http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Greece en-us Tue, 01 Dec 09 23:30:07 +0000 Tue, 01 Dec 09 23:30:07 +0000 Dear Santorini friends we have republished our website.It is not 100 ready but you will get the idea.We try to keep our website up to date and offer more than the most of Santorini releated ones.Our goal is to bring you a more interactive site where you can add comment and review places you have been or seen.Santorini Travel Advisor httpwww.santorinitips.com offers advertising space to k http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-457480.html Touchdown to Athens Greece. Named after Athena daughter of Zeus Goddess of wisdom the birth place of democracy the staging arena of western philosophy the epicenter of art and culture which has been replicated time and time again stands as one of the oldest cities in the world dating back to 5000 BC. There are excavation sights throughout the city some gated off and others open to the publ http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-454125.html Just a short one before we pick up Vic from the airport and see Greece So after Skopje we headed south to Stobi an ancient Roman city which is still being excavated unfortunately all the mosaics where covered with feet of sand to protect them from the winter weather Caroline waited in the Duk and pissed and moaned about the rain. Raining for about 4 days now without stopping.Had to pay ext http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-453579.html And after the northern Greece we continued south towards Volos where we took a ferry boat and after two hours of a very nice and relaxing boat ride we reached Skiathos. At first we thought we'll find the accommodation easily after all everyone was talking about a slow season economic problems and similar so we didn't make any reservations. Big mistake It was almost the beginning of Augu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Thessaly/Skiathos/blog-452413.html The bed I found so great compared to a coach seat on Delta wasn't as great as I remembered. The highlight of the night was Kelly coming out of the bathroom with the lights off thinking her reflection in the full length mirror was an intruder and screamed. In the dead of the night that had my heart racing for a while.Luckily we have internal clocks that wake us up early we don't use alarm clocks a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-451985.html I started my latest European sojourn with a trip to the ancient city of Olympia. Although most of it is in ruins if you consider how long its been around it is remarkably well preserved. The first stadium is really quite remarkable. A depression in the ground surrounded by grassy hills on 3 sides is quite an ideal natural setting to watch sports. All modern stadiums are modeled after this one. T http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Ionian-Islands/Zakynthos/blog-450346.html We've found the newest addition to our favorite locations. We loved Santorini especially Oia. I'm trying to convince Tony to buy a little cave house The October temp was nice and sunny. A little windy though and not warm enough for me Gabriela to get into the water about 75 degrees but we loved it We ended up renting a car to tour the island. It was amazing. Enjoy the pictures gabrielaFo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-449921.html today is a day trip to this ancient site.the highlight was viewing the spot where the Olynpic torch is lit every two years. a chic greek fashion model or someother noteworthy and beautifyl woman takes on the role of a goddess. OriginsThe Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions held for representatives of various citystates of Ancient Greece. Records indicate that they began in 776 B http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Pelopennese/Kalamata/blog-449725.html Athens was the start and stop for our trip. We departed from Atlanta on Aug 31st on a direct flight overnight to Athens an 11 hour flight.The airport was easy to navigate and we soon caught caught the Metro Blue Line for euro6 each to Syntagma Square where we walked to our hotel only a few blocks away. The ride was probably close to 45 minutes the last 15 minutes the bus was filled with peop http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-449446.html I got to Santorini without a reservation thinking I would catch a bus and make it some where. As we came into the island I could see the famous white washed cities on the edge of the cliffs like snow on the peaks of the craggy island. We came to the port to see that it was a dock at the bottom of a cliff with a little set of Zs going up from the boats as the tourists slipped from water to wheel to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/blog-448183.html I had so much fun meeting people on the trip from Bari to Athens. The first people I meet were two art teachers from university of Oregon. They were looking for the bus to the port just like me from the Bari train station. Then a Greek Canadian came and joined us he was an out of work computer programer traveling for 9 months. They were all real nice and we all hung out once we got to the port an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/blog-448180.html After getting in late last night morning came a bit too soon. I showered and packed up my things to store since I have to change rooms today. After leaving my things in the storage room I checked in at the front desk and found out that there was a walking tour organized by the hostel that would leave at 1030.About 20 of us joined the tour mostly college aged girls many of whom were likely stu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-448124.html I left Ios today to return to Athens. Before I caught the ferry I went down to the port for lunch. As I looked around at the sea and the surrounding hills I was still surprised how beautiful and how grotesque this island really is. There are gorgeous white homes spread out intermittently all overlooking the clear blue sea below. But there are also barren wastelands full of rocks and dead vegeta http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-447814.html This morning I went on the same running course as yesterday. I knocked three minutes off my time from having the benefit of knowing the terrain. And no walking or stops. It felt good.After a small lunch I returned to the same beach as yesterday. There were a few more people there today. And it also appears as if this is a topless beach. While that sounds appealing in theory in reality itrsquos http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Ios/blog-447800.html Last night I got some much needed sleep. Well rested I went for a run to familiarize myself with part of the island. I set out towards the beach where Irsquod likely spend most of my day. Getting there was easy. There is one road that leads down to the beach and it is entirely downhill. Along the way I stopped a few times to take pictures of the gorgeous views of the surrounding sea. About 3km http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Ios/blog-447461.html Last night I got a terrible nightrsquos sleep. Trying to get to bed early proved to be a futile effort as people celebrated the nice weather out on their balconies into all hours of the night. One girl laughed like a hyena after every sentence someone spoke. Sometimes I think she even laughed at her silly laugh. And when all that finally calmed down one of my roommates had a great snore. Now I http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Ios/blog-447456.html Today I left Budapest for Athens and the warm weather within it. I got to the airport and made my flight without a hitch.When we arrived in Athens we disembarked onto a stairway and were treated to the warm weather immediately while we waited for a shuttle to take us to the main terminal. It felt like 75F here wonderful after the 30s and 40s the last week and a half.I caught the metro from the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-447453.html Ok it wasnrsquot so big and it wasnrsquot so fat a holiday but it was a brief two day out of the ordinary one Flight to Athens Well let me start about telling you about Amsterdam. Why cuz I wanna boast of course. So what if I didnrsquot go to Amsterdam I did go to the Amsterdam airpo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-447442.html If you have any nice Greek images please send them for inclusion in my blog or just enjoy the pictures shown already Blessings of the GoddessBlessings of the Goddess Images of Greece http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/blog-447187.html Total Distance Cycled 516km The winds calmed down overnight but we were still left with cold weather. We wore our jackets and gloves for the first time. We first had to climb over a mountain pass which brought the temperature down much too low for comfort. We could see our breath at this pointhellip After that though the rest of the day was our best so far. We cycled at least half of the da http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Central-Macedonia/Kavala/blog-445927.html