Hymettos

Another of the trip's invented traditions is the hike up Hymettos.  The first year, the students hiked up part way on the day after they arrived, startling us with their adventurousness (and willingness to give up sleep). Later that summer, Phil took them up to the summit.  We hike up to the peak that is right behind Deree, which we have since discovered is called Korakovouni, or "Crow Mountain."  The tradition is that we leave at about 5:30 to be finished before it gets really hot.  We hike up to the summit where we take photos of both sides of the Attic peninsula and pose on the geodetic pin.  We leave something somewhere along the trail marked with a stone cairn.  Last year it was a little glass jewel I brought with me.  This year it was a piece of blue sea glass I picked up on Santorini.  So far we've not been able to find them again, probably washed out by rain, but I live in hope.

This is the sunrise... documenting the time!

My kids and the dog they adopted/who adopted them.  He kept going back to check on the stragglers (me).

Yoga on the geodetic pin at the summit.

The creepy trees as we passed through Narnia when we lost the path down.

Hymettos is known for its honey, coming from the lower thyme-covered slopes, but I didn't find any thyme.  I played yiayia (or in 2014 "extreme locavore" or "forager") and came home with sprigs of wild oregano and sage.