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If you notice brownouts in the Blackrock area of Dublin over the next 2 days it's because I'm doing non-stop laundry...those of you who have visited or who live here will understand...
While in Greece we toured Athens for a few days and then sailed out to the Greek island of Santorini. If you pay attention to international news you may have seen the clip of the cruise ship that sank there last week - read about it on CNN's website at: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/05/greece.cruiseship.ap/index.html
It was crazy to watch, the ship completely sank during the night. We didn't know any of this as the only immediate news about the ship was all in Greek. The 2 english speaking news stations that we got on TV didn't pick up the story right away so it took a while to get any details. The day after we watched people being unloaded we noticed the ship was gone, little did we know at the time that it was because it was totally underwater.
Here's a map of our island stay in Santorini to get you oriented. 
We stayed in Fira which is at the center of the island shaped like a backwards 'C'. Santorini used to look a lot different, it only had one very small channel to the sea with a small water filled caldera in the center of a ring shaped island. Then about 3600 years ago the (inhabited) island experienced a violent volcanic eruption where the 2 major channels you see today were formed. After the big explosion the smaller islands in the center of the bay started to form, but didn't do much until the 1800s when the bigger of the 2 became very active and grew considerably. The last eruption (these are slow, thick eruptions) was in the 1950s.
We stayed in Fira which is at the center of the island shaped like a backwards 'C'. Santorini used to look a lot different, it only had one very small channel to the sea with a small water filled caldera in the center of a ring shaped island. Then about 3600 years ago the (inhabited) island experienced a violent volcanic eruption where the 2 major channels you see today were formed. After the big explosion the smaller islands in the center of the bay started to form, but didn't do much until the 1800s when the bigger of the 2 became very active and grew considerably. The last eruption (these are slow, thick eruptions) was in the 1950s.Other locations to note - the cruise ship that sank started out in the water just below Fira and was moved just a little bit south, between Fira and the port of Athinios, where it finally sank completely.Oia is the town at the northern end of the big island. That's the first town we saw when coming in on the ferry and is also where we first saw the tilting ship.All of the beaches are on the 'outside' of the island, or the east side. The fantastic cliffs face in toward the bay and the new islands that are forming.
Arriving on Santorini we were delivered directly to our hotel. This is the view looking south from our hotel. 
You can see how all of the buildings just tumble down the cliff face. There's a street at the top of this hill and some more on the backside, but everything you see here is accessed by pedestrian or donkey routes. Your hotel lobby is normally up on the street and the rooms go down the hill. Our first room was a great, quiet room that was WAY at the bottom of the steps. Physically I'm still OK with a lot of steps but these were really small, very steep, and often slanted and damp (stone steps). Travis played his pregnant wife card (used a lot on this trip) to get us a room higher up. Not as quiet, but a very nice room that was less nerve racking for both of us to get to! You should see how Travis' reflexes have improved since I've become an expectant mother. He grabs at me every time I trip or stumble (which was often even before I got pregnant and he never seemed to worry about me then :) ).
You can see how all of the buildings just tumble down the cliff face. There's a street at the top of this hill and some more on the backside, but everything you see here is accessed by pedestrian or donkey routes. Your hotel lobby is normally up on the street and the rooms go down the hill. Our first room was a great, quiet room that was WAY at the bottom of the steps. Physically I'm still OK with a lot of steps but these were really small, very steep, and often slanted and damp (stone steps). Travis played his pregnant wife card (used a lot on this trip) to get us a room higher up. Not as quiet, but a very nice room that was less nerve racking for both of us to get to! You should see how Travis' reflexes have improved since I've become an expectant mother. He grabs at me every time I trip or stumble (which was often even before I got pregnant and he never seemed to worry about me then :) ).
Our new room! It was so cute. It's the one at the top of the flight of orange stairs. You can see our green shutters that are open. We had our own private deck, it's just to the left. You might be able to pick out the wood supports that held the canopy over our little piece of paradise.Our rental car! 
We rented a car for one day to check out the rest of the island (all 25km of it) and to see the beaches. If you've seen the movie 'A Good Year' the tiny SmartCar is referred to as a rollerskate. We truly understood that line after driving around in this car. It did, however, have a surprising amount of power. Likely not difficult to achieve as there isn't much car to motor around.P.S. If you haven't seen 'A Good Year' it's a surprisingly good movie.
We rented a car for one day to check out the rest of the island (all 25km of it) and to see the beaches. If you've seen the movie 'A Good Year' the tiny SmartCar is referred to as a rollerskate. We truly understood that line after driving around in this car. It did, however, have a surprising amount of power. Likely not difficult to achieve as there isn't much car to motor around.P.S. If you haven't seen 'A Good Year' it's a surprisingly good movie.One of our stops as we drove around the island was Oia. At the main port on Santorini, Athinios, there is a road from the sea to the top of the cliffs. At the port in Fira there is a path, donkey trail, and a small cable car. At Oia, if you want to get from the harbor to the top of the cliff, where most of town is, you have to hoof it. There is a road that wraps around the northern edge of the island (which is how we got down there) but it's a really roundabout way to get to town.
For all the pictures, click on the slide show to get it started:
So, Greece was fun. I'm looking forward to my trip home, it seems a lot of people have been heading home lately and it's been fun to have my own trip to look forward to. I'll miss Travis like crazy, but this trip will be shorter than my one alone this summer. Plus we've got the cheap international phone call system up and running so it will be easier to actually talk to each other.
The exact reason for the name of the bridge has been lost in the mists of time, but various authorities will attribute it to massacre in the area about the time of the 1641 Rebellion. There is a path nearby which is the beginning of what is known locally as the "Brandy Pad", which in years gone by was the route along which smugglers used to bring barrels of brandy into County Down. Ships would secretly land the barrels near the Bloody Bridge at dead of night, and teams of smugglers would carry them through the mountains to Hilltown about ten miles away. From there the brandy would be distributed all around Ireland.
Legananny Dolmen in County Down, Northern Ireland. Dolmens can be found throughout Ireland, they are appx 5000 years old and predate the pyramids at Giza in Egypt. It's believed that they are a type of tomb, under many dolmens the remains of ancient people have been found. Engineers should take note of the tiny points on which the top stone rests. It's absoultely stable and the point of contact on one stone is only about an inch square.
There is a legend attached to the dolmens all around the island. Grania, an Irish princess, was betrothed to Fionn Mac Cool, an older king. However, she fell in love with Dermott, a handsome young warrior, and they ran away. Finn pursued the lovers across Ireland for years. Legend is they lovers slept on the dolmens, making them magical places even today.
As you can see the wall has been added on to several times, the lower level is concrete, the middle layer is corrugated steel, and the top is wire fencing. Our driver told us that the fencing was a recent addition, as in the last couple of weeks. It really drove home to us that while the Troubles have definitely subsided there are still major cultural differences that are unresolved. The wall also includes automatic gates which close at 6pm every night and remain closed all weekend long.
It was at this point in the trip that Emily was pretty sure Dave had abandoned us. We were watching him drive away, and you could see the road for several miles in the distance. However, while in the middle of conversation, she and I both looked up and couldn't see the truck anywhere! Emily blurted out, 'Where the HELL is DAVE!' Moments later he emerged from around a small bend in the road, but for a moment we all thought we might be in for a really long hike!
This is about where Dave and I met up with the 3 super hikers. Travis was pretty sure that Dave was letting me stand too close to the edge of the cliff. As you can hopefully see from the photo there are 2 little specks that look like their toes are hanging over the cliff, that's me in the blue and Dave in the black. It was a little payback for all the times Travis perches in treacherous places and I stand there holding my breath! (don't worry, we weren't as close to the edge as it looks).
