Dust and Dusk in the Desert

I've been a busy bee lately. I had two weeks to recover from Greece, and then I returned to the Nevada desert, this time to see the burning of the man. There was dust. There was music. There was beauty and joy and art; art above all.








(taken by Crystal)









I got back a few days ago, and tomorrow I return to the desert for one last trip to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. Apparently I can't get enough of Nevada.

Greek Cyprus

Latchi Harbour

The last installation of vacation pictures takes us to Cyprus, where I went to visit a Cypriot college friend for a few days while my family stayed in Athens.


Monastery in Agia Napa

Christos took me all around the Greek part of Cyprus, which has been independent from the British since 1960. The Turks invaded soon after (the mid-70s) and the capital of the island, Nicosia, is the last remaining divided capital in the world (until recently there was a wall through the city).


Latchi Harbour

We saw all of the major cities on the island and had lots of water-based adventures in those three days (there was little sleeping).


Latchi Harbour


Monastery of Machairas

There were also a few beautiful monasteries in the mountains and along the coast. We stopped in two of them and heard monks at evening prayer and enjoyed the deep shade.


Monastery in Agia Napa


Monastery of Machairas

There was delicious food to eat, as one would expect. We ate home-cooked food the first day and yummy leftovers the rest of the time, along with fish meze (which is basically like ordering a little bit of everything, seafood-wise).


Fish meze at Latchi Harbour


coast between Nicosia and Polis

The island of Cyprus is beautiful and harsh; it was at least ten degrees hotter than Greece. Thank you Christo, for a wonderful trip!

Oia by the Sea-a

This is what I thought/hoped/dreamed that Greece would be like. I loved Athens, but when I got to the city of Oia (Ee-a) on the Island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea, my hopes for the vacation were realized. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I've put them in a series, let me know what you think.




(photo inspired by my SistA)

Baby Dimitri in the town of Larissa

From Athens my seven traveling companions and I took the train up to the city of Larissa, where we attended a wedding and christening. It was a two-for-one; my cousin got married and her 6-month old baby boy got christened all in one two-hour ceremony.

The countryside, from the train

Larissa was a great little town, with much of its charm coming from the fact that no one there spoke English and we had to use the small amount of Greek that we had already picked up (most of our vocab had to to with food, so we got by).


Larissa

Here's my little cousin, Dimitri. He's just about the cutest little guy you've ever seen, so happy all of the time. Except when he was covered in olive oil and being dunked in water. Not so happy then.



Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the wedding. Why, you ask? Because at that point I was already so fed up with people in my traveling party taking photos of every single second of the vacation, that I rebelled. Poor timing on my part. But don't worry, I picked the camera back up soon after that, and there will be more photos to come.


The church where it all happened, the night before.

Athens Graffiti

The graffiti in Athens was awesome. I took lots of photos, and through a little web research I've found some of the artists' names.


This one is my favorite by far


alexandros-vasmoulakis, 10/4/06


This artist promises that "the next will be better." I had to take a photo because of what the monster guy is saying.


a close up of the photo above



My dad argues that an artist who uses public property as his/her canvas cannot be respected (or at least, that was his attitude). It's defacement, not art. I could not disagree more. Graffiti like this adds a new level to my experience in a city. It's a form of beautification and I will take the crappy scrawling along with the inspired pieces any day. Free art rocks.


Dreyk the Pirate? (far left)






The Krah, 2/21/06

Original Home of the Olympics!

We began and ended our trip in Athens, a city that completely charmed me. I could definitely see myself living there with a balcony full of plants, eating souvlaki and Greek salad in an outdoor taverna every night. We spent our time in Athens doing typical touristy things. We visited the Parthenon and other temples on the Acropolis, went to Delphi to see the temple of Apollo and hear the story of the Oracle, and shopped and ate expensive dinners. It was a good city to bookend the trip.


Athens during the day, from the Acropolis


The Temple of Athena Nike, on the Acropolis


Propylaea, gate or entryway to the temples on the Acropolis


Athens nightlife in the Plaka district


The Temple of Apollo, at Delphi


Part of a state treasury, at Delphi


Miscellaneous "antiquities," at Delphi


Bronze statues in The Delphi Archaeological Museum


Athens at dusk, from Lycabettus Hill

Greece teaser

I'm home from Greece and trying to sort through everything. Here are a few pics, just to wet your whistle.

The Temple of Athena Nike, on the Acropolis, Athens, Greece


Latchi Harbour, Cyprus


Larissa, Greece