Greece with Our Big Family Abroad (8 days)

The Parthenon in Athens, Greece

We took a short flight from Milan, Italy, to Athens, Greece. We discovered that it is possible to fly within Europe round-trip for 30-190 euros each. So depending on where you go, flights are more reasonable than driving.

For my blog this time, I decided to try something new and made a video vlog of some of our days in Greece. The Parthenon was incredible! We could not believe how many layers of history were in the beautiful building and it’s surrounding walls and structures. As Justin was purchasing our tickets to get into the Parthenon, a lady asked if we would like a tour, Justin decided to hire her, and we were very glad he did. She gave us a fantastic, informative history of Greece, the wars Greece had, the Greek Gods and Goddesses and how the Parthenon went from the temple of Athena, to Roman hands, to Christian hands, to Greek wars where the victorious conqueror would take pieces and statues of the Parthenon, to the 1800’s where more pieces of the upper Parthenon were taken by a nobleman to England along with one of the maiden Caryatids. The end of the video below shows, Mars Hill where the Apostle Paul from the New Testament preached Christianity to the Greeks.

I learned, in Greece the plumbing pipes around the whole country are very small. Which means, no one can flush their toilet paper. Instead there is a small trash next to the toilet for this toilet paper, yes, it is pretty gross. However, the shower at our rental apartment has LED lights on the ceiling and a wonderful almost massaging shower, so maybe the shower makes up for the lack of flushing ability?!?

Apollo’s Temple in Delphi, Greece

Another day we drove two and a half hours to the city of Delphi to see the temple built to Apollo. It was built in the year 420 BC. A prophetess, called an oracle lived inside the temple. People would bring their questions to the Oracle prophetess, who some believe was in a trans from inhaling gases and incenses. She would be surrounded by priests. The person coming to see the oracle would bring a gift of money or sacrifice and then ask their question. She would then mumble something (some believed the priests would interpret her saying and tell the person an answer, others believed the Oracle answered each person herself) thus giving the person an answer to their question from what they believed was the gods.

Justin and I in front of the Athenian’s Treasury

We bought our tickets, for 7 euros each, which included the museum as well as the hill where Apollos temple was located. There were also souvenirs shops in the town right before and after the temple. We enjoyed driving through them. Parking is difficult right now and we are in off season, I am not sure where people park in the summer months.

In Athens and Delphi there is a large dog and cat population (mostly cats). We probably saw about 50 cats and about 20 dogs just walking around Delphi, all of which looked well cared for and plump. Interesting!

We were standing looking at an ancient amphitheater above Apollos Temple and we spotted 12 mountain goats on the rock mountain behind us. They were so fun to watch move around on the rocks.

Below is a video of the Temple of Apollo, and a brief glimpse of the mountain goats.

Hiking 999 Steps to the Palamidi Fortress

We drove to the Peloponnesian Peninsula of Greece. We were able to enjoy a few wonderful things there. First off there are orange trees everywhere. They line the streets in Athens, however I found out these trees in the city are bitter oranges and are decoration only. As we drove to the Peloponnesian Peninsula there were orchards of orange trees that were edible. We stopped at a road side stand where Sicily and I bought a giant bag of oranges for only 4 euros. Really they were three euros, but the man selling them carried them to our car, he insisted, so I guess that was the extra euro! hahaha Our bag has about 50 oranges in it. We ate oranges in the car, the little kids, squeezed oranges to make orange juice and we sliced oranges to dry for our Christmas tree ornaments.

We visited The Lion’s Gate, which is a Mycenae Citadel. It is incredible that something from 1250 BC could still be standing. That is over 3200 years ago! We saw the cave that these Mycenae people walked down into to get water at the bottom and also we visited the Tomb of Agamemnon. It is a large beehive tomb constructed between 1350 and 1250 BC. When we were inside the tomb, the acoustics were amazing, so we talked Eliza into singing, it was wonderful. Below is a short video tour of the Mycenae Citadel and it includes Eliza singing. Oh I just love to listen to her sing. At the end of the video you will see a pair of metal tweezers that the royal women used to keep their eyebrows shaped. I thought that was so interesting that ladies were plucking their eyebrows 3200 years ago!

Climbing 999 Steps to Palamidi Fortress

These steps to the Palamidi Fortress were first brought to our knowledge through one of Rick Steves’s travel videos. (We are big fans of Rick Steves.) I really wanted to climb the steps, so this Fortress was one of our destinations. The fortress was built in 1714. During the Turkish occupation, Christians were forbidden to enter the fort. In 1840, and for nearly a hundred years, Palamidi was used as a prison, and in conjunction with this the stairs up to the castle were built. These steps go up the face of the mountain where the castle sits. It is often said that there are 999 steps, but when we hiked the steps Sicily counted 819! The walk is well worth the effort, the view of Nafplion and the Argolic gulf was spectacular. The video below shows our hike, please watch it.

My daughter Caroline, who is serving a mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, had her birthday while we were in Greece. She turned twenty years old. I sure love and miss her, but I am so proud of her decision to serve the people of São Paulo, Brazil for a year and a half, and share a message of the the Savior. She teaches others about life before they came to Earth and life after they leave the Earth.

We also attended church in Athens, Greece. This was an interesting experience, because there are almost the same amount of Greece members in the entire country as there are in my home ward. Crazy! The Church is very present in Greece, with 12 missionaries in the branch we attended. This was also the first time we have seen more youth than primary in a ward or branch in Europe. Our kids were all very happy that both the youth and primary classes were taught in English. However, the adult class and the combined Sacrament Meeting were said in Greek and translated to English, and sometimes said only in Greek and sometimes only in English. I have been so impressed with how many Greeks know English. In fact I am so impressed with anyone who knows multiple languages and I am grateful for my missionary kids who have had the opportunity to learn a second language.