Lil Bieb goes digging in the Mediterranean

Tuesday I was sleeping on a cloud that was being guided by unicorns and the harmonious lullabies of angels. And the Connor rapped on the door and woke me up. It was 9:30 and we had to return the rented car by noon. Cris's parents were out exploring Nafplio, so Cris joined us for breakfast. We made a tentative schedule. On the way up to Athens we stop by Epidaurus, see the one ancient theater that is still being used today then drive up, drop the car off, and explore Athens. Traffic was more congested than we had thought and deemed it necessary to skip Epidaurus. Gotta leave some places unseen for the next visit, right? We drop off the car with no problems, we meet the man at the drop-off zone at the airport. Then take the downtown bus. We find a hostel to stay the night, drop our bags off and we head to the Acropolis museum as its peak heat time. The museum was underwhelming for what it is and where it's located. They had pottery, sculptures, marble frescos, and others but I

Saturday Woke up at Vergina, the town that houses the Ancient Royal Tombs and we drove to Ouranopouli. There we can pick up our permits to enter the Holy land and take a speed boat over there. For some odd reason we couldn't find any availability in any of the hostels or guest rooms in Ouranopouli. The only hotel did so that's what we took. Worth the extra cost for the AC though. After getting our bearings straight, locating the ferry office and where to pick up our permits, we bought supplies for the day and stayed in the hotel room all day long. A necessary rest day for the day after hiking Mt. Olympus and the day before exploring Mt. Athos. Aside from an early dinner, we didn't leave the hotel. Sunday will be a day full of walking around and looking at more ancient monasteries. Sunday This'll be the nth time I explain what Mt. Athos is, mostly for myself, I'm getting a better understanding of what this area truly is. A proper comparison I've heard is

What was supposed to be a 2 day hiking trip all on top and around Mt. Olympus ended up being a 1 day hike to the summit and back down to base. Here's how it happened. We all wake up at 5:30 and are on the road at 6am. We drop Cris off at the train station, he's going to meet his family in Athens, and we drive to the refuge that is above the base city. We arrive there at 6:40 and begin our hike. The hike to the summit is split into three portions: first one is from parking lot to refuge A, refuge A to Zeus' Throne, Zeus' Throne to the summit. The ETA for the first section was 3h and the ETA for the next two were a total of 3h as well. We nailed the first section. Crushed it in 2h on the dot. Path was beautiful and the forest gave splendid sights to enjoy. We took a rest at refuge A, the day before we managed to secure a reservation at this refuge to stay the night. The plan was to summit today, by taking the quick path up, stay the night, then hike up a different path a

We took it easy Wednesday morning by leaving the beautiful town around 11 am. Thanks to the breakfast owner we are going to go visit a monastery that's at the edge of the gorge. Small drive there and we arrive rather quickly, Connor is getting more and more iritated with the switchbacks in these mountains, he might just not take the turn one time... The monastery itself was small but the view was nice. We saw a path that lead further into the gorge cliffside. Naturally we followed that path. And we were greeted with a gorgeous view of the gorge. A sign at the beginning mentioned it was 490 meters tall, supposedly taller than the Grand Canyon. I haven't fact checked it yet but I'd believe it. Further along the path there's a wooden door blocking the way. Just a really old wooden door, with support beams placed above it and surrounded in stone, on the pathway. We went through it and it seemed as though the gorge opened up. Several pics were taken as well as a video or two

    Monday We left the Kokino house around 7am, arrived at the airport around 9, Connor signed the documents for our rented vehicle and off we went.  Cris, Connor, and I. In an attempt to save money we had our GPS set to avoid tolls, so leaving Athens... It decided the best route was through it. Athenian traffic is like Bogota traffic. Motorcycles to your left, motorcycles to your right, no respect between cars, and cops just watching the disaster happen. Connor, as he is the driver, got desperately angry with his navigator, me. I quickly chose to go toll roads at least for a little bit, until we leave the high traffic zone. We drove through the country roads, through the higways, and once or twice through some unpaved roads. It took us about 6.5h to reach our destination. The town is called Kalambaka, located in the Meteora province. Here the hanging monasteries are visible. They are 12 monasteries which are built at the edge off and on the cliff of incredibly high stone pillars. It

The U.S.S Myneko (name of the dig location) woke up at 5:30 and departed at 6 towards the mountain. One soul was left behind to secure home base. The boarding party landed nearby a monastery, several hundred meters above the mountain baseline. For them to summit and walk back in one day, necessary shortcuts were taken. They arrived at 7 and shortly began their ascent. Many pauses were made, several for scenic photographic pleasures, though mostly they were to recuperate lost oxegen and hydrate themselves. The climb was long and arduous. 5 hours later they had reached a point where snow had become an obstacle in their way. This obstacle served as another purpose. That their destination was within view. Sacrifices are essential in all explorations and this one was no different. The crew split in half, one journeyed up to the summit the mountain, while the other stayed behind and secured the surrounding area. Luke Bieber was a part of the summiting crew. It took him and his accomplice 30m