Well, I'm back from vacation and back into the swing of things! 

I am including some photos of my trip on this page, which I hope you will enjoy. 

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Here ----> is a photo of my son and I on top of the Acropolis, with Athens behind us --->
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Greece was wonderful - although we had to deal with a heatwave of temps over 105 degrees on a nearly daily basis.  There were horrible wildfires, one in particular destroyed nearly 10,000 acres of a national park near Athens.  This is something that they are saying will change the climate in Athens, which is already very smoggy most days, for a Century if not more.  Very sad news.  What is even sadder is that they suspect arson from developers eager to build housing units on some of that land.  That was tough to hear.

But, other that the oppressive heat, the trip was truly wonderful!  It seemed to go so quickly! 

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<----- The Parthenon at the Acropolis.
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There are definitely some things that made me appreciate home and the good ole USA a bit more:

1. Toilet paper that you can actually FLUSH in the toilet!!  They have this horrible tradition there where NO toilet paper EVER gets flushed -- instead, you have to put it in a trash bin.  HARD TO DO if the bin is ACROSS THE ROOM!!

2. Central Air.  Glorious, glorious Central Air.  Actually, ANY air conditioning at all seems like a blessing now.

3. The roads we have.  Our beautiful, beautiful, paved roads.  Sure, we have traffic and gridlock and potholes and tolls - but oh, these glorious roads we have. We actually have traffic signals that we need to obey and are not considered "just a suggestion".  We have guardrails!  Beautiful guardrails!  We travelled on mountainous cliffside roads for hours with virtually NO GUARDRAILS.  That is scary!  And we have shoulders that are not meant to be driven on -- in Greece, the main lane is for passing while the slower cars (travelling the speed limit) drive on the shoulder to keep out of everyone else's way. 

4. Our Animal Shelters, who very generously take in strays to give them a chance at living a life of a domesticated animal -- the streets in most Greek cities are full of stray dogs and cats.  Most of them injured and sickly looking, many of them either pregnant or recently having had their litter.  It was pretty sad.  When carrying some take-out to our hotel room, we would be followed by dogs coming from everywhere! I sort of felt like a Pied Piper.  We never met any mean ones, and would often feed our leftovers to many of them since they were usually allowed to wander around the tables of outdoor taverns and restaurants. 
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The mountain roads! Near my mother's Village ----->
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<-----Yes, we had to DRIVE over those mountains!
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What I loved about Greece:

1. The hospitality -- everywhere we went we met wonderful people.  The best was visting the villages of our parents and grandparents and meeting villagers who remembered our ancestors and told us stories about their lives.  We met a 80-something year old woman who knew my mother in law and her family, and brought out photos of them as schoolgirls for us to see.  That was wonderful - and there were so many wonderful people just like her.  One was a man with a mule who we stopped to talk to, who knew our family well and was so happy to meet the following two generations.

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--------->At my husband's family's village at the *village spring* (yes, REAL spring water!) speaking with the man with the mule --------------->
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2. The history -- I can never get enough viewing places like the Acropolis, or mountainside villages that survived numerous wars, invasions and catastrophes.  No matter how old, where we were, or what the story was, we were surrounded by history. 

3. The scenery -- amazing, amazing sites.  From the islands and the seas, to the thickly wooded mountaintops (except for those mountaintop roads!) the scenery was breathtaking. 

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<---- State of Leonides (The Spartan). Anyone see the recent movie "300"? That's him near the site the war took place in 460 B.C.
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4.  And my most absolutely favorite part of Greece -- the AFTERNOON NAP! That's right!  Everything shuts down in the afternoon at about 2pm.  Retail shops, offices, businesses.  Everything.  Everyone goes home for lunch and a nap.  It's almost MANDATORY!  How great would that be to do that every single day!?!   On days that shops open again - which is not every day - they reopen at about 5pm until 8pm (usually only a few times a week).  In busy cities they might stay open a bit later on certain nights of the week.  But otherwise, that's it.  Now everyone - go home and take your nap!

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------->My mother's childhood home, which she is restoring.
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(Below is my son, at a roadside Memorial for his paternal Great-Grandfather on the road leading to my husband's family village. There is also one next to it for his paternal Grandmother. My son vowed to carry on the tradition, and return to build one for his Father when the time comes). 

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Santorini Island and the volcano that ended the Minoan Civilization
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We've visited Cities, Mountainside Villages, Churches, Cemetaries and Seas.  I hope you've enjoyed my little review of my trip.  I'm now back at work (have been for about a week) and back in the swing of things.  I have a great little condo/townhouse that I've listed upon my return that I will be posting here soon - or you can view it now on my website at www.JeannieSellsLancaster.com .  My partner Bob Wells was so great at covering for me, that two of my listings went under agreement while I was gone.  Now THAT'S what I call A GREAT VACATION!

It's good to be home!

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