it's not all greek when you have a tour guide!

so yet another case of getting off the plane and having someone hold your hand throughout the entire country! i got to paige's late friday night and we left early saturday morning to go to Santorini... google image it right now. it's seriously heaven on earth. and i thought i uploaded some pics and posted this all already but apparently it did not load... o well.

we basically wandered around the island eating and drinking and just soaking in the beauty. with the occasional hitch-hiking and cliff jumping just to keep it interesting. then back to athens on sunday night!

athens was super fun and it was great to be in a big city. there is so much with the acropolis and the new museum... and it was cool to pretend to be paige and "work" and hit up her favorite spots. i really, really liked the city. i got some greek paraphernalia including these great sandals that were made by the poet sandal maker. he's been making these kicks and writing poetry for like 5 decades and the beatles and Jackie O have been to him. i definitely got the same ones as she did. just so you know.

ok well i'm actually in spain right now but my greece post didn't go through. so i'll add more later. right now i'm just killing time by myself in Barcelona. not a bad place!!!

Bulgaria... the truth

obviously did not poste the most recent one... more details and a more accurate account to come.

like how Billy is camped out on the beach. and not doing anything productive. but i like this country a lot!

Bulgaria...

Billy is the best.

The end.

So it's been a rather jampacked week and sometimes my brain feels like mush every night because I feel like I'm learning sooo much. I don't even know why the US bothers to teach history- we have like 300 years and this area has like 4,000 years. Kinda funny.

Anyways... I'm not gonna list everything I've seen or learned because just assume that if it's of importance and it was in Jordan or Israel, I've been there and learned a lot about it. And if you want to find out more, I'll gladly sit down and make you look through all my pics and listen to my shpiel (probably incorrect spelling. just use phonetics, folks).

Jordan was absolutely incredible! The country (arab and muslim if you were wondering) ranges from extreme desert to a coastal city on the Red Sea and everything in between. But my most favorite thing was Petra. Pictures and words will not do this 30,000 person ancient city justice. It is UNREAL!!! The buildings are beautiful and carved out of the side of the mountains. The entire city can be protected by 2 archers since the only entrance is through the main seek (a long, narrow path between steep cliffs that is about a mile in length). And they've only discovered a fraction of what is there- they are working on uncovering an olympic size pool and waterfalls-- remember, this is in the middle of the desert where annual rainfall is less than 2 inches... and we think our generation is sooo smart. We are idiots compared to these people!!

So I'm back in Israel and touring the holy sites and every body of water... the Dead Sea was really interesting since you literally float on top of the water because it's super saturated. And we're staying at this really neat old Scottish hospital on the Sea of Galilee (actually a lake if you were curious) for the next few days. I'll definitely add some Israeli pics soon since I know you're DYING for updates!

Shalom!

I'm in Isreal right now... sorry no pics to upload. For some reason the "smart net" kiosk in the lobby doesn't have a usb reader- not so smart are we!?!? Well I am back in Tel Aviv today; my mom and I have been in Jerusalem for the last two days. It's a really interesting city, and this country is unlike anywhere I have ever been! It's so nice in some areas and they're trying to build new shopping malls yet the highways are completely blocked on both sides and there are checkpoints everywhere to prevent attacks. There are kids in army garb bearing uzzis everywhere (like shopping, dancing, eating, everywhere). It's also ineresting because it's the center of so many religions and sects so you will see people decked out in the robes or religious uniforms of every variation... something tells me they have official names but I'll have to get back to you with those.

My brain is so full from trying to figure out all the differnet countries that have possessed and time periods present in Jerusalem's history. Everyone seemed to conquer, destroy/remodel, and build so there is ridiculous amounts of history and shmorgusbords of architecture. Really cool. We mainly just walked the ramparts of the wall (that means up on top of 'em for all you educationally challenged friends) and through some areas of the old and new city. We are meeting up with the rest of the people tonight for dinner in Tel Aviv and then we're doing the hardcore touring (all the holy sites, Petra, and such) from here on out.

So this will be a lot more educational and packed with random Israeli facts soon. One parting observation is the incredible passion that these people have for their country; every taxi driver, waiter, bell boy, etc is so stoked for their country and will tell you ANYTHING you want to know about it. Their pride is really impressive and somewhat contagious.

Oh and today I got to layout and swim in the Mediterranean Ocean... kinda puts Galveston and Port A to shame (sorry, Erin). Wish you all were here!