YES! FINALLY!
yes yes, i know, i haven't updated this thing in god knows how long. i'm so sorry i've been neglecting all of my diehard fans out there. but this is the moment you all have been waiting for. the moment that will change your lives FOREVER!
behold, for i bring you: A BIG GIANT POST ABOUT GREECE AND ENGLAND! (part one)
being in greece was probably one of the greatest times of my life. i experienced so much while i was there, it's kind of difficult to describe it all. pics are so much easier to explain everything.
the following pics are only a small handful of what i took while i was there. i think the total amount of pictures i took is somewhere in the 800s. but these are the important ones. and i took a lot of artsy photos as well, but i think i'll post one or two everyday. (p.s. these pics are a little bit on the crappy side because they've been compressed from very huge sizes to rather small ones.)
anyway, here they are:
the flight to England was ok, it was like 10 hours though. at least i had my own little tv set to watch movies and play Nintendo on. when we arrived at the London Heathrow Airport, we had to sit for 4 and ½ hours before we could get on the plane to Athens. it went by pretty fast though, because that airport is like a mall. so great.
this is the plane we took to athens.
after 2 hours of driving in the middle of the night, we finally found the village we were to stay in for 4 days. this is Petri, the village where my great uncle and his family lives. they own all those grape vines out there to make wine.
this is the family's old house...
and this is their new house. the two houses are connected.
this is them. clockwise: some lady, her husband, my dad, niko, viki, angeliki, me, george, john
it's kind of sad that i don't really remember these people's names, but they're all very hard-to-remember greek names. the old woman on the right though, she was sooo funny.
they have cool chickens.
i'm eating apricots that i picked off a tree myself. greece is wonderful because there's so many apricots. god, i could apricots 'til i die.
opa!
here we are in nafplio, a little seaside village.
we visited lots of family. these are some distant cousins, aunts, uncles...
it's a greek traffic jam.
i guess greeks don't like to smile in their pictures. perhaps they're sad to see us go?
so we went from living here...
...to staying here.
this is the club hotel loutraki, in a town called loutraki. we stayed here for 6 days. it was really nice, there was free internet and good service.
the interior was very modern.
and the scenery was beautiful!
this is the view from my hotel window haha. i think it's where all the whorish people who stayed at the hotel while we were there came from.
this is not too far from the hotel.
while we were there, the eurocup finals were going on. when greece won, the entire city was rallying in the streets, lighting off fireworks, going crazy. it was cool because it was the fourth of july and i was bummed that i was missing fireworks back home, but i got to see them here anyway!
there was chaos in the streets because of everyone driving as fast as possible, honking their horns in celebration.
even ambulances were zooming down the streets with their sirens on in support of the greek victory.
these stray dogs followed us on the way home. there's so many stray animals in greece because they don't believe in neutering or spaying their pets.
my dad bought a soccer shirt... karisteas was the guy who scored the winning goal.
this is the corinth canal, a manmade pathway for ships so they can go from one side of greece to the other without having to go all the way around. when huge ships pass through it, they barely miss scraping against the sides of the canal.
bungy jumping into the canal kind of sounded like fun, but i would never trust a greek bungy jumping place.
we visited ancient corinth. i think my mom is trying to pose like some sort greek goddess. or something.
an ancient street.
i was swimming one day, and i noticed this dark shape swimming next to me. i was like "wtf is that?!" and i freaked out, but it turned out to be a dolphin!
we were eating breakfast one morning at a crepe restaurant and my second-aunt recognized us, randomly. she lives there in loutraki
and as it turns out, we are also related to the cook at the restaurant, dina.
so we went to my second-aunt's house.
her granddaughter, angeliki, was sooo adorable! she's only 3, but she was really super smart.
sooo cute! i normally find little kids kind of annoying, but this one was the cutest thing i've ever seen.
and she was absolutely obsessed with john. she would grab his hand and kiss him and say, "you're my husband, let's read the newspaper and drink coffee because like a married couple" and stuff like that. john couldn't understand her because she only spoke greek though.
we ate dinner here at our last night in loutraki.
and one of the stray dogs came back.
the next morning we went on a cruise!
this is our cruise ship.
ha just kidding, this is the ship, called the "triton." it looks nice on the outside, but is was a little bit crappy on the inside.
the water in greece is sooo clear and blue, it makes huntington beach look like a dumpy sewer. oh wait, huntington beach already is a dumpy sewer.
the first place the ship stopped at was mykonos, one of the many beautiful islands.
i would love to live here.
they have windmills.
the next morning we were in turkey. the people there are really pushy and they follow you around and try to get you to buy stuff. this guy was like begging us to buy some goddamn carpets.
and you have to pay to use the restrooms.
we visited ephosos, an ancient roman city. this is an advertisement on the sidewalk for a whorehouse. the queen on the right means "i'm pretty as a queen" and the third toe on the left foot being the longest means "i'm on the third house on the left hand side." there used to be a coin in the hole by the heart in the upper left corner, which meant "no money, no honey" or something like that. those romans were tricky.
this is an ancient roman toilet.
later that afternoon we arrived at patmos, another island.
i love how all the doors look so weathered.
"aflak!"
haha
"i'm naked!"
the next day was spent at rhodes, which is basically a huge island surrounded by a castle.
that night was "elegant-attire night."
the next day we were in crete, which wasn't all that exciting.
but later we were in santorini, which was by far my favorite island.
the villages are high on a cliff, so you have to take ski lifts to the top of the mountain.
i love this island.
i wish this was my backyard patio.
you can see our cruise ship down below.
the next day we went to athens. EVERYTHING in athens was under construction because of the olympics. even our hotel was being renovated. you can barely see the best western sign there.
one of the olympic stadiums.
we visited the parthenon. it was at least 115 degrees while we were there. it was so miserable. i don't understand how olympic athletes are supposed to do well in athens because it's just too damn hot there.
i think there was a communism rally going on while we were there.
this ancient owl statue is named "sophia" because sophia = wisdom in greek, and owls = wisdom, and yeah..
there's all these artifacts in the metro subway stations there because when the underground tunnels were being dug out, a lot of ancient stuff was found.
this is one of the olympic mascots.
athens has their own royal guards, just like england.
i have no idea why there's a statue of the liberator of uruguay in the middle of athens.
this is all of the pics from greece. tomorrow i'll post part 2, which will cover england
behold, for i bring you: A BIG GIANT POST ABOUT GREECE AND ENGLAND! (part one)
being in greece was probably one of the greatest times of my life. i experienced so much while i was there, it's kind of difficult to describe it all. pics are so much easier to explain everything.
the following pics are only a small handful of what i took while i was there. i think the total amount of pictures i took is somewhere in the 800s. but these are the important ones. and i took a lot of artsy photos as well, but i think i'll post one or two everyday. (p.s. these pics are a little bit on the crappy side because they've been compressed from very huge sizes to rather small ones.)
anyway, here they are:
the flight to England was ok, it was like 10 hours though. at least i had my own little tv set to watch movies and play Nintendo on. when we arrived at the London Heathrow Airport, we had to sit for 4 and ½ hours before we could get on the plane to Athens. it went by pretty fast though, because that airport is like a mall. so great.
this is the plane we took to athens.
after 2 hours of driving in the middle of the night, we finally found the village we were to stay in for 4 days. this is Petri, the village where my great uncle and his family lives. they own all those grape vines out there to make wine.
this is the family's old house...
and this is their new house. the two houses are connected.
this is them. clockwise: some lady, her husband, my dad, niko, viki, angeliki, me, george, john
it's kind of sad that i don't really remember these people's names, but they're all very hard-to-remember greek names. the old woman on the right though, she was sooo funny.
they have cool chickens.
i'm eating apricots that i picked off a tree myself. greece is wonderful because there's so many apricots. god, i could apricots 'til i die.
opa!
here we are in nafplio, a little seaside village.
we visited lots of family. these are some distant cousins, aunts, uncles...
it's a greek traffic jam.
i guess greeks don't like to smile in their pictures. perhaps they're sad to see us go?
so we went from living here...
...to staying here.
this is the club hotel loutraki, in a town called loutraki. we stayed here for 6 days. it was really nice, there was free internet and good service.
the interior was very modern.
and the scenery was beautiful!
this is the view from my hotel window haha. i think it's where all the whorish people who stayed at the hotel while we were there came from.
this is not too far from the hotel.
while we were there, the eurocup finals were going on. when greece won, the entire city was rallying in the streets, lighting off fireworks, going crazy. it was cool because it was the fourth of july and i was bummed that i was missing fireworks back home, but i got to see them here anyway!
there was chaos in the streets because of everyone driving as fast as possible, honking their horns in celebration.
even ambulances were zooming down the streets with their sirens on in support of the greek victory.
these stray dogs followed us on the way home. there's so many stray animals in greece because they don't believe in neutering or spaying their pets.
my dad bought a soccer shirt... karisteas was the guy who scored the winning goal.
this is the corinth canal, a manmade pathway for ships so they can go from one side of greece to the other without having to go all the way around. when huge ships pass through it, they barely miss scraping against the sides of the canal.
bungy jumping into the canal kind of sounded like fun, but i would never trust a greek bungy jumping place.
we visited ancient corinth. i think my mom is trying to pose like some sort greek goddess. or something.
an ancient street.
i was swimming one day, and i noticed this dark shape swimming next to me. i was like "wtf is that?!" and i freaked out, but it turned out to be a dolphin!
we were eating breakfast one morning at a crepe restaurant and my second-aunt recognized us, randomly. she lives there in loutraki
and as it turns out, we are also related to the cook at the restaurant, dina.
so we went to my second-aunt's house.
her granddaughter, angeliki, was sooo adorable! she's only 3, but she was really super smart.
sooo cute! i normally find little kids kind of annoying, but this one was the cutest thing i've ever seen.
and she was absolutely obsessed with john. she would grab his hand and kiss him and say, "you're my husband, let's read the newspaper and drink coffee because like a married couple" and stuff like that. john couldn't understand her because she only spoke greek though.
we ate dinner here at our last night in loutraki.
and one of the stray dogs came back.
the next morning we went on a cruise!
this is our cruise ship.
ha just kidding, this is the ship, called the "triton." it looks nice on the outside, but is was a little bit crappy on the inside.
the water in greece is sooo clear and blue, it makes huntington beach look like a dumpy sewer. oh wait, huntington beach already is a dumpy sewer.
the first place the ship stopped at was mykonos, one of the many beautiful islands.
i would love to live here.
they have windmills.
the next morning we were in turkey. the people there are really pushy and they follow you around and try to get you to buy stuff. this guy was like begging us to buy some goddamn carpets.
and you have to pay to use the restrooms.
we visited ephosos, an ancient roman city. this is an advertisement on the sidewalk for a whorehouse. the queen on the right means "i'm pretty as a queen" and the third toe on the left foot being the longest means "i'm on the third house on the left hand side." there used to be a coin in the hole by the heart in the upper left corner, which meant "no money, no honey" or something like that. those romans were tricky.
this is an ancient roman toilet.
later that afternoon we arrived at patmos, another island.
i love how all the doors look so weathered.
"aflak!"
haha
"i'm naked!"
the next day was spent at rhodes, which is basically a huge island surrounded by a castle.
that night was "elegant-attire night."
the next day we were in crete, which wasn't all that exciting.
but later we were in santorini, which was by far my favorite island.
the villages are high on a cliff, so you have to take ski lifts to the top of the mountain.
i love this island.
i wish this was my backyard patio.
you can see our cruise ship down below.
the next day we went to athens. EVERYTHING in athens was under construction because of the olympics. even our hotel was being renovated. you can barely see the best western sign there.
one of the olympic stadiums.
we visited the parthenon. it was at least 115 degrees while we were there. it was so miserable. i don't understand how olympic athletes are supposed to do well in athens because it's just too damn hot there.
i think there was a communism rally going on while we were there.
this ancient owl statue is named "sophia" because sophia = wisdom in greek, and owls = wisdom, and yeah..
there's all these artifacts in the metro subway stations there because when the underground tunnels were being dug out, a lot of ancient stuff was found.
this is one of the olympic mascots.
athens has their own royal guards, just like england.
i have no idea why there's a statue of the liberator of uruguay in the middle of athens.
this is all of the pics from greece. tomorrow i'll post part 2, which will cover england