The End

That's it for my Eastern Med adventure!
To check out pics from the rest of my summer's travels in Europe and Africa, look up my facebook albums.

Yassas, Adio, Guele Guele, Ma As-Salaamah, Shalom, Goodbye!!!

Greek Street Art

I was amazed at the quantity and diversity of street art in Athens. Some neighborhoods were completely covered in paint. There weren't many tags, just a mishmosh of colorful creativity and political messages.

Some humorous

Some bizarre and beautiful.

After some time, I could recognize different works by the same artist.

Some crazy characters appeared in different forms across town

Other characters were part of a storyline that would stretch down the length of an alley.

Don't know what to say about this one...

Mushrooms were definitely a recurring theme.

There was also plenty of stencil art.

I wish I knew what this slingshot-wielding heroine was up to.

Athens

The sprawling city of Athens is a planner's nightmare. Very little green space, a confusing web of traffic-filled roads, suburbs on every horizon, and tons of silly tourists who get in the way of everything. The ruins make up for it all, though. And so does the good food. My friend Asimakis, whom I met in Ecuador, played tour guide and we escaped the tourist throngs and enjoyed some local hangouts.

No caption required

Hello, pretty ladies.

Alarmingly realistic statues!

Crete

Crete is Greece's largest and most remote island. Fought over for centuries by Romans, Venitians, Ottomans, etc., Crete is host to a richly blended and ruggedly independent people. Its culinary culture reflects this diversity of influences and wow... what a tasty result. Freshly harvested wild greens, calamari, several soft cheeses, snails, olives galore...

Enormous bra on display.

Beautiful beaches with very few tourists.

Remote beach near a hippy yoga retreat-- check out the rock-walled circular labyrinth on the left side of this pic!

Seemingly impossible geological formation.

Gorge-ous hike down the Samaria. This enormous gorge eventually funnels into a slot just 5 meters wide!

Taking a little dip in the waterfall pools.

Santorini

Santorini is an absolutely gorgeous C-shaped volcanic caldera island, boasting white, red and black sand beaches! Claire and I rented a moped and tootled around its curvy roads in search of anything and everything saffron-related. We initially chose to travel here because one of the island's archeological sites has a bizarre fresco of blue monkeys picking saffron! What could it mean? We also happened upon a bakery that makes saffron rolls and a group of ladies who pick wild saffron on a remote hillside. Score!

We stayed in Perissa on the black beach and learned that footwear is essential-- very hot pebbles=ouch.

The town of Oia is perched on the edge of the caldera. The iconic white and blue buildings provide such a contrast to the dark volanic rock.

Beach umbrellas at sunrise.

The black sand makes for great reflections.

Orthodox Church #47... Just kidding. I don't know the name of this church, but they were all starting to look pretty similar at about this point in the trip.

Stunning sunset! I still dream about it.


Claire and I may have been a bit excited when the sky blew up in fluorescent shades for about 40 minutes.

Red beach

Ancient octopus pottery! How cool.

Ephesus to the Greek Isles

The Library, at the ruins of Ephesus
Very intricate and well preserved statues and embellishments

And then we took the ferry to the Greek island of Samos

and our local friend, Yorgos, rushed around to catch the sunset for this picture.... and it turns out that you can't see it anyway.

Then we were off to the island of Syros, which used to be a political center for the islands.

The interior of a very colorful Greek Orthodox church

City by the sea

Our hosts drove to the north of the island to show us more of the countryside.

The sign for a pub, which was translated to us as 'Mermaids and Womanizers'.

The courtyard of our hosts' beautiful villa! It was a very relaxing few days.

Capadoccia, Turkey

Capadoccia's fairy chimneys were home to persecuted Christians and now house tons of tourists. Nearby, there are several underground cities that used to be inhabited by Christians--some up to 8 stories deep into the sandstone. Teeny tiny rooms are stacked one atop the other and connected through tortuous pathways. I was feeling pretty claustrophobic when I peered up the ventilation shaft and saw how far down we were!

Rooms in the underground city

'Fairy chimneys' , you may have seen this landscape in StarWars

Large cave complexes

Many are now cushy cave hotels.

Lots of sunrise balloons checking out the scene

Safranbolu, Turkey

I'm now traveling with saffron afficionado and college friend, Claire. We headed eastward to the saffron producing traditional Ottoman town of Safronbolu, just south of the Black Sea and sampled local treats and culture.