Monday, June 25, 2007

Cat Stupid and More Pictures

Sorry this took so long. Cat was stupid. First she made us take baths - both of us, even though I wasn't nearly as dirty as Snibbly. It was not fair. Though she didn't put me in the dryer and she did shove Snibbly in there - heehee. I got to air dry. Anyway, after that, she started work at camp, and then the computer was off most of the time during the day and Cat was tired and crabby at night, so we didn't get to play on the computer. Grr. We're in K-town now, checking up on the apartment and paying bills. It's kind of creepy - no one's here but us (Snibbly, Cat, and I) and the My Little Ponies. Clem and the bigger animals stayed at Mr. and Mrs. Cat's Parent's house.

So, without FURTHER ado, Greece Pictures Part 2:

Our first picture is from Mycenae - Supposedly this is where Agamemnon was buried. Not sure about that, but it was the grave circle of a very important dude. So important that later generations extended the wall to included it in the settlement - something that the Greeks usually didn't do. They liked to keep dead people out of their cities. So that they made and exception means they revered the dead here big time. They found at lot of stuff here. It's in the National Museum. I didn't see them. I'm okay with that.

This is in Nemea - near where the Nemean Games were held. They were kind of like the Olympics, or the ones held in Delphi, except they were done in honor of some dead kid. Anyway, this is the Temple to Zeus there. It was cool because you could actually walk on the Temple. We're inside the Temple in the picture, but it's hard to tell.

This is us at the Venetian Castle overlooking Nafplion. It was cool because you could climp all over it and there were murder holes and blind alleys and arrow loops and other cool things like that. There were seven separate towers that were supplied separately and had to be taken on one at a time in case of siege. It was a defender's heaven and an attacker's nightmare. Cat wanted to spend more time there, but no one else did, so she couldn't. She wanted to find how to get to all seven - instead she only could play in two. It was really hard to find how to get around - everywhere there were places you could see (and they could see you) but you couldn't see how to get there. Cat said that was part of the defensive thing.

This is at the other Venetian Castle - the one on Acrocorinth that wasn't as cool. This is part of the main keep. Behind Cat (who's taking the picture - duh) is like 10 feet and then a huge drop down to the plain below.

This is us and the plain of near Corinth. We're on the top and on the edge of the arch things you can see in the other picture. It gives you an idea about how high up we were, right? Cat didn't have too many problems with heights on the trip, but this was one of the times she was kinda nervous. We all got up and down fine (though Cat kept throwing us in the bag up or down. She said it was so we didn't get in her way. Hrmph.)

This is us in the Theater at Epadarus. You can sit at the back and hear things perfectly that are going on on the stage! On of the girls in the group sang "Build Me Up Buttercup," and we all heard her perfectly. One of the professors dropped a coin at the exact middle where the sound is the best and we heard it in the back row. It was pretty neat.

This is us in front of a smoking sulfur vent on the volcano place on Santorini. It was the closest thing to real volcano-ness we saw on the whole island. That and a lot of black rocks. Snibbly and Cat thought it was really cool. I thought it was kinda lame. No lava. Snibbly got really dirty here, because he kept leaping about, trying to look at things on his own.

This is us on the boat. See the volcanic island is in the middle of Snatorini's bay - Santorini is shaped like a crescent in case you didn't know. Cat says it has to do with the volcano thing. Something about the last big eruption that was a long time ago. Anyway, to go where the sulfur vents are, you have to go on a boat, since it's on a little black island in the middle of the crescent.

This is us and the little black island that the volcanic stuff is on. Far in the distance on the left, you see the southern part of the crescent. Beyond the bigger black island is a smaller one that Cat says is older, but still newer than the eruption, and an even smaller, older island that is the same age as the crescent. Cat says the little island used to connect to the crescent - so the cresent was like a big donut almost. There was still a little opening for the sea to come in the middle of the donut. Cat says they know all this because of the rocks, so I should respect them more. I still say they're boring.

This is us and Fira. It has pretty houses. They're all done in white and blue for waterproofing. Seriously. Everyone's like - oh, they're so pretty, so exotic, but really, they have to put paint on every year for water proofing and white is cheap, so they use white. They don't have a freshwater source on the island, so they collect and purify rainwater from all flat surfaces. That's why it has to be waterproof.
Here's us and the sunset in Ia. It's supposed to be really awesome. We thought it was way to crowded to be awesome. But that's alright - sunsets are pretty anyway.

That's it for our pictures. After that, we went back to Athens, shopped for the next day, and then got up really early so we could be at the Athens airport at the butt-crack of dawn. Cat was sleepy and her ears hurt on the plane ride. Then it took her a really long time to readjust to the time difference back at home. We visited with Cat's Grandparents - we'll be visiting them again soon for the 4th of July. Her Grandpa's doing well - he's doing things he's not supposed to and annoying her Grandma and everything! For the 4th, they'll be able to drink the wine Cat bought for him in Santorini.