Greece

 I have had one amazing summer!!!  After the school year ended, I turned my attention to getting ready for my European adventure.  On June 14, the adventure officially began....at 4:00 am.  Since we were a group checking in at the airport we needed to get to the airport early, so me and the other leader were waiting for our students at 5:00 am.  We got all checked in and eventually got on our flight to Atlanta, from Atlanta we boarded a flight to Amsterdam.  Long Atlantic flights always make me a little nervous, because I know I most likely won't sleep.  After we boarded and took off, we were informed that in entertainment system was broken and they would have no movies or anything to help pass the time.  So...eight hours in a middle seat staring at the seat in front of me.  After the longest flight of my life...we arrive in Amsterdam, we get ready for our last flight to Athens, Greece.  We FINALLY make it to Greece and have to wait a little bit longer as another group was arriving soon after us.  We get on a bus and head to the hotel and meet our tour director, Kostas.  Since we had four different groups in our one large group, day one was a pretty easy day, well as easy as it could be after 24 hours of travel.  We got our room assignments and then went off to the beach.  Our hotel was only about two blocks for the beach, we were all excited to get to go swimming in the Aegean Sea.  This beach was beautiful, but very different from the beaches I am used to on the Atlantic or even the Pacific.  Instead of sand, the beach was rocks...ROCKS.  You did not want to walk along the beach feeling the sand between your feet.  In fact you didn't want to take off your sandals at all.  The rocks made it different, but going to the beach in Greece was still AMAZING!

                                                        Look how clear the water is!!!


Our hotel was not in Athens, but in a town right outside of Athens.  So day two meant going to Athens and doing your typical Athens stuff.  I was looking forward to this day most in Greece...I teach about Ancient Greece every year and it was a dream to go to the Parthenon and see all these amazing things first hand.

Our Taylorsville group.  The Parthenon was breath taking...like literally.  I could not believe how amazing and beautiful it still is.

The next day, we went on a one day cruise to three different islands.  We went to this island, Hydra that was your typical Greek island.  They had no cars on the island.  The only modes of transportation were donkeys and bikes.  I of course paid to take a donkey ride around the island, it was pretty cool.

 Our view of Hydra as we docked the boat...beautiful.  We continued on to two other islands before we returned to mainland Greece.  On the last island, we again went swimming, but this time after I got in I soon got stung by a jelly fish.  So I got out and went and got some medicine from our cruise ship.

The next day we headed to Corinth, Greece...as in 1 Corinthians.  I was awesome to sit in this ancient city and read some passages from Corinthians.  I know it is a little nerdy, but cool to me.

I didn't want to overwhelm everyone with pictures, so I hope these few are enough.  Adventures from Italy to come soon.