My Greece Experience by Taylor Canright

15 Days Until Takeoff

taylor_canright — 2019-09-11 02:08:44 UTC

After a year and a half of planing and waiting I am so close to taking a trip of a lifetime. This will be my second trip over seas. It has been about six years since my last big trip. I am excited to have such an amazing opportunity to be able to travel during my last year of my undergraduate.

3 days left!

taylor_canright — 2019-09-22 19:34:19 UTC

Three days left and almost all packed! Now lets hope that I'm not over 50 lbs so I can bring some goodies back!

Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church

taylor_canright — 2019-09-24 00:33:25 UTC

Today we made a quick field trip up to Butte to visit the Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church. The artwork was beautiful to see. They have an original Tiffany's & Co. Stained glass window 😍 learning about what to expect when we get overseas was very helpful! This time tomorrow night I will be on my way to Bozeman for the night in order to take off early Wednesday morning!

taylor_canright — 2019-09-25 04:16:54 UTC

The beautiful view Keynon and I had on our drive to Bozeman tonight! We are about to head to bed and be up at 3:30 to shower and get ready for our very busy day!

taylor_canright — 2019-09-25 12:19:41 UTC

First leg of our trip is underway! About to take off from Bozeman! See you all again in Salt Lake City😁

taylor_canright — 2019-09-25 14:06:39 UTC

Made it to SLC now off the plane and straight to our connecting flight to JFK! We are in need of food, coffee and a nap! 4 1/2 hour flight next!

SLC-NYC

taylor_canright — 2019-09-25 20:20:48 UTC

View from the plane

taylor_canright — 2019-09-26 10:44:22 UTC

We made it! Athens has been been very different than we expected. We have some much needed down time before we go and walk around. After that an early dinner and early to bed!

Athens

taylor_canright — 2019-09-28 14:47:30 UTC

Sorry for the late update we have not had wifi since yesterday morning! Yesterday we went on a tour of Athens it was really cool we got to see the temple of Zeus and the Acropolis where the Parthenon is. The Parthenon is the temple dedicated to the Goddess Athena! Talk about amazing architecture work and history! We walked about 5 miles yesterday.

Good morning!

taylor_canright — 2019-09-28 14:51:03 UTC

This morning I woke up to this beautiful sunrise! We took an overnight boat to Create last night! Fist time I have been on a boat this big as well as spending the night on a boat! Our cabin was extremely small for for woman and their luggage...it was a tight squeeze! It was worth it tho Create has been beautiful!

4,000 year old olive tree

taylor_canright — 2019-09-28 14:56:20 UTC

After we spent and hour bus ride to our first Monistary on a windy road and getting so sick🤢 we had another hour ride on the same windy road to the oldest olive tree in the Mediterranean! This tree is 4,000 years old and still to this day produces olives.

Fun fact #1: Ripe olives are black and non ripe olives are green!

Fun fact #2: Olive trees produce olives every two to three years!

Monistary

taylor_canright — 2019-09-30 04:06:58 UTC

So yesterday we went to our third Monistary two with monk residence and one with nuns. This one shown below has been favorite! The architecture is Italian influenced wish is something I love! The inside was massive and everything was gold! This Monistary still flys an old tattered German flag from WwII. There is also graffiti from Natzi soldier in the walls as well. It truly was a sight to see! We are visiting another one today.

Zorba's Beach

taylor_canright — 2019-09-30 04:49:05 UTC

Yesterday we also went to Zorba's beach where the 1964 film Zorba the Greek was shot. It was absolutely beautiful and it felt really good to get some sun in!

Monday September 30th

taylor_canright — 2019-09-30 16:45:28 UTC

Today we were on the bus a lot we went to another Monistary and to where the famous artist El Greco lived in the country side! There was a lot of beautiful sites today!

Wine and Olive Oil

taylor_canright — 2019-10-02 19:54:40 UTC

One of my favorite stops today was something like a farmer's union. We learns that about 4,000 ( give or take) grape and olive oil farmers that all put their product together to make wine, olive oil/soap, lotions and etc. We got to see the first few steps of wine making and tasting it! Below are some of the grapes that a farmer unloading his product gave to us.

Fun fact: The population of Greece is 11,000 and 5,000 of those people live in Athens. Helps put in perspective how rural this country is!

Beach Time

taylor_canright — 2019-10-02 19:58:02 UTC

My first favorite part of the day was swimming! Today we got to swim in the Libyan Sea! It was so warm and I just would lie on my back and float with no effort at all because of all the salt. I could have stayed there forever and not left!

Minos Palace

taylor_canright — 2019-10-03 20:15:27 UTC

Today was very laid back we traveled to go visit King Minos's Palace from the monistian time period. It was really cool to see what is left of this amazing structure!

Beach, Beach, Beach

taylor_canright — 2019-10-05 11:18:17 UTC

I am seriously loving all of this sun!

Oh My!

taylor_canright — 2019-10-05 18:49:06 UTC

Soooo let's just say that my lunch was bigger than my face😂 I do have to say I have tried everything I that has been put in fount of me from anchovies 🎏🤢 to amazing traditional dishes 😋. There has been so much gelato consumption that I dont know if I will be able to eat the ice cream that is in the freezer at home because I am going to turn into an ice cream snob😂

Side note there is a scale on our hotel room and I'm not even going to step on it because I know I have gained 10+ lbs from all of this amazing food!

Dr. X definitely is right when he said the Greek secret to life is good food, good wine, and good company!

Frescoes

taylor_canright — 2019-10-07 05:35:40 UTC

These frescoes shown below are some of the oldest still intact at around 800 years old😳 there is a small OLD church that have them all over the wall like most Orthodox churches. This was really cool because we were able to touch them!

Hey Taxi 👋🏻

taylor_canright — 2019-10-09 16:03:03 UTC

Just took my first taxi ride!

Sparti💪🏻

taylor_canright — 2019-10-09 16:16:47 UTC

So we went on an adventure this morning at 6 AM and tried to sneak into the ruins of Ancient Sarta...🤫 we didnt get very far but just saying Greece Security is not the best 😂 it was a fun time tho🤷🏻‍♀️

Mystras⛰

taylor_canright — 2019-10-10 18:20:11 UTC

This was my view from the top of our hike of the village Mystras! I have to say that this is one over my most favorite adventures ever! The hike up was ridiculously steep. It's hard to believe that the kings and queens and the high class were carried to the palace where this picture was taken. Men had carried them on a type of platform up the steep rugged cobblestone streets. Definitely one of the most rewarding hikes I have ever done.

Hercules 💪🏻

taylor_canright — 2019-10-10 18:30:45 UTC

Today we went up to a village that I can't remember the name of. It was tucked away in the mountains with beautiful views all around. At the archeological site we saw the stadium that was dedicated to Hercules. I have an amazing picture that sadly wouldn't load so I went with this one!.

Tonight we are staying in Olympi and will be going to the site of the ancient Olympics in the morning! I have been looking forward to this part of the trip! Being able to see where the Olympics started and why and all the history 🤗 girl in a candy shop right here! I hope to get lots of pictures 📷

Olympia

taylor_canright — 2019-10-11 20:42:39 UTC

Today we went and saw the ancient ruins of Olympia where the first Olympics were held. We got to run on the original track as well. This was one of my favorite things we have done because I love the Olympics and hearing the history behind it and seeing where everything started was SOOOO cool!

999 Steps

taylor_canright — 2019-10-11 20:44:57 UTC

Hiked up 999 this afternoon and it was hard but fun!