naxos

So Naxos, which is a much larger island, and much less dependent on tourism than Santorini. Which is to say, the proportion of hotels is much smaller, and there are such things as grocery stores and motorcycle repair shops in evidence. Naxos is also the island about which I said, if you don't see me again, you can find me here. It was so perfect. So incredibly gorgeous and there were sand beaches and a marina and an old Venetian town center called the Kastro (in Hora, the main town, where we stayed).

Upon arrival, at Hora's port:



You can sort of see the Kastro; it's the semi-walled-in area near the top of the hill. The outer wall is a darker color than the rest of the buildings.






Agios Georgios (the beach):




On this small island at the far end of Hora are the ruins of a temple to Aphrodite (if I recall correctly). Only the doorframe is standing.




Naxos was the only place I went swimming. The water was unbelievable. Even the picture doesn't do it justice.

santorini, fin

The beach on Santorini, at Kamari: this is me. I am on a rock. I am very brave.



Fira:



Sunset over the caldera:



A church in Fira:



This is such a Greece-postcard picture that it's hard to believe. But it's true! I was there. It all looks like this.



Puppies! in Oia, a city at the north end of Santorini, a half-hour or so winding bus ride. I tried not to look over the edge.



This is all Oia.






And from here, we take a short ferry to Naxos. Which is the best. Photos to come.

santorini

We leave Piraeus, Athens's port, at some ungodly hour and take an eight-hour ferry to Santorini. Santorini is a volcanic caldera: supervolcano explodes, leaves massive crater, which is filled in with ocean. One side of the island, the inside of the curve, is a steep drop to the water, and the other side is relatively flat (including beaches! though they are volcanic rock and not sand). We stay in the main town, Fira, of which approximately 90% of the buildings are hotels. The other 10% are restaurants.

Looking back at the mainland from the ferry:



Santorini from the ferry (we're inside the caldera):



Now on caldera's edge, in Fira:



Fira:



Caldera (the small island is the resurgent dome of the volcano, where it's forming a new island in the middle of the caldera):



"The island was the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history when it erupted cataclysmically some 3,500 years ago, at the height of the Mycenaean epoch. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of feet deep and, according to a theory, its effects may have indirectly led to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 110 km (70 mi) to the south, due to a gigantic tsunami. Another popular theory holds that the Thera [Santorini] eruption is the source of the legend of Atlantis." (says wikipedia)

There was a Minoan settlement on Santorini at the time, called Akrotiri, which was preserved in the volcanic eruption and is now famous for its wall paintings. This is my favorite. Fun fact from my Greek archaeology class (comes in useful all the time): during the Akrotiri excavations, no bodies were found. It seems that the residents had some sort of warning and they all vacated the island before the volcano erupted.



When I showed my photos to my mom, she said, Is Cedric's camera permanently stuck to his face?

I believe that would be a yes:



My hair on the attack:



Greek Orthodox church in Fira:



The beach:



More later, Blogger doesn't seem to like me anymore.

athens

This is my favorite picture from the whole trip.

Athens had approximately six hundred zillion street dogs. They seemed reasonably happy and clean, actually; I think somebody or some organization had to be taking care of them. None of them were mangy or had fleas and a couple actually had collars, though no nametags. They all looked related, too.

We arrived in Athens early enough on Sunday to actually have time to explore it. Our ferry to Santorini was at an ungodly hour Monday morning, so we crammed as much of Athens in as we could. Cedric had been there before but he was very good-humored about my need to be a tourist. I've always had a bit of a thing about ancient Greece -- plus I'm an archaeology major -- plus I just took a class on Greek Art and Archaeology -- so I was more excited than I probably had any right to be. We hit all the major tourist sites we could: the Acropolis (Pantheon, Temple of Athena Nike), the Temple of Olympian Zeus (arrived after it closed, but peered through the fence for a while), the Agora.

After his long trip (India, China, South Africa, artistic pictures available on his blog) Cedric was very tan and very skinny. Oh my.



Theater (later that day they were rehearsing some opera -- Carmen, I think):



Parthenon:



Temple of Athena Nike, with caryatid pillars:



Looking down on the theater from the top of the Acropolis:



The Temple of Olympian Zeus:



(through the fence)



View of Athens. which is the very definition of urban sprawl:



Cedric in front of the Acropolis, humoring me:



Next up: Santorini.

concord, massachusetts

Back in the States, after a harrowing nearly-stuck-in-JFK experience. (Suffice it to say that I was so relieved to get on the flight that eventually took me out of New York that I bought the customer service desk a bag of chocolates.) Now I'm in Concord, Massachusetts with Cedric, running errands and being jetlagged, mostly. Also eating a lot of Chinese food. Tomorrow I head to Wesleyan for the Wesleyan Writers Conference, on the director's staff. I am unclear as to what I will actually be doing, but I get to attend much of the conference itself for free. (Tradeoff: no pay.)

I have hundreds of pictures from Greece and Turkey, which I will begin posting, slowly. I will probably not post very many, though, since I expect to see all of you who a) read this blog and b) actually know me at some point this summer, and I will probably inflict my photos upon you then. I just have so many. So, so many. I also have a couple of videos -- they exist primarily to record the call to prayer in Istanbul the last night we were there. It sounds otherworldly, plus you get a shaky view of the Blue Mosque. Anyway, the teaser photos will show up sometime this week, I hope, when I get a chance. My computer is having issues with wireless here at Cedric's house, so I'm hoping once I get to Wesleyan it will be more reliable.

last dispatch from paris.

Am in Paris, leaving tomorrow morning for the States. Very exciting. Sad, sort of, but more than ready enough to go back to the US, where all the signs are in English and I screw up maybe 20% less than I do here. I have lots of pictures to torture you with, but they'll have to wait a few days. I will get them up as soon as possible though. Off to Boston.

next country

Hello from Turkey, where the Is have no dots! Witness: ı. This has been throwing me off ever since I got here. Turkey is lovely though internet is very limited at the moment. I am in Selcuk, after arriving from Greece through Kusadası yesterday. Today we saw Ephesus, tomorrow we go to Pamukkale, and then an overnight bus to İstanbul. I hear that the buses are fabulous.