034 - Greece - Santorini, Hydra, and Athens 10/21/08 - 11/25/08 Picture Perfect written by Hannah The question on everyone's mind when we left San Diego for parts unknown was “when will we see you again?”, especially so for my mom. After 9 months of waiting to see where we could meet she finally 'sacrificed' and bought her ticket for Greece. Those who know me will say I live a pretty full life and am involved in many different things, well, I learned it from my mom, and true to form she had 1,001 things to do before she jumped on [View Full Entry]

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033 - Greece - Kefalonia 10/15/08 - 10/21/08 Ionian Islandry We like Greek islands. And, compared to the hustle of big city life in Athens, we really like Greek islands. It all started as we hopped off the ferry onto Ithaki, Homer's (as in the Iliad and the Odyssey, not the Simpsons!) home in the Ionian Sea. Unlike most ports, however, there was hardly anyone there! No buses, no taxis, nothing. Just me and Hannah, and Yiayia, who wanted to come along to see Ithaki and her friends in Kefalonia during the Saint Gerasimo festival on October 20th. Luckily, there was [View Full Entry]

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Here are some more family photos of the Polytaridis family! [View Full Entry]

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032 - Greece - Athens 09/24/08 - 10/15/08 My Big Fat Greek Family Our reasons for coming to Greece were many. After over seven months traveling through Asia and Africa we longed for a good dose of Western culture, and, as we would sometimes joke, a break to let our bodies decontaminate from the food bacteria, ringworm, etc. we picked up along the way! Also, I wanted to show Hannah my birthplace, have her pick up a bit of the Greek along the way, and introduce her to my grandmothers and other family in the area. After all, we will be [View Full Entry]

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031 - Egypt - Cairo 09/20/08 - 09/24/08 Fast Food Sober Ramadan Prior to heading to Egypt our pallettes conjoured up images of baba ganuoush dip, aish bread, kofta meat, and shai tea, followed by a good sheesha (tobacco) smoke. Now imagine our dissapointment to find that ALL of the delicious hole-in-the-wall eateries and coffee houses in Cairo were closed during daylight hours for the entire month of September for Ramadan! And to top it off... get ready for it... NO BOOZE anytime of the day, anywhere in Cairo, during our entire stay there! So, it was McDonalds, KFC, or Hardees [View Full Entry]

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Pictures speak volumes when words don't suffice. With my new Canon SLR at hand, we snapped away, attempting to capture the different faces of Ethiopia. Here is a photo collage of Ethiopia. [View Full Entry]

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030 - Africa - Lalibela 09/15/08 - 09/20/08 Historic Ethiopia Imagine walking along rural Ethiopia a few centuries ago, flanked by green fields and farmlands, mountains in the distance, small stones digging in to your bare feet. You stop and have a vision of a church that doesn't exist. A church built out of rock. Not only that, but built out of one piece of rock, and built from the top down, by removing the earth, not adding to it. And not just one church, but a community of churches, each one carved out of rock, and each one unparalleled in [View Full Entry]

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Africa - Ethiopia - Addis Ababa 09/05/08 - 09/15/08 Exploring our roots in Ethiopia Written by Mary Polytaridis (Nico's Mom) It all started as a joke as Nico and Hannah were prepping for their year-long adventure: “Why don't you guys meet us in Ethiopia and celebrate Mary's 50th birthday while showing us your native country?” Both Lakis (my husband) and I were born and raised in Ethiopia, he in Addis Ababa and myself in Dire Dawa, but hadn't been back for over 30 years. What would it look like now? Would we still remember the country we gave so much [View Full Entry]

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028 - Africa - Kenya 08/17/08 - 09/05/08 Kenya: A safari, a resort, and a Muslim beach town Coming to Africa marked the departure of the Asian continent we spent the last six months exploring. It also marked the halfway point of our year-long. Wow, it's hard to believe we've been gone for six months already! Sometimes it feels like the blink of any eye... Jurassic Park 'Welcome to Kenya, do you want to take a safari?” This was the first greeting we got upon our arrival to Nairobi Airport. The answer to this question, no matter what the truth of [View Full Entry]

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Here are some photos of the vintage car collection in Udaipur. [View Full Entry]

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