this sounds like the guy is going around killing poachers and honestly, valid

I showed this to Komi and Imp and said it's like I was in Canada. Imp shot back "I don't see a Tim Horton's" which yeah, how dare they forget that with the majestic mountains panorama

okay dokey, peace out, see you guys in like half a day in Europe time o/

have a safe flight!

am in Amsterdam just straight chilling (metaphorically and literally cuz I'm chilly) cuz we got a 3 hour layover and nothing to do, have an elephant

there were also lots of tulip things cuz Netherlands but my brain was not up to taking pics. I did not sleep on the plane ride over due to reading fics, and now must pay the price

AH I FORGOT TO SAY THAT IT WAS BUCKY'S BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY he is now six years old and still tries to beg for food in this way (I say "tries" because my family knows that anyone who feeds him at the dinner table will suffer my wrath ◉‿◉)

I'm on a boat and~
It's pretty big and~

the halls were narrow and trippy though

I just realized that I brought my Yor red dress (it warm) and am on a cruise ship... Gonna ask my mom to take pics of me in that later lol

Athens!

the tour guide had a whole lil section talking about how Greek statue asses got better over time lol

Volos!

don't ask me about the two headed dragon decked in Christmas gear because I don't know

Thessaloniki!

This one had a lot more pics mostly cuz I was able to explore more areas with 2 different tours. One was a bike tour with a local, which was A Mistake because my butt is very much not happy with me now (the last time I was on a bike was prob about 2 decades ago?)

fun fact: that pot is meant to hold (a good amount of wine). it was discovered being used as a funerary urn, so some dude prob REALLY loved to drink and asked for his ashes to be put in it after death

Random things I learned/heard over the course of 3 days so far
- Athens is the same latitude as California apparently, which explains why I'm not freezing quite as much as I was afraid of
- Greeks are Religious AF, 97% are Greek Orthodox and there's a whole ass portion of Greece that's only for male Greek Orthodox monks

- Greece loves tax evasion lol
- Also there is a lot of graffiti on all the towns I've been to so far, some of them being anarchist symbols or protest things (pretty cool)
- Found out why Istanbul is Constantinople now (mishearing of the word lol)

The two headed dragon is a Christ-mera

Guide: Saint Nicholas in Greece isn't Papa Noel, he is the patron saint of semen
Me, internally: I beg your pardon
Guide: It's why the symbol at the top is painted blue, as an homage to seamen
Me, internally: Ohhhhhh

gaisce: no

day 4 was just sailing on the sea and I was freaking miserable
will post the few pics I was able to take later

Tol + rocky waves: Fun to look at! Fucking miserable to go through if you get bad motion sickness, which I didn't realize I had until that day. :|b

we weren't even allowed on deck to take pics/videos, which was understandable but also would have been the only thing that would have made me happy while I was dying

Turkey! Specifically the bits that weren't just cute fuzzy babies

Fun fact: The ancient Ephesian library (2nd pic) was right across the street from the brothel (3rd pic) and there was an underground tunnel connecting the two, if you wanted to be sneaky

Another fun fact: Those statues are actually copies of the original statues; the originals are in the Vienna museum, cuz the British museum isn't the only one that just takes shit

Turkey was the most aggressively commercial city we've been to, holy crap. Tbf, we were at the port where tourists were and haggling was encouraged for that stuff, but still.

Anyway, mom bargained down a dude selling a leather (maybe) wallet and belt from 85 euros to 55 euros. And this is why I shut up and don't say anything when in China shopping with my mom.

Rhodes pics were pretty much all inside a medieval city, which they labeled Old Rhodes

Fertiferti was basically the Italians going "first!!" in comments, but on a wall

Uhhhh notes I wrote down for Rhodes
- Palace was for the grandmaster, which collapsed a while ago due to an earthquake and then a freaking gunpowder explosion
- Windows used to be made with alabaster rather than glass
- All the arches cuz more stable, which is important cuz Greece also has all the earthquakes
- Rhodes didn't get electricity until 1962

Okay, now on to Santorini! Our tour was in Oia (pronounced Ee-uh) and we had a stop in Thera (main city). We had to take a tender boat to the port, cuz our ship was just chilling to the side of the caldera

Notes on Santorini
- There are like 600 churches in this island (building with blue domes)
- Off season means no retail therapy but does mean nice pics without too many people in the shots
- Santorini donkeys are apparently a thing
- Their wine is pretty famous, but this year's crop wasn't great cuz they got rain this year (freaking climate change)

Crete!

Not too many pics cuz mom and I just did a beeline towards the harbor and back

Aaand Nafplio, our final stop before heading back to Athens and eventually home

Notes about Nafplio:
- St Mark lion with a Bible. If closed, made during war; if open, made during time of peace
- Don't know what time, but Nafplio was very marshy so women in their heels and dresses couldn't navigate well, so they had to be carried to the door to the Bavarian king (who was in charge because the previous governor got his ass murdered)

- Fresco on top of the church was a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the last supper (being restored for years now)
- The steps to that castle at the very top are about 800+ steps (mom and I didn't go to that one cuz we were lost, but we went to the castle on the other mountain!)