Meteora

We left Delphi yesterday by bus and had to transfer a ton of times. We finally arrived here in Meteora at 9:00 pm, it was raining and we got confused about how to get to our hotel. This was kind of a low travel moment, but once we found our hotel and got some dinner everyone felt much better.

Meteora is known for its monasteries that were built on huge rocks that have been forming for millions of years. The geology of these rocks is not completely understood, but it is believed that they started forming underwater and when the water receded they got eroded by wind and other forces. Today they are humongous rocks rising up to 400m with moss covered tops. They have curved edges from the erosion and black coloring on the sides.

Ancient Mycenae and Ancient Delphi

Ancient Mycenae and Ancient Delphi played a significant role in the myths of Herakles. Ancient Mycenae is where Herakles received his twelve labors after he went to consult with the Oracle of Delphi on what he should do to redeem himself for killing his family. We recently visited both of these sites.

Entrance to Ancient Mycenae

The Hero's Journey

A big part of my high school program at the Pacific Community Charter High School is a project called Passages. Each student picks from six categories and completes one or more Passage each year. The Passages include topics like Adventure, Logical Inquiry, Career Exploration, Global Awareness, Practical Skills and Creativity. You must complete all of the passages to graduate. I have chosen to complete the Adventure Passage this year. My theme is "The Hero's Journey" and my trip to Greece is based around that idea. 

The Acropolis

Something I think is cool about Athens is it's Acropolis. This Acropolis is so old its creation is shrouded by a myth.

When the people of ancient Greece stopped being peaceful farmers they started creating cities on top of places like the Acropolis. The Acropolis served as a very good defensive position for the time when all of the city-states were attacking each other for resources. The Acropolis lays on a big rocky ridge that juts out of the Attica plateau along with the Lykavittos Hill, which we climbed yesterday. The rock rises up over two hundred feet and has a length of around nine hundred feet and a width of about four hundred and fifty feet. 

We Are In Greece!

Hello everyone. As you know from my title my family and I are in Greece. We arrived in Athens on Monday after two long flights and little sleep. From the airport we decided to take a taxi to our apartment. Our driver had a hard time pulling up our address but we had faith he knew how to get us where we were headed. After driving through the maze of Athens' streets, he stopped at an apartment building, and we took all our stuff out of the car thinking the building was the correct one. We unloaded our bags, payed him and he drove away. We walked up to the building to ring the doorbell for our apartment but none of the names were correct, so we stood around scratching our heads and biting our nails for awhile (not literally, just metaphorically, although we did stand around for awhile) until our hopeful savior walked up to go into the apartment. We asked her if she knew where our apartment was, and she said nothing because she didn't speak English (and we definitely don't speak Greek) but suddenly another women walked up and she knew what we were saying and helped us. We thanked her and walked away following our new directions - go straight, then right, and then left. After walking around for awhile we realized that it should have been two rights, but at least we got safely to our new little home. 

Athens from above

View from our apartment