And a long strange trip it was...

Well I can't promise this will be a comprehensive tale of my journeys (darn that essay I've been putting off!), but here are a few pictures from Greece, Italy and Spain.

I'm pretty sure I inadvertently deleted the one I made on the flight to Greece upon which I spent 5 hours sitting on the tarmac waiting while the snow melted outside, then for a new flight crew because ours had been working for too

many hours, then for them to replace the snacks that had gotten warm while we were waiting. I wish I was kidding. But. I did eventually make it on the ship:

It's kind of hard to see in the second picture, but our ship ends where the lettering starts on the big ship behind it. It was a teeny ship. The cool thing about that though was that we got to sail through the Corinth Canal, which big ships can't do. We also got to dock at some smaller ports. All in all, what we got for the price was not bad. The food was decent (though I'm def glad we got the meal plan. Individual prices were steep.) The room was small, but good enough. I do wish we'd had a pool though.

The excursions were the best part.We saw LOTS of ruins. We had tour guides for each day, plus a resident expert, Heinrich, on the ship to answer questions.

This was was Ithaka, the only port that we had a completely free day:




















My favorite excursions were Olympia and Delphi.

This is me on the first Olympic running course. Olympia was where the first Olympics were held and where the torch is first lit before every Olympic Games. It's a beautiful area, with blooming purple flowers, grassy fields, and old ruins. I could have easily spent all day there.

Delphi was a couple of days after that. It's the site of the famed Oracle and a really old theatre space and arena. It also had a wonderful juice bar. The strawberry slush was just what I needed!

Our last day in Greece was spent in Athens. Here's the famed Parthenon:


It was impressive, but Athens is seriously polluted. Apparently they've instituted driving bans where cars with odd number license plates can drive M/W/F and evens can drive T/TH. People are buying two cars according to the tour guide, but at least they're trying!

Anyway, here's a collage of some of my other favorite Greece pictures:


This entry is seriously long, so I'll save Italy and Spain for later (along with the tales of my airport and train woes.)