Back from Greece!

[Haven]

I went to Greece with 40 high school students, six other chaperones, and one brave couple who wanted to join us for their 30th wedding anniversary.

The trip was incredible. We stayed on land for seven nights, and went on a four night cruise, and we saw so many incredible sights. I came home and slept for 24 hours straight, I was so exhausted.

In Athens, we visited the new Olympic stadium, and the Acropolis (the Parthenon was so incredible in person). Then we went to Delphi, which was not only beautiful but so very cool. We visited Mykonos, which is breathtakingly beautiful. Then we went to Patmos to visit St. John''s grotto and monastery, which was intense because the grotto is where St. John wrote the Book of Revelations. We went into Kusadasi, Turkey, to see the ruins of Ancient Ephesus which were really incredible. Rhodes was so neat, the town is very old and I happened to meet a Holocaust survivor in the synagogue. He told me his story and we cried together. We visited the ruins of Knossos on the island of Heraklion. The island of Santorini was breathtakingly beautiful, and I had the best hour of the trip sitting in a cafe with a frappe and some ice cream overlooking the Aegean. We then went back on land and visited Epidavros, Mycanae, and Argolida. The town of Epidavros was my favorite, it was so small and beautiful. We stayed in Pylos for a night, which was also beautiful, and visited Nestor''s Palace the next day. Then we went to ancient Olympia and the kids got to run up and down the Olympic stadium, which was so very cool.

I''m sure I''m missing a lot of details, but overall it was an incredible trip.

I want to share some of my pictures with PS. I took 1,000 photos (on the dot) but can only post the images without any students in them, so here are the best shots of what I can share.

Here''s the Parthenon peeking out over Athens:

 

[Haven]

A view of Athens from the Acropolis:

 

[Haven]

I love this shot of the Greek flag, from the top of the Acropolis:

 

[Haven]

Even the graffiti looked great in Athens!

 

[Haven]

I loved the way this building looked. There was a very old man sitting with a tiny kitten on the stoop behind the car. We lost all of our girls when we walked by, they sat and cuddled the kitty for a while.

 

[Haven]

The Running Man statue in downtown Athens:

 

[Haven]

A view from Delphi:

 

[Haven]

Another ship, on our way to Mykonos:

 

[Haven]

Calamari, anyone? Mykonos:

 

[Haven]

I just thought they looked so cool:

 

[Haven]

Probably the most often photographed church on Mykonos. We took some great group shots in front of it.

 

[Haven]

Pretty plant in front of the white stones:

 

[Haven]

Greek pride, Mykonos:

 

[Haven]

Everything was so pretty on Mykonos, even the cafe signs. And this one was in English!

 

[Haven]

On Mykonos:

 

[Haven]

I can still hear the tide . . .

 

[Haven]

I didn''t realize how many of my great shots came from Mykonos. It truly is a beautiful island.

 

[Haven]

Petal-lined streets. Sigh.

 

[Haven]

Still Mykonos. I love boats.

 

[Haven]

This is the last shot from Mykonos. I love the way these tables were set up to face the street.

 

[Haven]

Ancient Ephesus, Kusadasi, Turkey. Look at that detail.

 

[Haven]

Ancient Ephesus

 

[Haven]

Pretty plant.

 

[Haven]

On the island of Patmos, outside St. John''s grotto. The most moving part of the entire trip, for me, other than meeting a holocaust survivor in Rhodes.

 

[Haven]

Patmos

 

[Haven]

Rhodes. The number tatto on Sammy Modiani''s arm, the last living Holocaust survivor from Rhodes. He was in the synagogue connected to the Jewish Heritage Museum when I happened to stop in, and when he found out I was Jewish he sat down and told me his story. It was incredible.

 

[Haven]

On the way into the synagogue--the entire ground pattern was created using stones. Stones!

 

[Haven]

On the cruise, "formal night". This is my colleague and dear friend. Our colleagues always confuse us for each other at work, although I don't think we look at all alike. I'm on the left.

 

[Haven]

Ahhh, Santorini. The most beautiful island with the most wretched way up--donkey rides. I let the students convince me to take a donkey up instead of the cable car. Big mistake. Let''s just say a winding path, steep cliff with very short guard stone, and poor donkeys being forced to carry my big you-know-what don''t mix to equal a nice ride.

Oh--and my friend and I were late getting off the island, so we had to walk down the VERY long, steep, donkey poop-filled path to get to the tender boats because the line for the cable cars was too long. The experience still didn''t ruin my memories of Santorini.

 

[Haven]

A view of Santorini.