Athens to Istanbul

After the best night train i,ve experıenced to date ı,ve arrıved safetly to Istanbul. I managed to get my own room for the traın and even though ıt was 20 hours ıt went by pretty fast and ı got some good sleep. Immıgratıon and customs at 4am also went super smoothly and wıth my track record that made my trıp. I.m now at my frıend Okan,s house who I met ın a summer French course a few years back. Yesterday we wandered one of the many cıty centres (ıstanbul has about 10 centers and a populatıon of 15 mıllıon) and last nıght we went out for a proper meal wıth hıs sıster and frıends that lasted a bottle of Rakı and about 4 hours. Wıll be here for about 5 days and then the plan ıs to head south for a week. Im doıng my best to learn some Turkısh and learnıng so much about the culture and faıth over here, will be brınıng a lot of ıt home wıth me.


Vıew of the Blue Mosque and a few others.

Coffee at Istanbul,s waterfront. In Europe lookıng across to Asıa.

Was so good to hang out wıth my famıly ın Greece and ı can,t belıeve ıt,s already over. Thanks so much you guys, I had a ball and wıll be home agaın before you know ıt! xo Allıson p.s. please excuse the typıng... turkısh laptop.

Week 3 - Nafpaktos

We have left the big city behind and headed South to Nafpaktos, the hometown of my sisters landlord from Toronto. She invited us to stay and we are now setup in our own little apartment from where we've been taking our rental out on adventures in the surroudning countryside. This is us with Effie (landlord) and her daughter Rena on the beach about a 5 min walk from our apartment.

Athena sanctuary at Delphi. Yesterday we drove out to Delphi, where Greeks and Romans used to travel to to seek the advice of the oracle. A very hot and beautiful day.
View over Delphi, ruins of the temple where the oracle sat, which was thought to be the center of the earth.
We are here in Nafpaktos until Monday morning when we head back to Athens, mom and dad hop on a plane home and I catch an overnight train to Istanbul to meet my friend Okan for two weeks before heading back to Melbourne! Much love, Allison!!!

Roberts Family Getaway in Greece - Week 2

Santorini
We spent the last 4 days of our island hopping adventure on beautiful Santorini. This is the capital, Fira, this island is thought to be where Atlantis was, it was incredible, all built up along the cliffs with the land saved for farming. The buildings looks like snow when we were approaching by boat...

Our second day we took a boat out to explore a volcano, the one who's erruption would have destroyed Atlantis.
Sunsets at Oia, this was the big thing to do on Santorini and was worth the close-call-almost-running-out-of-gas-on-a-twisty-mountain-road-covered-in-fog adventure that followed.
Bells and views of Pygros, a beautiful little proper Greek town built at the top of a hill.

Ancient Thera, after a big climb we were rewarded with more amzing views and the ruins of the ancient capital thought to be more than 2500 years old.

Athens We had our last 4 days in Athens. Lots of ruins, lots of history, and lots of kebabs. In the background of this picture you can make out the Parthenon up at the Acropolis, which we were about to climb in 35 degree weather...
Temple of Hephastus at the Ancient Agora.
Views from the top of the Acropolis back down over Athens.

Hanging out with friends on the roof of our hotel downtown, that's the Acropolis lit up in the distance.
Changing of the guards.
Shopping in the busy streets of Athens.
After saying goodbye to Sar at the airport the three Roberts' that remained then rented a car and headed south.

Roberts Family Vacation - Week 1

Day 1: Athens to Mykonos. After meeting mum, dad and Sar, we boarded our cruise ship and set sail. The Roberts family vacation in Greece has officially begun. The ship is great, about 8 floors, 4 decks, 3 pools and massive buffets.
First stop Mykonos for sunset.
More sunsets and a view of our cruise ship in the background... not too shabby eh?

Sunsets over the city.
Streets of Mykonos.

Day 2: Kudasi, Turkey & Pamos.
We stopped in on Turkey Tuesday monring (as you do) and visited the ruins of Ephassus, ancient city from 200-50 BC, this was a highlight for us so far, super beautiful. It was a bit rainy in Patmos and we were only there 2 hours so I'm not posting any pictures.




The 'theater', able to seat 28,000.

Watching someone hand knot a carpet is unbelievable, I thought crocheting took time, these take 6 months to a year to complete.

Day 3: Rhodes
We spent the whole of Wednesday exploring the walled city of Rhodes, it was beautiful, little cobblestone type streets winding into each other, old windmills, old towers and fortresses.

St. Paul's Gate at Rhodes.

Days 4 - 7 - Crete. For the last 4 days we have been exploring Crete. The Palace of Knossos was something to see (2000 BC) as was the cave where Zeus was said to have been born. We rented a car for 3 days, checked out some beaches and had our first bit of proper relaxing.
Knossos, check the views!



This is the climb to the cave Zeus was said to have been born in... waaay back when.


A bit of a road block. We started calling these lovable mountain creature Gheep because we weren't sure if they were sheep or goats....
A well deserved beer after doing a bit of off-roading in our rental... an adventure to say the least but we're all still in one piece!

A market in the capital.

A fort on the North Coast, built by the Turkish in about 1500. The Turkish and Greeks fought over Crete for more than 1200 years.
mmm church bells.
Proof we've been in the Aegean sea.

Lunch by the sea.
Tonight, our last night out in Crete.So, tomorrow we're off to Santorini for 2 days before heading back to Athens to exlpore, we're all doing well and more to come as usual!