greece is the word

Now I'm going to have Grease songs stuck in my head all day long. HA, like that's a problem or something.

I was so excited last week when I realized that I had some of my Greece pictures with me in Lafayette - I thought they were all in Houston. 

I'm linking up with the beautiful Helene today to tell you more about that time I went to Greece. I talked about it briefly before, but I went for my 8th grade trip in 2002. There was originally 40 or so students signed up to go, but after 9/11 happened, every single one of them backed out. OK, their parents probably went all freak out mode and canceled their reservation. Mine? Mine still let me go because they are amazing. And they helped me convince my best friend's parents to let her go. (She was a year younger and had recently moved to San Antonio, but her mom was friends with the teacher who sponsored the trip.) 

We flew into Athens and spent 2 days there being super tourists and exploring the ruins. 

say hello to my super sweet velcro plaid old navy kids pants. and my super smart decision to wear Rainbow flip flops to walk up a marble covered hike

interesting fake - the statues of the women as seen above are actually fake. the real ones are in a museum. 

After those two days (and little eating, at the time I was the pickiest eater ever and wouldn't touch Greek food with a ten foot stick. Now it's my favorite.) we boarded a cruise ship for 10 days of cruising around to different Greek Isles. 

My favorite part of the ship was the American food. Some world traveler I was. I also got seasick one night and had to wear a super stylish Dramamine bracelet the rest of the time. Which matters not because I was clearly lacking in the style department back then. Moving on. 

My favorite place we saw beauty wise was Santorini. Hands down, it's the most beautiful place on EARTH. Go google it, my pictures-of-pictures do not do it justice! 

And yes, it's true, you DO get to ride donkey's up. You don't have to, there a trolly thing as seen in the back (ski-lift really), but when in Rome, as they say. Riding up was fun, riding down? Not so much fun. Those donkeys can BOOK IT. 

My favorite place history was was Ephesus. (Yes, even then I was a history nerd.)

The middle picture is the amphitheater that Paul mentions a lot in the bible. This place is FULL of history and ruins are everywhere, we probably could have spent a few more days exploring. ALSO - it's actually in Asia, so now I have been to three continents total. (Istanbul is in Europe and Asia, we went there the day prior and walked the bridge to Asia as well.)

The trip was amazing and I would give anything to go back again. We looked into it for our honeymoon, but I wanted a short flight and not a 16 hour one. We'll go back one of these days, if only so I can experience the most amazing ice cream ever - it's made out of goat's milk. (They waited until I finished it to tell me that fact.)