Head South: epic trip of volcanoes (athens, santorini & crete, greece)

Here is the excerpt from the epic summer post:

The volcanoes bit has to do with us always traveling around volcanoes during this trip--we realized that volcanoes were the major commonality through Greece, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania.

Greece

We left Ann Arbor on June 26th to join Lindsey and Adam and Adam’s parents Diane and Grier for a beautiful 10 days in Greece. Jim and I landed in hot Athens, lugged our backpacks onto the metro, and walked through the streets in our hiking boots, positively sweating, to find our hostel room’s AC didn’t work! But we had great souvlaki (kebab) for dinner along with Alfa beers, and walked the pedestrian streets around the Acropolis (the center of ancient Athens) in a beautiful Friday night twilight filled with street musicians, kids playing soccer, couples walking arm-in-arm, and the lights on the Acropolis shining dramatically above us.

The next day, we took a ferry to Santorini and started in on some aggressive sun-bathing and beach-going. Santorini is a volcanic island that erupted around 1700 BC, eliminating most of its population as well as much of the population of Crete, an hour by ferry to the south, where an enormous tsunami engulfed most of the coastal towns—almost every town is coastal on Crete. Today, the volcano’s caldera is filled with Mediterranean sea, and the dramatic cliffs left from the eruption make for a stunning viewpoint. The Davis’ had a beautiful hotel and pool which we got to share for three days with views out over the caldera. We also explored local beaches, including one with a nude beach down the way, where we played volleyball with some professional soccer players from Italy. Lindsey and Jennifer especially enjoyed their volleyball attire and rippling abdominal muscles. Their girlfriends were pretty nice looking too. We also got to enjoy the tradition of drinking raki before and after every meal at a beautiful little mountainside restaurant called something like Myxonos, where we had the most amazing lamb in yoghurt sauce served with bulgar wheat.

They mix the raki with honey and cinnamon and heat it up for an after-dinner treat – absolutely delicious. Even Diane and Greer, who don’t drink, enjoyed it. From Santorini, we went on to Crete where we saw the ruins of an ancient Minoan palace (~2300-1400 BC) and then went on to a beautiful little town called Chania, which had been occupied by Venetians who left their mark with an old walled city that looked like Italy. The whole group especially enjoyed a day trip to the southern side of Crete – a stunning 2-hour drive through a mountain pass, then we arrived in a tiny quiet town with about 8 restaurants and not much else, situated on a secluded beach with cliffs all around. We hiked to some Roman ruins called Lissos, where we found almost no people and the clearest water ever. Jim was in heaven with his swim goggles after walking through ancient tombs and a church that dated to Byzantium—a period he studied in his only art history class. We found a water taxi there—Jim had to run to the water 1⁄2 an hour ahead of the crew to ask for a ride—to take us back to the town.

From Chania, Adam, Lindsey, Jim and I flew back to Athens to mentally prepare ourselves for our return to Africa We visited the Acropolis and the museum, and spent a night frolicking in the city before heading to the airport. After many drinks at dinner the waiter felt compelled to give us directions to our hotel, which only required one right turn.

This is the Davis Suite that Jennifer and I were indulged with. Behind this camera angle you would see the view below.

These are the cliffs of Santorini--facing the left-center of the cauldera.

This was the nudey beach that we discovered. Swimming naked in the day is a lot of fun--or at least that is what we heard. The crazy rock formations are caused by the uplift of the island, and erosion over time--the rock is a very soft pumice that was deposited after the latest eruption. Think Mt. St. Helens, but an even bigger explosion/eruption.

These are some tasty rock lobsters! And way too expensive to purchase.

This is the port of Hia with the town above on the hill. If you look closely you can see the lit pathway that donkeys and people travel every day to and from the port.

A sunset with Grecian wine and fresh olives.

Here is the whole sunset crew--minus Adam who is taking the picture.

This pretty much sums up what life on Santorini was like for us.

This is the first picture in the town of Hania on the island of Crete. This hill has been occupied for over 6,000 years continuously by many famous civilizations including the Minoans, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians, Ottomans, Germans, and most recently Greece. This particular building was destroyed by German bombs during WWII and has been left in this condition because the owners are still saving money to cover the cost of repairs. There were a few buildings like this in central Hania, but tourist dollars have helped to instigate many renewal projects so vacant buildings are less common.

This is an Ottoman symbol that was left on doors to bring good luck and protection. I believe the hand represents the daughter of Mohammed, but Jennifer may need to correct me on that one.

These are the ruins of Lissos--you can only see the 6th century church that is down by the bay (very small). This town was at its height during the Minoan and Roman periods, but fell into disuse after the Byzantines and was mainly utilized by pirates. This picture is taken from the donkey trail that we travelled--originally built by Romans and later used to smuggle goods to and from this little bay.

The whole crew! Minus Jim.

Interesting graffiti on the donkey trail.

Inside the 6th century Byzantine church. You can see the use of icons (pictures of saints) and parts of the very faint fresco that was originally painted on the walls. The image of Christ was likely chipped off by iconoclasts (also Byzantine) or later by the Ottomans who were iconoclasts due to being Muslim.

The absolutely beautiful water near the shore in Lissos. I think this is the clearest water I have swam in yet!

We caught a lucky ferry ride back to the town where we started instead of hoofing it back over the big hills in the right side of the following picture.