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.

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.

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.

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

Vacation plans,

One step closer to vacation tonight. You may or may not know that the US dollar is getting stronger and the British pound is getting weaker. so i figured it was time to continue with the bookings of tickets.

I had to make a slight change in plan, I get get to just go to Greece, I couldn't get a ticket back out of Rome to London. so I get to fly in and out of Athens from London. i 've been to Italy so no big deal. I get longer to hang in Greece. where it s warmer. maybe i can swing that trip to Istanbul.

Anyway tickets were 82 pounds or $128.00 a the current exchange rate. it looks like a 3 hour flight so i guess i shouldn't complain.. it the same price as what I paid to get to Rome 4 years ago.

tickets to Athens January 13 and return to London on the 30th.