Chicago
 

 
 

The End, again


Getting to the airport was quite easy. We tried to see Big Red on the train ride in, but we were unable to spot him. Hopefully he is happy, and exploring the Greek countryside with another couple on an adventure vacation. We had a transfer at JFK in New York, and can I just say that that airport completely sucks. I think 6 international flights all landed at the same time, so there was 1200 people all trying to go through customs at once. Tons of them had to be moved up in line (ahead of us) because they were late for their connecting flights. But they had Burger King there. I got cheeseburgers, with No Fries.

When we got back to Chicago, I didn't eat french fries for over a month and a half. I eat them much much less than I used to as well.

The End

Lin-Wei's Notes & Observations

  1. Athens was a lot more cleaner and fun then I thought. I heard all bad things about it, that it’s dirty. But I loved it there. Great ruins and lots of hustle and bussel
  2. I drank a lot of fanta orange and lemon soda, and now I am addicted
  3. French fries in olive oil are not very good
  4. The ancient cities seem very small b/c when you walk through the ruins, it took a short while. But the towns were a lot larger b/c non stone structure did not survive
  5. I wish I had grown up in Europe so I could play in old ruins all the time.
  6. We saw a lot of roman ruins that was intermingled with Greek Ruins. It was hard to tell the difference in my untrained archeological eye. Also we saw lots of ruins of Venetian fortresses built on roman fortress built on ancient Greek fortress.
  7. Wow! History!
  8. On the mainland of Greece, there were a lot (I mean a lot!) more Germans tourist than English speaking tourist. Regardless, all menus/service providers were in English, though they really should be German b/c there were hardly any English-speaking tourists. On Crete, there were a lot more English speakers and Americans, and less Germans.
  9. Everyone on the mainland spoke English (lucky us), but on Crete less so.
  10. I really like olive paste. Yum!
  11. I can’t believe I actually went to Greece and saw history and all those old rocks. I always wanted to goto Greece since I was a kid, since at least the 5th grade.
  12. I was very, very, very sad that we were not able to get to Santorini or any of the Greek Islands everyone talk about but we will goto those Islands one day. Next time in Greece, to the islands!
  13. In almost most of all the ruins (especially SW Greece), there were a lot of wild, red, poppy flowers. It was beautiful.
  14. When I first arrive in Greece, I had a hard time remembering to put all my bathroom tissues in the trash cans and kept accidently put them in the toilet in the beginning. When we got back in the states it took a few days to get use to putting the paper down the toilet.
  15. I thought it would be warmer in Greece. It was in the 60's and 70's most of the time. In the shade it was too cool, but in the sun, it was really, really hot and intense. The Mediterranean sea was very cold to swim in.
  16. One thing I learn visiting Greece, was that there was alot of Venetian influences, especially forts. The Venetian Republic occupied a large portion of medieval Greece.

So, did you actually make it to the end? You also deserve a medal...

-Al

If you're still yearing from more, check out our Pictures from Greece.