At the end of our family trip, our cruise stopped in Ephesus where we decided to spend our day exploring the ruins and walking through markets. Although I would probably get kicked out of my Greek family for saying this, it was absolutely beautiful and I really wish we could have spent more than a day there. (Greece is still better) but I was blown away by beautiful culture and architecture we experienced.
At this point in the trip, all the families went our separate ways as we wanted to explore different parts of Greece. My part of the family took a cruise so we could experience the magical Greek islands.
Papou's village was 13km south of Tripoli. The first photo in the slideshow shows a pillar with a bunch of names on it. One of the names was Eliopolous - sound familiar? :) That's what my Papou's last name was before he came to America in his 20s and changed it to Ellis. As a kid, that was one of those things we were always told about so it was beyond cool seeing it carved into stone like that. Throughout the day we met some family members and explored the city and the church my Great Grandpa built (pictured at the end of the slideshow).
Growing up in a Greek-American family was always an important part of who I was, but it wasn't until we went to Greece with the entire extended family and experienced the culture did it all mean something. Even though Greece has been getting a pretty bad rap for its economy right now, the people and the culture is undeniably incredible.
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Nicole EllisTravel blog A ship is always safe at shore, but that's not what ships are built for. Archives
February 2018
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