I continued to wander around and see all that London has to offer. This selection is just a jumble of photos from different days. The photos are of statues on the side of the road and around Buckingham Palace, the Canadian Memorial near Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and the Olympic countdown, the famed Abbey Road, and some of the artifacts and displays at the British Museum, including the olympic medals and frescoes from the Parthenon. Also thrown into the mix are pictures of Jesse at the time as he was trying to get a job. (I apologize for the blurriness of some of the pictures.)

Night Traveler

"I am a night traveler Travel all through the night And my bed is a sailing boat I reach for my bed every night And take a trip places far away To see new things and people." --Deepa Thomas (Night Traveler) Alas, our time on Santorini came to an end so we savoured our last moments in the sun. Jesse braved the cold and went for a swim, while I stayed warm and read my book. That night, we took the ferry to Piraeus and from there, we took a bus to the airport and flew back to London. Thus concludes our Greek adventure.

St. John the Baptist Day

On a clear but windy day, Jesse and I took a mopehead ride down the beach to the church (a Greek Orthodox) where we met up with Mike. It was St. John the Baptist Day, a day on which all Greeks went to church and on which there is great celebration. The church was beautiful inside with tons of icons and stained glass windows. Inside, the men stood on one side and the women on the other, and so, as I stood on the side with the women listening to the Priest go on talking gibberish (Greek), Jesse stood on the other side with Mike, who translated everything for him. From the church, everybody went down to the beach where the festivities began. It is traditional in Greece that on this day, the Priest blesses a wooden cross tied to a rope and then throws it in the water. Then the young men (and middle aged men) compete with each other to retrieve the cross from the water. It wasn't much of a competition because the water was too shallow and the cross floated. However, they served drinks and Greek cookies afterwards. Mmmmm cookies. After the ceremony, we went with Mike to the cross throwing ceremony at a different marina, where it was more of competition for the guys jumping in becasue it was cold, windy and the water was deeper. And we got more cookies and juice after this ceremony too! Also, afterwards, we tried Greek moonshine, which some guy was just handing out, pouring the white lightning from his water bottle. It wasn't even that bad. :)

Visiting the Ancient Ruins of Santorini

Our time on Santorini was coming to an end and so we figured that we might as well go and see the ruins on top of the mountain that we had been looking at every day. So we took the mopehead Mike lent us and rode it passed the donkeys to the base of the mountain. After climbing the switchbacks up the steep moutainside, we got to the top only to discover that it was closed until mid-January. So we took a few pictures and walked down to the church further down the side of the mountain and then called it a day.

Touring the Island with Mike

On a nice day in mid-winter, Mike, an American-Greek who owned the hostel we were staying at, took us for a tour around the Island in his little blue car. He first took us to the red sand beaches further down the island. On the bottom of the cliff, near the waterline, were caves in the rockface that Mike told us were used by fishermen. HE then took us to a winery which had a beautiful view of the Mediterranean and Omonia and was the location of Mike's daughter's wedding. The last place he took us was to an old tomato press factory near a marina. Further down the beach from where we parked, was a nude beach--but don't worry, it is only in use during the summer when it's warmer.

The Blue of the Sky

We had a lot of fun on the beaches of Santorini; making angels in the sand, creating sand turtles, wading in the Mediterannean in jeans at night, and climbing around on the rocks.