Lots of Gyros

A Happy Belated Valentine's and President's Day to you.

Michelle and I have been in Greece now for about 2 weeks and are off to India tomorrow! Tomorrow is also our 4 month anniversary of traveling. We're already 2/3 of the way done which is nuts.

Random news, we received a comment on our blog the other day from a fellow at a Turkish travel site. In short, one of our posts is now featured on their site. Give it a looksy here:

Ephesus:
To backtrack a bit, our last stop in Turkey was Selcuk (the home of Ephesus). Selcuk is a delightfully small town, and because it is the off season there, we basically had the town to ourselves. We had a few, very uneventful days there, but really enjoyed seeing the ruins, giving a mini-sermon in the amphi-theatre, and going on some bike rides. Below are some photos of us enjoying the ruins and a brief preaching moment.





Oh and this last picture is of us trying out the public latrines, that were sometimes visited by up to 50 Ephesians at a time. We're not 50 men, but we made our presence felt.


We also forgot to upload this lovely little video from when we went exploring in an underground city in Cappadocia.


Athens:
Our first few days in Greece were spent wandering around the streets of Plaka, the Acropolis, and sitting upon Mars Hill. We also began a marathon of eating anything and everything wrapped in a pita. This mostly included gyros. Pork, lamb, chicken, you name it. Plaka is a really quaint neighborhood, that is lined with tons of beautiful old homes, shops, cafes, and hoards of gypsies with their gypsy children. Greece also has lots of great doughnuts and other pastry goods. Not to mention two new flavors of Fanta never before experienced: Lemonade and Mandarin.


Nafplio:
For Valentine's Day, we took a jaunt over to the ancient capital of Greece, Nafplio. Unbeknownst to us, it was also Carnival. This was a nice surprise for us as we got to enjoy parades, concerts, and masked Greeks. We also enjoyed a gigantic crepe that was covered in chocolate, honey, and almonds. My oh my was it delicious. We were only in Napflio for a short time, but it was a short time filled with lots of memories and smiles.




Santorini:
After Nafplio, we boarded a ferry for one of the Greek isles, Santorini. The island itself is the remnants of an old volcano, which makes the geography absolutely stunning. Santorini is also home to the famous blue domes, white-washed homes, and towns built into the cliffside. From a distance, you'd think the mountains/cliffs were snowcapped. Alas, they were small, peaceful towns.

While in Santorini, we celebrated my birthday, and my was it a fun one. We rented a snazzy Kia Picanto to cruise around the island, and spent most of the day eating or napping. Aside from gyros, we took a liking to chocolate filled croissants. Thankfully our neighborhood grocery store provided them in packets of 3, for only 1 euro. Beautiful. Michelle also gifted me with various acrostic poems, and drawings. It was certainly a birthday for the memory books. Here's a highlight video of all of the food we ate, as well as some photos of the black beach, red beach, and Santorini in all its glory.






So tomorrow we are off to Mumbai. The plan for India is to travel north to catch the Elephant Festival on February 28th (elephants playing soccer, elephants in a tug of war with humans), and then the Holi Festival/Festival of Color on March 1st and 2nd.

Our internet may be a bit sparse, but we love hearing from you back home when you have the time.

We love you all and God Speed.