So Long Europe

Blue sky, ruins, and bunches of fun.  With puppies and a marathaon mixed in.  Both of us are ready to come home, but neither of us are excited to leave Europe.  So tomorrow, at 11AM Greek time, 1AM Seattle time, we will for the next 20 hours, march our wagons west back home.  In the meantime, we wanted to put our last post up, of Athens, and what we did during our last week.



Ready to take Athens by storm, in our respective outfits

Gettin ready for the Acropolis with a Greek Frappe, quite an interesting beverage they got goin on

Taking in a play

Where's Nathan amongst all those Parthenon columns??

Upon taming the Acropolis, and other famous ancient sites, not much else was left for our us to see in Athens, so we decided to go to Detroit.

Only we weren't born in Canada or made in Italy

Joking, we didn't actually shop in Detroit, it was closed that day, so we stayed in Athens. Maybe next time.  Instead, we got a traditional Greek dessert, or so the uber tourist, written in all english sign said.  You be the judge.

Just as excited as Socrates and Plato to eat her flaming waffle with three scoops of ice cream, whip cream, and hot fudge 

After our attempts at Detroit and flaming waffles, the island of Hydra, not the one from LOST but the one just south of Athens via hydrofoil, heeded to our beckon call.  Two hours after riding the Flying Cat V we were dropped off onto an island of only donkeys for transportation.

Hydra's beasts of burden

 

Did we mention there were also boats, people, and lots of other interesting things in Hyrda besides donkeys??  Like Jessie



 Told we can't pet street dogs, so we've been craving interaction with a dog.  He craved an interaction too.

Getting away from all the doggies and donkeys in the harbor led us to higher, greener pastures, in the hills of Hydra.  Made for a beautiful hike.

Break time

Hydra from atop

And now for our last day.  We didn't realize it, but our last day was the Athens Marathon, and its 2,500th year anniversay. This was particularly nifty since the marathon originated in Greece and the participants ran the same original route, starting in the town of Marathon and ending in the Panathinaiko Stadium.  We get the word stadium from this place.  Sitting in the stands of this historic stadium and watching the participants made us feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Bravo!! 

That's all we've got.  We want to thank all of you who followed us.  We worked very hard to make this blog interesting and enjoyable for all.  Hopefully it delivered.  As for our most and least favorite parts, we will need time to process that (maybe on our eleven hour plane ride to Newark, or our following six hour plane ride to Seattle).  No more posts will be made on here after this Athens post.  In person, phone, or e-mail is where you can hear more about our eurotrip.  As a sendoff, a couple sunset pics for good metaphorical measure.

Goodbye Europe, you've been swell

Too pretty not to post

Europe has been great, but both of us are ready to come home tomorrow.  See you soon.  Take care. 

Cheers,
Jessie and Nathan

Chania

Our trek throughout Europe has been fun, but also tiring. For the first of our last two weeks in Europe we decided to sail south on the Aegean Sea, to the town of Chania, on the island of Crete - to relax and take a vacation from our vacation.

Steaming on to Chania

Old Town Chania's Harbor

Looking north towards the Aegean

Again, the harbor of Chania.  Look at that water clarity

No sights were put onto our list of to do's.  Only sleeping, shopping, swimming, and dining out; with the occasional book read or movie watched made it onto our list.  After having been in Chania, at the same lovely place for seven straight nights, we accomplished our mission.

Sun bathing was had.

Settin up shop.  Look how empty the beach is.  Apparently 80 degrees is too cold for Greeks to hit the water.

Whale sighting to the north, 10 meters off shore

Look at all those empty umbrellas, no one to share the beach with us

Lots of traditional Greek food was eaten.  One night we even went out with some locals, and their Canadian friends, who we met at the beach (the Canadians were actually the only other people at the beach besides us, apparently 80 degrees is not too warm for our neighbors to the north).

A meal from atop our balcony

The days catch

Dinner for two without a roof, a common happening in Chania,

as well as Greek coffee overlooking the harbor

Also, sweet goods were bought. 

Like these smokin hot shades

Plus, we saw so many cute street doggies that we just couldn't resist to share our favorites with you.

Snuggling outside our hotel

Our absolute favorite of all the doggies we saw.  Her ears were like that at all times

Our batteries are now recharged for our last week in Europe, to be spent in Athens and its nearby areas, where we plan to go out in style.
Cheers,

 Jessie and Nathan

Roma, Bella Chaos

Our long and winding road finally led us to Rome, as all roads do they say.  What a place it was, from the massive Colosseum to the delicious gelato, Romans standing while they did everything, and vespas coming at us from every corner. Rome was beautiful, chaotic, delicious, historic and oh so entertaining - all wrapped into one fun package.  At times it wooed us, and at other times it almost killed us (or at least we thought so, to Romans it was just crossing the street as usual), but in between those moments, we obviously saw lots of sights, and ate lots of great food.

Roman autumn on the Tiber River (Can you name that massive church in the background?)

Rush hour, which lasts all day long

On the subject of the amazing historical sights, I (Jessie), have been fascinated by the Colosseum for years.  From my multiple history reports on it, to the framed poster on my wall, or the screensaver on my computer, this is my place of all places and I've wanted to see it more than any other place in the whole world. Needless to say, upon getting our first view of it coming out of the metro stop I cried tears of joy, and what did Nathan do?  He said "God, I knew you were gonna cry. We should have made a bet."  Upon composing myself, we moved off to the side where I sat looking at this beautiful ruin for quite a while.  It was a great first sight of Rome.  After this it was all just icing on the cake, and that icing on the cake sure was good.  The forum, Palatine Hill, the original Capitol Hill, the Trevi Fountain, and all the other famous Roman stuff dazzled us like they do on their postcards. 



Colosseum Version 2.0, Italian Style



Gladiator Jessieaus Maximus charging into battle



The mandatory panoramic Colosseum pic

Cute Colosseum kitty

Chillin atop Capitol Hill

So many ruins, so hard to determine what they used to be

The huts of Romulus and Remus??

What a compassionate She-wolf she was, suckling Romulus and Remus to life, thus founding Rome

Got a problem? Take it to the Senate

After all the ruins started to look the same, we sought out other avenues of entertainment like walking, eating, or sitting and people watching.  Pretty grueling stuff we put ourselves through.  Our itinerary provided us with lots of good memories though.  Eating while standing a lot, drinking while standing a little, trying to order a coffee amidst a mob of people, seeing some Egyptian stuff, and seeing the largest line for a sight ever (the Vatican, those Catholics sure do love their Pope), just to name a few.  Something we ended up doing a lot that actually was grueling was looking for public bathrooms.  Seriously, do Romans ever go to the bathroom?  Based on the lack of available bathrooms it sure seems like that answer is a no.  What is their secret, or maybe where is their secret?

In Rome, Italy, your special is Italian Food? Shocking

Only like 1/2 of the Vatican entry line



The Vatican's Finest

After being in Rome and all its Catholicness for a couple days these chic looking nun outfits sure looked tempting

"Is that an Egyptian pyramid in Rome or am I just crazy?"

"Don't know about the pyramid but that sure is an Egyptian obelisk!!!"

Just guranteed her return to Rome

Relaxin on the ruins



After touring the Colosseum, Forum, and Palatine hill, we needed to see it live and in 3D.  Sadly, this place stunk for fulfilling that purpose.



Eating a sandwich Roman style



Public display of affection, a common sight



Waiting to buy cigarettes, another common sight

 Standing in the street to drink and talk, seemed to be another common sight, based on all these people behind us

There you have it, our glorious five days in Rome.  Good times and great old ruins.  Now we have moved on to Chania, Greece.  To take a vacation from our vacation.  All that traveling we did in the past month and a half required some more down time.  What not a better place to do that than on a Greek Island.  More to come later about that. 

Until next time, keep on traveling,

Jessie and Nathan