Background: Greece achieved its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1829. During the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, it gradually added neighboring islands and territories, most with Greek-speaking populations. In World War II, Greece was first invaded by Italy (1940) and subsequently occupied by Germany (1941-44); fighting endured in a protracted civil war between royalist supporters of the king and communist rebels. Following the latter's defeat in 1949, Greece was able to join NATO in 1952. A military dictatorship, which in 1967 suspended many political liberties and forced the king to flee the country, lasted seven years. The 1974 democratic elections and a referendum created a parliamentary republic and abolished the monarchy. Greece joined the European Community or EC in 1981 (which became the EU in 1992); it became the 12th member of the euro zone in 2001.
May 6th 2008Europe » Greece » Crete » Chania Well yesterday was a huge long day. The alarm went off at five; I slept till half past, but Kathleena had to get ready and stuff. So we headed out around quarter two six, in order catch the six fiftee ... [full story]
May 4th 2008Europe » Greece » Crete » Heraklion Some catching up to do.
Firstly,
Apologies to Sherry and Chengwai from Malaysia who we ran into at Delphi and said we would add you to our blog. It is now done.
Secondly the name of our suburb in ... [full story]
May 4th 2008Europe » Greece » Crete » Chania So. I am in Chania, a smallish town on the north coast of Crete, the largest, southernmost Greek isle. The place was originally built by Venetian nobility, in an exodus where one sixth of Venice came ... [full story]
August 24th 2004Europe » Greece » Crete A fantastic holiday to Crete which for me, was a return visit. I'd previously been at the end of September and so felt it proper to come in the height of summer.
Taking an apartment in a tourist co ... 11 photos[full story]
March 27th 2008Europe » Greece » Crete » Chania Well yesterday, Wednesday, was an awesome day! We had another free day, so of course we went hiking. Ingrid, Brock, and I went to the travel agency in town and asked for a good hike to do, so they gav ... [full story]
March 27th 2008Europe » Greece » Crete » Chania Since I last wrote, two weeks ago, I have had limited access to the internet. This update is long overdue.
To continue the journey, I went to Rethymno which is the third largest city on Crete. ... [full story]
March 26th 2008Europe » Greece » Crete » Chania Well I know I haven’t posted in a while now, but all of the school computers (17 of the 20 of us took school laptops on this trip so we didn’t have to take our own) stopped working, well t ... [full story]
March 19th 2008Europe » Greece » Crete » Chania On Monday morning Ingrid and I woke up early at the Orthodox Academy and watched the sunrise from our balcony. It was gorgeous. But I was a little tired for the rest of the day then because I woke up ... [full story]
March 17th 2008Europe » Greece » Crete » Chania We are at the Orthodox Academy near Chania, Crete right now. It is a lot different than I thought it was going to be. But first, I’ll start with the last town we were in… Rethymno, which ... [full story]
March 12th 2008Europe » Greece » Crete » Heraklion On Monday the carnival festivities continued. It was "clean Monday," their 'kick-off' to Lent. So we had the typical meal for that day in a small town about a mile or so from Katalagari. The meal was ... [full story]
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