GEJ Adventures: Santorini

Day 3: We took a short flight to Santorini today! It was a pretty relaxing day to start, then we ended with a Santorini ATV Quad tour. We got to explore the island and got some great pictures! 

Day 4:

We slept in today and, in the early afternoon, we got picked up for a Catamaran sunset cruise. This was NOT an enjoyable experience! 

1. The description was a bit misleading in regards to the hot springs. The “hot spring” was really only a couple degrees warmer than the rest of the water and the water was COLD!! I didn’t even get in. 

I was looking forward to the hot springs and snorkeling, but that didn’t happen. (BUMMER)

2. There was a group of older folks (mostly women) who were pole dancing and grinding on each other right in front of us.  We did not need to see that. (Gag!!) It was not a pretty sight. 

That was 6 hours of my life I won’t get back. Don’t worry- I’ll spare you the videos of the dancing ladies. 

Day 5:
We booked a private, tailormade tour of Santorini through Viator! This ended up being super nice because we got to see Oia and a bunch of other things we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Having a local guide who was able to share his knowledge was wonderful ! 

We spent time on the streets of Oia (it was so crowded!!) and then we went to our guides grandfathers village and saw a traditional underground cave home. It was pretty cool to see how people used to live. 

Blue domes!

Iconic Oia

Loved the view in Santorini

Traditional cave home 

We also stopped at Akrotiri which is a settlement that was destroyed in a volcanic eruption sometime in the 16th century BCE. It was buried in volcanic ash which preserved the remains of many artifacts. It has since been excavated .

Finally, we stopped and saw some windmills and I found a cute friend.  (See photo below!)

Throughout our Santorini journey we stayed at Cliff Side Suites and it is one of my favorite stays ever!! The rooms were HUGE!!  The only problem was that it was very humid inside the room and everything got wet / soggy. 

Some of my favorite pictures from Santorini are from our last night there:

I LOVED Santorini -especially the architecture and maze of stairs. (Well, didn’t so much love the stairs, but it was so unique!!)  Definitely worth visiting! 

GEJ Adventure: Athens

Day 2 was our tour around Athens. We drove past the Panathenaic Stadium where the first Olympic games of modern times were held in 1896. We also passed by the temple of Olympian Zeus, Hadrian's Arch, and the Parliament.

We spent most of our tour time visiting the Acropolis. The Acropolis is a large fortified hill in the Center of Athens and it houses several ancient structures including: The Propylaea, The Temple of Athena Nike, The Erechtheion,and The Parthenon.  

We toured the New Acropolis Museum before going up to the Acropolis which contains sculptures, ceramics, and other treasures. (Pictured below)

The Parthenon is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of classical Greek art, and the Parthenon is considered an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, democracy, and Western civilization.

 

Coming down from the Acropolis, we saw Mars Hill (where Paul spoke in Acts) It was pretty cool to be able to walk where Paul walked! 

Mike on Mars Hill

Acts 17:22-31

²² So Paul stood in the midst of the ^[a]Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects. ²³ For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands; ²⁵ nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; ²⁶ and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, ²⁷ that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; ²⁸ for in Him we live and move and ^[b]exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’ ²⁹ Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought. ³⁰ So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, ³¹ because He has set a day on which He will judge ^[c]the world in righteousness ^[d]through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people ^[e]by raising Him from the dead.”

After the scheduled tour, we walked around Plaka for a little bit- looking at shops and eating ice cream. :)

We had a dinner reservation for Thissio View that evening which has a beautiful view of the Acropolis. (Pictured below)  As we were eating on the rooftop,  50 some American college girls joined us. (I guess they were here for a conference or something)  We couldn’t help but laugh because they just kept coming!

Our hotel for our stay in Athens was the  Electra Hotel Athens and it was nice. It was a little small, but it was within walking distance of the Acropolis and plenty of shops and restaurants. 

 

 

GEJ Adventure: Corinth

THE GREAT GEJ (Greece, Egypt, Jordan) ADVENTURE BEGINS!!

Fab 4 at the airport

 

We arrived in Athens after 18-19 hours. YAWN. (This includes waiting at airport, connecting flights, and time in the air) Mike and I woke up a little before 7AM EST to begin our adventure and we didn't arrive in Athens until 2AM EST the next day. Probably didn't get to sleep until 2pm EST (or 8pm local time).
WE WERE  UP FOR 31 HOURS.

We booked a tour to Corinth for our first day since it's best to just jump right into the action! (We also planned on our hotel room not being ready yet so it worked out well!) 

After stopping at the hotel to drop off our bags, we grabbed a bite to eat for lunch and then had an hour drive to Corinth. We were all super tired, and most of us nodded off on the car ride over.

Our first stop was the Corinth Canal. It's an artificial canal in Greece that connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It's about 4 miles long. 

Corinth Canal

We also stopped at Acrocorinth. Here we saw an ancient castle on a 575m high rock. Its elevated position enabled the military to monitor the isthmus of the Gulf of Corinth and protect Ancient Corinth below.  

Our final stop was Archaia Korinthos and the Archaelogical Museum of Corinth.   (Lots of ruins and artifacts from various excavations.)

It was a long and tiring day, but I'm glad we got to visit Corinth. We booked a private guide through Viator and it worked out great!

High Anxiety Traveler Alert!

The crew and I are gettting ready for a BIG ADVENTURE!!! If you know us, you know all the juicy details of our trip, but for now I'm keeping things (online) on the DL because I'm a tad bit paranoid and a wee bit anxious! (UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR)

This, by far, has been the HARDEST trip I have ever planned and the HARDEST trip to pack for!! Once we get back home and I start posting blogs, you'll understand why! (Some of you might already know!)

In the meantime... here's a story:

In 8th grade math class my teacher had a “ticket” system. Each semester we would start out with 10 tickets and the tickets could be used throughout the semester as a "pass." If we forgot our homework, we could turn in a ticket and we wouldn’t get docked points. If we were late to class, we could turn in a ticket so we didn’t get a demerit. (You get the idea) At the end of the semester, if we didn’t use any of the tickets, they would count as bonus points or extra credit points towards our final grade.

I had science class right before math and one day our science class was doing a field trip... Sounds fun and exciting, right?! WRONG!!

I was so worried about the field trip running over and being late to math class. So much so that I couldn’t sleep the night before and I about made myself sick worrying over it.

Now, let’s take a step back and think about this for a second … the worst thing that could happen was that I would lose one ticket aka one extra credit point towards my grade at the end of the semester.  (I never ever used my tickets so losing one was a big deal at the time.)

1. We may or may not be late getting back
2. Even if we were late, the teacher liked me and I’m sure if I explained it was for a field trip he wouldn’t have even made me give up a ticket
3. And if he did… I would be down one extra credit point

Why am I telling you this story? I want to paint a picture of what it’s like to live with anxiety. In case you were wondering, we arrived back to school in plenty of time and this whole thing was a non-issue! 

I have about 10 of these books

This is the dumbest example... I know it seems SO SILLY, but in my mind (at the time) this was a very serious situation! 

Just last year, Mike and I went scuba diving. It was my first time diving and I was SCARED OUT OF MY MIND!!! The night before, I could barely sleep... which was silly because I KNEW:

1. I could sit through the class (training) the next day and decide not to dive.

2. I could go to the shallow end just to try it out and decide not to dive. 

3. NO ONE WAS MAKING ME DO THIS AND I HAD PLENTY OF "OUTS" 

Even though I LOGICALLY knew how silly I was being, I still had those feelings of anxiety!

So now imagine... me traveling anywhere. HOW DOES THAT WORK?!

Lots of prayers & careful planning.

As we get closer to departure I am way less anxious than I was a month ago. So many people have been praying alongside me and I am so grateful! Keep the prayers coming! 

You will be spammed with photos and blog posts soon enough, but for now: 

Daily Travel Affirmations (LOL)

International Travel Records

Since I just did a post about the 50 states, I decided to do one with the order of countries I've visited. (USA and Canada are not included since those were both well before 2005!) 

2005 Europe:
Germany (Munich) 
Austria (Salzburg) 
Italy (Venice, Florence, Siena, Rome)

2007 Europe:
Germany (Nuremberg, Rothenburg, Heidelberg)
Czech Republic (Prague)
France (Strasbourg) 
Switzerland (Lucerne) 
Austria (Innsbruck) 

2009 Australia & New Zealand
Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns)
New Zealand (Auckland, Rotorua, Christchurch, Queenstown)

2013 New Zealand & Australia
New Zealand (Auckland, Muriwai Beach, Wellington, Nelson, Greymouth, Hamilton, Rotorua, Raglan, Golden Bay, Picton, Dunedin, Coromandel) 
Australia (Sydney, Alice Springs, Uluru) 

2014 Europe
Ireland (Dublin)
England (London)
France (Paris)
Spain (Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona) 

2015 Asia
Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto) 
China (Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Shanghai)

2016 Africa
South Africa (Cape Town,  Plettenberg Bay, Sabi Sabi Game Reserve)

2017 South America
Chile (Santiago, Patagonia)
Peru (Cusco)
Brazil (Rio De Janeiro)  

2018 Europe 
Netherlands (Amsterdam)
Switzerland (Lucerne, Interlaken) 
Germany (Berlin, Hamburg)

2019 Australia & New Zealand 
Australia (Sydney)
New Zealand (Christchurch, Mount Cook, Queenstown)

2020 South America & Antarctica
Argentina (Buenos Aires)
Chile (Santiago)

2022 Caribbean
Bahamas (Great Stirrup Cay, Nassau, Grand Bahama Island, Balmoral Island)

2023 Central America & Caribbean 
Mexico (Cozumel)
Belize (Belize City)
Honduras (Roatan) 
Costa Rica (Puerto Limon)
Panama (Colon, Panama City)
Jamaica (Montego Bay)

2024 Europe, Africa, Asia
Greece (Corinth, Athens, Santorini)
Egypt (Cairo)
Jordan (Petra, Wadi Rum)

2025 Caribbean & Europe
Grand Cayman
Jamaica

Germany (Rothenburg, Fussen)
Liechtenstein (Vaduz)
Switzerland (Lucerne, Zermatt) 

2026 Central America & Europe

Guatemala
Iceland
Norway

... TO BE CONTINUED!!!

NYC day 3&4

SATURDAY:

It was a rainy day, but thankfully we had tickets to the Museum of Ice Cream at 10 am. The MOIC is essentially an art installation and experiential museum with loads of free ice cream/snacks! (well, included in the price of admission!) I'm glad we got there early because it got crowded really fast! 

Art installation

Sprinkle pool

After the museum we ate at Grey Dog for lunch and checked out Washington square. It was a cloudy day and raining on and off so we didn't stay out too long. We stopped at Levain bakery and then hung out at the hotel until dinner. 

As we were hanging out in the room, we found two amazing finds! By chance, we found this really good ramen restaurant called Momosan, which is where we ate dinner. AND we found this thing called The Summit which was right by our hotel! We raced to get tickets and managed to get a booking for later that night. 

The Summit is THE BEST way to view the NYC skyline!! 

 

We had a really great time and there were lots of fantastic photo opportunities! 

SUNDAY:

We started the day off by visiting the Vessel. It's a structure and visitor attraction built as part of the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project in Manhattan. It has 154 interconnecting flights of stairs and looks super cool! Unfortunately you can't go in it anymore because of the number of suicides. 

The Vessel is right by an entrance to the HighLine. The Highline was not around last time I was in New York.  It's a park, greenway, and rail trail created on a former NY Central Railroad spur on the west side of Manhattan.  It's absolutely beautiful and it's a nice walk with plenty of beautiful lookouts!

We had reservations for Top of the rock at 1pm. It was a nice view of the city, but I think I prefer the Summit ! I had never been here before so this was something new for me!

Our final adventure was the Friends experience. I've always liked the show, but not a super fan.  This place had a whole bunch of set recreations for photo ops and they also had original props, clothing, etc. from the show and it was fun to explore. 

I loved being in New York with my FRIENDS! I honestly wasn't sure what to expect since I haven't been to NY in 10 +years. I had heard from a number of people about how dirty New York has become and how there are needles and trash in the streets. I didn't see any needles and I didn't think it was too dirty. (At least where we were) 

Before our trip I was a little worried about crazy people. I've seen news stories about people getting pushed on subway tracks, random acts of violence, etc. but we didn't have any problems. I was always alert and watching my surroundings, but I never felt unsafe. I'm grateful for such a fun trip and, yes, I still love New York.  We had a great itinerary and 10/10 would do it again!

NYC Day 2

FRIDAY:

Kelli and I woke up early and went to the 911 memorial and museum. We got to the memorial pools around 8:30am and had the place to ourselves. We were able to walk around without facing crowds of people, which was nice. Our tickets to the museum were for 9am. 

Memorial Pool. Brian David Sweeney was a passenger on Flight 175 when it was hijacked and flown into the South Tower.

Weeks after 9/11, a single Callery pear tree, which became known as the Survivor Tree, was discovered buried in rubble at Ground Zero. It was burned and badly damaged, but it still showed signs of life. Workers rescued the tree and it was transported to a park where it was tended to and cared for. Over the years, it grew from eight to 30 feet tall, sprouting new branches and flowering in spring. It was returned to the 9/11 Memorial plaza in 2010. It is a living symbol of hope and resilience, which is the ability to recover and bounce back after facing change or difficulties.

The museum was... a lot. It was a lot to take in. 

In the beginning I was reading everything, but as I got further in there was just SO MUCH.  I didn't realize how MASSIVE the museum was. A lot of thought and detail was put into it and it was very well done.

These words are part of a larger art installation in the 9/11 Memorial Museum created in 2014 by artist Spencer Finch, titled “Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning.”   Every one of the 2,983 watercolor squares is its own shade of blue – one for each of the 2001 and 1993 attack victims – and the artwork as a whole revolves around the idea of memory. Our own perception of the color blue might not be the same as that of another person. But, just like our perception of color, our memories share a common point of reference.

One thing I *didn't* like about the museum was that there were so many things to see and no direction about which way to go. I wish they had arrows or something on the floor guiding people through the exhibits. I also think that would help with traffic flow.  

After a while the museum takes a toll on you and, towards the end, I had to start skipping over some things. I think I was in there for around two hours, but I imagine you could spend more than a day there if you really wanted to read and see everything. (They also have audio tours and private guided tours)

After the museum we went to lunch at El Vez which was about a 5 minute walk. I don't particularly care for Mexican food to begin with, but this place had decent reviews and I think the other girls liked it. It was "fine" for me which I think would equate to being good for other people. (HA!)

We had ticket reservations for the Statue of Liberty express water taxi at 2 pm. I think at this point it was raining/sprinkling just a tad. It was a little cloudy for my liking, but you can't control the weather! (sigh) This particular tour was only about 50 minutes - and you don't get off at Ellis Island or walk the grounds at the Statue. (We knew this going in and it was part of the reason we picked this tour)

I liked the tour, but the audio on board was just background noise. It was too loud (at least on the top deck) so you couldn't hear anything.  I didn't particularly mind one way or the other -I just wanted to see Lady Liberty. Overall, I would recommend this tour if you're looking for a quick and easy way to see the Statue.  

When we got back on land we walked to Funny Face Bakery. (About a 2 minute walk from the pier) OH MY GOODNESS... They had really good fresh baked cookies! I had a sprinkle cookie and it was delicious. (Later on I also tried chocolate chip and smores!)

I'm so glad we had Kelli with us because she is the one who suggested all the food/bakery places and photo spots! 

Dumbo was next on our list. (Dumbo is a neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn)  There was a really great photo op of the Manhattan Bridge and Dumbo was such a nice place to walk around! There was something called TimeOut Market which had a bunch of dining options and there was a carousel! 

We had such a nice time exploring and I think our itinerary was pretty solid! It was a great second day in New York!