Family Trip

My most sincere apologies to those of you who have been eagerly waiting my return from travelling and playing tour guide for my family and girlfriend. I will attempt to briefly summarize the highlights for you here with some photos.

For three years I’ve repeated time and time again what an incredible experience I had on my study abroad trip through the University of Minnesota in May/June 2008. The Rachel- and Nikos-led excursion to Greece has left an indelible mark on who and where I am today… Greece was a place that I attempted to convince my parents time and time again that we must visit as a family. Finally, with me as their tour guide, they were able to see the sites that I’ve been attempting to explain from afar for years now in Greece and Cyprus.

GREECE

ATHENS

The few nights we stayed in Athens allowed us to experience the street culture and architectural history of the bustling Greek capital. The layers of culture and history surrounded us as we walked down graffiti covered shopping streets, past sunken churches in public squares, toward the acropolis.

The Caryatids of the Erechtheum on the Acropolis

View of the Acropolis from neighboring Philopappou hill

Side street off of main commercial street (Ermou)

Changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier below the Parliament Building across the street from Syntagma Square

SARONIC ISLANDS

One of the days we took a day tour of three islands in the Saronic Gulf: Hydra, Poros, and Aegina. The hour or so that we were able to spend in each port gave us a great sense of these quintessential white washed island harbor towns. Hydra, the first stop on our tour, is famous for not allowing automobiles on the island. Distances can only be traveled on donkey.

PELOPONNESE

Our next stop was the Peloponnese. We stayed in the original capital of the modern Greek state, Nafplio, which surprised us with a wonderful variety of activities for us as tourists. Some of the notable highlights are the large historic town center along the harbor, scenic views over the tile roofs from our hotel, hiking on the neighboring small peninsula, beach, an island mansion, and a massive castle for me to explore (which as you can see from the photos was my favorite part).  In addition to Nafplio, we took a number of side trips to see the cyclopean (massive masonry) construction of the ancient walls of Mycenae and Tiryns as well as the ancient theater at Epidavros.

Harbor and part of the castle in Nafplio

Red tile roofs of the town center

Executioner's House located in the center of the harbor. This building used to be used by the Venetians for defense of the harbor as they would extend chains across from the mansion to mainland on both sides to block entry.

The Palamidi. This fortification designed by the Venetians was by far my favorite part of the city. My mom and I hiked the hundreds of steps seen here up to the entrance of the fort.

What I found most fascinating about the fort is the multiple layers of defense that it has... Forts within forts

The keep for knights

Theater at Epidavros. The acoustics in this ancient theater is are so incredible that you can here a coin drop on the centerpoint of the stage from the highest edges.

The Lion's Gate at Mycenae. The size of these stones are incredible and to think that they could only have been quarried from miles away makes the site even more impressive when considering how it was constructed 3500 years ago. It's also worth mentioning that on the other side of the stone there is a sculpture of two lions (hence Lion's Gate) which is said to be the first piece of relief sculpture in western civilization.

CYPRUS

Finally, to end the trip, I was able to show my family the country that I’ve been trying to explain to them for the past two years! After spending an entire evening exploring Nicosia we headed north to see Famagusta, Varosha, and Kantara castle. The final day we drove through the Troodos Mountains to Limassol and Paphos with a stop at Asinou church and Aphrodite’s rock (Petra tou Romiou) along the way and ended the trip with the best meze (buffet-style meal at your table) on the island at Seven St. Georges before driving to the airport.

Asinou church in the Troodos Mountains. The interior of the church has some of the best preserved frescoes (wall paintings) on the island and the exterior is the result of numerous building phases dating back to the 11th century .

One of the last things we decided to do is a small design project at the Rock of Aphrodite (where she supposedly rose from the sea in the wake of her father Uranus' testicles). Having noticed that the three major colors of rocks on the beach were red, white, and blue we decided to make an American flag. I call the piece "Aphrodite Bless America".

To sum it all up, having my family see exactly what I've been exploring here for the last six months (I've been talking about it for much longer) was incredible and I'm so glad that they made the trip over. I ran them ragged with all the walking we did, but this is a trip none of us will ever forget.


If you want to see more images check out my Flickr page or see this Facebook album