I'm back from Greece!!! With **59** pics!!!

Hello again Pet Talk!

I've had a spectacular holiday in Halkidiki in Eastern Greece, we stayed in a fabulous hotel well worth its five stars and we went on some really great trips out too. Of course, as requested, I've had my camera out quite a bit so I hope you all like these pics, there are 59 in total so it's going to take me a while to post them all http://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/tongue.gif but I really hope you enjoy them! So, without further ado, picture number 1:

Starting with the hotel, this was the view of the pool from our room
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece001.jpg

My dad and my brother playing volleyball in the pool
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The hotel was beachfront, so here is the beach
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And another http://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/smile.gif
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The view across the bay from the main balcony
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My brother and I getting ready for a 'doughnut' ride. I don't know why our expressions look so moody, LOLhttp://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/biggrin.gif
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece027.jpg

Starting the doughnut ride
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece028.jpg

Lots more to come.....

Whilst my brother and I were swimming in the sea, we came across a little fish that was swimming quite slowly near the surface. My brother caught it in his bare hands and put it in a bucket where we had a look at it. We saw that it had been attacked by something, its tail and left fin were missing. We felt sorry for the fish, and set it free in a small inlet amongst the rocks where it would be safe-ish from another attack. We called the little guy 'Victor' as he had a victory over the predatorhttp://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/wink.gif
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece026.jpg



I decided to do something a bit different this holiday, so I went on a parachute ride! This is the bay where it began
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Then I had to get strapped in (yes I am there, behind the big white thing;) )
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Going up...
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Higher and higher...
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That little speck is me!
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Coming back down again
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Plenty more on their way...

Finally getting my feet back on a hard surface. It is such an amazing experience, I would recommend it to anyone. It's not scary in the slightest, you just get the great feeling of floating in the air and taking in the lovely scenery

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece035.jpg

One morning, we got up quite early, and got the chance to see this beautiful Greek sunrise from our room
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece040.jpg

Sorry this didn't come out to well, but this is a 'Greek night', with traditional Greek dancing and food
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OK, that's all the hotel pics, now for some more interesting ones http://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/biggrin.gif
This was the local town, Kalithea, which was very quaint
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We went on a trip to Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. This is the view from across the harbour
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This is the 'White Tower', a main point of Thessaloniki. However, nowadays it isn't all that white!http://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/tongue.gif
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece005.jpg



Lots more coming!

My brotherhttp://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/rolleyes.gif http://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/wink.gif
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece006.jpg


A park in central Thessaloniki
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Ancient ruins down a main street in Thessaloniki
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My brother and I in a restaurant
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The view of Thessaloniki from the Acropolis, the highest point of the city
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Wine caskets from ancient times in the Thessaloniki museum
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Ancient statue and pillars
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Absolutely loads more....

The museum was filled with much ancient handicraft, this was probably made for a rich Greek citizen well over 2000 years ago

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece013.jpg

A stone depiction of a family
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Another statue
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We also went on a boat trip around the three peninsulas of Halkidiki, mainly to see the third peninsula which is home to Mount Athos. This is a view of the bay we set off from
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece016.jpg

Cruising away from the shore
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My brother on the boat
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My mum and my brother on the top deck, with my brother's weird expression:o
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More are on their way...

Mount Athos itself, with a beautiful river valley running down it

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece020.jpg

A monastery on Mount Athos. Monks have inhabited this peninsula for hundreds of years, and they still live here in complete isolation from the rest of the world
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The town of Ouranopolis, where we stopped for a rest
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Another trip we went on was to a waterpark, nothing too exciting about this but thought I'd include it anyway:)
My mum in the pool
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece036.jpg

My brother just landing in the water
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My dad coming down the slide
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The larger slides, my brother went on the white ones many times and came down like a bullet!:p He has no fear.
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This is the entrnce to the tombs of ancient Macedonian kings, the most famous of which is Philip II. Cameras were not allowed inside the tombs, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that to show you, however, it was very interesting and the museum also below has plenty of information about the times of Alexander the Great.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece041.jpg

We also visited a greek winery, this is the cellar where the wine matures
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And these are the huge wine storage tanks where the wine is kept before bottling
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The winery was filled with cats to keep the mouse and rat population down, this little beauty posed nicely for the camera
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And it turned out, she had a kitten. This little guy was so cute, I watched him chasing and catching an imaginary mouse for about 5 minutes instead of listening to the information the guide was giving us;)
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece045.jpg

The final trip we went on was to the waterfalls of Edessa, the highest waterfalls in Greece.
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The view over the hills from the top of the waterfall
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Still a few more to come...

Another view

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece048.jpg

Closer to the waterfall, you could feel the spray from at least 50m away and 10m up from where the plungepool was
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Behind the waterfall
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This was supposed to be another landscape picture, but my brother decided to stick his head into it just as I pressed the button:rolleyes:
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My brother getting soaked at the bottom of the waterfall
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The top of the waterfall
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Another slightly smaller waterfall
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Last few pics in next post

A beautiful 'water garden' view from the small restaurant at Edessa. That calm water doesn't look as if it's about to plunge down the waterfall!

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece057.jpg

My brother in the restaurant (sorry to have so many pics of my brother:p )
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece024.jpg

Some of the wonderfully shaped-rocks carved by the waterfall
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And last but not least... yep, that's a cat. He sat in there just by the payment office!
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../Greece055.jpg

That's it! I hope you enjoyed them. I would reccommend Halkidiki as a very relaxing and a pleasant place to spend a fortnight.:D :D :D

Beautiful pictures, Zara! It looks like a wonderful vacation. I love the hotel and all the scenery, it's marvelous, every single picture was enjoyed here. :) I love the parachuting. But I thought you land in the water? :confused: I'm always offered to let me do it on trips but I chicken out. :p Anyway, sorry for blabbing, all the pics were wonderful! :D

Such a photogenic country! I also like it because there is always plenty of opporunity to photograph cats. :D

I'm glad you had such a good time.

Those are great photos!

Thanks for sharing, looks like you guys had a great holiday. I'd love to visit there someday.

What a wonderful trip- nature, culture and Greek kittys :) I'd like to go right now :D

What wonderful pics and a very informative tour guide (you). ;) Thanks for sharing your experience & a bit of history. You sure are lucky to be able to experience such things.

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Originally Posted by Maltese_Love

I love the parachuting. But I thought you land in the water? :confused:

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I thought that too before I did it. My dad did it a few years back and they brought him down in the water. But instead, you're attatched to a line, and when it's time to come down, the man sort of reels you in! He had to keep turning the boat because as I came down the wind kept taking me to the side and I was nearly in the water at one point. But it's all good fun :D

There were a lot of cats in Greece, I found a very cute tabby girl in a restaurant near the tombs of Philip II but I didn't have my camera with me at that point to take a picture. Lots of the tourist souveniers have cats on and I bought a poster of a black and white cat sitting contendly on a roof looking out across the sea.:) Also, for the dog-people amongst us, there were dogs too, but they were either quite camera shy or turned up at moments when I couldn't take pictures;)

I'm glad everyone likes the pictures!

Zara looks like you had a great trip!! :D I enjoyed every picture, the hotel is beautiful! :eek: How old is your brother? He is a cute little kid. Thanks for sharing. :p I'm glad your back, I was just wondering the other day when you said you'd be back. :D

He?????? I cannot see any pics, just titles.... . Anybody has any idea what is going wrong here? I also cannot view movies from Catmandu... :confused:

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Originally Posted by Maya & Inka's mommy

He?????? I cannot see any pics, just titles.... . Anybody has any idea what is going wrong here? I also cannot view movies from Catmandu... :confused:

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Hmmmm, there must be some reason why you can't see pics and movies from photobucket :confused:

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Originally Posted by I_luv_rusty

How old is your brother?

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He's 9. He looks cute, but don't be deceived ;)

Zara, thanks for sharing all these pics! I am glad you had great holidays. Nice place to go! :)

:eek: :eek: OH My How So Breathtaken & Adorable Pics.. Thank you for sharing..

Wow, what a beautiful vacation. Looks like you and your family had a lot of fun. :) I really enjoyed the pictures.

wow, zara! it looks like you had a great holiday!

What beautiful gorgeous pictures! Welcome back, Zara! I missed you!

Looks like a very fun trip, and your pictures are gorgeous!!!!!! Next time your family goes on vacation, can a few PTer's stow away in the luggage?? ;) :D

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Originally Posted by Pembroke_Corgi

Looks like a very fun trip, and your pictures are gorgeous!!!!!! Next time your family goes on vacation, can a few PTer's stow away in the luggage?? ;) :D

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LMAO, you probably can, we always take the most gigantic suitcases as my mum often thinks we need to take a lot of stuff :D

Thanks everyone!

You're so lucky, Zara! I always wanted to go to Greece, it's such a beautiful country...
The pics are awesome, you had a great time for sure! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Miss Z

Hmmmm, there must be some reason why you can't see pics and movies from photobucket :confused:

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I wish I knew what it is. The weird thing is I am a member at Photobucket too, and I have lots of my pics stored there.... :confused: :confused:

I loved seeing all these beautiful pictures of your trip. Greece is one of
the many places I would love to see in person. The closest I've come so far
is the local Greek festival we have here every summer. :) Thanks for sharing
these.

Looks like it was a wonderful trip, thanks for sharing your photos!

Such beautiful pictures and so very interesting. It looks like your family had a good time. Thanks for sharing! :)

WOW! What a great vacation you had. Thanks so much for sharing it with those of us that will probably never be able to go there.
It's like taking a trip without leaving your chair:D