Soaking up the beauty of Creation

Santorini is one of those places where you can really see the hand of God in his creation. It is so amazingly beautiful. Today we are getting ready to leave this island and go back to the mainland before heading off to Rome.

The few days we had on this island we have been able to see pretty much all of it. On Wednesday we hired a quad bike and drove that around the Island taking in the sights and stopping every now and then for food, fuel and if the beaches down below looked good enough for a swim (or if they were accessible).

Then yesterday we went on a tour that took us to some of the other close islands that make up the group of Santorini. The story is that all of the islands (there is 5 of them now) we once one big Island that erupted as a volcano and that this happens again and again every 2000 years or so. It was also the site of a big port and trading stuff before it was again destroyed by a volcanic eruption (this is also where the myth of Atlantis comes from apparently). We went to one of the islands that was pretty much all just volcanic rock and got to see how hot the ground was on our feet and then later swam in some hot springs (again hot from the volcano). It was really great to see more of the islands around and when we got back on the main island we took a donkey up the steps to the city which was funny cause they went so fast. We watched another beautiful sunset before making our way back to the hotel. Again another beautiful day.

Here's some pics

xxx

Sunset on Santorini

Mykonos

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The historical city of Athens

Here are some of the photos taken during the day we spent wandering around Athens...

Greece

Unfortunately my last post that I wrote about Athens didn't publish for whatever reason. Last Friday night we arrived in Athens and stayed there for 2 nights where we had the opportunity to see some of the wonders of such an ancient and historic city.

This included getting lost, looking at a really interesting archeological museum and then wandering through the ruins of the acropolis and the surrounding archeological sites also. It was really amazing to be standing on the grounds of a building that is so old. The acropolis is even mentioned in the bible, that's how old it is...

From there we went to Mykonos a beautiful Greek island where we could soak up the sun and the wonders of God's creation. A little holiday within our big holiday. The place where we stayed was run by a beautiful Greek lady named Maria who had very limited English in her vocabulary, and looked down over one of the beaches on the island. We could even watch the sunset out of the door of our room as it went down over the sea. It was a beautiful break from everything including technology and the Internet :) (not that I think that Jemma would wholeheartedly agree about the break from Internet :P)

Now we are in Santorini another beautiful island. We got here today so we haven't seen that much apart from an amazing sunset. But it most certainly is beautiful

xxx

Ps. As the iPad doesn't let me give the pictures captions i might upload a few separate posts of photos so you know where they are all from

On the road again...

It's Sunday today. Unfortunately we find ourselves on a ferry travelling to one of the Greek Islands. Not my choice of a way to spend a Sunday but the ferry is quite relaxing and we do have wifi and some sermons to listen to while we are in transit. Jemma organised a tour for us in Greece that takes us through a few of the Islands, its great cause just the transport and accommodation is organised and we can do what we want on the other days. Unfortunately we didn't realise that with the travelling from place to place is that we would be travelling on a Sunday when there is the choice not to... still we can relax with the sea below us. I've been able to get up to date with my journal (properly up to date) and now I am getting everyone reading this up to date too :)

After ANZAC day we had another day with our tour guide who took us all over the battle fields and the sites of Gallipoli. We went to "Brighton Beach", the place of the intended landing of the ANZACs and saw that it was actually possible to get to the high ground with ease especially because the Turks were waiting for landing elsewhere. Then to Anzac cove where we could seethe steep incline and cliff faces that the ANZACs faced during landing. We also visited the different cemeteries from the battles, even saw the grave stone of Simpson (the man with the donkey), at the request of our tour guide I read his story unfortunately substituting the word donkey for monkey providing amusement if nothing else. We went to the location of the battle of Lone pine, the ridge that is in the last scene of the Gallipoli movie where they keep sending more and more men over the top (I cant remember the name of it), the high ground of Tunic Biar, and even saw the remains of the trenches. It was a really beautiful area with all the trees and shrubs that had grown over the top, so hard to imagine all the horrors of the war that went on, yet still you were standing on ground that so many soldiers had died on.

It was a really really great experience. I learnt heaps and it was just really moving to actually be on the site that we think about each year. Following an amazing lunch of fish, we started the 5 hours bus ride back to Istanbul. We had a flight booked for 8.55 to go to Athens, when we asked about getting to the airport our tour guide nicely organised that we would have a private bus ride for half of the trip back and would be dropped off at the airport right on time. That was great. After being on a tour for a few days with the same group of people, you get to know the people in the group. When we left we said goodbye to everyone and I heard someone saying that 'the girls' are going (being the only single young people in the group that obviously became our name :P)

Being so full of Gallipoli and everything that happened there, I found it hard to get into the mind set of Greece. But here we are now. On a ferry to one of the Islands (after spending some time in Athens). I've put up photos from Gallipoli and will write another post on Athens.

xxx

Accents and ANZACs

ANZAC Day. That one day a year when Australians all get up ridiculously early and attend a dawn service somewhere in their area. We attend the service and think back on all the Australians (and New Zealanders) who have fought and died for our country.

In Turkey this wasn't really any different. Only instead of waking up super early, we didn't really sleep and camped out at the sight of the service and some of us had to travel quite far to get to the service. It was cold and really challenging to get any more sleep than that which we got on the bus earlier (it didn't help that there were some really loud snorers right in front of us).

Despite all that, commemorating the ANZAC legend on the very point that it was born is an experience that cant really be put in words. Standing on the site where so many people had fought and died heroically for our country and being surrounded by others from all over Australia is a memorable moment. A moment that makes you proud to be Australian and one that makes you really realise what it means that you are Australian.

It has been amazing to hear the Australian accent. I hadn't realised how much I missed hearing people speak in the right language and now almost everyone you talk to has the same accent. It's amazing to find so many people from your own country gathering together for a significant event on the other side of the world.

xxx