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Athens 01
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Anna outside the Agora, in Athens. The Agora was the central meeting area in ancient Athens, and much of it has been excavated. You can see the Parthenon and Acropolis in the background.
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Athens 02
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Anna above an area that had been excavated.
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Athens 03
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The Church of the Holy Apostles (obviously post-dating Athens' heyday)
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Athens 04
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Overlooking one of the ancient theaters that has been excavated.
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Athens 05
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The Parthenon, atop the Acropolis
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Athens 06
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Anna said we were going to the Acropolis, but where's the pizza?
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Athens 07
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Looking out over Athens
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Athens 08
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Anna and Treb, Parthenon, east side, AD 2002
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Athens 10
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Athens 11
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The Acropolis viewed from the south. We hiked up this deserted hill, away from all the tourists, and had a great view of the Acropolis.
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Athens 12
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Mounument atop the deserted hill
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Athens 13
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A statue of the Roman Emperor Hadrian
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Greece 001
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Rooftop bar of our hotel
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Greece 002
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Sunset from the rooftop bar
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Greece 004
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We took a 10+ hour ferry ride the next day to Leros. Note the all the clouds in the sky--we didn't see a cloud all week.
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Greece 005
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Another beautiful sunset that can't be captured on film (or with electrons)
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Greece 007
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First day of our sailing voyage. We sailed to the east side of Leros and moored in this harbor in Panteli. Anna and I hiked up the hill overlooking the town to visit the castle. Dinner that night was at a beachfront (our tables were almost in the water) restaurant called Psarapoula.
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Our boat (the Anna Maria) is the largest there.
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The castle we were climbing to (way in the distance). Despite an arduous uphill hike in 90 degree heat, we didn't get in--it was closed.
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Same area
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Anna took the helm on our voyage from Leros to the island of Arki.
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On the island of Arki. What you see is about half of the structures on the islands.
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One of the MANY blue-domed churches on these islands
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We climbed up to the top of Arki for sunset
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On Wednesday we sailed to Patmos, the "happening" island in the area. Thursday we shopped, swam, kayaked, and watched the World Cup. Thursday morning we took a cab up to the monastery high up on Patmos.
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The monastery dates to the 11th century and is named for St. John (who wrote Revelation on Patmos).
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Outside the monastery
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On the sail from Patmos, Treb had the helm--30+ knots of wind, 4-5 foot waves washing over us, two reefs in the mainsail, and the genoa only 2/3 unfurled. That's sailing! (Anna went below to get the cameras during all this and bounced around like a pinball! At one point she was hanging sideways off the ladder, holding on with one hand and trying to take a picture with the other.)
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Marathi. Three families lived on the island--two had tavernas with little hotels. The tavernas served a lot of boaters.
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The taverna that we went to on Marathi had an incredible atmosphere. It's amazing what people can create almost in the nowhere.
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You can see the taverna and hotel here. The taverna is under all the trees--incredible place!
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Coming in to Lipsi, here are two of the blue-domed churches on the island. There are 40 more not in this picture!!!!!
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Anna with the two churches behind her.
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Blue-domed churches (the island is owned by the monastery on Patmos and has established these churches)
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A cute little church in the town
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Eating lunch on Lipsi at the "internet coffee" (funny English translation of 'internet cafe' when no translation was needed)
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Looking out over the Lipsi harbor from the 'internet coffee'. The winds were very strong that day so we didn't sail any more.
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I loved the local Greek boats!
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Anna meeting the 'locals' on Lipsi
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Looking north from Lipsi. Those are some of the islands that we visited earlier in the week. The prevailing winds in the Aegean, especially during the summer, are from the north, so most of the north sides of the islands are empty.
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Boreas was the Greek god of the North Wind (aurora borealis, boreal forests)
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The goats couldn't take pictures, so we had to do it ourself
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The town of Lipsi
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There are seven churches in this picture (although it's hard to see them all at this resolution). We really liked all the churches.
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Pirate Matt (our captain) and his first mate Jill. Matt is from Plymouth, England; Jill is from the Netherlands.
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"What do we do now?" Craig and Heather had just quit their jobs in London and are now backpacking around the world (well, Greece, Turkey, Thailand & SE Asia, Australia, and New Zealand). Then they're heading back home to the US to resume their life in the real word.
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The six of us! Matt, Jill, Craig, and Heather were great sailing buddies and friends.
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