Saturday, September 15, 2007

The Vikos Gorge

Greece

September 1
Today we saw a town that was right beside the sea.
They had a huge cannon in the middle of the town but it is too old to use. It got super hot - it was 42 degrees. We were all sweating. On the way home we got popsicles!!

September 5
Today we drove all the way from Astros to Athens airport to see Cody, Beth and John!
September 9
Right now we are sitting in the lobby of our hotel and a few moments ago I was watching a fly circle the room. Today we saw two monasteries. The first one had a super good view of all the houses, it was really cool. There were lots of neat smelling flowers that we picked at the second monastery. There was a museum and two churches. We saw a kitty but the kitty ran away after we petted him for a bit. Then we went to the first church. It had a huge chandelier and the whole place was covered with beautiful frescoes. After that we went to the museum. The museum was filled with intricately carved crosses that you dip in holy water and shake and the water sprays people. I forgot, the monastery now is actually a nunnery. After we saw the monastery, we went to a look out but you couldn't really see from where we were, so we climbed up on a rock that was higher and then we could see better. Then Jonas and Papa went to climb an even higher one. When I noticed I wanted to climb too. At first Papa said no, but after a little bit he said okay and I climbed up. It actually is kind of easy. All you have to do is find the right foot holds and hand holds. Today was very fun.

September 13
Today we walked around Athens so that we knew where everything was. We saw some pretty cool stuff. On the way back we saw a place that sells ice cream and another that sells slurpees. I mada a really cool card castle but Jonas knocked it down.
September 15
On the 12th, we saw part of vikos Gorge. The walk down was amazing, the morning light shining down on everything, it was beautiful. When we got to the bottom, we put our feet in the water. It was FREEZING! It was hard to stay in for more than five seconds. Finally, since everybody else was, I dunked my head.

Matthew

More Italy part II

August 14th
Today we went to Saturnia. We played in the hot springs, it was so much fun. I wish we could go again. There was a water fall that went into a bowl shaped object and poured over the sides. There was a little river that went over another little waterfall. There was something fun you could do with the second big water fall: jump behind the waterfall, stand on the rock, and jump into the water!!

August 17
This morning we saw the Brancacci Chapel. Today we got gelati. I think that most small cones cost 2 euros. The most expensive cone I've seen was 12 euros. It was humungous. It's soft like the BDI but you always get to see the flavours before you choose, like banana boat. You can get gelati in bowls, cones, small, big, large, extra large etc. There is almost every flavour imaginable, even coffee. They have slurpees too but they're very expensive.

August 23
Today we had a wonderful drive to somewhere near Barletta. There were lots of neat things.

August 25
Today we saw some really cool caves. It was amazing. There were tons of stalactites and stalagmites. There was even something that looked like the leaning tower of Pisa! There were lots of lights so you could see.

August 27
Today we saw a whole bunch of super cool cave houses that people used to ---(ed note: I think Matthew fell asleep as today was pretty tough on him).

More Italy