Cricket Graff

Traveling the world with my mom for 4th grade...

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Two Day Bus Tour With a YouTube Star

Athens to Delphi to Meteora and back to Athens. 

I left Naxos… so sad. But I’ll look at the bright side… I have new things to write about!!!!!!! 

Sooooooooo….. I got to the hotel and wow,  it is like a palace!!!! I call it Hotel Fancy!!!!! Our room has two rooms in it!!! A bed room and a livening room!!!! Ooohheeee I’m likening it here!!!!!!

So, the sad thing was we only got to stay at Hotel Fancy for  one day before leaving early in the morning to start our two day bus tour!!!! Good news is, we came back to Hotel Fancy where we are meeting Daddy tomorrow!

Now for the tour.  We had a bus driver named Socrates and the tour guide was awesome! She spoke in French and English but was Greek.  We met a lot of great people and one was a YouTube star!  The crazy thing is she gets money by doing that and that is how she is paying for her trip!!!!!!!!!!!! Look at the photo of her below.

Ok, I am going to rap this up with some history and more…

This is Hotel Fancy! 

View from our room!

A Greek Wedding at the Acropolis! We watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding on the tour bus.  

We left Athens early on a big tour bus heading for Delphi!








They call Delphi the naval of the world! 

This is the YouTube star that was on the tour with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She was very nice too.I

Next stop was the monasteries near Mateorea. We visited two.  One was easy to get to and one was way high up with lots of climbing. Only one monk lived in the high one. No pictures allowed too.  

Here are pictures of some of the monasteries in the area. 



This is the first one we went to.  

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The pulley!

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No photos allowed. So pretty too. All covered in the stories from the bible. We got to hear about how the paint stayed on the plaster. 

Water kept here first and later wine.

See the clouds and the monk!

They had a very funny bathroom at the first monastery. Mommy said it’s monk humor. 

Next one…super hard to get too but everyone made it.  Even Socrates!


View from the 2nd monastery. 

We went to a great place for lunch!


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Our tour group!

Socrates!

Back to Athens! Hope you enjoy the graffiti and more!

This man sells hot  chocolate!

And this is selling coconut water from the fountain. Piper, this is for you!




This one is for Yoyo!


Hope you liked it. Well, I have to go to bed. We will be up early to meet Daddy at the airport.  Can’t wait!!!!!!!!

Bye!

Three Weeks in Naxos is About to End

Hi, guys!!!! This is going to be a long blog with lots of fun stuff. There are going to be sad stuff like our beach restaurant is closing down!!!!!!!!! But the good thing is I leave the day before they close down for the winter. We leave tomorrow! We go to Athens and to some places in the middle of the country to see ruins and monasteries. Then we meet Daddy!!!! Then we meet G and Papa in Italy with Daddy!!!!

Great news! I met a friend. She is so fun. And her name is Sadie. She is from Canada and is also travelling with just her Mom. Her dad is in Nepal climbing Mt. Evereat. Sadie and I are going to be pen pals!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday Sadie and her mom came to stay in our hotel!!!!!  They were at a hotel next door. It is even more fun to have her at the room next to us. We give each other notes under our doors. Look, we are talking from porch to porch this morning!!!! 

That is Sadies room and I am right next to her!!!! 

So, let me tell you about my fun times.
            

The next photo you see is our hotel. That hotel has a great beach reataurant and everyone who works there is family and so great to us. The hotel is super fun. And the owner gave me a big blanket for my toys!!!!!! So nice.  I would say she is like G!! Our hotel is small, but nice and clean. I am going to miss it here when I leave. 

The waiter just gave me a gift!!! 123 let me open it.. look at that it is a good treat!!!! Ok, that roof above the restaurant is were the CATS go!!! And Sadie got the treat to. The CATS just sit around everywhere. They are all nice. 

That is what our place looks like.  The waiters and  cooks  are all family!!!! I see them siting down and talking and having fun a lot!! That is the view of the front of our hotel. It is on the side and the restaurant is in the front. We are right on the water. Our balcony is above the restaurant and looks at the water. Really pretty. 

Now that you know where I’ve been staying, let’s go back and start at where we left off in my last blog. The Thompson’s visit and horse back riding!

Here are a few photos of the adventures I had with Sage and Piper!

At the Acropolis Museum, you stand above the ruins of the  old city… We dance above it!


We stayed at a different place for the Thompson’s visit because ours was all filled up. The new hotel, Kalergis Studios, was awesome and right next door.  Mommy and I just moved next door from our place to the new place, but we kept our old room so we only had to take a few things. 

The symbol for pie is everywhere in Greece and mommy likes to take a picture of them all because I am born on 3/14 and we call Piper Pie.  Pie in math means 3.14…..the number goes on and on. Cool.


This is the Venetian Castle! This was a castle built in the 13th century by a Venetian nobleman. It sits up high on the hill in Naxos. The castle is still owned by a family member!

When we went riding with Sage and Piper, I was lead by the man. But the next time I went, I rode all by myself.  It was so fun!!!


Saying goodbye!!! Can you see how it was a little cold when they left? Now we are in swimsuits again!


I was sad to see them go and now tomorrow I will be on the blue Starferry leaving!

One of my favorite things I did was go to a concert at the Venetian Castle.  I told you earlier that it was built in the 13th century by a famous and powerful man from Venice Italy.  Before the guitar player starts, the man in the video is telling us how the walls were built and why the walls make the sound so great for the shows.  The man is related to the people who built the castle in the 13th century and he lives in part of it.  Lucky right. When we went on the tour, the lady that works there was sick and the owner was there so we were lucky to have him show us some special things. He is very happy and I like him. 

This is the stage. It is in the cellar. When the weather isn’t windy, they have the shows in the castle courtyard. They have different shows every night! 

The show was a heavy metal electric guitar player who played everything.  Greek ballads, Beatles and even Cuban songs. 

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Here is a little of the guitar player. 

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And here is the owner explaining why Naxos is the best island in the Cyclades.  I agree!

It’s the largest and most fertile too. 

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After Piper and Sage left, we had some cold weather, but it quickly got great again and I was back to the beach for school work at our hotel’s restaurant called Finikas. 

This cat was meowing and meowing at the grocery store door.  Mommy accidentally got too close to the door and it opened for the cat! She walked right in and nobody seemed to mind. 

My new friend! Sadie! We play every day and sometimes go to dinner together.  Her mom and my mom like each other too. 

The waiter is our friend. He will play soccer with us and this is when he was getting us wet with his hose.  

The sunsets right at our beach and we can see it from our balcony too.  It is really pretty. I am looking for the green light flash every night. I haven’t seen it but Mommy and Piper did. Do you know what the green flash is? The curve of the earth makes the color green flash when the sun goes under.  Only sometimes and only in some places. My Mommy said the  Thompson’s Grandmother took a photo of it on their sailboat once. She said the picture is really great.  


We went riding again! At a different place. They were great! I rode all by myself this time and trotted! We went on a 2 hour ride!


We went to a nice dinner and played with a Greek girl. Sadie makes friends with everyone!

Going to play on the beach for my last day. Bye!

Hard Times But Worth It!

Exciting news! We have guest bloggers! The Thompson Girls…


Hi, this is Sage here. First off, if you consider traveling from the U.S. to Greece it is easy, then you are very wrong. My mom, sister and I traveled from New Orleans to Houston but before that the day before, out of nowhere our flight got canceled. All day in school I was carrying sobs. Thought I still had hope because my mom always finds hope in the darkest places. When I got home from school of course my mom booked a new plane and got her money back. Our plane to Houston was  calm. The Houston airport was gigantic under the airport was a subway. Luckily we had about three hours till the next plane because we kind of got lost, really lost. Now here was our big plane it was really long. Since it was a long plane there was a mini TV for everyone My mom was very stressed out, so I asked her why. She told me that when we got off this plane, at Paris, we would have ten minutes to board the plane to Athens. When got off the plane we were all running! There were a few other people going to Athens. Everyone was talking about a strick starting. Finally when we got to the gate we were 10 minutes late so we missed our flight. Bummer! When we talked to the lady at guest services she kept stalling. Finally she told us that there was a plane in two hours to Lion then to Athens. Well at least we got to Athens that day, it could have been worse. At last! For the first time in a month I saw Miss. Jill and Cricket!

 Hi, this is Piper.  Today I’m going to talk to you about something really awesome that I saw in Athens and you would never see anywhere else.  It is a coconut man! That sounds normal but he has a coconut fountain! Not a regular fountain but a coconut fountain! For one euro, you can fill a whole cup up and for one more euro, you can get a coconut stick that is so good!  Cricket had a piece of mine and she loved it too.

In Athens, we also saw the Acropolis. It was amazing.  At night, when we saw the Acropolis from the city, it was glowing and lite up.  There was also a dark street where we saw lots of tennagers kissing!  Cricket and I were very grossed out.  We held hands really tightly and walked very fast passed the teenagers. 


The next day, we went on a ferry.  It was not an ordinary ferry.  It was gigantic and we walked around it. It was so big that cars and 18 wheeler trucks were inside of it! When we got off the ferry in Naxos, Greece, we walked all the way to our hotel that is on the beach. St. George’s Beach. All the kids got their own room together and the mommies are in the room next door.  I’m pretty glad because it’s great! The hotel is great because it’s right on the beach and we are on the bottom floor so we can just walk a few steps to the beach. It’s probably the must beautiful view.  There are lots of flowers, the water is totally blue and there are mountains right in front of us.  Our porch ceiling is covered in a huge grape vine with grapes! 



Yesterday, we hiked in a village on Mt. Zeus. It was great except I got really tired because I took a Dramamine. I had to take a  Dramamine because we drove there and the road was curvy around the mountains.  Today, we are going horse back riding and I am very excited.  I love horses and the last time I went riding was 2 years ago at my camp, Strong River Camp and Farm.  


I have to go get ready. See you later! 

Hope you liked it! I was calling out some memories to Piper and well, Sage did it by her self!! I missed Piper and Sage!!!!!

 I have to get ready to ride. Bye!!!!!!

Amazing Athens

Wow! It’s like so different  and cool here. Huge! Lots and lots of people, smells, colors. I will write more later. Still waiting for our friends to come. They nossed their flight which was sad,  but Mommy and I had an amazong time exploring around Athens.  When night comes, it all seems to change and get even cooler. 

The Acropolis sits above this super cool area where everyone hangs out. Kindo like the french Quarter, but way bigger with so many different kinds of people. And so many little shops selling all linds of different things. 

We spent a lot of time in this one area beneath the Acropolis. That means city edge. It was way high up and where the first city. Uy their homes. Before Christ! There is a center square and all these streets,  little streets shoot out like the rays of sun. And each street is filled with lots and lots of stores with so many different things. I could probably walk for days its a maze. And no cars. But lots of people. We hold hand because of all the people. And the Acroplolis sits above it all and at night it lights up. 

Ok.  Still waiting for my friends.  

Bye!!



That is the Acropolis high up and behind us. iIt is very pretty at night.


Friends Coming to Visit

Well, I’m on the ferry from Naxos to Athens. It’s a HUGE boat. Takes 5 hours to get there.  I was so excited this morning. My friends Piper and Sage are coming. BUT…

We got notice on the ferry that they missed their flight from Paris to Greece.  They have to fly to Lyon in France to catch another flight from Lyon the Greece. Ok.  I can wait a few more hours.  BUT…

The airport works in Greece are planning to strike. That means there will be no flights co I got into Greece when they start their strike. I don’t know what they are mad about, but I will find out.  SO…

If the workers strike tonight, no Piper, Sage and Mrs. Toni.  If they strike Sunday, we get our friends here.

Everyone! Start your Jedi mind tricks and think NO STRIKE TODAY!  Think safe arrive to Athns for the Thompson ladies.  PLEASE!  Mom says I have a good Jedi mind. She says its quantum something…She says meditate and pray do the same thing.  I just want my friends to make it here. 

Magic Places

Wow, that was a fun day! It seemed to be magical. Let me tell you about it…

Well,  as usaual I woke up and had a long breakfast while I did my school work, I think it was like 3 hours!!!!!! After that went to explore the town and start our fun day!

Ok, we saw a lot of things,but I want to tell you about 2  very magical places we found.

The first place was a store like what I think a store was like in the olden days. It was like going to a store 100 years ago!!!!!! It sold spices, pots, horse whips, brooms, bells, beans and stuff to make all kinds of teas. Huge bags of these things!!!! And this is for G, I found a huge bag filled with lucky beans!!!!!! 

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Mommy is like ‘WOW!’

smelled so good!!!

Lucky Beans For All!

We bought a big bag of these yummy olives and ate them on our walk home


Ok, the next place was a toy store but IT WAS SO FUN! It seemed different than any toy store I have ever been in. It was a toy store ok, I know you are think it is not so not a big deal and not that fun. But this was magic and it was toys when mommy was a kid and when I am a kid!!!!!!! Everything seemed like it would have been made by Santa’s elves and not China. The man who owned the store was so cool too.  He went around and showed us all of the special things. He was so happy to play with us and show us all the things he liked. He played this funky magical music too, and the toys well, you know how the play kitchen is plastic well, it was real here. They had miniature ones!!!! And did you know that one of the first toys was the spinning top!!!!!!!! He had so many colorful wooden tops that this husband and wife make in Austria. I really want to see that country now. We got Uncle Scott and Uncle Eric a box of different sized tops that go from easy to hard.  The owner showed us how to do the hardest one. Mommy couldn’t do it.  We got a magnetic game there too and a wooden yoyo. 


Well, after that we took a walk to a small grocery store, to get some food and we saw octopus in the meat section! We don’t have that in New Orleans! It was so cool .


And well, we walked home and I meditated before I had to get back to work and catch the pretty sunset. It was a good one too!

See you for my next blog. 3 days till Piper,Sage,and Ms.Toni!!!!

Bye!!

Toured the WHOLE Island of Naxos Today

Mommy and I had a fun time on the big bus with lots of people. They were from lots of different places. We had ice cream with a lady from Germany who has travelled everywhere but lives near Bangkok. She invited us to her home when we get to Asia. She was very nice.  
We also talked to people from England and they told us to go to Wales.  

We found out about an old monastery that would fight off pirates with BEE HIVES! That would keep me away too!

They have Emory mines here and send they emery stones to France where factories make them into Emory boards and sandpaper.  

They have lots of marble mining here too. We went to a village made only of marble. It was so pretty and white and sparkly. 

Naxos is the most fertile island of the Cyclades. That means it can grow a lot of things. They have 16 different kinds of cheese that they make here. Yummy! My favorite thing to eat. Mommy says we will go to a little shop in town (that smells real bad) and try all their cheeses. They also have their own kind of potatoes here. Mommy’s favorite thing to eat. And lots of pomagrats! My favorite too.



We saw a lot of temples and statues and churches today. They all seem to be from the 4th century BC.  That’s 300-399 BC. Super old!  Me got to get close to the highest peak here.  It’s called Mt. Zeus and lots of peiople come here to hike it.  It’s where Appolo was raised.  His mom hid him here from his father, Zeus.  

We visited a village that owns their own olive press.  Once a year they gather and make their olive oil the old fashion way.  Olive oil comes from crushing and pressing the nut inside of the olives.  There are 400,000 olive trees on this island. Sounds like a lot of trees but they don’t sell their olive oils like the other places in Greece.  Other places have millions of olive trees and those places send their olive oil for sale around the world.  And did you know that you can’t just eat an olive off the tree?  It has to sit in salty water for two whole months.  The French family we stayed with in September only take 2  weeks to make their olives.  

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We also saw a HUGE old statue of Dionysos in an archaic marble quarry from the 4th century BC. That means that the artist went to the place where the marble was and made the statue there at the quarry. The statue is unfinished and no one knows why it was not completed.  The statue’s feet are done and that means the statue was suppose to be standing up but it was left lying down right where the artist made it.  


We saw a lot of beaches and beautiful blue water.  


And finally back to our place where we finished the day with a swim.  


Well, bye!

Wow! Wish I Could Stay

Hi, sorry I have not written in a long time.  Ok, instead of telling you about my day, I am going to tell you about Alexander the Great.   Well, let’s start reading in 3, 2, 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


Alexander was a prince, but he had one big dream … to conquer the world! If he did conquer the world, than he would be the best!!!!!  Before that could happen, he had lots to learn.  Let’s start with a wedding. 

It was a happy and nice wedding.  However, one of the guards secretly did not like Alexander’s dad, the king, so at the wedding the guard stabbed the King!!!!!! Alexander was so mad, but thought “now my dad is gone and that means I am the king and can conquer the world!!!!!  Now Alexander has to go to war!!!!!! Ok, now I am going to tell you about when he was little. 

When Alexander was 8 or 9, he did not like his dad or as I say, daddy,  his dad was hard on him.  His mom was nice and calm. When he was with a kid learning to fight. He would sometimes loose. The King would be furious. His mother would comfort him. Like everyone in Ancient Greece, his mom believed in lots of different gods.  She believed that Alexander was the son of one of these gods.  Not just any god, but the god Zeus.  Zeus was believed to be the King of humans and gods.  She would tell Alexander that his dad, the King, was mean to him because he was jealous that Alexander was more special and powerful than him.  Instead of Alexander feeling bad about himself, he began to believe he was more powerful and better than everyone else.  This was important because it probably gave him the confidence to try and conquered the world.  Some believe he is the most powerful person in history. I think he was very cool. 

One more ting before I go… did you know Alexander’s teacher was Socrates? Socrates is a very very famous philosopher in the 4th century BC. Wow!  Look him up and you will probably be as impressed as I am. 

Well, I have to go and check out some rooms because Piper,  Sage and Ms. Toni are coming to see me and mommy  and we are getting their room organized. πŸ˜„ πŸ‘§πŸΌπŸ‘©πŸΌπŸ‘±πŸΌβ€β™€οΈπŸ’πŸ»πŸ’πŸ½πŸ‘

Bye!!!!




Naxos!

We left Crete when the sun came up. It was beautiful. We had to take a ferry to Naxos. The ferry was BIG and fancy.  I had no idea becauae the only ferry I had been on was in Mexico. It was a gigantic ship with shops and lots of rooms and a huge outdoor deck. The men who worked on the ferry were so nice to us and were always checking in on Mommy and I. It seemed to take a long tine but really it was less than 4 hours. 


It felt so good to get to our apartment and put our bags down. Mommy and I are so happy to be stayjng her for the next montb so we do t have to carey our bags around any more!!! Our bags are very heavy ans Mommy has to carry mine a lot. I tey to carry my backpack but it gets heavy too. Sorry Mommy. 


Our new place is a famiky apartment. A really nice famiky own ig and they are happy we are here. They have an 8 year son who they want me to play with. He seems very nice too. He likes bozing and his mom wants me to go see hin box on Friday night. Oh boy!

I wish i lived here because the kids all walk around by themselves. Our apartment has a balcony and you can see all the kids running around the street below. Everyone is friends and when they walk by our balcony, they all say hello to us while i was doing my school work on the balcony.

 They also say hello lots to each other and stop to talk in the streets. Everyone really likes each other or they are all very good friends. 


We spent the afternoon at the beach picking up seashells and stopped at a great place on the beach. I had the best waffle with a HUGE pile of freah fruit on top. 



I love Greece so far. And I love ya’ll Peace Out. 

Bye. 

Left France and Now Country Number 3…GREECE!


Leaving the farm was sad, but Greece is awesome! We are in Crete. A very large island with lots of ancient history that I need to learn. The flight here was so great.  Yummy free food on Aegean Air.  Aegean is also the name of the sea here. 


Yummy food!… What did I  say ? I meant yummy FREE food!!!! Most of the other airlines made us pay for food and it was snack stuff. Mommy was so happy because I ate it up even with all of the fancy seasonings on it.  After staying at the farm, I got use to eating lots of things I normally wouldn’t eat.  I feel great about that.  I’m sitting in Crete eating things I normally wouldn’t eat and I love it!  

Day 2 

Ok!! We did it and now, well…we get to have fun let’s start !!!!!!!!!!
Guess were I went? I went at the aquarium!!! We saw lots of sea creatures  fro. The seas around Greece.  We saw sharks, Leatherback turtles, jelly fish, sting rays, sea horses, coral, and lots and lots of fish!  Oh and a very interesting octopus. Some of the sea shells were really really really really really big.  And a HUGE hermit crab too.

Next, we headed back to downtown and changed our hotel.  I love the new one.  It is right in the middle of everything and we have a big room.  We went to a market right out the front door.  The streets have no cars so we get to walk everywhere and it’s great.   The market was super cool.  One shop seemed magical to me and mommy.  It was filled with olden day things.  I saw a musical boxes that played It’s a Small World.  We can’t buy anything because our luggage will get too heavy. And it’s kind of too heavy right now.  When Daddy comes, we will have to give him more stuff to take home which will leave us with two backs and nothing to wear.  We already wear the same thing over and over again.


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When we got back to the hotel, it was time to work and watch the sunset.  


That’s all for now.  Well, bye bye.  Talk to you tomorrow!  Headed to Nexas on a ferry very early in the morning.We have an apartment there for 1 whole month!

Bye!!!

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