Vienna

Vienna was the last stop on our November trip around the European Continent. It was a sad time for the both of us as our awesome trip was coming to an end, but it turns out that Vienna is a nice romantic city we could relax in. We toured the city by ourselves, first walking to the museum districts and then we ended up finding the Austrian Parliament building, gowned with beautiful architecture. We also found ourselves in a traditional Austrian Christmas Market in Rathaus-platz, sipping on some spiced hot wine in a cool Vienna mug. This Christmas Market is based on Austrian beers, wines, chocolates, and traditional crafts and baking; quite enough to get you satisfied, and we would highly recommend traveling in November or December just to visit these Markets that are found all over Europe around Christmas time. It was also here that Colleen discovered that "wieners" are from Wien (Vienna) after seeing a really large sign advertising the Wieners. After going easy on the chocolates, we decided to walk across the beautiful blue Danube (it's green over there), and we found ourselves at the base of a giant ferris wheel, which carries small rooms that can fit around 10 people instead of 2-seater chairs. It's found in a park called Prater, which also has a small carnival with rides and food vendors. It was a bit late in the season when we were there and so we were the only ones walking down the foggy boulevard. We went on the Go-Karts a total of 3 times, and Colleen beat Jesse every time. The rest of our trip was spent looking at old palaces, touring palace grounds, visiting different markets and visiting Vienna's Museum of Ethnology, where we saw the famous Montezuma's feather headdress. The city was wonderful, and we would definitely like to have had more time to visit the famous Opera and the different museums around this city that is full of so much history. But alas, we had to move on, and in order to catch our flight from Linz, a smaller Austrian town two hours northwest of Vienna, we had to leave Vienna at 05:44, which means we had to get to bed early the night before. We're writing this now that in London, after safely arriving and making it back to our hostel this morning. Thank you for all your well wishes and for reading. This post marks the end of our November adventure, but be warned, there will be more adventures to come...

Pudabest

After a long day on the train, we finally arrived in Budapest, Hungary, and right away, we went to the largest of the famous thermal baths that Budapest boasts of: Szechenyi Baths. It was glorious and warm and totally relaxing. The next morning, we went on an awesome free walking tour that took us around the city, including along the river and up a big hill to the castle district. Budapest is divided into two parts divided by the Danube (or Duna) River; the Buda side and the Pest side (pronounced Pesht). The Buda side is more hilly, is a more posh area, includes the castles district and has a beautiful, white Matthias Church at the top of the hill overlooking the river. While the Pest side is flatter and has streets organized in the same way as Paris. The castle district on the Buda side is also home to the Royal Palace, which hasn't been in use since the Hapsburgs, as well as the president's office, the old Ministry of Defence (once a four-story building, but after a bomb attack during WWII, it has been reduced to two), as well as other old buildings from different points in Budapest's history. After the tour, Jesse and I went to find lunch at a Christmas Market near our hostel. Jesse and I shared a traditional Hungarian sausage, a bowl of goulash, a bowl of Rooster Testicle Stew (interesting, I know!) and a cup of the most delicious hot wine that we had ever tasted. Later that night, Jesse and I went to the Budapest Hooters branch strictly for beer and wings. The wings came with ranch. Ranch! In Budapest! Anyways, the next day was our third and last day in Budapest and so we decided to go to the baths again to relax and warm up. That night we decided to check out one of the cities famous Ruin Bars. These are buildings that were once abandoned and dilapidated, but some artists came along, fixed them up, gave each room a different theme and then turned it all into a bar. They are actually really cool. I'm not too sure what the theme of the room was that we were sitting in, but it was pretty cool and had light fixtures made out of old welding helmets. In other rooms, there were bathtubs cut in half and turned into seats, an old car turned into a booth and various other ingenious designs around the bar. At this bar, they were selling carrots as a traditional Hungarian thing, hence the carrot pictures. The next morning, we took the train to Wien (Vienna), the last stop on our adventure.

Krakow and Auschwitz

From Berlin, Jesse and I took a 9 hour train to Krakow, Poland, where we stayed for the night. Our hostel really sucked so we tried to spend as little time there as possible, which wasn't too hard as we were only there for a night and out all the next day to Auschwitz, which was only a 2-hour train away from Krakow. Auschwitz was emotionally draining for us; so many horrors went on in this place during the war, horrors that previously, nobody thought was humanly possible. We ended up only visiting the first camp of the four in the area-- we didn't visit the gas chambers in Auschwitz II -- as we were completely drained after only a few hours in the memorial. The bunkhouses where the Jews and other POW's were kept are preserved, and the interiors are filled with small exhibitions featuring different aspects of the life (and death) of the prisoners. One building had entire rooms filled with the suitcases and shoes of the victims of Auschwitz, and in another room, there was a separate room completely filled with hair that was cut from the heads of all the Jewish men and women and children before and after they were sent to the gas chambers. The hair was meant for factories as raw materials for making blankets and textiles for the Third Reich. They can prove that they were murdered because the hair fibres tested positive for the Zyklon-B poison that the Nazis used to gas them in the chambers. As I said, it's really harrowing stuff. Each bunkhouse has more and more evidence and stories that chill you to the bone, and every bunkhouse has photos of prisoners lining all of the halls that you have to walk down. The effect given is like a haunted house, where you think that because of so much death and murder, there must be ghosts watching you. Pretty Spooky. We returned on the same train back to Krakow, trying to forget our woes, but ended up just getting depressed. The city of Krakow was able to cheer us a bit as it is really a beautiful city and the main square in Old Town has some cool clock towers and a nice market during the day. During the night even, they have some of the coolest bars and clubs with very cheap drinks. They use their own currency, with one Euro equaling about 4.1 Zloty, but the cheap food and drink bring the price to about par for richer countries using the euro. The city is also just small enough to be able to traverse it by walking, but you can still rely on the buses and trams that run around Old Town. From Krakow we took a night train that lasted about 10 hours to Budapest and to new adventures.

Ich bin ein Berliner

We reached Berlin by train and found our hostel using Berlin's ultra-fast S-bahn Berlin train. Out hostel had a pool, so Jesse and I relaxed and went for a nice swim before having an early night to catch up on sleep. The next day, we went to the East-Side Gallery, which is the largest surviving section of the Berlin Wall. It spans more than a kilometre, but we walked the entire thing because each part of the wall was painted by artists from around the world in the 90's. It is now covered in graffiti, but it still looks amazing. From there, we took the S-bahn to the Victory Arch (which for some reason had people underneath dressed in costumes you could take a picture with), from there we walked to the Reichstag and then on to a Soviet war memorial that had real tanks on display. It was super cold, so we headed back and went for another swim.

Münster

Jesse and I took an early train out of Amsterdam and headed to Münster to visit with my friend, Jakob, for a day. Jakob toured us all around Munster, taking us to the castle -- now the university -- which was completely leveled by a bomb during the war and rebuilt brick by brick by the students that attended it. Behind the university, there are botanical gardens and large greenhouses that contains tropical trees and bushes. Inside the greenhouses, we found projectors playing cartoon economics lessons, which we found to be completely wack, but later it was revealed to us that it was part of an art display. Jakob then brought us to his flat to watch a Germany vs Netherlands fütbol match with a bunch of Jakob's friends all squished into his tiny flat's kitchen. Unfortunately, the score at the end was 0-0, but ah well. Afterwards, we got all dressed up and went out to Night of the Profs; a night on which a few professors from the university act as DJs at 5 clubs and everybody buys tickets and gets to dance and have a good time. So we danced until 5 am and then headed back to Jakob's flat in the frosty air. After a few hours of sleep, Jesse and I packed up our bag and caught our train to Berlin. [Unfortunately, we forgot our camera when we went out around Munster and to Night of the Profs, and so we only have a few pictures from Night of the Profs courtesy of Jakob and his friend.]

Amsterdam is Glamsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam in the evening after the sun had already set. However, the darkness of the night did no deter us, as we checked into our super cool hostel, and then hit the town. The city had set up most of it's Christmas lights already and so everything was beautifully lit and bright. And although we were there only for the night and the early morning, it didn't deter us from seeing and experiencing all we could of this beautiful canal city.

Juno Beach

Rather than spend another day in smelly Paris, Jesse and I took a train to Normandy to visit Juno Beach. At Juno Beach, just outside of the village of Courseulles-sur-Mer, we visited the Canadian Juno Beach Centre which memorializes the beach taken by Canadian forces during the D-Day invasion. The Centre is only manned by Canadians, so we met some nice employees from Montreal who we hung out with while waiting for the introductory film to start. After seeing everything that this Centre had to offer, we headed out to the beach to play in the sand as the tide was coming in. We found some sea-shells and sat in the grass for a while before treating ourselves to a few pastries and then we headed back to the train station to continue our journey to Amsterdam.

Paris

Paris smells. That was the first impression we got. I'm not sure if it was the drunk Frenchman on the Metro that crapped himself and passed out with his pants down, or the pee puddles around every corner or the overfilled garbage, but it just didn't smell pretty. It's like the city of love is starting to ripen and go sour. Despite the smelly business, we made it to our hostel and immediately started to trek around the city. We visited the classic French monuments, such as the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Élysée, the Musée du Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Sacre Coeur. On the first day Jesse ate a bit of cheese at the Arc du Triomphe, and we had hot chocolate while walking down the Champs-Élysée towards the Louvre, where we spent the entire day staring at paintings and getting stared at by marble statues. On a side note, we found the French have a few of the Metopes still from the Parthenon in Athens. At Notre Dame we played with the leaves left by the trees in the courtyard. On November 11, we walked to the Arc du Triomphe to watch the Remembrance Day service which featured guards on horses and a large french flag flying inside the arch! It was neat to see and we may have even seen the French president drive by in his car. After that, we climbed up the Eiffel Tower all the way to the top. We then made our way to Notre Dame, where we played in the leaves fallen from the trees in the courtyard. After a warm meal, we went out for a walk to take pictures of Sacre Coeur. Thus ended our time in Paris.

Bern, baby Bern

After our train from Milan was delayed for 2 hours due to a person on the tracks, we finally made it to Bern, Switzerland. My friend, Rahel, who was an exchange student to my school about 3 years ago, met us at the train station and escorted us to her place where we stayed during our time in Bern. Rahel took us all over Old Town; to an 18th century Cathedral that had an amazingly designed ceiling and beautiful woodwork; to see Bern's 3 brown bears; up a huge hill that gave a splendid view of the city; and to find a baby-eating ogre fountain that Jesse had read about online. After showing us everything there was to see in Bern, Rahel cooked us a traditional Swiss dish with potatoes and sausage, it was delicious. Bern is a quaint Alpine town, so there isn't a busy night-scene or business district. It was a good time to relax and take in a breath of cold mountain air before traveling on to France.

Milan

On our way to Switzerland, we made one last stop for the day in the Italian city of Milan. On our way from the train station to the main Cathedral, we came upon a sort-of flash mob. There was a DJ there, and there were people dancing, and it was kind of flashy. Anyways, the Cathedral is an immense white stone building with a huge courtyard. We climbed up the small stone passageway to the top of the Cathedral and sunbathed in the glorious sunshine. From the top of the church, we could see all over the city of Milan and even the Alps in the distance. The roof of this Duomo is quite amazing as it has hundreds of sculptures of saints in every nook and cranny and on all the spires. They are still undergoing restorations works on the main spire and on several pillars, but it still looks brilliantly white. After we toured the top, we climbed back down and walked around until we found the Castello Sforza. Castello Sforza is a Renaissance fortress and a former home of Leonardo da Vinci. From there, we made our way back to the train station, stopping at the aquarium to take some pictures of some fish that were in a fountain outside, and then we continued our journey to Bern, Switzerland.

The Fall of Rome

Rome was more than we expected. Around every corner there was something old; we found it to be much like Athens in this aspect. We opted for a hop-on/hop-off bus tour rather than trying to figure out public transport. Our first stop was the Roman Forum and the Colosseum, which got us really excited for Rome. We first walked all around the ancient Palatine Hill, which included the old markets, the Forum, Caesar Augustus' villa, and other interesting sites that are still being excavated. From there, we crossed the road and took our first step into the Colosseum. It is huge, and there are all sort of tourist traps around it. People offer you tours for 'very cheap, we treat you well' and everyone sells knock-off gladiator helmets and other things you saw in Russell Crowe movies. But we decided to do it on our own; no audio-guides, no tours, just an entry ticket and reading the signs. Every now and then we'd listen to a fact from other guided groups, but really we were there to experience it for ourselves. We also did this for the Vatican; the Vatican offered more sites and treasures than the Colosseum, but we preferred to do it on our own anyway. In order to enter into the Vatican, we had to go through a medical detector and let our bag get checked. No worries, it is totally worth it, because St. Peter's Basilica was absolutely stunning and we were able to see the tomb of the Popes and the famous Michelangelo statue that stands in the Northeast corner of the church. Also inside the Vatican, we found they had the Vatican Museum, which houses the Sistine Chapel and other precious works of art and history. We couldn't include any pictures of the Sistine Chapel because we weren't allowed to film it or take any pictures. After seeing all that the Vatican City had to offer, we made our way to Castel sant'Angelo, a former home of the Borgias; and Trevi fountain, one of the most beautiful fountains that is carved with great white marble statues. Here, we threw in some coins for good luck. From there we took a gander on down the road to the Pantheon, an ancient pagan temple that has withstood the test of time and is now a famous church. The Romans built it with a huge hole in the dome, so that we could see the sky from inside, and making it one of the coolest bits of architecture we have seen in Rome. As the sun set in West and the streetlights came on, Jesse and I walked to the Spanish steps and climbed that steep staircase, finding a really cool old church at the top. After walking all over it, we sat on our butts, and scooted down the stairs. From there, we made our way to Isola Tiberina, Tiber Island, and walked all over it in the dark. This was our last night in Rome; a truly remarkable experience. We spent a total of 3 nights in Rome, which we figure is the perfect amount of time to sight-see all the interesting bits, although we definitely want to return some day.

Venice: jaywalking could lead to accidental drowning

As if the city wasn't wet enough. Jesse and I rode the train into Venice arriving with a drizzling rain that continued to fall all day. Despite the rain, we made the most of our one and only day that we had to spend in Venice--the city of gondoliers, paninis and watery streets. We took the city water bus down the Grand Canal past the big cruise ships to the Piazza San Marco to see the Dogès Palace. This palace is a beautiful building, built with many different kinds of marbles. During the winter season, Venice floods and so in many piazza's and squares, boardwalks have to be erected for the common folk to walk upon to keep their little toesies dry. From there, Jesse and I walked around, turning corner, squeezing past other tourists down narrow streets between tall buildings, getting lost the deeper and deeper we got into Venice. To make matters worse, we were soaked and miserable and all we wanted to do was sit down and eat our cheese and sausage and drink our wine on a nice and dry bench. Alas, to no avail, for we could not find a bench anywhere and we had to settle for a semi-dry doorstep down a random lane. The wine warmed our bellies enough to get us to a water bus stop and from there we went to Lido Island for some hot chocolate and a pastry. After warming ourselves for a good hour, we took the water bus back to the train station, hopped on our train and waved 'goodbye' to Venice and 'hello' to Rome.

Da Firenze

We arrived directly from Pisa via the small regional train running down the Arno river, coming to the brightly lit marble-lined streets that makes up the grand city of Florence. To get to our hostel, we had to walk past the Duomo, which completely blew us away. My first thought was, "We have to climb this." The next day we did climb it, and we discovered that the entire interior of the dome is a giant fresco covered in a depiction of judgment day; it was really cool to see. The Duomo remains the tallest building in Florence and as a result, it offers a breathtaking bird's eye view of the whole city with it's classical red-tiled roofs, which have remained virtually unchanged since the Renaissance period. From the Duomo we made our way to the Ponte Vecchio, a famous renaissance bridge that is now covered in expensive jewelery shops. Across the bridge, Colleen stuck her fingers up a stone lion's nose before we headed back to the other side of the river to see the marble statues at the Piazza della Signori. Aside from statues of famous people of history, like Galileo and Machiavelli, there were also renaissance statues of Greek and Roman gods including Perseus with the head of Medusa, and a (copy of) Michelangelo's David. Every corner brought us to a new masterpiece, and every street had it's own charm and wonders. It was one of our favourite cities, and I don't think we'll see another one like it if we searched the whole world.

Pisa, a little of piece of Italy

On November 1st at 6am, Jesse and I flew out of London to the first stop on our latest adventure. We arrived to blue skies and gelato in Pisa, marking the 1st of a 24 day train trip around Europe. We saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa from the airplane after flying over the snow-capped Alps and flying across the great blue of the Adriatic Sea, and couldn't wait to stand beneath it's marble columns. The airport provided a bus shuttle that moved everyone 30 feet from the plane to the terminal. It was the shortest bus trip we've ever taken. We walked all the way from the airport to the Leaning Tower, stopping only for gelato and to take a picture of a statue missing a bit of stonework from what we think was a cannon shot at its base. We could see the Leaning tower from quite a distance away, and it took a while to figure out just how big the tower was due to its position in the courtyard of the Duomo of Pisa. When we got there, we were gobsmacked to learn that we could actually climb the Tower and so, after purchasing a ticket and ditching our bags at the luggage drop, we climbed on up. As we ascended the stairs, our centers of gravity would shift depending on which side of the tower we were walking upon. The top offered views of tile-roofed villas and centuries old walls--it was truly a sight to behold. After sneaking a quick lick to one of the bells, we were finally forced to descend with the rest of the people from our tour group. Before heading off to find dinner, Jesse ran and bought cheese so that he could fulfill a life-long dream of eating cheese in front of national monuments around Europe. For dinner, we found a near-by restaurant and ate pizza and drank wine like true grown-ups before catching the next train to Florence for the night. Thus concluded our first day in Italy.

Irish Road Tripping

A week after my dad came to visit us, Jesse's sister, Priscilla, and her husband, Ryan, came to London and together the four us went on to Ireland. We started in Dublin, where we toured the Guinness Factory, learning to make the perfect pour, and ate at one of the oldest pubs in Ireland. The next day, we rented a car and drove to the cottage that we'd rented in Northern Ireland. From the cottage we made day trips, driving on the crazy narrow roads with ridiculous speed limits out to windy Giant's Causeway; the delicious Bushmills Irish Whiskey Distillery; Downhill Beach, where we played barefoot in the sand; Mussenden Temple and Downhill Demesne, which were built in the 1800s by a Bishop who fancied himself a Roman enthusiast and worthy of a castle; Dunluce Castle, where we climbed all over without actually paying to go in; Ballintoy Harbour, where we had delicious tea and a pastry after climbing all over the rocks, dodging the waves; and finally, Cushendun Caves, where we threw rocks into the caves in the fading evening light to see them spark. The next day, we drove to Galway, though it rained and the wind chilled us to the bone, we still went out and had a blast, playing cards, drinking Heineken and listening to Irish music at a pub. We drove back to Dublin, the next day and with the sun setting at our backs, Ryan and Priscilla flew to Edinburgh to continue their trip and Jesse and I flew back to London, and back to work.

That one time my Dad and I went to Dover by Colleen

After not seeing him for nearly a year, my dad came to visit Jesse and I in October. It was his first trip overseas and I was super duper excited! I made him walk from Earl's Court to Waterloo on his first day, but once there, I finally relented and let him hop on a double-decker bus to Greenwich, where we had dinner. During the week that my dad was visiting, we took a day-trip to the coast to see Dover, it's castle and cliffs, and the English Channel. Though rain threatened to fall, we climbed the big hill and toured all over the ancient castle grounds that have been in use since before the time of the Romans. On the hilltop stands a Roman lighthouse, an 9th century church, a castle and keep built by Henry II (husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine) and WWI and WWII bunkers, lookout posts, tunnels and artillery. From up on the hill, we could see the coastline of Calais in France and the down the Dover coast to the famous white cliffs. It was a great day on the coast, just me and my dad.:)

The Thames Barrier

On a cloudy and drizzling day (also in August), Jesse and I took some Barclay Bikes for a spin to the Thames Barrier. It was quite the adventure as we couldn't quite bike the entire way, but had to improvise and find our way along the Thames path. It wasn't all bad news as Jesse and I discovered this neat '50s-style diner where we had some delicious fries before continuing on our way. At the Thames Barrier, we found it to be more than just a barrier blockading the Thames, but there was a neat park there as well and it was here that Jesse and I played pass with a soccer ball we found and ate our picnic. As we were returning from our day out, we were passing through Cutty Sark in Greenwich when, low and behold, the Olympic Torch happened to be passing through at the same time! So, though soaked to the bone, we stuck it out long enough to see the torch go by then headed back to warm up.

Fun and Friends in August!

The month of August was quite busy for Jesse and I as several of our friends and some relatives of Jesse's came to visit. Our first visitor was Meghan, my classmate since Kindergarten and former university roommate. For 3 days Jesse and I entertained Meghan, taking her down the Thames, to the Tower, to a performance at the Globe and to Hyde Park and Victoria Park to cheer on the Canadians participating in the Olympics.[--Colleen] Next came Gerritt, my brother-in-law, with his friend Matt. They had booked a flight to London only two weeks before hand, but we made it work within our schedules. They stayed in my hostel, The Great Eastern, and we had a grand old time showing them around the city. We took them around to all the neat pubs, and even biked through the city during rush hour to meet Colleen at work.[--Jesse] In between our friends’ visits it was also our friend, Nadine's, birthday and so we celebrated by having a grand ol' time at the pub with our friends, Tiffany and Annie, and we even met two Irish guys in town for the weekend. :)

Canada Day

July 1st. Canada Day. Decked out in our only Canadian gear, Jesse, our Calgarian friend, Nadine, and I headed out to Trafalgar Square to join in the Canadian festivities. Here, we ate pancakes from Alberta, buffalo burgers from the prairies, listened to Gordon Campbell speak and drank Molson Canadian. After the sun went down, the concert started and we joined in with the fans, dancing around while Hedley and Our Lady Peace played and jumped in the fountains. It was probably our most patriotic Canada Day yet.

Zoo Lates

June 15. Zoo Lates is a really cool program that the London Zoo puts on allowing animals and alcohol to mix! When the kiddies go to bed, the zoo breaks open the bottles of Pimms and turns up the silent disco so that all the over-18s can hang out and party with the animals. And so, Jesse and I took full advantage of this opportunity to see the animals and joined in the revelry! (The Zoo is located in Regent's Park, near Baker Street where there is a Sherlock Holmes statue, hence the photo. Also, the park has beautiful flower gardens, hence the random flower photo).

The Queen's Jubilee Flotilla

Sunday, June 3rd, 2012. Despite the rain, thousands of people--Jesse and I included--flocked to the banks of the Thames to watch the Queen float by in her gold-gilded boat. It was difficult to get the riverside, but we managed to get a place to watch the flotilla on Tower Bridge. We decided to celebrate the occasion in our best Canadian jerseys, and received several hoots and high fives for being awesome.

Bath!

Hello again, blog readers! We both apologize for our complete lack of consistency and forgetfulness. For the rest of our journey, we promise to be more consistent to keep you updated. Ok, moving on now. BATH! We went to Bath on the weekend of the 22nd in April--our first train trip outside of London. Coincidentally, the 22nd is National Heritage Day for Bath and so there were ancient Roman battle re-enactments, stone carving demonstrations, and various other activities going on in the city. Aside from dodging the rain while checking out the different heritage events, Jesse and I toured the Roman Baths, ancient hot springs that have been in use since before the time of the Celts of the 8th century BC; visited the Jane Austen Center, not the exact site of where Jane Austen lived, but just down the street from the original residence; saw where Jane Austen's father is buried; crossed the land-mark Pulteney Bridge; and walked all over the town, enjoying out time outside of the busy city of London.

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.

My First Birthday Without Snow!

December 21, 2011: My first birthday ever (as far as I can remember) without snow. There's not much to say really...mojitos for brunch (because I finally turned 19), took a look at the escargo that the hostel owner was growing, we went swimmming and had a great time, my makeup ran, Jesse nicely took off his shirt for the camera and then we went back to the hostel for cake. Mmmmmm cake :]

Visiting Thira

The local bus system on Santorini is quite interesting. After waiting quite a while at a bus stop near our hostel, we walked a ways down the beach to the bus station to try our luck at catching the bus there. All of the buses on Santorini are coach buses, and our driver was listening to loud music, driving pretty fast and talking on his cell phone as he drove along the narrow island road to Thira. It was kinda sketchy but we made it and live to tell the tale.

Swimming in the Mediterranean!

Swimming on the black-sand beaches of Perissa.

Santorini!

After a fun 2 days on Crete, we took a morning ferry to the small island of Santorini. It was quite windy as we rode the ferry; windy enough that if you stood on the one side of the ferry, salt spray would blow forcefully into our mouths. Mmmm! The delicious salt water of the Mediterranean. Finally, after a rocky 4 hours, we arrived on Santorini. Disembarking at the ferry terminal in Santorini was quite entertaining as the wind had picked up quite a bit more, making us have to run off as soon as it was safe and forcing the cars to wait between waves to drive off. Santorini used to be a larger island, but centuries ago, a volcano occured and collapsed upon itself, creating the islands of Therasia, Nea Kameni and Santorini as it is today.--Colleen

Athens to Iraklion

After a great time in Athens, we took a night ferry to Crete, landing in the capital city, Iraklion, early the next morning. We had beautiful weather on Crete, which made seeing the sights of the city that much more enjoyable. We took a walk along the port to the old Venetian Fort and then walked beyond it down a sea wall that was lined with what looked like giant concrete jacks. They were quite fun to climb upon--until you fell in between them and broke your arm...hahaha just kidding! hahaha ;]--Colleen

Athens and the Temple of Zeus

After seeing the Akropolis, we continued walking and came upon the Temple of Zeus. The construction on this temple began in the 6th Century BC during a time when Athens was ruled by tyrants who dreamt of building one of the largest temples in the ancient world. However, due to the circumstances, construction on this temple was not completed until around 600 years later during the 2nd Century AD when Emperor Hadrian was ruling.
The rest of the pictures are various sights we saw while walking through the streets and markets of Athens and also the view from our hotel.--Colleen

Mars Hill and the Acropolis

On our way galavanting to the Acropolis, we stopped by the famous Mars Hill, where the Apostle Paul preached to the Athenians about 1950 years ago. The whole hill is made of raw marble, most of which is smoothed out from thousands of years of rubbing Greek and foreign feet. From this perch, you can see the entirety of western Athens, from the port of Piraeus to downtown Omonia, to the Ancient Agora, to the foothills of Attica. It is really breathtaking. After leaving the Hill, which is usually packed with people, we headed up the hill to the Acropolis, a clearly visible landmark from almost anywhere in Athens. There are no steps up to Acropolis, it's just marble flagstones and slabs that lead up to the front gates. We got our tickets from a previous vendor at the Library of Hadrian, which cost me 12 euro (not Colleen, she got in for free), and allowed you into any of the Archaeological sites in and around Athens. The Acropolis has several Archaeological sites besides the Parthenon, but the Parthenon is definitely the largest and most impressive!--Jesse