Our Vacation

And Re-Writing History! Okay our Vacation wasn't history changing, but what we saw will change the way history books are written. I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since we went on our very small trip of 2 nights away to the northern part of Greece.

The Heart is our Home and the Box is where we went.

  What I love about traveling is:

• Seeing Historical Sights
• Seeing Natural Sights
• And Eating!

We had plenty of food to eat, first stopping for lunch at the mall in Thessaloniki for our bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken (we eat this any time we are there).  Then we ate dinner in Asprovalta, calamari and tzatiziki (if you need a tzatziki recipe you can get it here).

 Enjoying Calamari

Yes, I get 2 Ice-Creams!

The shop owners offered the kids ice-cream and they of course said Yes, but it was a Mastika ( μαστίχα) flavored, which is pretty good in ice-cream form, not sure how to describe the taste, but this is something they only make in Greece, specifically Chios Island. The next night we enjoyed Gyros in Nea Peramos

I don't have many pictures of the beaches, since I am always in the water.

This is near Nea Peramos, the beach is called Sand Dunes (but in Greek)

The 2 places we stayed at are starred and the little teardrop is where the find of the century has been discovered.

The signage at Amfipoli

The top sign says Macedonian Tomb, we wanted to see it, but when we crossed the road, there was nothing there, the nicely paved road turned into a dirt road.  We thought the Greeks must have gotten the signage wrong, but what it is is something that they didn't announce till this week.  They have discovered a new tomb to rival that of Vergina.  Here is an article in Greek(pictures are nice) and here is a smaller article in English(my husband and I have been arguing all week about who is buried there). Amfipoli (amphipolis-Αμφίπολη)  is an Ancient City, if you have watched the Movie 300 with the Persian King Xerxes, this is where he was defeated.  And where Alexander the Great's wife and son were executed. (I believe they are the ones in the tomb)  My husband thinks that Alexander the Great is in it.  We can't wait to find out WHO is inside, I also believe that Alexander the Great's mother could possibly be inside.

Ancient Aqueduct.

Rolling Hills and the river meeting the Sea.

The most popular sight of Amfipoli right now is the Lion, it is right off of the old road from Asprovalta to Kavala.

The Lion Monument, was found in 1912 and rebuilt in the 30's.  I am using this as my color palette and the story behind it and the region Amfipoli to Design my Surface Pattern for my class that I took with Bonnie Christine at Creativelive.

I made this on Adobe Illustrator, aren't you proud.

It only took me an hour to figure out how to do the color swatch, lol, not very computer literate!

The class was great, you can take it too, I watched it live, from 7pm to 2am for 3 days to see it for free.  But you can pay just $79 to watch it anytime.  I was a little scared when on Friday we didn't have any electricity all afternoon and then boom at exactly 7:05 the electricity was back on, phew. Now I didn't know anything about Adobe Illustrator and it is a definite learning curve, but the I would have been really lost with out Bonnie's lessons.  The other cool thing is that you can use the Illustrator for FREE for 30 days.  Sign me up right, I have always wanted to make my own fabric line. (you will need to sign up for Adobe first and then the Creative Cloud and then you can download Illustrator for free) You can find more info on the Design Surface Challenge from Bonnie's web site, Going Home to Roost. Of course no trip is complete with out some fun!

For Your Eyes Only

Bond, James Bond that is.
Did you know that they filmed several scenes in the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only, here in Greece.  The awesome chase scene through olive groves was filmed on Corfu, and trust me when I say that this area has not changed at all, just take all of the people picking olives out of it and rent yourself an old Citroen and you will feel like your in the film. This next part I stole from Wikipedia because I like how they said it.


"For the Meteora shoots, a Greek bishop was paid to allow filming in the monasteries, but the uninformed Eastern Orthodox monks were mostly critical of production rolling in their installations. After a trial in the Greek Supreme Court, it was decided that the monks  only property were the interiors – the exteriors and surrounding landscapes were from the local government. In protest, the monks remained shut inside the monasteries during the shooting, and tried to sabotage production as much as possible, hanging their washing out of their windows and covering the principal monastery with plastic bunting and flags to spoil the shots, and placing oil drums to prevent the film crew from landing helicopters. The production team solved the problem with back lighting, matte paintings, and building both a similar scenographic monastery on a nearby unoccupied rock, and a monastery set in Pinewood.
Roger Moore said he had a great fear of heights, and to do the climbing in Greece, he resorted to moderate drinking to calm his nerves."    

The particular Monastery that they filmed at is called Agias Triados (Saint Trinity) and it happens to be the one that is just above our house and you can get there by walking a footpath that takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 45, depending on how athletic you are and then you have to climb the stairs to take you to the top of the rock and the monastery, another 15 minutes.

Saint Trinity, Meteora, Greece

A fantastic and wonderful view greats you at the top, you have the valley below and the Pindos mountain range across.

My all time favorite Man Made Monument

At the Acropolis you can find the amazing Erechtheum, you will recognize it when you see the photo, each time I go on top of the Acropolis I can't help myself from taking 30-40 pictures of just this one building.

On the south side you can find the "Porch of the Maidens", with six draped female figures (caryatids) as supporting columns, each one is sculpted a little different, to make each one unique.  

 The north and west side are about 10 feet lower than the south and east side, making the building look kind of lopsided, the fact that this was built 400 years before Christ is truly amazing, I am sure that modern society could not replicate.

The engineering of the caryatids was done in such a way that their slenderest part, the neck, is capable of supporting the weight of the porch roof while remaining graceful and feminine, this is with the help of their hair as you can see from the photo above. source

The New Acropolis Museum holds the 5 original carytids, the sixth one is still at the British Museum thanks to Lord Elgin who removed it in 1801, with permission from the Ottoman Empire.  He first had it in his home but later sold it to the British Museum to help with his debt issue.
I still stand in awe even as I look at these pictures at the beauty and symmetry of Greek Architecture.

The Acropolis, Athens

When you come to Greece you must stop in Athens to see the Acropolis.  This can just take 1 day but I suggest at least 2 days a visit in the morning hours and a visit in the evening, I wouldn't suggest going in the middle of the day it's to hot, besides the best photos are taken in the AM and PM.  The ticket price is about 12 euros but this will also get you into some of the other ancient sites including the Ancient Agora (just below the Acropolis), the Roman Agora, Theatre of Dionysos, Kerameikos, Tower of the Winds and the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the ticket is good for at least 48 hours and you can also get a 48 hour subway ticket.

Why go to the Acropolis?  The view is probably the best you will get of Athens because that is what the Acropolis is - an ancient citadel located on a high rocky outcrop above the city, affording it some of the best views of modern Athens.  Then there are all of the ancient buildings on top - Parthenon, Erechtheum, Temple of Athena Nike, there are over 20 buildings on top, plus the Theatre of Dionysos is just below.