The Temple of Posideon

After some serious shopping today I went along the coast to the temple of Posideon. There walking around the grounds was dinner, well no but it was a nice thought. The locals call these Kessa in Greek, some Americans thought it was partridge or Grouse. The coast road on the way out was lovely about a 2 hours by local bus.

The temple was built in 600 BC and was well fortified , but was captured by others 4 times before christ and was finally destroyed to it s present form in AD 60 ish.

Ferry Trip back to Athens

What a wonderful day, th sun was shining the birds were singing , well not really but it was great. the ferry trip was great. and too many photos to show you all. i met some neat people from Invercargill ( NZ) hung out with then most of the way back.

this is the pink "Villa Agas" that i was stayng at for 15 euro a night a 10 minute walk from Thira.
this is my picture postcard , just walking along the road. all the buildings are white plaster. and mostly even clean I got to talk to one gent who was a builder , and building a house takes 3 months , ( island time here). yesterday when it was windy they got to go home early cant work in the wind. they do have problems with space small concrete mixers only , there is just no room.

Museums

One of the things I learnt the other day is that some of the haze that they get here, is actually created by a wind from the south. ... South of here is Libera, and a really large desert with yellow sand. So when the wind blows all the sand dust comes along clogging the atmosphere and then it rains and the yellow sand is on the ground for you to sweep up- or not as you wish. there was lots of it in the square in Crete.
Yesterday I caught a couple of museums, the acient history of Santorini about the caldara and the eruption of 1700 BC. there was a fairly large town here before then which has been partly excavated. they haven't found the Cemetary yet. ( which is where most ofthe infomation comes from.) This town is reknown for its wall decorations that have been found and the pottery that people left. There was no jewelery found, it looks like the people had a chance to leave during /after this eruption. One of the more interesting things was, the weights that were found. the murchants used the metric system. They found 1 , 2 and 5 grammes as well a 1 , 5 and 15 kgs . And you thought the metric system was something new. Well blame the Greeks.
No photos, sorry some museums are fussy on that.

Then I wandered arround and a indulged in some more retail therapy.

This afternoon i catch the Ferry back to Athens. 8 hours i believe.

sanorini sunsets

Santorini sunsets are supposed to be better in the winter for the haze catches the light better. this is the volcano center island. with a hot springs that is cloes for he winter. sunset was about 5 30. i guess sit is ok for a sunset.

perhaps these people need to come to Fairbanks a see a sunset.

Santorini

Santorini is a caldera, the eruption that last created this was 1500 BC. about the time the mineon civelisation as destroyed. in fact Knossos was destroyed by the tidel wave that was created. you can taltal see where the lava floes cooled and solidified.

I caught the bus yesteray out to Io the end of the road. to see the georgraphy. it's a amazingly pretty. in town 90 % of stuff is closed. all the tourist stuff anyway. but that is ok for me . less stuff to look at. Yes this includes all teh night clubs the place is so famous for. They are open on Saturdays only

Santorini

Santorini, well i made here yestrday,
it was an interesting trip. The Ferry was supposed to leave at 8 am but didn't show till 9am loaded and left at 11 am . After 2 days of no ferry this is just ok with me, At least I get to leave. cloudy weather- about 4 pm we pull onto a realy little island with no break water , so the surf is pounding into the concrete warf, the ferry backs in and manuveres on the lines where it is tyed up. got unloaded ok and about 1/2 the stuff loaded, but the surf was just so much that they droped the lines and backed off. Then we circled the island and tryed again, no luck. Continued on to Santorini another 2 hours. Backed in again with just the lines tied for manuvering. again no break water to stop the surf pounding. and no anchor. we were unloaded in 8 minutes flat. Before i was accross the car park the ferry was untied and heading out again. just too windy to stay tied up. the ferry could due with a refit. and maybe a new anchor.

The hotel i am staying at is lovcly pink. and has TV chanels in English - BBC world. I am so happy. I hear there was a big storm on the coast of Spain and sourthern france , that we have the edge of i am thinking.

on the Ferry I spent an interesting 2 hours talking to a greek gent who is living in Sweeden, so we had great conversation about cold weather living and other stuff. ( he didnt hit on me )
today itis windy. sunny warm blue skies and just horriblaly windy. 1/2 the stuff arround here is closed for the season.

Crepes.

once again i am still in Heraclion, the weather is clear and sunny bu tthe ferrys didnt arrive so here i sit in the sun.. :unch was crepes today and a photo of the fountain that i was looking at.

i have some local infomation about the haze on the horizan.

this apartly is caused by a wind from the south ie coming from liberia and hte edge of the Serri Desert, so all the yellow dust thti see yesterday is sand for the desert which falls with all the rain. (we had siome more over night but it was clear by morning.)

my knee is a bit sore . it is fairly sanderd when i walk as much as i do arround places that i will pull a musle somewhere but this has been a week now, this means i need to sit int eh sun a bit more.

News from greece is dominated by the Farmers going on stike. that is the orange , olive and grape growers. the govt promised them a bail out which has not yet materialized. there are tractors runing arround all over the place.

Retail Therapy

Yesterday I had this wonderful idea of catching the ferry to Santorini. which was supposed to leave this am at 8 am. ferry s are not very keen on traveling with force 9 winds. i told you it was windy the other day. somewhere out there in the Aegean sea there was force 9 winds. Don't ask me how fast force 9 winds are, cause i don't know. it was windy enough last night. so i want down the port and sat around while i figured this all out. the ferry is now due to leave tomorrow at 6 am. ( Like i want to got out of bed on vacation that early) the Lady at the port said i had to go to ticket agent down town and get my tickets changed to tomorrow. well it s been raining all morning so i was not oo keen. walked down at midday to find my old ticke t was just fine. so......

I decided on some retail therapy to cheer me up. I have walked past the markets heaps of times luckily today i found some really cool boots for dancing in. there are still sales everywhere. so for the total of 23 euros. i have some new shoes. I was getting frustrated at not finding anything i liked earlier. retail therapy works well for putting one in a better mood.
while i was at the port sorting things out this morning I got to meet a nice Greek man , who was waiting for his wife to pick up him ( 2 hours) we got to chatting , he was a pilot who works in Sweden , and wanted to practice his English, he d spent some time in CA learning to fly we even got our photo together. I am not sure that I got his name. nice guy though.


One of the things i was going to do yesterday was go to the Crete historical museum but it was closed , such is the joys of traveling this time of year. apparently they had a good display of joint operations of the kiwi's and Aussies did for Crete in the WW2.

well I am off to enjoy some more sun.

The Old Venetian fort

The fort on the breakwater , was built by the Venetians in the 14th century. not a lot to look at but oh so well built for defense, with cannon slots even facing toward the town. but no water supply.
Another windy day today but a great walk along the port to the old fort. took some wonderful photos of the ocean. (surprise ) I have nt spent to much time looking at the old churches around here. not sure that they appeal to me they way the English ones do. so you guessed it i spent some time just sitting and watchingthe ocean, well reading a book. life is good.

I thought i ought to check out the ferry's to see when i am headed to santorini. ferry schedules seem to change. it was just as well. as it looks like I will be leaving to tomorrow getting in to santorini tomorrow afternoon rather than something late tomorrow night.

Knossoss Palace Crete.

the Minoan civilization.
When you palace gets burnt down you just build another one right on top. Hopefully the next one will last 1000 years not just 300. Its kinda interesting what they don't know. How can you burn down a marble palace. i guess there was lots of wood around as well.
Minos palace was destroyed in a conflagration. about 1350 BC. A man by the name of Evens spent 20 years digging it out from 1910 to 30 . he guessed alot. and used lots of concrete to stop further decay by the weather. it's really obvious where he did what. But i feel that the local Greek Archaeologists think he made some errors. i have definitely decided that seeing the museum yesterday is the right order to do things . it helped me understand what i was looking at today. buying the book is also useful. the local trees are the purple flower i think is called bougainvillea, for something close to it. and lots ofr wind blown pine trees. It got windy today. but it kinda added to the atmosphere in trying to go back 3500. years and imagine what life was like.

it only a 10 minute trip back to town, so spent the afternoon ambling around looking at the markets, walking past all these stores that sell good Italian handbags. so i now have a new hang bag. you know me Burgundy red.
I forgot to take my upload cable , so you will have to wait till tomorrow to yet a view.
i have decided that people on Crete are more friendly and easier to ask directions. I got totally lost walking around the shops.
I am not sure what tomorrow will bring I had ideas of the beach , but if this wind doesn't stop it wont be worth it, and I can always find another muesum.

A nice clear day !

it was a sunny day it just doesn't show in the photo. too much fine industrial matter floating in the air. from now on I will just call this smog. this was Friday the day i climbed to St church for the wonderfull view. I live in alska I am used to clear air.

I kinda of feel silly walking arround sometimes , i have this sign on me that says tourist from a cold city. I walk arround in barely a t shirt and everyones else has jackets on like it is cold.

oh well

Greek Salad

well i thought that while i was in Greece i should have a salad , hopefully thery know how to make them. but it wasn't quite was I was used to .

notice the lack of lettuce.

it was a dam good salad.!!

Crete.

well I cant spend all my life in Athens,

so after exploring the Hadrian's library, and some retail therapy, I caught the night ferry to Crete. ( Minoan civilization). the ferry was 9 hours overnight. got in at an hour when i am usually asleep. so caught a cab to a somewhat cheap hotel that doesnt have Internet access. so here i sit in Internet cafe down town. much faster speed.
Don't ask me what street I am on cause i have no clue. the street signs are now all in Greek. so life is alot harder. Its daylight and the sun is warm so who cares for right now. there was some dew on some cars this morning. this town is called Heraklion, the nearest town to the King Minos' palace. this will be my plans for tomorrow.
the streets are wide and cleaner and there is less Industrail patyicular matter in the air. the sky is dininately blue. I may explore the beach this afternoon. it may depend on the need for sleep.

Mycenae

I went out t Mycenae to day ( pronounced me-cene nes) 1.1/2 hours by local bus then 4 kms walk in the sun current temp 16 the Mycenaean empire was only 300 years from 1500 to 1200 BC Maybe you have heard of Grave circle A where the royalty was buried, they pulled 14 kgs of gold ( 28 lbs ) out the tombs. the hill is set in a very almost desolate part of the area. and on Sundays it s free to get in . Aways nice. then i had to walk back. the surrounding fields are all orange groves , for some reason i was expecting olives. the countryside is much nicer than Athens i have decided.

there are lots of stray dogs here and i managed to pick up a stray golden lab that followed me almost all day. i had to be cleaver to ditch it before i climbed in the bus to come back.

but tonight i m too tired and a shower becons.

National Archaeologial Museum

the Minoean civilization came first, the the Mycenaen, then the ancient Athenians. Sparta was basically a military town Anything else you want to now you get to look it up yourself. The museum was well worth the 7 Euros they charged.
what i want to now is what sort of force it takes to knock over really large buildings made of marble. Athens was Destroyed more than once, which is why they have so much marble lieing around they are not sure where it goes. if they know where it goes it seems to have a number on it.

then I went of a walk to the top of one of the other hills in town , that has a little chapel.Called St George, it was a steep climb and i am in better shape that I thought. a great view of town to say nothing of looking down on Acropolis hill. there is still large volumes of industrial Europe particulate in the air to prevent a clear view.
since i was walking quite a distance I had to pass some shops. and added more stuff to my pack.

Yesterday I had a lazy day due th the problem of walking to far the day before, pulled muscles in both calves and the front of my thigh as well. I found good book. Everything around here is the way of tourists is quiet, someone said they had a friend out on Santorini who was the only person in the hotel that was not a employee.

the Accropolis

believe it or not to was a lovely day yesterday, but Greece is full of smog arm enough to not have my sweater on. everyone else was looking at me like was stupid. i spent all day on the hill looking at the old town and several of the other temples that are around

Athens and rain

On the advise of the gent at the front desk, i left the Acropolis for tomorrow. instead i wondered around to the Ancient Olympic stadium. clean white marble and lots of rain. lots of markets to walk though on the way, then i wondered to the temple of Zeus, there is not a lot of signs not even in Greek with too much more info than, this is the temple of Zeus. but amazing to look at. E 12.oo will get you into the 5 other things around town including the Acropolis Yes i took lots of photos . but you will have to wait till tomorrow.

Then it continued to rain hard its about 55 or maybe 60 its all celcius it s 14. so i stopped at the restaurant , called the Taverna Plaka sat outside and had Calamari and the local fish , with some wine the local Retsina. The food was good the wine to be honest I can take of leave. i may try it again somewhere else. the gentleman at he next table was George who, thought his English was good, decided to hit on me and wanted to buy me coffee and more wine at the best hotel in town. I don't think i have ever spent that much on lunch in my life but sometimes this is good for a laugh. ( One always get caught once with these things.)
Fortunately it stopped raining and i could continue my way to browse the shops till i ran out of energy. the fruit here is so cheap, oranges 50 c a lb apples barely a 86 c a kg. there are orange trees that grow along side the pavement, that have what i thought was ripe oranges, thought i would try some, look like oranges but taste like lemons. there are lots of wonderful little stores that are in back alleys and narrow streets.
Anyway i am going to be cheap for dinner , since i spent so much on lunch.

The building next to the hostel is a pet store, specializing in birds so this morning on the way out I was greeted with the canaries budgies and finches singing to the morning.
more tomorrow hopefully with photos.

Athens flight.

It's difficult to find out how long it takes to get from the train station Kigs Cross to the airport, you never know with London, so one always alows lots of time. So therefore i had 2 hours to fill in a the airport. They have shops!!!! including one of my favorite clothes stores. they have a 70 % sale right now. i resisted, i dont need to carry to much arround right now.
the flight from Lutton ( North of London ) went over france and stuggart Germany. followed by the Austrian Alps, yes i had my camera and it was daylight . The sun was caught nicely on the alps. not sure when you 'll get to see those. the plane window were somewhat scratched , but I got a couple of good ones.
The Greek train system runs in greek and English fortuneatly. there seems to be quite a few people whose speak french.

I think its about time i repeated my disclosure about Spelling and Grammer.
No comments alowed on either, sometime I type when jet laged, like yesterday. Sometimes I remember to spell check, sometimes i dont. the keyboard has Greek characters just to make live interesting.

tomorrow I all attempt the Accropolis.

Safeley in London

Shall i start at the beginning,
well Its cold in fairbanks the starter of the plane engine wouldn't work so we were 1 hour late pushing back from the gate , and left 1.20 minutes behind schedule. i had a couple of people form dance class were ont eh same flight ,Nichole was going to Phoenix and Craig was heading to Africa to climb his mountain.
connections in seattle were really tight , running around the train system with barely 10 minute to share is not my idea of a good time, but i made it. the sun rose on teh way down. the flight ti Atlanta was uneventful . and the sun set. Left Atlanta at 10 50 pm cruised up over DC before picking up the jet stream and cruised pass Canada at stjohns with a 180 mile an hour tale wind. Was in a stacking pattern over Heathrow 1/2 hour early. i the sun rose sometime i guess, i didn't pay attention. it raining in London and about 45, Took at 3 hour nap this afternoon , i don't sleep well on planes.
off to Greece tomorrow Need some more sleep

Car Heater Problems

 the Car heater last exactly 30 seconds after i drove out if the garage this morning. it dies , and i dont know where they hit it yesterday to get it going.  so  i made some calls today. 

 It' s the blower motor that went out. Its been kinda making noises for about a month

  I am going to drop my car off at American tire on Saturday, they will order the part and when it is in get it fixed. and I will pick it up when i get back. they  have my CC number.  because they are so busy right now  and i am not in a hurry like me too so they are not charging storage fees.  a win win situation if you ask me.  American tire rocks in my books.

Now I just have to see out the windshield when I drive arround for the last few bits tomorrow.

 I am all packed

Fun day Today ( Not)

Fun day today.

 I took my car to American tire today to get  new tube, ( cracked in the cold).  when they took it inside my heater died.  they replaced the fuse, and that didn't work so they hit it. that worked. ( I walked 3 blocks today to get there) so I think my heater my die soon.  Now is "soon" going to before the weekend. it will cost $300 and take 4 days  to order.

 Then cheep air.com called. Delta has changed one of my flights so that I cant make the next connection. the end result is I am now flying one day later and returning one day later.  It was very nice of cheep air  to call.  hopefully this will be OK , i now only have 1 night in London before heading to Greece.

 I NEED A VACATION

 Its still cold  -34 currently. 

photo of me.

I have a long last figuerd  out how to copy and paste from Pacassa web, jut in time for me to leave next week. Photo by tony back in oct.

Ice Fog

safeway car park at 2 pm today, comonly referred to as Ice fog.

 ( we love living in Fairbanks this time of year)

 7 days to go.

Old country roses

I got a box today with my vase, Old country roses again. royal Dalton send me
this email every day before Christmas of what was on sale . and there it was
a vase $20.00, my favourite pattern. Shipping from Seattle was $26.00 but well that's what happens when you live in Alaska.
I paid UPS ground rates but it hit my CC on Dec 18 and I got it today January 2. the box said second day air( did i get forgotten )
its still a cool vase.
Just another one for my collection.

NEW YEAR In Fairbanks

So the years are getting older. another one has passed us by.  yes i went out, Kurt was having dance a Pikes, so got all wrapped up in the required layers, and went dancing, the dance floor is a bit on the small side. Practice for other  places  i guess.

 now i do try my best to not talk about the weather but.... 

 forecast was for -49 .   Going past Fred's temp sign said -50   there was quite a bit of ice fog,  i went out and stated the car at 10 30 as i wasn't plugged in. But had the car covered with my blanket and then a piece of Cardboard under the block ( it helps stop the cold air from the ground  getting to the block)

 and i had this brilliant idea of going out to take a photo, but.... it s cold and now it dark again.

my car has been behaving well, just the usual flat tires and having to spend time to warm up the car. we don't talk gas mileage this time of year.

 today is kinda warm   -25. and cloudy.   

Photo from last january Farmers loop road