all good things...

as we all know, all good things, must come to an end. the week was full of fun, laughter, encouragement, and well, simply more laughter! thanks girls for a GREAT vacation! i love you! ... this is my sad face that i took at the airport...

helpin' suz...

my most favorite part of the trip (honestly) was helping suz out at the center. she needed help getting all of these bags of clothing (PIC: upper right hand) organized. we sorted and sorted... after the 2 hours we had, we were able to WALK through the room! good job girls!

the acropolis.

when in athens, go to the acropolis. although, be warned: it may not be your favorite place. honestly, i am glad that i got to visit this incredibly historical and well-preserved place; however, i would like to have visited it with a little less than the rest of the human population! i don't know how many cruise ships docked the day we visited, but if i could guess, i would guess A LOT! even though Mars Hill is only a rock, it was still pretty cool to stand there (pic in lower right hand corner). the herodian theatre was also pretty cool. they still have shows there, so it is obviously well preserved.

nafplio... simply deserves more pics.

well, i decided that the previous blog just didn't do justice to this beautiful place... so here you go!


a view and a rest.

isn't this a cool pic... don't mind the head in the lower left hand corner.

this place used to serve as a prison. it is an island.

Nafplio... incredibly beautiful!

nafplio: the first capital of modern-day greece. the cutest little greek town. so quaint and quiet.
there's castle at the top of a mountain. you can climb or drive there... we wanted the ultimate experience, so we climbed... ALL 1,000 steps! i felt really strong after this!


the beginning... step 1.

a view from one of our rests!

a view from the top...

isn't it neat?

the canal and corinth...

we drove about 40 minutes from athens to see the canal and corinth. the canal was so neat! suz told us that 'amazing race' had bungee jumped there, and we really wanted to try it... unfortunately, it was BYOBJC (Bring Your Own Bungee Jump Cord) Day... we forgot ours... SO, we headed to corinth to see walk some streets that paul had walked... the pic of me and the what looks to be a fanny pack, but don't fret... it's just my camera case... could i LOOK anymore like a TOURIST! ha! anyway, that pic is of me in front of the temple of apollo. then in there, there is a pic of what looks like a castle on a hill...that's acrocorinth, where the temple of aphrodite is... basically, prostitutes lived up there, and would come down into the city of corinth to 'work'... the group shot is taken at the top of acrocorinth... it has a GREAT view from there!

Louise-Estelle... please don't miss this.

i have thought about this moment more times than i can count. i have told this story to the best of my ability about 5 or 6 times. and now, i am going to do the impossible.... write about it. please, please... don't have any food or drink in your mouth at this time, for IF you can totally grasp this moment, it will come out....
::sigh:: here goes...

so, we decided to take a break, sleep in, and do some souvenir shopping in athens. suz took us to this much visited tourist shop in the center of town. we had already hit up the h&m and the zara's, so it was time to do the tourist thing ;)
the shop didn't have any doors... it was in a building, but you didn't need to open a door; you just simply walked in. there were two different areas or parts to this shop: the t-shirt part and the rest of the souvenirs. they were connected by a door, that had a step. (are you picturing this yet?)
we all walked in to the shop. katy and amanda stopped near the front of the store that had postcards and other odds and ends. suz and i continued to stroll through the store (i am beginning to laugh thinking about what is about to happen...).
we walked between these two shelves into another walkway. suz was right behind me. i spotted the section that had books about greece in russian. naturally, i began to gravitate towards that area...
when out of NO WHERE i hear this scream. this mind-blowing, heart-stopping scream... it could have defied death.... it could have shaken the earth... this scream was from the BOWELS of a person... i froze, looked up, and in a moment that seemed as if it extended WELL into eternity, i saw this woman coming towards me... i had three thoughts, all at the same time: a) the woman was crazy, and she was going to kill me; b) she was having a heart attack and she needed help; c) there was a bomb in this store, and we were all going to die.
after the world stopped spinning, the moment came to an end. the woman stopped screaming, looked at me, and said, 'i am sorry honey... i missed that step.'
i swallowed, and stared at her in shock and fear and replied, 'th-th-that's ok.' i blinked and looked around at everyone staring at me. many thought the scream came from me. then, i thought, 'where is suz? i need to find my friends!' i turned around, and through the cracks of a shelf, i saw suz and her gorgeous hair shaking... she was obviously laughing hysterically... the shock began to cease, as i felt little chuckles escaping from my mouth... i walked around the shelf to find tears streaming down suz's face in laughter. i clasped my hand over my mouth as i began to laugh so hard tears were streaming and my knees were beginning to buckle!
suz began, through laughs and the gathering of her breaths, to tell me what she saw...
what suz saw: she saw us walk around the corner... then, the moment extended into eternity. the woman tripped over the stair, began screaming, and as she was trying to regain her balance, she reached out for me... but, out of fear, and not servanthood, i stepped aside, probably causing the woman to scream louder as she had to regain her balance on her own.
i would say that's all of the story, but then, katy runs up and asked, 'what happened? i just saw two african women running from the inside of this store!'
louise-estelle, as we have fondly named her, created panic! the remainder of our time in that store did not go without looks and giggles from our fellow shoppers... they, too, were amused by the moment.