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Trip Start Aug 12, 2007 Previous
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  Athens, Greece
Monday, September 24, 2007

Well, well, well...we travelled 3700km in 6 weeks!  No wonder my tush is sore...I need a chiropractic adjustent in a bad way!  We didn't waste one moment with Daan.  We saw all the sites, followed every "what's that over there" impulse, discovered ruins, saw an ancient Roman Aquaduct in Moria, that was spectacular!  We made connections with so many people.  The people on this island are so friendly and welcoming to visitors, especially the 2 foot variety of travellers...the children loved visiting and shopping, they recieved such warm greetings from everyone we came across.  The amazing thing about this island, is (I'm sure I've mentioned this before), it is so safe, day and night, and there is never any yelling...no one raises their voices, and everyone smiles and greets everyone...we felt so at home.  We think we visited every nook and cranny on the island, except the many hiking trails all over the island!  Sophie and I attempted one day, made it 15 minutes into the trail and turned back....neither of us could carry Princess Shubalaka (who doesn't "do" walking!)....unless it's to go to the hot Springs of Eftalou (we went 5 times with Daan)!  So, with Daddy, we had a routine of waking up early, having Nutella on fresh bread from the bakery down the street (Sof got us hooked on Nutella, the children had only tasted it once, it has now become a staple of our diet!), and packing the car for a new adventure.  We discovered a new beach everyday, expect the times we revisited our favourites.  We found some secluded totally private beaches with incredible sea life, shells and rocks.  The young man who gave us the tour of the Natural History Museum in Sigri was so informative, he answered all our questions with patience, and an amazing way of conveying his knowledge in a way even Shubalaka could understand, although Katie and Mack got the most out of his explanations.  After this visit, we were able to identify volcanic rocks, magma formations, understand the term "petrified", and the significance of finding fossils of animals and plants in articulation...Mackenzie can explain this to those who are interested....as well as much more than I've retained I'm sure.

We found turtles in 3 different ponds, watched them sun themselves, and climb over each other to get our cookie crumbs.  Katie and Mia were so angry at the big turtles who didn't give the little ones a chance...having to see "survival of the fittest" in action was difficult for them...they tried to devise plans to find ways of pushing away the big turtles, while attracting the little ones...luckily, a Fanta on the beach and playing with children at the playgrounds took their minds off this difficult lesson in life!  Mia's thrill the 2 ties we went to Skalla Erressous was hitching a ride on daddy's back, and staring at all the naked sun bathers!  Daan asked her if she was looking at all the tetes, and hse nodded yes...Mack and Katie were very cool, took a few glances, then busied themselves with picking up pebbles on the seashore.

Sof, turns out the "rock at Petra" isn't the one in the sea, it was a church sitting on top of a huge rock, in the middle of the cute part in Petra!!!  I don't know about you, but I never even noticed it until Daan said, "have you visited the rock at Petra yet?"...figures!  So, we walked up the 144 steps to visit it, and treated ourselves with a gelato for our hard work...because although we never sat down at the beach (at least Daan and the children never sat!), walking outside a beach was a little new to us!

I highly recommend this island to everyone, young and young at heart.  There really is something for everyone!

We ate at excellent restaurants (lunches and dinners were always under 30€ including beer and sodas)...we ate very well. Oh, we bought the BEST steaks ever from our butcher, grilled them on our rinky dink bbq, with real charcoal...mouth watering!

I'm so glad for Daan, he really got a chance to relax, reconnect with the children and I, and eat some decent food!

Thanks for reading about our travels, that's all from Lesvos...well, I could go on for days, but I shouldn't exagerate!

Love to all,
Mylene

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