Greece Is the Word

After a day at sea, we made our way from Sicily to Piraeus, Greece.  We headed off the ship with our tour group to begin our journey toward one of the main highlights of the trip:  THE PARTHENON!

It was such an awe-inspiring moment standing before those ruins, thinking about all of the history that has occurred while they stood, slowly crumbling, but still standing after thousands of years.  What saddened me most is that a huge part of the Greek culture is held captive in the British Museum.  On the one hand, the Brits got hold of the ruins fair and square when Lord Elgin struck up a deal with the Turks who were controlling Greece at the time of the sale.  However, when the Greeks were told that they would get the marbles back if they had an appropriate museum structure to house them, then poured millions of dollars into a modern state-of-the-art museum, and have yet to receive the marbles... well, it's hard not to cry foul.  Still, the Acropolis is beautiful in its own right, my favorite aspect being the elegant Caryatids, modeled after the most beautiful women in Athens at the time that the Parthenon was built.

After spending the morning at the Acropolis, Colby and I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Piraeus.  We visited a couple of stunning Greek Orthodox churches and were blown away by the elaborate icons, chandeliers, and opulent domes and stained glass.  Right up until we got the evil eye from a woman who began yelling at us in Greek to stop taking photos.  We think is what she was saying.  Hard to tell seeing as we don't speak Greek.  Either way... maybe we brought what happened to us later in the trip on ourselves...

We spent that night sailing from Piraeus to the largest island of the Dodecanese, Rhodes.  We took a bus from the port of Rhodes to Lindos, a tiny white-washed village at the far end of the island.  We visited their Acropolis, which was initially built as a Greek temple thousands of years ago and was re-appropriated by the Knights of St. John who came through Rhodes following the Crusades to set up hospitals.

We wrapped up our time in Greece with a rainy afternoon in the port city of Rhodes.  The town was completely overhauled by the same Knights who turned the Acropolis of Lindos into a fortress, and so this little Greek town felt like a medieval English city.  Greece has been in the hands of ancient Greeks, the Turks, and the English, so there was a striking fusion of Greek artistry such as the remarkable white and black pebble mosaics, the imposing limestone city gates left by the English, and the towering minaret of the mosque.Back on the ship, we dressed for a formal evening and as we sailed into the ocean, the waves became much higher and more turbulent.  Before we dressed, I perched in our porthole to watch the waves, and was struck by this container ship out in the distance that was pitching fore and aft into the waves.  It may look like a trick of perspective, but that truly is the front of the ship crashing under the waves.  Things were starting to get a little scary, but we soldiered on into the Mediterranean, seasickness patches firmly in place and towel animals anchored securely in case of emergency.

Comments

[Same Sweet Girl]

Awww you took such great pictures girl!! Thanks for sharing them!!!!! I love your last picture! When we went on our honeymoon cruise we took a picture of every single little towel animal they made us! Hahaha

[Katie]

Eek, I'm nervous about the next post! My sister was on the same cruise a week or 2 earlier and missed Greece due to the seas...though it never got as bad as it did for you. Glad you got to see Greece! Its always been on the top of my list.

[Not Angela]

I think I need to start copyrighting the photos to get credit!

[Kendra]

Gorgeous photos!

[Chels]

Oh my gosh. How COOL. I'm still super jealous! Minus the whole, turbulent waves thing. That would have given me a bloody heart attack. Love the pictures - you look gorgeous!

[Thoughts Appear]

Awesome title! Awesome pics!

The sea looks rough! So your seasickness patches worked? I'm going on a cruise in a couple months and I get motion sickness so I'm going to need something.

[Heidi Renée]

Towel animals! Yes!

[Molly]

First, love the yellow belt AND your fabulous sequined dress!

Second, when we took our honeymoon cruise I didn't know towel animals were left in everyone's rooms. I thought they were special treats just WE got. (Umm, why yes, I do believe the world revolves around me. Thanks for asking.)