Last Night on Vacation

Hello all,

It is Tuesday afternoon and Amy and I have just finished touring the Acropolis and Ancient Agora. We thought we would sneak in a few last pics as this will be the last post before we are back in Calgary.
We have to say, it has been a whirlwind blast of a time! We have so much to share with everyone when we get home. We are sitting in an internet cafe right now sweaty, tired and hungry. We both agree that we are ready to come home (Amy especially misses our Ollie). However we are also sad that the trip is ending. We have had the time of our lives and we cannot wait to do it again sometime. Thanks everyone for following along and sharing your thoughts. It has been a nice way to keep in touch with everyone from home while we were away.
Can't wait to see you all.
Talk to you soon.

Lance and Amy.
One of the temples dedicated to the Greek Gods at the Acropolis.
A shot of Amy infront of one of those same temples. Amy - Goddess of Ollie Love and Albino's.
This is one of the existing statues which stood outside the Palace of Giants in Ancient Agora.
A shot of the Acropolis on the hill from Ancient Agora.

The Goddess of Albino's at the Theatre of Dionysos.
The God of Red Haired Freckled Children and the Goddess of Albino's pose for a picture outside their summer home.
The God of Red Haired Freckled Children flexing his almighty muscles infront of the Acropolis.
Stand in awe of our God. Please note: power corrupts.
Ta-Dah!

Lance is driving me nuts

He insists that he can type faster than me and that he should therefore enter the blog stuff. I think I am faster so I am typing it. I will show him, so help me God.

So, anyways....where were we????? We finsished our cruise of the Greek islands. We saw Mykonos, Patmos, Kusadasi, Rhodes, Crete and Santorini. We had a great time but after the five days we were ready to be on our own again (being with a tour group is nice as everything is handed to you on a silver platter but we got a bit tired of being herded around).

So, after we docked from the cruise we took a bus out to Astros to visit Harry, Toula and Ya-Ya (John G. how the heck do you spell Ya Ya???). For all you who dont know, they are John Gavros' Dad, Mom and Grandma. We stayed with them for 4 nights and had a great time. Toula and Ya-Ya made delicious Greek meals and Harry chauffered us around to various beaches so that we could go for swims. We were able to see Harry and Toula's home towns where they grew up. In the area, there are several towns separated by only a few kilometers. It's beautiful there, the towns are nestled into the Greek mountains right infront of the Agean Sea. They were the best tour guides we could have had and they exemplified Greek hospitality.

This morning we took the bus ride from hell into Athens from Astros. I thought I was going to pee my pants. At one of the stops I jumped out of the bus and ran into the restroom. The bus driver was going to drive the bus and Lance kept saying "Uno momento" (somehow the Greek bus driver was Italian to Lance, but that is okay)...anyhow, I have never peed so fast in my life and Lance was frantic to get me on the bus before the bus driver drove off. I got on the bus and some guys were laughing at me. I wasnt quite sure why until the bus driver drove the bus about 100 feet to a restaurant where everyone took a cigarette and coffee break. Crap. How were we to know???? Totally embarrasing and also totally fitting for us I think.

Today we are going to the Acropolis to explore and take some pics. We are hoping to post them tonight before we head back to the hotel. Our flight tomorrow is pretty early, 8am (11pm Calgary time) and we have 20 hours of travelling. Yikes. Wish us luck. Dustin we are back in Calgary Wednesday at 3 ish....I think. We forgot the intinerary at the hotel, but you have it so you should know. If you can pick us up that would be awesome. I'll buy you a case of beer. (This is Lance talking.)

We will be seeing you all very soon!
Love Lance and Amy

Amy partying hard on the cruise ship. She's the one with the Birthday hat on.......it was not her Birthday. We docked in Rhodes the next day and let's just say Amy wasn't her chipper little self that morning.
This is a shot of part of the Island of Santorini. At first glance it looks like snow capped mountains. But if you click on the pic and look closer they are actually houses on top of the island. Amazing stuff.
Amy took a great shot of the view from the top of Santorini.
Us in Santorini.
The "Red Limousine!" This is Harry and Toulas' Datsun pickup that we used to tour around Astros and Koutrafa. Imagine now, 4 of us packed into this little thing. Harry driving, Toula next to him, myself next to Toula and Amy on my lap bouncing down the road to have a night out on the town. LOL. Lots of fun.

This is the remains of what we believe to be an old windmill on one of the beaches near Astros. Yes we did get sun burned. I was an idiot and did not re-apply sun screen to my back and was the butt of many jokes thereafter.

Amy and I at that same beach...burning like rotisserie chickens.

Here we are all helping out trimming the grape vines at the house. You can see Ya-Ya is pointing the stick to show Harry which vines to cut and Toula, Amy and I did the cleaning.

This is a shot at the harbour of Paralieo Astros. It seems a little dark here but it may be better if you click on it.

Our last night in Astros, we took the Red Limousine in to have a night out full of wine, food and laughter. From left to right: Takis (Harry's cousin), Harry and Toula.

Cruising through the Aegean

Hi Guys,

We are in the middle of our cruise, actually in Rhodes today, and thought we should do a post for you all.

Our cruise is going great. The first night we stayed in Athens in a hotel before we boarded the ship. The hotel even had a bath tub. We were so excited we both took long, hot, much needed baths. We have only had showers (mostly cold) since we have been travelling.

Our first day on the ship we went to Mykonos. It was very beautiful. All of the houses were white washed and most had blue shutters. White washing is done 3 times a year and if you dont want blue shutters on your house you have to pay a sort of fine. Most houses thus keep the blue shutters. They were white washed in an effort to confuse pirates when they were coming to shore and trying to loot the town. The town is also laid out in a manner that is meant to be confusing, a maze of sorts. Of additional interest to some of those reading, like John B., Mykonos is the gay capital of Greece....LOL. Just kidding John. But it is the gay capital. Lots of good looking well groomed men.

The next day we went to Patmos in the morning. We took a hike and saw the grotto where Saint John wrote the Book of Revelations. We then hiked higher to a monastary that overlooks the island. It was built in 1088AD. It was different than anything we had seen, very neat.

In the afternoon we went to Kusadasi, Turkey. It was a beautiful city and we thought it was great even though it was raining. We took a bus up to the ancient ruins of Ephesus which is the best preserved ancient city in Turkey. We kinda raced through it because of the rain but it was still amazing. Much of the city has been discovered but it is estimated it will still be another 100 years until excavation is complete.

Today we are in Rhodes and still need to look around some more. It is really unique as compared to our other stops in that the old city is so well preserved.

Tomorrow we go to Crete and Santorini and arrive in Athens on Friday, so we should be able to write some more then. Until then, here are some pics.

Miss you all,
Lance and Amy
PS. Lance says "GO SENS"
PPS. Amy says, "Yawn".
This was a washroom at Ephesus. It is a little hard to read but it says "Only 50 cents is enough to feel the magic atmosphere". I felt it.
Awesome.
Grand Masters Palace in Rhodes.

View from the monastary in Patmos. We hiked up in the morning and Amy sweat out half of her body weight.
Styling in Ephesus.
Contemplating in Ephesus. Lance's deep thought of the day: Hot dogs are the best.
Ephesus...in the back you can see the old entrance to the library which was the 3rd largest in the ancient world.
This was the original marble flooring which covered the main street in Ephesus. Adorning the street is a precious and beautiful Canadian, with a hunch back.

Contemplating in Athens. Lance's deep thought of the day: Hamburgers are the best.
Mykonos
Amy sporting the Canadian colours of white and red.
Lance didnt know I was taking this pic and it is one of my favourites. He is contemplating. Lance's deep thought of the day: Beer is by far the best.

Our ship that will not sink; the Orient Queen.

Rome

Hello everyone,

We are in an internet cafe in Athens and thought it would be a great time to do an entry on our time in Rome.

We spent four nights in Rome and three days. We stayed in a little apartment which had a terrace between the bedroom and the kitchen/washroom area. It had an amazing view of the San Giovanni Basilica, (known to be one of the oldest churches in Rome). It was a great place to stay except for 2 minor details. Detail 1: the shower smelt like sewer when it got hot out. Detail 2: I had to run across the terrace in my underwear in the middle of the night to take a pee. Other than that, the apartment was wonderful. Everynight I cooked dinner and Lance would read a book in the sun and we would drink some wine and relax. It was very nice....especially in contrast to the rest of Rome which we found to be very busy, hectic and, hate to say it but, dirty. There was graffiti everywhere, even on some of the old ruins. Kinda sad really.

When we were in Rome we checked out all the major sites: the Colosseum, the Forum, Capitol Hill, Palatine Hill, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps.....yeah, we did lots. Oh, and we shopped and I bought a super cute hand bag. Oh, and a headband. LOL. Bad Amy!

Oh, some more "dirt" on Rome.....I got shit on by a bird, Lance almost got into a fight with some Roman punks who mocked us, the lady who cleaned the toilets at the Vatican treated me like I was mentally retarded, Lance hit his head in the apartment because the roof was too low about 5 times, and remember the shower smelt like turd. All that aside, we enjoyed seeing the sites. But we are still grateful to now be in Athens :)

We head out on our cruise tomorrow which is very exciting. We have 4 nights on the cruise ship before we dock back in Athens. We are then going to try and make our way out to Astros to see the Gavros'. We cant wait!!!! And as a bonus, tonight we get to go out for some Greek food with Greek entertainment (dancing and singing). Lance has told me he feels like drinking, so it might be his turn to sleep beside the toilet.

Alright, that is it for now. Not sure the next time we will post, but whenever we get a chance we will. Take care and talk to you guys soon.

Love Amy and Lance

PS) Eunice and Dorothy....you guys are the best mommy's in the whole world. Happy Belated Mother's Day. We are sorry we forgot to call you guys. We were thinking of you and hope you guys are doing well. Love you.


Here is a shot of the apartment terrace and Lance enjoying one of Amy's wonderful meals. (I cooked every night.) And Lance says to make sure I tell everyone he appreciated it.

Here is an artsy fartsy pic Lance took of the Colosseum. He did a pretty good job I think, but maybe I am biased. The Colosseum was only a 15 minute walk from our apartment. The day we visited it we made sure we got there early to avoid the line up we had seen the day before that must have been over an hour or so just to get in.



A picture of inside the Colosseum. This shows the floor that had been reconstructed to give an idea of what the original floor looked like. You can see below there are ruins of the pathways and holding areas under the arena. This is where they stored equipment, animals and those who were to fight in matches against the animals or gladiators. Gladiators would fight in the arena against whatever popped up infront of them (there was an elevator which brought up various animals and the Gladiators wouldn't know what/when/ or from where it would be coming). It is 2000 years old and could hold 50 000 spectators.The Vatican City. No, we didn't see the Pope Mobile.

Inside St.Peter's Basilica at around 7:30 in the morning. We went early to avoid the crowds, and it was worth it. However, the plan did not work for the Vatican Museum....we arrived at 8:15am and waited in line for 1.5 hours before giving up. We had only moved about 50 yards in that hour and a half and the entrance was still two blocks away.
Another shot inside of St.Peters. Good to know that all the money that church-goers donate goes to good use....sorry, too cynical. It was really beautiful inside, but Lance and I couldnt help to be a little wary of at what cost such a building and such an institution is built. But that is for another day I suppose.Michelangelo's Pieta. I really did like this piece. It is of Mary holding Jesus' dead body. Michelangelo was only 24 when he made it. When I was 24 I made some stellar doodlings in my school scribblers.

Cinque Terre

Hey everyone,

Thanks so much for the well wishes. We wish we could respond to everyone individually but that would cost way too many Euro's :) Internet cafe's make a killing here!

Here are some of our favourite pics from the Cinque Terre. We have tried to capture how beautiful it is, but I dont think the pictures do it justice.

Last night we went to a tiny restaurant that was down a little alley way. It was run by an old Italian man who later on in the night broke out the guitar and started playing and singing. Soon enough the guitar was being passed around the tiny restaurant and everyone was singing. There was another set of Canadians from PEI, an old couple from Louisiana (the old white haired lady was not too impressed but her husband was having the time of his life, smiling ear to ear), a couple of Austrians, and a large group of Swedes (which included a guy who had visited Calgary and knew of the "Red Mile". Small world! We danced and sang and laughed a tonne. It might have helped that Lance and I drank 2 litres of wine and then some beer. Whoops. I ended the night passed out by the hotel room toilet. To keep me company Lance read me stories from our travel guide book. Awwww so sweet. It was funny because I passed out and woke up a few minutes later (it felt like hours later) and he was reading stuff about William Wallace to me. I passed out again shortly thereafter. SO ROMANTIC for the night of one's engagement, eh? Okay, so that is my story of passion and young love....almost puking in the toilet and then sleeping there all night. Ahhhhhhh.

Today we hiked in between the villages and it was beautiful. However, I vow never to hike hungover again. Not fun. Anyway, enjoy the pictures. Our next stop tomorrow is Rome. We cant wait to see the sites but are not looking forward to the crowds.

This is a shot along the rocky coast between the villages of Corniglia and Manarola. The tide was high and the waves were large enough to produce rip curls. Beautiful!

This is the village of Riomaggiore. All of the buildings in each of the villages tower in between the nooks of the hills along the coast.
This was a shot of a display of beer and wine bottles outside of a little shop in Corniglia. If you click on the pick and look closely the bottles all have pictures of political figureheads and revolutionists from around the world. It looked as though some may have been political propaganda or something of the sorts at one time or another.
This is the picturesque village of Vernazza, where we are staying. This is the harbour and our room is just up the street tucked away in the buildings on the left. At the harbour of this town is where the action is. Locals and tourists fill the harbour and it's main street to eat, drink,swim, mingle and take in the beauty of the area.
Ahhhh. Drunk Amy showing her affection and taking in the atmosphere, food and music in one of Vernazza's eclectic restaurants.
All of the hills surrounding the villages here look similar to this. The mountains are covered in lush vegatation and offer places to grow grapes for some of the finest wine around. One of the villages "Corniglia" is most famous for it's wine and it is rumoured that a vase of it has been found in the remains at Pompeii. Amy and I have tested the wine here. We were told the white wine is the best and we agree that the wine here is like no other we have ever tasted, it is magnificent!

Another shot of the harbour in Vernazza.
And another.
This is the beach in Monterosso. It was big and Amy and I cooked under the sun and took a dip in the ocean to cool off. Unfortunately we could not hold out in the sun quite as long as the locals and we left in the middle of the afternoon for fear we may die of heat exhaustion. Here we are dying in the heat and the locals are so relaxed in it, they spark up a cigarette. Crazy.
Amy on her birthday at one of the restaurants in the harbour.
Some dude oggoling Amy.