Tagged by Duane
(would you quit trying to touch my ass?)
1) Have you ever been to the emergency room?
Yes, once. And they apparently thought I was having so much fun there, that they let me stay for 3 more days. At a price tag of $5000, I gotta tell you, I would have much preferred 3 nights in a penthouse in Vegas instead. At least the room service would've been better.
2) Have you ever fallen on your face in the lobby of The Plaza Hotel in NYC?
Um, no. Not ruling the possibility out though.
3) What's the worst pain you've ever had?
It wasn't a physical pain.
4) Have you ever had a broken bone?
Nope. Not ruling the possiblity of that out either.
5) If you could choose your doctor, would you choose someone of the same or opposite sex?
Same, please! I want someone that has my parts to examine my parts.
6) Would you prefer to go to the doctor or sky-diving?
Sky-Diving! It's already on my MUST DO list before I die. Technically, going to the doctor really should be on that list, too.
Hey batter, batter... Jerky and Azreal, you're up!
Monday, October 31, 2005
Sunday, October 30, 2005
It's National Darby Day!
A year ago today I became the very proud adoptive mother of my sweet dog, Darby. I wish you could've seen his hopeful little face in a cage at the animal shelter when I stopped at him. It'd break your heart. His little nub of a tail wiggled back and forth, and he was eager to see if I'd be willing to give him a chance and take him home. He was so thin, ribs and back bone showing, yet so obedient, I fell in love. He didn't know how to bark or play with toys in the beginning, and was deathly afraid of going in the bathroom. I can only guess that's where his previous owners kept him locked up. Yet he was already house-trained and will dutifully listen to anything I ask him to do. I wish you could see him now. Run of the house. Two healthy meals a day with dry food down for his leisurely snacking pleasure. Toys all over the house. Treats (he even has his own treat jar that sits on the counter in the kitchen). Well-traveled (he's been to Huntsville, AL, and St. George Island, FL, not to mention trips to his grandparents and friends, already this year). Currently, tucked under my comforter in my bed fast asleep. He landed in a good place - a soft spot. And yet as much as I do for him, truthfully, he's the one that helped me through a hard time in my life. He's my baby. (geez, can you imagine what I'll be like when I have real kids if I talk like this about my dog?!)
(he's got chocolate brown eyes, instead of creepy blue. but it's late and I don't feel like doctoring the photo tonight)
Weekend in Review
Halloween: The Morning After
Let me start by saying the key lime martinis made with heavy cream, 2 glasses of red wine, and 2 beers, do not, I repeat, do not make for a good time the next morning. I'm sure anyone with a brain out there would know that, but for some reason, I thought it'd be ok over the span of the night last night. You know, like I was 19 again. Ugh. I was so sick this morning. Actually, "so sick" is quite the understatement, but to spare anyone with a weak stomach the details, I'll just leave it at that. All I wanted to do was curl up in my bed (preferably with an amazing guy, but I didn't have that option), and stay very still because the room spinning was making me dizzy. And to add more pleasure to my already painful morning (headache and all), I had to be up and at my parent's house by 10:30 am to meet with the florist and my sister to decide bridesmaid bouquets. Whoopee. And then cake tasting. Mmmm, exactly what I wanted to do feeling the way I felt. Delicious. For those of you curious as to what I decided for a costume, I let my friend talk me into being a beauty pageant winner - Miss Demeanor. Crown, fake eyelashes, big hair, poofy dress, sash, flowers, and all. She went as the runner-up. We had a great time, even though I felt absolutely ridiculous in my dress pumping gas in my car before the parties. Wouldn't you know it was on E.
Let me start by saying the key lime martinis made with heavy cream, 2 glasses of red wine, and 2 beers, do not, I repeat, do not make for a good time the next morning. I'm sure anyone with a brain out there would know that, but for some reason, I thought it'd be ok over the span of the night last night. You know, like I was 19 again. Ugh. I was so sick this morning. Actually, "so sick" is quite the understatement, but to spare anyone with a weak stomach the details, I'll just leave it at that. All I wanted to do was curl up in my bed (preferably with an amazing guy, but I didn't have that option), and stay very still because the room spinning was making me dizzy. And to add more pleasure to my already painful morning (headache and all), I had to be up and at my parent's house by 10:30 am to meet with the florist and my sister to decide bridesmaid bouquets. Whoopee. And then cake tasting. Mmmm, exactly what I wanted to do feeling the way I felt. Delicious. For those of you curious as to what I decided for a costume, I let my friend talk me into being a beauty pageant winner - Miss Demeanor. Crown, fake eyelashes, big hair, poofy dress, sash, flowers, and all. She went as the runner-up. We had a great time, even though I felt absolutely ridiculous in my dress pumping gas in my car before the parties. Wouldn't you know it was on E.
Booo Bees
Alabama Homecoming Game: We Gagged the Aggies
#5 Alabama 35
Utah State 3
8 checks in the Win column - 3 very tough ones to go (yes, David, including LSWHO? on Nov. 12th. What's our bet gonna be?)
"Alabama defenders Roman Harper, top, and Mark Anderson sack Utah State quarterback Leon Jackson III, bottom, during the second half of their game Saturday Oct. 29, 2005, at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala."
Moan
Halloween parties were fun, but I really don't feel good today. I mean REALLY don't feel good. When I get some strength and clarity back, I'll write about all of the fun costumes I saw. Moan.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Happy Birthday, Baby Sister
Hope the next 24 years are as good as the past 24 have been. With all of the life-changing events coming up, don't lose fact that I love you and always will. You'll always be my little sis.
P.S. Now I'm only older by 4 years...at least until March anyway. Somehow that makes me feel younger in a dumb, "fuzzy" mathematical way.
P.S. Now I'm only older by 4 years...at least until March anyway. Somehow that makes me feel younger in a dumb, "fuzzy" mathematical way.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Push/Pull
Three appetizers before I get to the main meal:
1) The heat is on. I officially turned on my heat Sunday night for the first time this fall. It's gotten cold here in Atlanta (and by cold I mean 40s and 50s), and I've been ffffreezing! I will now have to get a night job to pay my gas bill. Always wanted to be a stripper, so this works out.
2) Alabama won this weekend, 6-3, over the Tennessee Volunteers, again this week in the last seconds of the game with a field goal! The end of the game was awesome! The usual people were at the stadium, oh, you know, people like U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and ex-Bama boy and retired NFL player, Cornelius Bennett. Same old, same old crowd mix.
1) The heat is on. I officially turned on my heat Sunday night for the first time this fall. It's gotten cold here in Atlanta (and by cold I mean 40s and 50s), and I've been ffffreezing! I will now have to get a night job to pay my gas bill. Always wanted to be a stripper, so this works out.
2) Alabama won this weekend, 6-3, over the Tennessee Volunteers, again this week in the last seconds of the game with a field goal! The end of the game was awesome! The usual people were at the stadium, oh, you know, people like U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and ex-Bama boy and retired NFL player, Cornelius Bennett. Same old, same old crowd mix.
Roll Tide!
3) My cat's decided to go as a black cat for Halloween again this year. Thank goodness I didn't have to buy her a costume.
Ok, now for my quick vent session: Doors on women's restrooms.
Why in the world do most women's restroom door hangers install the doors where you push to get in the restroom and have to pull to get out? What kind of sense does that make? When you're ready to leave the restroom, your hands are clean (well, at least I can speak for mine), so why would you want to touch a door handle that you know probably isn't? Knowing that not all ladies are hand-washers in the restroom (and you know who you are, and we know who you are too, which is why I won't go near your dish at any pot-luck work lunch), door handles leading out of the ladies room are probably riddled with germs. However, I don't like to throw problems out without suggesting solutions, so I present the following:
Install the handle on the outside of the door to get in, and the push plate on the inside of the door so you don't have to use your hands to get out.
The simplicity just kills me.
You know, maybe I should go to market with a "cleanliness converter kit", selling the same exact door hardware that comes with the door, but changing up the directions of installation to what I've suggested above. Then I could go around to women's restroom installers everywhere touting the antimicrobial benefits (which is very trendy now) of MY converter kit, selling these kits like hotcakes! It's genius! Yes, yes...I could start a grass roots campaign for changing women's restroom doors everywhere, even get some sort of legislation passed for this, thereby creating a demand for my "cleanliness converter kit" and making millions! It's all about creating demand and having a product to supply. Billions of bathrooms everywhere will need a "cleanliness converter kit". I'll rule the world! Muah ah ah ahhhh!!
Takes a woman to figure it out, doesn't it?
Perspective
I got this from a friend in an email and thought it was pretty good.
Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just take the rotten apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy to pick up. The apples at the top may think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.
Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just take the rotten apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy to pick up. The apples at the top may think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Friday, October 21, 2005
They've Got a Name for the Winners in the World (thank you steely dan)
#5 Alabama vs. #17 Univ. of Tennessee this Saturday on CBS.
And I'll be in the stands watching! Just one of the 83,000 fans so, look for me - the one in the crimson shirt with the big poms poms. Maybe slightly buzzed. Oh who am I kidding? Definitely buzzed.
How perfect is this t-shirt?
Here's the game day preview:
"After a sluggish effort last week, expect an extremely strong showing by Alabama this weekend. The Tide are better than the Vols on both sides of the ball and will win this one by double figures.
Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Alabama 24, Tennessee 10"
And a little fun before we begin:
Two boys are playing football at this park in a small town in Alabama when one of the boys is suddenly attacked by a crazed Rottweiler.Thinking quickly, the other boy takes a stick and shoves it under the dog's collar, twists it, and breaks the dog's neck, thus saving his friend. A local sports reporter who was strolling by sees the incident and rushes over to interview the boy. He tells the boy he's going to write the story and says, "I'll title it 'Young Bama Fan Saves Friend From Vicious Animal.'"
"But I'm not a Bama fan," the little hero replies.
"Sorry, since we're in Alabama, I just assumed you were," says the reporter and he starts writing again.
He asks "How does Auburn Fan Rescues Friend From Horrific Attack sound?"
"I'm not an Auburn fan either," the boy says.
"Oh, I thought everyone in Alabama was either for the Tide or the Tigers. What team do you root for?" the reporter asks.
"I'm just visiting my cousin, I'm a Tennessee Vols fan," said the boy.
The reporter smiles, starts a new sheet in his notebook, and writes: "Little Redneck Bastard From Tennessee Kills Beloved Family Pet"
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
What to Be?
I can be anything I want for a night. Anything my heart desires. Anything I've ever thought about being. Anything I've ever wondered about being. The opportunity is here. Time to seize the moment. Problem is, I have no idea what that might be. Something cute but something different. I don't want to be a witch. Or a pirate. Or a bunny, kitten, or bee. I need some help here. I can't show up at the Halloween parties I'm going to as ME. How boring would that be? Any good suggestions out there on a Halloween costume?
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Thoughts from the Weekend
- Thank you, Sabs, for a Friday night that rocked! Thanks for the dinner, the wine, and for driving our crazy, drunk asses around so we could listen to the live band and dance!
- He's back. I must be on some 4-5 month call rotation because he left me a voice mail on Friday night to see if I wanted to go out sometime. The last time he called was back in May. Bless his heart for his perseverance, but I don't understand what he doesn't get about not getting a returned phone call. Ever. Do you think he's on drugs?
- Flightplan isn't that great. I definitely wish I had rented it for $4 as opposed to shelling out the $8.50 tonight to see it in the theater. You have to sit through over an hour of very boring movie for 20 minutes of semi-entertainment. But that's just my $0.02.
- It wasn't pretty, but it was a win. An SEC win at that. Now we're 6 and 0 for the season and bowl eligible. We've got the UT Vols coming up this weekend. I will be in attendance and I can't freakin' wait!
"University of Alabama kicker Jamie Christensen kicks the game-winning field goal in the final seconds of the 4th quarter at the University of Mississippi Vaught-Hemingway Stadium/Hollingsworth Field in Oxford, MS."
- And lastly, see post below.
Wheeeee!
I was really dreading today: going to my cousin's 5th birthday party. I've written posts in the past about how single people without children should never under any circumstance be invited to children's birthday parties. And I still agree. But when it's family, sometimes it's hard to decline, especially if you only see them a few times a year. So, I went with Bob the Builder gift in hand (who knew Bob the Builder was so last year and now Thomas the Train is the big deal?). My cousins usually get the big jumpy moonwalk things for their kids' parties, so it was no surprise to show up to some of the same today. In the past, most of the moonwalks have been a big blow up train or a big blow up caterpillar or something with openings just large enough for the little guys to crawl in, leaving no room for fun for the wistful adults (aka myself, if you can indeed classify me as an adult) longing to get in and jump, too. However, today was different. Today was the mega moonwalk slide! Apparently, my cousin asked for a slide as big as his house for his birthday, and his parents delivered! So I did what every 28-year old woman watching a bunch of kids have fun sliding down the slide would do: pushed them all out of the way in the race for the top! I slid down the slide sitting, laying down, backwards, and flipped upside down, and I had a great time! Who knew a 5 year old's birthday could be so much fun? Oh c'mon, you know you want to, too, don't 'cha?!
Friday, October 14, 2005
SxOcRyRcpY
Sorry guys, I had to turn on the word verification for my comments. The spammers finally brought me down, and I'm tired of deleting their stupid advertisements. Be strong, my friends, and don't let this deter your efforts to leave me a comment should you feel the desire. I still love to hear from YOU!
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Blackberry Collision
Blackberry Collision
Pronunciation: 'blak-"ber-E ka-'li-zhan
Function: noun
1: a low-impact crash between two corporate rats in the rat race caused by the two not paying attention to where they are going, walking quickly down the hall with head down, feverishly reading and responding to email on a wireless Blackberry device.
See also: The new worker's comp claim.
I'm beginning to wonder if anyone ever walks down the halls at work with their head not buried in their Blackberry anymore. What's so freakin' important that it can't wait for me to return to my desk to answer in 15 minutes? Who knows, but I've become an unfortunate victim to the maddening madness, and have had a few close calls, narrowly avoiding a Blackberry Collision myself.
Pronunciation: 'blak-"ber-E ka-'li-zhan
Function: noun
1: a low-impact crash between two corporate rats in the rat race caused by the two not paying attention to where they are going, walking quickly down the hall with head down, feverishly reading and responding to email on a wireless Blackberry device.
See also: The new worker's comp claim.
I'm beginning to wonder if anyone ever walks down the halls at work with their head not buried in their Blackberry anymore. What's so freakin' important that it can't wait for me to return to my desk to answer in 15 minutes? Who knows, but I've become an unfortunate victim to the maddening madness, and have had a few close calls, narrowly avoiding a Blackberry Collision myself.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?
Anyone else having trouble uploading pictures to blogger? Lately, mine upload into my post as a small red x. Any helpful suggestions out there?
It's Not Exactly Where I Want to Be
Wedding Date: February 25, 2006
(Scheduled only one year after they started dating - and no, she's not pregnant)
Deposit for the bridesmaid dress due this weekend: $100
(Ah, yes, yet another bridesmaid dress for my closet collection)
Maid of Honor in my younger sister's wedding: Dreadful
(I LOVE my sister but I absolutely cannot stand the guy she's marrying. I'm praying she'll come to her senses on this.)
And so it begins...
(Suck it up, Kara, and just power through it)
(Scheduled only one year after they started dating - and no, she's not pregnant)
Deposit for the bridesmaid dress due this weekend: $100
(Ah, yes, yet another bridesmaid dress for my closet collection)
Maid of Honor in my younger sister's wedding: Dreadful
(I LOVE my sister but I absolutely cannot stand the guy she's marrying. I'm praying she'll come to her senses on this.)
And so it begins...
(Suck it up, Kara, and just power through it)
Elevetor Enlightenment
Making fun of people in and around elevators is so easy, especially for me since I spend a good deal of time in our elevators while running around our various buildings to my meetings. So, this topic comes up quite often, and yet it always seems to deliver a giggle from me.
Today, during the lunch timeframe, I hop on the elevator to meet a friend downstairs for lunch. The elevator was full of people with the same intentions - all heading for the lobby. The elevator stops on the 2nd floor (you know, only one floor up from the lobby), the lady gets on the crowded elevator, she reaches over two people on the elevator causing them to move out her way and then the rest of us to adjust accordingly, just to push the already lit lobby button. Ummmm, hello lady? We're all going to the lobby, you idiot! That's the logical next stop after the 2nd floor, and in case you were wondering, that's why the button was already pushed! Where did you think the rest of us were getting off after stopping on the second floor...floor 1.5? Or did you think we were just holding a meeting in the elevetor?
I had to just smile and shake my head. People's actions crack me up sometimes, especially on elevators.
Today, during the lunch timeframe, I hop on the elevator to meet a friend downstairs for lunch. The elevator was full of people with the same intentions - all heading for the lobby. The elevator stops on the 2nd floor (you know, only one floor up from the lobby), the lady gets on the crowded elevator, she reaches over two people on the elevator causing them to move out her way and then the rest of us to adjust accordingly, just to push the already lit lobby button. Ummmm, hello lady? We're all going to the lobby, you idiot! That's the logical next stop after the 2nd floor, and in case you were wondering, that's why the button was already pushed! Where did you think the rest of us were getting off after stopping on the second floor...floor 1.5? Or did you think we were just holding a meeting in the elevetor?
I had to just smile and shake my head. People's actions crack me up sometimes, especially on elevators.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
But Now, Athens Wasn't Ready for the "Girls"
My trip to Greece - Athens Part Two - The Departure
Sad to leave the amazing island of Santorini, Dana and I boarded our final ferry in Greece, with the destination back to Athens. We opted to head back to Athens on Saturday as opposed to Sunday for 2 reasons: 1) Ferry schedules are unpredictable (that whole Greek time table thing is a little loose with keeping to schedules) and we wanted to be sure we got to Athens in time to see the Acropolis and make our flight first thing Tuesday morning, and 2) We had heard there was incredible shopping in Athens, so we definitely wanted to partake in a little of that! So, five hours later on the fast boat from Santorini, we arrive back in the port of Piraeus. Again, lugging our suitcases down the ferry stairs and then down several blocks to the metro station, we begin our journey to the hotel that we booked while in Mykonos (if you're remember I asked that you keep this in mind as it's the only part of the trip we actually made any sort of plan for). After a short metro ride up to the middle of the city, we get off at our stop, Omonia Station - only a few stops away from the Acropolis. Dragging our suitcases several blocks from the station to find our hotel, I again determine that I.hate. Athens. I hate it. It's a terribly dirty, disgusting, rude, ugly city. And it's even harder to like it after spending time in the islands. I hate it even more when we roll up on our hotel that we had booked, the Hotel Amaryllis.
The Hotel Amaryllis was in a shady part of town. It seems as if in Athens, you can go from decent to sketchy in only a block or two. This hotel was definitely on the dividing line of decent to sketchy. There were random men loitering outside, and we just didn't get a good feeling about the place. The lobby was deceiving, because once inside, it was fairly nice. So, we shrugged off any perceived misconceptions about the place before entering, and checked in. However, the lobby was the only nice thing about the place, and it got worse from there. Once up to our room, it was horrible. The room was straight out of the 70s, in need of a major overhaul, the AC was leaking, the shower was covered in mildew, and the balcony was across from some sort of apartment complex or condo where random people were sitting out and staring in at us. It was a nightmare for an accommodation. The only place we actually planned in this trip was a disaster after all of the good luck we had had to this point! We parked our suitcases and made a bee-line out the door, attempting to spend as little time as possible in this place. We walked up the street a block to grab some dinner at an outside cafe and strategize about what we're going to do about our accommodations.
At dinner (Greek food of course, and at this point, I couldn't be more over Greek food), we glance around and discover that we're eating at a restaurant right across from a place called "Girls, Girls, Girls" with posters of large, bare-breasted women and bright flashing lights. Nice. Very classy. However, it did provide a little entertainment and comic relief during dinner about our situation as we tried to guess what guys would stop in as they approached the place, and timed how long the ones that entered stayed in there. During dinner, we decided to walk around the city, now dark, to check availability and pricing at other hotels. There was just no way that we'd be able to spend more than one night in Hotel Amaryllis, let alone the 3 that we had already booked there!! We wandered around the city, walking in and checking several hotels that looked much, much nicer, and found that either all were booked up (there were 3 conventions in town), or all were WAY out of our price range. As luck would have it, we did find one a few blocks away called Illion Hotel that was in our price range and had availability. We went to look at a room and it was very nice and very clean. We told them we'd be checking in in the morning, as soon as we got out of our current accommodations!!
We spent that Saturday night at the dreadful hotel we had already paid for for the night, but neither of us got much sleep at all. First thing the next morning, we called the travel agency in Mykonos where we had booked and paid for this hotel and told them we needed to cancel our accommodations at Hotel Amaryllis and that we would be checking in elsewhere. As soon as the guy called us back saying our credit cards would be refunded and we were released, I immediately called Illion Hotel to make reservations. The girl asked when we'd be checking in and I told her 15 minutes! Dana and I did not pass go, we didn't collect $200, we packed our bags, threw on some jeans (no showers, are you kidding? We were cleaner without one than if we had gotten in that gross one!), and headed straight over! When we got there, the girl at the counter laughed when we told her what a rat hole we had come from.
After our check in, we start out towards the Acropolis (click here if you're into the history of the Acropolis) several blocks away. For whatever reason, we came on a day when it was free to enter, normally a 12 euro ($15) entrance fee! We didn't complain, that was the kind of good luck we had all trip! So we start the walk up the Acropolis (the "Sacred Rock" that holds several ruins dedicated to Grecian gods including the most famous, Parthenon), and on the way up we see several ruins along with the Thission temple scattered through the city at the base of the Acropolis. A little further up towards the Parthenon, we passed the Theatre of Dionysus and Herod Atticus Odeum. At the top, we pass through the Propylaea which is the entrance of the Acropolis, with large columns and huge marble steps. It's amazing to think that we walked in and among ruins that had been there since at least 423 BC or earlier! On the other side of the Propylaea stands the most famous of them all, the Parthenon. I'm not a big history buff, but the magnitude of this building, the age in which is was built, and the detail in the frieze was amazing. We walked around the backside of the Parthenon and found the Erecthion . We also went into the museum there and saw many different carvings and murals in stone (pictures on flickr.com if you're interested). By far, seeing the Parthenon up close was the best part of Athens, and really in my opinion, the only reason one would need to visit this unimpressive city. After our walk through time, we shopped in the various shops and flea markets in the Plaka. There I bought a beautiful throw and some jewelry as keep sakes from my trip. Much to our disappointment, the regular stores were closed on Sundays, so we'd have to finish our shopping venture on Monday after we did a little window shopping that afternoon. We made our way back to the hotel to freshen up for our first night out in Athens (which by the way, on the way back I was flashed by some old and creepy Greek guy - ewww!).
After showers and primping for the night, Dana and I had on the last of our cute clothes and were ready to see what Athens had to offer by way of night life. Dana wore a short, sexy black dress, and I had on a sexy, low-cut black top and black pants. Here inlies our mistake. I guess Dana's legs and my cleavage were a shocker to the men of Athens (all I can think of is that most European women are typically small-chested and maybe the men of Athens weren't ready to see "the girls" in the shirt that I wore). As we walked down towards Monistiraki Station where all of the cute cafes were, we had several honks from cars passing by, cat calls, and had one man distinctly say, "Je-sus Christ", as we walked past. I started feeling a bit self-conscious in our choice of clothing with all of the attention we were drawing. These weren't clothes out of the ordinary, these are things that girls our ages would typically wear on a night out, but for whatever reason, we were causing quite a stir. At one point I even asked Dana, "do you think they think we're prostitutes?" We were almost to Monistiraki Station, and didn't have any other clean clothes to change into anyway, so we kept on.
Once at Monistiraki Station, we decided to eat at an outside cafe there in the midst of all of the action where we had an Egyptian guy wait on us. He was so sweet and so nice. Everytime he'd come to check on us, he'd stand and talk to us for several minutes, telling us how to be safe in the city. He was surprised to learn that neither of us had boyfriends back home and told us if he weren't engaged already that he'd snatch us up! At one point, he stroked my hair and said I was "200% beautiful." Can't beat that! It was cute (this trip was doing wonders for my ego). Then he began to give us dating advice, which was pretty funny in his broken English! It was fun flirting with him, and in the end, extremely financially beneficial, as our meal, consisting of an appetizer, 2 entrees, a dessert, and 2 carafes of red wine only cost us a total of 19 euro ($23), which by my estimations from the menu pricing, should have been at least double that! That night while on the way home, the city went nuts with people crowding the streets, traffic-jams, honking, singing, and Greek flag salesmen on the street corners and everyone waving Greek flags. When we got back to the hotel, we asked the concierge what was going on and apparently Greece had won the semi-final European basketball game, sending them into the finals against France the next night. It was fun to watch how excited the city was about their team, but they kept us up the rest of the night with the honking in the streets!
Monday, thankfully our final day in Athens, we went to the major stores that were closed the previous day and looked around. But we found the shopping in Athens to be a big disappointment. Coming from a major city with all of the major stores, there wasn't much that Athens could offer us that Atlanta couldn't. And, with the euro exchange rate, it didn't make sense to buy clothes in Athens. So we decided after a few boring hours of shopping, buying very little, to get out of this city we hated and head back for the water. We figured out the tram system and headed south for the Sarconic Gulf. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Vola Beach as our last chance to enjoy the amazing blue water that we'd miss so much. That night, we took a few clothes to a laundry mat so we'd have something clean to wear on our long trip home (our clothes were smelling really rough at this point), and when we returned to our hotel, we watched the last few minutes of the basketball game to see Greece win the European "Super Bowl" of basketball if you will, and again, the city erupted with excitement. We weren't able to join in the celebrations because we had to be up and out of the hotel by 5am the next morning to catch the metro into the airport for our flight home.
Amazingly, we made it up and out of the hotel on time (neither of us are known for our punctuality), and to the airport for our flight into Frankfort, Germany. Our flight into Frankfort was late (that Greek time table again), so we had to run a marathon through Frankfort's airport in order to catch our flight back to Atlanta. We were among the last to board our flight, thankful to have made it at all (otherwise, we would have had to spend the night in Frankfort to catch another flight the next day). On the flight, we sat behind some men that had been in Germany for 2 weeks, so we exchanged stories and pictures with them. Also, due to a weather system in the Atlantic, we had to fly further North then usual, and flew over Greenland! I have pictures that I took from the plane because I figured I'd probably never make it back to Greenland again. It was a vast country of mountain peaks, snow, and ice, but it was pretty cool. 13 hours later, we landed in Atlanta, ready to be back where everyone spoke English, and there were more food options other than Greek. We had a fabulous trip with memories to last a lifetime, hopefully well documented here for me to look back and reminisce.
Sad to leave the amazing island of Santorini, Dana and I boarded our final ferry in Greece, with the destination back to Athens. We opted to head back to Athens on Saturday as opposed to Sunday for 2 reasons: 1) Ferry schedules are unpredictable (that whole Greek time table thing is a little loose with keeping to schedules) and we wanted to be sure we got to Athens in time to see the Acropolis and make our flight first thing Tuesday morning, and 2) We had heard there was incredible shopping in Athens, so we definitely wanted to partake in a little of that! So, five hours later on the fast boat from Santorini, we arrive back in the port of Piraeus. Again, lugging our suitcases down the ferry stairs and then down several blocks to the metro station, we begin our journey to the hotel that we booked while in Mykonos (if you're remember I asked that you keep this in mind as it's the only part of the trip we actually made any sort of plan for). After a short metro ride up to the middle of the city, we get off at our stop, Omonia Station - only a few stops away from the Acropolis. Dragging our suitcases several blocks from the station to find our hotel, I again determine that I.hate. Athens. I hate it. It's a terribly dirty, disgusting, rude, ugly city. And it's even harder to like it after spending time in the islands. I hate it even more when we roll up on our hotel that we had booked, the Hotel Amaryllis.
The Hotel Amaryllis was in a shady part of town. It seems as if in Athens, you can go from decent to sketchy in only a block or two. This hotel was definitely on the dividing line of decent to sketchy. There were random men loitering outside, and we just didn't get a good feeling about the place. The lobby was deceiving, because once inside, it was fairly nice. So, we shrugged off any perceived misconceptions about the place before entering, and checked in. However, the lobby was the only nice thing about the place, and it got worse from there. Once up to our room, it was horrible. The room was straight out of the 70s, in need of a major overhaul, the AC was leaking, the shower was covered in mildew, and the balcony was across from some sort of apartment complex or condo where random people were sitting out and staring in at us. It was a nightmare for an accommodation. The only place we actually planned in this trip was a disaster after all of the good luck we had had to this point! We parked our suitcases and made a bee-line out the door, attempting to spend as little time as possible in this place. We walked up the street a block to grab some dinner at an outside cafe and strategize about what we're going to do about our accommodations.
At dinner (Greek food of course, and at this point, I couldn't be more over Greek food), we glance around and discover that we're eating at a restaurant right across from a place called "Girls, Girls, Girls" with posters of large, bare-breasted women and bright flashing lights. Nice. Very classy. However, it did provide a little entertainment and comic relief during dinner about our situation as we tried to guess what guys would stop in as they approached the place, and timed how long the ones that entered stayed in there. During dinner, we decided to walk around the city, now dark, to check availability and pricing at other hotels. There was just no way that we'd be able to spend more than one night in Hotel Amaryllis, let alone the 3 that we had already booked there!! We wandered around the city, walking in and checking several hotels that looked much, much nicer, and found that either all were booked up (there were 3 conventions in town), or all were WAY out of our price range. As luck would have it, we did find one a few blocks away called Illion Hotel that was in our price range and had availability. We went to look at a room and it was very nice and very clean. We told them we'd be checking in in the morning, as soon as we got out of our current accommodations!!
We spent that Saturday night at the dreadful hotel we had already paid for for the night, but neither of us got much sleep at all. First thing the next morning, we called the travel agency in Mykonos where we had booked and paid for this hotel and told them we needed to cancel our accommodations at Hotel Amaryllis and that we would be checking in elsewhere. As soon as the guy called us back saying our credit cards would be refunded and we were released, I immediately called Illion Hotel to make reservations. The girl asked when we'd be checking in and I told her 15 minutes! Dana and I did not pass go, we didn't collect $200, we packed our bags, threw on some jeans (no showers, are you kidding? We were cleaner without one than if we had gotten in that gross one!), and headed straight over! When we got there, the girl at the counter laughed when we told her what a rat hole we had come from.
After our check in, we start out towards the Acropolis (click here if you're into the history of the Acropolis) several blocks away. For whatever reason, we came on a day when it was free to enter, normally a 12 euro ($15) entrance fee! We didn't complain, that was the kind of good luck we had all trip! So we start the walk up the Acropolis (the "Sacred Rock" that holds several ruins dedicated to Grecian gods including the most famous, Parthenon), and on the way up we see several ruins along with the Thission temple scattered through the city at the base of the Acropolis. A little further up towards the Parthenon, we passed the Theatre of Dionysus and Herod Atticus Odeum. At the top, we pass through the Propylaea which is the entrance of the Acropolis, with large columns and huge marble steps. It's amazing to think that we walked in and among ruins that had been there since at least 423 BC or earlier! On the other side of the Propylaea stands the most famous of them all, the Parthenon. I'm not a big history buff, but the magnitude of this building, the age in which is was built, and the detail in the frieze was amazing. We walked around the backside of the Parthenon and found the Erecthion . We also went into the museum there and saw many different carvings and murals in stone (pictures on flickr.com if you're interested). By far, seeing the Parthenon up close was the best part of Athens, and really in my opinion, the only reason one would need to visit this unimpressive city. After our walk through time, we shopped in the various shops and flea markets in the Plaka. There I bought a beautiful throw and some jewelry as keep sakes from my trip. Much to our disappointment, the regular stores were closed on Sundays, so we'd have to finish our shopping venture on Monday after we did a little window shopping that afternoon. We made our way back to the hotel to freshen up for our first night out in Athens (which by the way, on the way back I was flashed by some old and creepy Greek guy - ewww!).
After showers and primping for the night, Dana and I had on the last of our cute clothes and were ready to see what Athens had to offer by way of night life. Dana wore a short, sexy black dress, and I had on a sexy, low-cut black top and black pants. Here inlies our mistake. I guess Dana's legs and my cleavage were a shocker to the men of Athens (all I can think of is that most European women are typically small-chested and maybe the men of Athens weren't ready to see "the girls" in the shirt that I wore). As we walked down towards Monistiraki Station where all of the cute cafes were, we had several honks from cars passing by, cat calls, and had one man distinctly say, "Je-sus Christ", as we walked past. I started feeling a bit self-conscious in our choice of clothing with all of the attention we were drawing. These weren't clothes out of the ordinary, these are things that girls our ages would typically wear on a night out, but for whatever reason, we were causing quite a stir. At one point I even asked Dana, "do you think they think we're prostitutes?" We were almost to Monistiraki Station, and didn't have any other clean clothes to change into anyway, so we kept on.
Once at Monistiraki Station, we decided to eat at an outside cafe there in the midst of all of the action where we had an Egyptian guy wait on us. He was so sweet and so nice. Everytime he'd come to check on us, he'd stand and talk to us for several minutes, telling us how to be safe in the city. He was surprised to learn that neither of us had boyfriends back home and told us if he weren't engaged already that he'd snatch us up! At one point, he stroked my hair and said I was "200% beautiful." Can't beat that! It was cute (this trip was doing wonders for my ego). Then he began to give us dating advice, which was pretty funny in his broken English! It was fun flirting with him, and in the end, extremely financially beneficial, as our meal, consisting of an appetizer, 2 entrees, a dessert, and 2 carafes of red wine only cost us a total of 19 euro ($23), which by my estimations from the menu pricing, should have been at least double that! That night while on the way home, the city went nuts with people crowding the streets, traffic-jams, honking, singing, and Greek flag salesmen on the street corners and everyone waving Greek flags. When we got back to the hotel, we asked the concierge what was going on and apparently Greece had won the semi-final European basketball game, sending them into the finals against France the next night. It was fun to watch how excited the city was about their team, but they kept us up the rest of the night with the honking in the streets!
Monday, thankfully our final day in Athens, we went to the major stores that were closed the previous day and looked around. But we found the shopping in Athens to be a big disappointment. Coming from a major city with all of the major stores, there wasn't much that Athens could offer us that Atlanta couldn't. And, with the euro exchange rate, it didn't make sense to buy clothes in Athens. So we decided after a few boring hours of shopping, buying very little, to get out of this city we hated and head back for the water. We figured out the tram system and headed south for the Sarconic Gulf. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Vola Beach as our last chance to enjoy the amazing blue water that we'd miss so much. That night, we took a few clothes to a laundry mat so we'd have something clean to wear on our long trip home (our clothes were smelling really rough at this point), and when we returned to our hotel, we watched the last few minutes of the basketball game to see Greece win the European "Super Bowl" of basketball if you will, and again, the city erupted with excitement. We weren't able to join in the celebrations because we had to be up and out of the hotel by 5am the next morning to catch the metro into the airport for our flight home.
Amazingly, we made it up and out of the hotel on time (neither of us are known for our punctuality), and to the airport for our flight into Frankfort, Germany. Our flight into Frankfort was late (that Greek time table again), so we had to run a marathon through Frankfort's airport in order to catch our flight back to Atlanta. We were among the last to board our flight, thankful to have made it at all (otherwise, we would have had to spend the night in Frankfort to catch another flight the next day). On the flight, we sat behind some men that had been in Germany for 2 weeks, so we exchanged stories and pictures with them. Also, due to a weather system in the Atlantic, we had to fly further North then usual, and flew over Greenland! I have pictures that I took from the plane because I figured I'd probably never make it back to Greenland again. It was a vast country of mountain peaks, snow, and ice, but it was pretty cool. 13 hours later, we landed in Atlanta, ready to be back where everyone spoke English, and there were more food options other than Greek. We had a fabulous trip with memories to last a lifetime, hopefully well documented here for me to look back and reminisce.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Santorini, Sweetie
My trip to Greece - Santorini
(You better get comfortable to read this one...but it's so worth it)
On the ferry from Mykonos to Santorini, Dana and took only 2 of the assigned seats on our 3 seat row. While settling in for our 3 hour trip, I noticed a fairly attractive guy with olive skin, dark hair and eyes, and in our age range, standing in line at the snack bar. We kept making eye contact as I scanned the rest of the boat watching others take their seats, but didn't think much of it. About halfway through the trip, this same guy comes over to our empty seat and asks if anyone was sitting there. We told him no so he sat down. He said he missed the earlier ferry, so jumped on this one, but if you miss a ferry and catch the next, you aren't guaranteed a seat. He lucked out with this seat, or rather, we did. He immediately struck up a conversation with us, and we flirtingly teased him about him just "happening" to pick 2 pretty girls to sit next to. He asked us the typical first question of "where are you from?" Dana spouted out, "Atlanta, GA, USA." (We found out quickly that we had to define where we lived quite a bit more than if we were just visiting Boise. Telling people we were from Atlanta, and sometimes even, Atlanta, GA, summoned only blank stares. Tacking on USA at the end, always seemed to get more acknowledgement. Some people even referred to us being from Atlanta, New York. It's funny how some people have absolutely no concept or understanding of the different states in the US.) His mouth dropped open when he heard our answer. It turns out that he lives in Atlanta, too, and his family owns a popular late night diner called the Landmark Diner here. The irony is that I had just been to the Landmark Diner for a late night snack a few weekends prior to the trip after a night out with some friends! He was Greek American, going to Santorini to visit some family and friends, and his name was Costa (pronounced like Costa Rica). The chances of our paths crossing in the middle of Greece were serendipitous. And it only gets better. He asks us where we're staying on the island and we tell him that we're just winging our trip and haven't made any plans. As luck would have it, his cousin on the island owns a travel agency and a hotel a few blocks from the black volcanic sand beach called Perissa Beach! He made a call on our behalf and hooked us up with a room for 30 euro ($36) a night, at his cousin's hotel, Villa Holiday!! Off the ferry at Santorini, Costa introduced us to his cousins, Yannis and George, at their travel agency at the port. Yannis took us in his shuttle van to the hotel, and Costa and George said they'd meet up with us later that night for drinks at the hotel pool bar. Dana and I made out like champions, and we couldn't be more exited!
A little later that night, we met back up with George*, Yannis*, Costa*, and Yannis' fiance, Rita, aka pool bartender, at the hotel pool. We sat around and drank a few glasses of red wine (on the house even though we tried to insist that we pay) and talked for a little while. It was here where we learned our first, and most important, Greek word: Yamas. It means, "cheers", and it's customary to look the person you are toasting in the eye when you say this and clink their glass or you'll have bad sex for 10 years. Believe me, I stared everyone I toasted down! About a half hour later, Costa and George asked us to go to their friends' taverna for dinner. They drove us the few blocks down the street to their friend's place called The Best taverna, right on the beach. Costa, who's so much larger than life I can't even explain it, but the friendliest, most thoughtful guy, strolled in and went around telling everyone in the open air restaurant hello. We all sat down and Costa's friends Christos, the manager, and Nikos, a waiter, came over to meet us. Costa introduced us to all of his friends as the "sexy American girls." It still makes me smile, I mean, what girl would ever get tired of being introduced like that? Nikos right away apparently began to blush, and Costa called him out saying, "I know which girl Nikos likes!" I look at Nikos and look at Dana, unsure at first which one of us it is. When I look back at Nikos, he's turned some sort of embarrassed shade of purple and he's smiling at me. He shyly says in pretty good English with a surprising British accent, "you make me nervous, baby." It was cute, and I was flattered. We all ate dinner (I even tried a piece of octopus - it tasted like tuna fish) and drank another glass or two of wine. After dinner, George and Nikos offered to take Dana and I down the beach to a local bar called, The Beach Bar (really original names these places have, right?). Costa, on the other hand, had a date. We'd learn that Costa always had a date, which makes him even more of a funny character to me. So Dana and I go with George and Nikos. We had a great time, laughing and talking and drinking - it was so much fun! Nikos asked me to go see the beach with him under the full moon (which was right outside the bar), so I smile and go. We walk down and sit in the sand just above the water's edge washing up the beach and begin to kiss. I thought to myself, for a vacation fling, could it really get any better than a cute local boy, music from the bar, black volcanic sand, the Aegean Sea at my feet, and a full moon overhead? A little while later, Dana calls for me, so Nikos and I get up and walk over to the beach lounge chairs several yards away where she and George had been sitting and kissing. It's really late, so George takes us back to the hotel. In the hotel, Dana and I spend another hour or so giggling and rehashing the day before we finally go to sleep.
The next day we spent mostly down at the beach relaxing, enjoying the beautiful weather, and soaking in the sun. Costa was going to meet us that afternoon, but it seems he found another "date" so he said he'd catch up with us later. That night, Dana and I showered (again, no shower curtain and the bathroom was inevitably flooded) and walked back down to the beach to find a taverna to eat dinner. We went to a place called Meteora. The food wasn't that great, but the service was super friendly, the atmosphere was fun and upbeat, and the baklava for dessert came out with flair! Having a late night the night before, we headed back to the hotel, hung out at the pool with the boys for a little while after dinner and then turned in "early" (1:30am).
Wednesday we woke up and decided to travel around the island a bit. We walked up to the corner, where there happened to be another travel agency, and asked how to get to the winery for a wine tasting. The travel agent wrote down the bus stop we were supposed to get off at so we could give it to the bus driver to tell us when to get off. While at the travel agency, we also bought a ticket for an all-day sailboat tour for 18 euro ($22) that we'd take on Thursday to see the volcano, hot springs, small island on the other side of the volcano called Thirisia, and finally ending up at the city on the tip of the island called Oia (pronounced Eee-ah) for the sunset. With Thursday now planned, we hopped on the next bus and got off about 10 minutes later at Santo Winery. We walked up to the winery and saw some of the most breathtaking views of the volcano! The dogs at the winery really seemed to have the life! We went inside and ordered a wine sampling that consisted of 6 glasses of their different wines, bread, tomato paste, swiss cheese cubes, and olives - all for only 6.50 euro ($8)!! We took our wine samples back outside to take advantage of the scenery, where we really enjoyed ourselves and the gorgeous landscapes! Once finished at the winery, we went back to the bus stop to catch the bus into the central city, Fira (or Thira depending on who's saying/writing it), to walk around, shop, and watch the sunset across the volcano that Santorini is so famous for. After the sunset, we jumped on the bus back to the hotel and called Costa to see what they were up to. We made plans to meet up with Costa and Nikos at a local bar called Full Moon. There we had a few drinks, listened to some music (American music by the way, that's all we really heard in the realm of pop music. It's weird hearing 50cent and Gwen Stefani in Greece!), and had a pretty laid back night, meeting some guys from the Northwest Territory of Canada and another guy from Albania. I enjoyed meeting so many people from so many other countries that I don't typically meet people from (Albania, Poland, etc).
Thursday rolled around and it was time for our sailboat excursion (I have a ton of pictures from our excursion but unfortunately Flickr only allows you to upload so many picture in a month, and I've exceeded my limit already, so I'll have to add more pictures in November). We got down to the port and first took the boat out to the volcano. At the volcano, we climbed to the top, which turned out to be a challenge in and of itself. The travel agent didn't tell us we'd need to wear tennis shoes, so we have to climb to the top in flip flops! The trail up to the crater was a mix between soft lava sand and lava pebbles, so your feet sink in with every step, and pebbles roll in between your foot and your flip flop, making the trek a lot more difficult than it would initially appear. After a few pictures from the top of the volcano, the boat sounds the horn for us to come back. It's time for our next stop over at the volcanic hot springs on the other side of the volcano.
The boat sails over and pulls in as close as it can to the hot springs, but it's still a good 50 yards away from them! They tell everyone not to get off and swim over to the springs if you're not a good swimmer because it's quite a good distance away! I wasn't scared of swimming the distance, I was more nervous that I would have to jump off the boat into the deep, unknown water. I'm not a fan of swimming in water that deep, nor am I a fan of not being able to see what's lurking that far down. But, I had to suck it up and seize the moment, and I did. The hot springs are really just luke warm, but are created by the heat bubbling up from the volcano. There are many minerals in the water, including sulfur and iron, that turns the shallow springs from the typical beautiful blue into more of a ruddy red. Twenty minutes in the hot springs and the boat sounded the horn for our return again. We make the swim all the way back to the boat, the deeper water much, much, much colder than the springs, and climb back up the ladder, ready to go to our next stop, Thirisia, otherwise known to Dana, who loves food but you can't tell because she's so thin, as "lunch island."
This small island of Thirisia used to be part of the large island of Santorini until a massive earthquake in 1950 collapsed the bridge of land that connected the two and separated these masses of land forever. There are several restaurants right on the water there, so we hop off and find one to grab some lunch. While we're eating lunch, literally, the deck of the restaurant is in the water, I happen to notice a wave crash on the nearby rocky shore and see a baby octopus get washed up on shore! I jump up and run over with my camera to take some pictures. I've never seen an octopus alive and in the wild! It was so cool. While snapping the baby's picture, all of the sudden, the mama octopus shows up! That was even more amazing! What a rush! After lunch, Dana and I change out of our wet bathing suits just in time to catch the boat ready to take off for the city of Oia.
Oia (Eee-ah) was our favorite city by far. All have been beautiful, but Oia is not to be outdone! The sailboat dropped us off at port, where donkeys were lined up to take paying tourists up the steep, steep walkway up the cliff. That may have been the best 3 euro I spent all trip, especially after climbing up the volcano in flip flops! Oia is the quintessential Greece in my opinion. Albeit a slight bit touristy, it's where you find black cats sleeping in windows or against beautiful rustic doors. Cobblestone paths that weave in and amongst the locals' homes, shops, restaurants, and of course the famous blue-dome churches. Life seems so much simpler, more relaxed in Oia. As evening nears, the entire city of tourists gather in various places to watch the sun sink into its slumber. Once nature's show is over, it's time to load the bus back to Perissa Beach.
Back at the hotel, we went back out to the pool bar to have a few drinks with Yannis and Rita. Costa and Nikos stopped by for a few minutes, but they ended up going out for a night on the town in Fira while Dana and I stayed at the hotel getting Ouzo lessons from Yannis. Yannis' other cousin, Yannis (I'm not kidding - they said they have 10 people in their family and a parrot named Yannis), came over and hung out with us. We tried Ouzo in a shot. It tastes a little like black licorice, but it's not bad. We tried Ouzo with water (it turns from clear to cloudy when water is added), and that cuts the zing out of the alcohol, making it much easier going down. We tried Sambuca, which is a little different flavor than Ouzo. We tried some other kind of shots that Rita mixed up. It was so much fun! Yannis and Rita told us of their plans to get married in the spring, and we gave them our address so we could get an invitation to come back for the wedding!! With a nice, small buzz, Dana and I thanked them all and headed to bed after a very long, but very memorable day.
Our last day in Santorini and feeling a bit more confident and adventurous, Friday, we wanted to go to the nude beaches to lay out for a while. Not knowing exactly where they were to tell a taxi driver to take us, and Costa not being able to take us over there, we opted for staying locally at Perissa Beach and just laying out topless instead. That was wonderful! It felt so nice! Girls, if you can get over the modesty factor, I highly recommend it. Although, I'm sure we're on some creepy guy's camera phone, and now probably posted on the internet somewhere, because he was fooling around with his cell phone suspiciously very close to us. Three American guys (we later overheard were from San Francisco) came over and sat 2 beach chairs away from ours. Of all of the empty ones on the beach, they ended up picking those. I think they thought we were European as we overheard they're mumbled conversations. I'm sure it came as a big surprise to them when we started talking to each other in English, mentioning something about Atlanta! We ate a late lunch at Nikos' The Best taverna, and made plans to hang out with Nikos and George later that night for Nikos' birthday that was that day. During lunch, Nikos took his pen, grabbed my hand from across the table, flipped over to my palm, and drew a big heart on the palm of my hand with an arrow through it with the words, "Love, Nikos" written underneath. It was incredibly sweet. (I should mention here that in the 5 days we've been in Santorini, Nikos has become smitten. I think he's cute, but I'm nowhere near the point of a crush that he is. He keeps calling me his girlfriend and saying he wants to marry me and that he loves me. I can't figure out if he knows the implications of the words he's using in English, or if he's using them in a flirtatious way not realizing how strong of words those are in the English language. He'd say in his British accent, "I love you, baby, do you not love me?" To which my reply would be, "Oh, Nikos, of course I love spending time with you!" And his feelings would get hurt a little at my response.)
Friday night before heading down to the taverna for Nikos' birthday party, I went up to the tiny market up the street from us to find a birthday gift. I had asked him what he wanted, and he jokingly said a car. So I bought him a car magazine, a Fanta Orange (he, along with a good many other Greeks LOVE Fanta Orange), and some sort of a small Greek cake. We took that down to the taverna where we met up with Nikos and George, and spent a good portion of the night there eating, drinking, talking, and laughing. Nikos loved the gifts, or at least the thought behind the gifts, as he knew my shopping options were very limited. It was a good night, and a nice way to say goodbye as we were leaving on Saturday on the ferry for Athens. We exchanged numbers at his request, and that was the last I saw of Nikos. (although I've gotten, and still get, several text messages from him - now almost 2 weeks later - which is cute)
The next morning, our bags were packed, we checked out of the Villa Holiday, thanking Yannis and Rita. Yannis took us to port, and we were on a ferry back to Athens, much to our chagrin. I loved Santorini. It's a beautiful place.
*It wouldn't surprise me in the least to find out that George, Costa, and Yannis were in some sort of mafia or were some sort of drug smugglers, but we didn't ask any questions, and they were very hospitable!
(You better get comfortable to read this one...but it's so worth it)
On the ferry from Mykonos to Santorini, Dana and took only 2 of the assigned seats on our 3 seat row. While settling in for our 3 hour trip, I noticed a fairly attractive guy with olive skin, dark hair and eyes, and in our age range, standing in line at the snack bar. We kept making eye contact as I scanned the rest of the boat watching others take their seats, but didn't think much of it. About halfway through the trip, this same guy comes over to our empty seat and asks if anyone was sitting there. We told him no so he sat down. He said he missed the earlier ferry, so jumped on this one, but if you miss a ferry and catch the next, you aren't guaranteed a seat. He lucked out with this seat, or rather, we did. He immediately struck up a conversation with us, and we flirtingly teased him about him just "happening" to pick 2 pretty girls to sit next to. He asked us the typical first question of "where are you from?" Dana spouted out, "Atlanta, GA, USA." (We found out quickly that we had to define where we lived quite a bit more than if we were just visiting Boise. Telling people we were from Atlanta, and sometimes even, Atlanta, GA, summoned only blank stares. Tacking on USA at the end, always seemed to get more acknowledgement. Some people even referred to us being from Atlanta, New York. It's funny how some people have absolutely no concept or understanding of the different states in the US.) His mouth dropped open when he heard our answer. It turns out that he lives in Atlanta, too, and his family owns a popular late night diner called the Landmark Diner here. The irony is that I had just been to the Landmark Diner for a late night snack a few weekends prior to the trip after a night out with some friends! He was Greek American, going to Santorini to visit some family and friends, and his name was Costa (pronounced like Costa Rica). The chances of our paths crossing in the middle of Greece were serendipitous. And it only gets better. He asks us where we're staying on the island and we tell him that we're just winging our trip and haven't made any plans. As luck would have it, his cousin on the island owns a travel agency and a hotel a few blocks from the black volcanic sand beach called Perissa Beach! He made a call on our behalf and hooked us up with a room for 30 euro ($36) a night, at his cousin's hotel, Villa Holiday!! Off the ferry at Santorini, Costa introduced us to his cousins, Yannis and George, at their travel agency at the port. Yannis took us in his shuttle van to the hotel, and Costa and George said they'd meet up with us later that night for drinks at the hotel pool bar. Dana and I made out like champions, and we couldn't be more exited!
A little later that night, we met back up with George*, Yannis*, Costa*, and Yannis' fiance, Rita, aka pool bartender, at the hotel pool. We sat around and drank a few glasses of red wine (on the house even though we tried to insist that we pay) and talked for a little while. It was here where we learned our first, and most important, Greek word: Yamas. It means, "cheers", and it's customary to look the person you are toasting in the eye when you say this and clink their glass or you'll have bad sex for 10 years. Believe me, I stared everyone I toasted down! About a half hour later, Costa and George asked us to go to their friends' taverna for dinner. They drove us the few blocks down the street to their friend's place called The Best taverna, right on the beach. Costa, who's so much larger than life I can't even explain it, but the friendliest, most thoughtful guy, strolled in and went around telling everyone in the open air restaurant hello. We all sat down and Costa's friends Christos, the manager, and Nikos, a waiter, came over to meet us. Costa introduced us to all of his friends as the "sexy American girls." It still makes me smile, I mean, what girl would ever get tired of being introduced like that? Nikos right away apparently began to blush, and Costa called him out saying, "I know which girl Nikos likes!" I look at Nikos and look at Dana, unsure at first which one of us it is. When I look back at Nikos, he's turned some sort of embarrassed shade of purple and he's smiling at me. He shyly says in pretty good English with a surprising British accent, "you make me nervous, baby." It was cute, and I was flattered. We all ate dinner (I even tried a piece of octopus - it tasted like tuna fish) and drank another glass or two of wine. After dinner, George and Nikos offered to take Dana and I down the beach to a local bar called, The Beach Bar (really original names these places have, right?). Costa, on the other hand, had a date. We'd learn that Costa always had a date, which makes him even more of a funny character to me. So Dana and I go with George and Nikos. We had a great time, laughing and talking and drinking - it was so much fun! Nikos asked me to go see the beach with him under the full moon (which was right outside the bar), so I smile and go. We walk down and sit in the sand just above the water's edge washing up the beach and begin to kiss. I thought to myself, for a vacation fling, could it really get any better than a cute local boy, music from the bar, black volcanic sand, the Aegean Sea at my feet, and a full moon overhead? A little while later, Dana calls for me, so Nikos and I get up and walk over to the beach lounge chairs several yards away where she and George had been sitting and kissing. It's really late, so George takes us back to the hotel. In the hotel, Dana and I spend another hour or so giggling and rehashing the day before we finally go to sleep.
The next day we spent mostly down at the beach relaxing, enjoying the beautiful weather, and soaking in the sun. Costa was going to meet us that afternoon, but it seems he found another "date" so he said he'd catch up with us later. That night, Dana and I showered (again, no shower curtain and the bathroom was inevitably flooded) and walked back down to the beach to find a taverna to eat dinner. We went to a place called Meteora. The food wasn't that great, but the service was super friendly, the atmosphere was fun and upbeat, and the baklava for dessert came out with flair! Having a late night the night before, we headed back to the hotel, hung out at the pool with the boys for a little while after dinner and then turned in "early" (1:30am).
Wednesday we woke up and decided to travel around the island a bit. We walked up to the corner, where there happened to be another travel agency, and asked how to get to the winery for a wine tasting. The travel agent wrote down the bus stop we were supposed to get off at so we could give it to the bus driver to tell us when to get off. While at the travel agency, we also bought a ticket for an all-day sailboat tour for 18 euro ($22) that we'd take on Thursday to see the volcano, hot springs, small island on the other side of the volcano called Thirisia, and finally ending up at the city on the tip of the island called Oia (pronounced Eee-ah) for the sunset. With Thursday now planned, we hopped on the next bus and got off about 10 minutes later at Santo Winery. We walked up to the winery and saw some of the most breathtaking views of the volcano! The dogs at the winery really seemed to have the life! We went inside and ordered a wine sampling that consisted of 6 glasses of their different wines, bread, tomato paste, swiss cheese cubes, and olives - all for only 6.50 euro ($8)!! We took our wine samples back outside to take advantage of the scenery, where we really enjoyed ourselves and the gorgeous landscapes! Once finished at the winery, we went back to the bus stop to catch the bus into the central city, Fira (or Thira depending on who's saying/writing it), to walk around, shop, and watch the sunset across the volcano that Santorini is so famous for. After the sunset, we jumped on the bus back to the hotel and called Costa to see what they were up to. We made plans to meet up with Costa and Nikos at a local bar called Full Moon. There we had a few drinks, listened to some music (American music by the way, that's all we really heard in the realm of pop music. It's weird hearing 50cent and Gwen Stefani in Greece!), and had a pretty laid back night, meeting some guys from the Northwest Territory of Canada and another guy from Albania. I enjoyed meeting so many people from so many other countries that I don't typically meet people from (Albania, Poland, etc).
Thursday rolled around and it was time for our sailboat excursion (I have a ton of pictures from our excursion but unfortunately Flickr only allows you to upload so many picture in a month, and I've exceeded my limit already, so I'll have to add more pictures in November). We got down to the port and first took the boat out to the volcano. At the volcano, we climbed to the top, which turned out to be a challenge in and of itself. The travel agent didn't tell us we'd need to wear tennis shoes, so we have to climb to the top in flip flops! The trail up to the crater was a mix between soft lava sand and lava pebbles, so your feet sink in with every step, and pebbles roll in between your foot and your flip flop, making the trek a lot more difficult than it would initially appear. After a few pictures from the top of the volcano, the boat sounds the horn for us to come back. It's time for our next stop over at the volcanic hot springs on the other side of the volcano.
The boat sails over and pulls in as close as it can to the hot springs, but it's still a good 50 yards away from them! They tell everyone not to get off and swim over to the springs if you're not a good swimmer because it's quite a good distance away! I wasn't scared of swimming the distance, I was more nervous that I would have to jump off the boat into the deep, unknown water. I'm not a fan of swimming in water that deep, nor am I a fan of not being able to see what's lurking that far down. But, I had to suck it up and seize the moment, and I did. The hot springs are really just luke warm, but are created by the heat bubbling up from the volcano. There are many minerals in the water, including sulfur and iron, that turns the shallow springs from the typical beautiful blue into more of a ruddy red. Twenty minutes in the hot springs and the boat sounded the horn for our return again. We make the swim all the way back to the boat, the deeper water much, much, much colder than the springs, and climb back up the ladder, ready to go to our next stop, Thirisia, otherwise known to Dana, who loves food but you can't tell because she's so thin, as "lunch island."
This small island of Thirisia used to be part of the large island of Santorini until a massive earthquake in 1950 collapsed the bridge of land that connected the two and separated these masses of land forever. There are several restaurants right on the water there, so we hop off and find one to grab some lunch. While we're eating lunch, literally, the deck of the restaurant is in the water, I happen to notice a wave crash on the nearby rocky shore and see a baby octopus get washed up on shore! I jump up and run over with my camera to take some pictures. I've never seen an octopus alive and in the wild! It was so cool. While snapping the baby's picture, all of the sudden, the mama octopus shows up! That was even more amazing! What a rush! After lunch, Dana and I change out of our wet bathing suits just in time to catch the boat ready to take off for the city of Oia.
Oia (Eee-ah) was our favorite city by far. All have been beautiful, but Oia is not to be outdone! The sailboat dropped us off at port, where donkeys were lined up to take paying tourists up the steep, steep walkway up the cliff. That may have been the best 3 euro I spent all trip, especially after climbing up the volcano in flip flops! Oia is the quintessential Greece in my opinion. Albeit a slight bit touristy, it's where you find black cats sleeping in windows or against beautiful rustic doors. Cobblestone paths that weave in and amongst the locals' homes, shops, restaurants, and of course the famous blue-dome churches. Life seems so much simpler, more relaxed in Oia. As evening nears, the entire city of tourists gather in various places to watch the sun sink into its slumber. Once nature's show is over, it's time to load the bus back to Perissa Beach.
Back at the hotel, we went back out to the pool bar to have a few drinks with Yannis and Rita. Costa and Nikos stopped by for a few minutes, but they ended up going out for a night on the town in Fira while Dana and I stayed at the hotel getting Ouzo lessons from Yannis. Yannis' other cousin, Yannis (I'm not kidding - they said they have 10 people in their family and a parrot named Yannis), came over and hung out with us. We tried Ouzo in a shot. It tastes a little like black licorice, but it's not bad. We tried Ouzo with water (it turns from clear to cloudy when water is added), and that cuts the zing out of the alcohol, making it much easier going down. We tried Sambuca, which is a little different flavor than Ouzo. We tried some other kind of shots that Rita mixed up. It was so much fun! Yannis and Rita told us of their plans to get married in the spring, and we gave them our address so we could get an invitation to come back for the wedding!! With a nice, small buzz, Dana and I thanked them all and headed to bed after a very long, but very memorable day.
Our last day in Santorini and feeling a bit more confident and adventurous, Friday, we wanted to go to the nude beaches to lay out for a while. Not knowing exactly where they were to tell a taxi driver to take us, and Costa not being able to take us over there, we opted for staying locally at Perissa Beach and just laying out topless instead. That was wonderful! It felt so nice! Girls, if you can get over the modesty factor, I highly recommend it. Although, I'm sure we're on some creepy guy's camera phone, and now probably posted on the internet somewhere, because he was fooling around with his cell phone suspiciously very close to us. Three American guys (we later overheard were from San Francisco) came over and sat 2 beach chairs away from ours. Of all of the empty ones on the beach, they ended up picking those. I think they thought we were European as we overheard they're mumbled conversations. I'm sure it came as a big surprise to them when we started talking to each other in English, mentioning something about Atlanta! We ate a late lunch at Nikos' The Best taverna, and made plans to hang out with Nikos and George later that night for Nikos' birthday that was that day. During lunch, Nikos took his pen, grabbed my hand from across the table, flipped over to my palm, and drew a big heart on the palm of my hand with an arrow through it with the words, "Love, Nikos" written underneath. It was incredibly sweet. (I should mention here that in the 5 days we've been in Santorini, Nikos has become smitten. I think he's cute, but I'm nowhere near the point of a crush that he is. He keeps calling me his girlfriend and saying he wants to marry me and that he loves me. I can't figure out if he knows the implications of the words he's using in English, or if he's using them in a flirtatious way not realizing how strong of words those are in the English language. He'd say in his British accent, "I love you, baby, do you not love me?" To which my reply would be, "Oh, Nikos, of course I love spending time with you!" And his feelings would get hurt a little at my response.)
Friday night before heading down to the taverna for Nikos' birthday party, I went up to the tiny market up the street from us to find a birthday gift. I had asked him what he wanted, and he jokingly said a car. So I bought him a car magazine, a Fanta Orange (he, along with a good many other Greeks LOVE Fanta Orange), and some sort of a small Greek cake. We took that down to the taverna where we met up with Nikos and George, and spent a good portion of the night there eating, drinking, talking, and laughing. Nikos loved the gifts, or at least the thought behind the gifts, as he knew my shopping options were very limited. It was a good night, and a nice way to say goodbye as we were leaving on Saturday on the ferry for Athens. We exchanged numbers at his request, and that was the last I saw of Nikos. (although I've gotten, and still get, several text messages from him - now almost 2 weeks later - which is cute)
The next morning, our bags were packed, we checked out of the Villa Holiday, thanking Yannis and Rita. Yannis took us to port, and we were on a ferry back to Athens, much to our chagrin. I loved Santorini. It's a beautiful place.
*It wouldn't surprise me in the least to find out that George, Costa, and Yannis were in some sort of mafia or were some sort of drug smugglers, but we didn't ask any questions, and they were very hospitable!
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
"Halftime"
Ok, so I went out to dinner tonight and then watched LOST, so I don't have time to write a post about Santorini and do it any kind of justice. I know, I know, you're disappointed. However, let's just consider this a sort of "halftime" away from the stories from my trip. Which is a perfect segway to discuss Alabama for this week. Now, we don't have a game this weekend, which is good so the boys can get some rest and get ready to win the next set of games in the second half of the season. But, without a game, that leaves me with nothing to post about for my typical weekly game day post.
Oh. But wait. Just wait. Why, what's this I see? Ahh, how very interesting. Let's all take a look, shall we? It's on newstands now.
Oh. But wait. Just wait. Why, what's this I see? Ahh, how very interesting. Let's all take a look, shall we? It's on newstands now.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Let's Go to Mykonos!
My trip to Greece - Mykonos
(otherwise known by me and Dana as "Meeeeee - ko - nooosss", said in a singsong to the tune of the Riccola commercials)
Five hours, one Grecian sunrise, and two island stops later (Syros, the capitol island of the Cyclades, and neighboring island, Tinos), Dana and I arrive on the island of Mykonos. Departing the ferry was very eventful. On the way onto the ferry, they had escalators that would take you and your very heavy luggage up the 3 flights of 50 stairs each to the main deck. On the way off of the ferry, however, they turn off the escalators and leave weak, American girls to drag their luggage down the stairs, ker-klunck, ker-klunck, ker-klunck, to the amusement and jeers of the locals. Three flights, 150 stairs, and 6 bruises later, we're ready to embark on the Mykonos experience.
Off of the ferry, there are a barrage of hotel representatives with 4-color brochures and business cards from their establishment ready to sell you on a room at their place. It's very hectic with strangers coming over to show off their brochure while others shove theirs in front instead, all of them spouting off the features, benefits, and pricing of their respective place. Dana and I decided to go with a hotel that was in-town as opposed to on the beach because we wanted to be close to the action. A man showed us a brochure of his place, and the view of the pool shown in his brochure, along with the 50 euro ($60) a night price tag, tempted us, so we asked to see rooms at his hotel before committing to stay. Pocketing other hotel's business cards in case we weren't pleased with what we saw, we jumped in the van as he loaded up our luggage. A 5 minute drive up the cliff and we were there. He opened the cobalt blue wooden double-doors to the pool area entrance and our mouths dropped open in awe. After checking out a room for cleanliness (it even had a shower curtain) and the rest of the hotel, we eagerly signed up for at least 2 nights at Hotel Tagoo. Wouldn't you?
(the uploading of pictures isn't working so you'll have to actually click the links to view)
The Amazing Pool
The Hotel
The View from Our Room
We spent the last few hours of the afternoon at the pool, drooling over the 3 British guys that showed up a little later that day, and then ventured into the town for a look around that night. I found the whitewashed buildings with doors and shutters the color of the blue Aegean, paired with flowers in pinks and oranges, a beautiful contrast against the rocky backdrop of the undeveloped areas of the island. Town was very quaint with small tavernas and shops peppered along the harbor, but extremely overpriced and touristy. We ate outside at a restaurant directly on the water that night called Babulas, and had many cat friends come over looking for a morsel or two of our dinner. We're both animal-loving people, so we didn't mind sharing. (In fact, an orange and white tabby cat at the hotel had adopted us so we brought him home our leftovers at night, gave him water, and named him George, short for Georgia.) We made good friends with the older gentleman that owns the place, and he ended up bringing us some sort of lemon cordial in a shot glass when we finished our meal. After dinner, we wandered the streets a bit longer, and then found a place in the center of town to have dessert and a cappucino. With it being the end of the tourist season, Mykonos wasn't quite as "happening" as everyone describes it to be, but we still had a good time. We really didn't want to party all night anyway; maybe we're getting old, but there was too much we wanted to do and see and didn't want to waste our trip in Greece sleeping off a hangover.
Saturday morning we woke up and decided to head out for one of the beaches, so we threw on our suits and headed for the bus station. We stopped in a mini-market to pick up some bottled water and snacks for the day, and wouldn't you know that while picking out our Ruffles Oregano flavored chips, my bathing suit strap snapped and I had a total Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction right there in the potato chip aisle! I desperately grabbed the strap and held it back up to make myself decent again. Ready to get going to the beach and unmotivated by the hot sun to walk up the cliff back to the hotel to change swimsuits, I improvised and bought a black shoelace from the market to rig my bathing suit back together again. Just call me Macgyver. We bought a bus ticket from the lady at the rental car place as indicated to do on the bus schedule scribbled on a black chalkboard with the bus times and locations running for the day. This was our second encounter with the Greek time table. We stood at the bus stop for 45 minutes (when it should have only been a 15 minute wait according to the time it was supposed to show up and the time we purchased our ticket). Once the bus finally showed up, it backed into the bus parking spot and the driver got out. We went over, showed him our ticket and said we were waiting to go to Elias Beach, and he shook his head and said we missed the bus and the next one wouldn't be for another 2 hours. What? How could that be? We were there 15 minutes early for the designated time it was supposed to come! He didn't seem to care all that much as he made a brush off motion with his hand, mumbling in Greek as he walked away from the bus, I guess on his break. Confused but determined to get to a beach, we decided to try a taxi to the beach instead. We walked back into the center of town where tourists catch the taxis and again waited for an hour, in line for our turn with a taxi, also known as your death wish. The taxi was doing at least 80 mph around very windy, very narrow roads with sharp drop offs down the sides of cliffs and no guard rails. I'm all for driving fast, but I have to admit that I was scared for my life in the 20 minute, 10 euro ($12) ride to Elias Beach. Disney's Space Mountain's got nothing on Mykonos taxis, that's for sure!
Elias Beach was fairly quiet and very pretty. Tall, rocky mountains lacking in any vegitation surrounded a large cove of crystal clear, sparkling azure water, that was a bit on the chilly side. The sand was a nice tan color with a mixture of a few small pebbles. Unfortunately, there were also quite a few cigarette butts on the beach as well. The European tourists obviously haven't gotten the memo about smoking just yet because everyone over there still seems to do it. We spent the remainder of what was left in our day at the beach, seeing the sunset and then actually catching the last bus back to town. Ha! And I thought the taxi ride was bad? Now we're in a bus doing 80 mph through windy, narrow roads with sharp drop offs and no guard rails, but the new element to the death wish game is that the bus is overstuffed with people, standing room only, to the point that Dana and I had to sit on the steps of the bus because that was the only space left to squeeze us on!
Later that night we went back into town and ate at Nikos Tavern, a restaurant tucked right in the middle of the meandering streets, where everyone just walks through and amongst the tables along their way through town. After dinner, we started off on our journey through the maze of whitewashed pathways leading to shops interspersed with dance clubs, more restaurants, small churches, and private homes. Bobbing in and out of the overpriced shops and intrigued by what we'd find around the next path, perhaps even looking for a small bit of vacation trouble, we walked the town of Mykonos thoroughly, finding that most of the night life left on the island at this point in the tourist season wasn't for us. We were two single girls looking for straight single men, and while we found a gamut of single men, it was guaranteed they weren't looking for girls like us. Back at the hotel that night, we decided not to stay any longer in Mykonos as originally planned and to begin our journey to the island of Santorini instead. While Mykonos is a beautiful place, it felt a little too touristy and contrived, and we were satisfied that we had seen what we came to see in the two days we were there.
The next morning, we packed up, checked out of the beautiful and incredibly relaxing Hotel Tagoo (I still miss the pool), and went back to the center of town to the travel agency that Cathy's boyfriend's sister worked at. We met Maria, Petro's sister, inside the agency and she helped us book our ferry ticket to Santorini, on a fast boat this time so our trip would only take 3 hours. We also decided that since we had a hard time finding a hotel in Athens the first time, that we should go ahead and book our ferry ticket back to Athens from Santorini along with hotel accommodations in Athens for once we got there. This was the only part of the trip that we actually planned. Keep that in mind, because it will come up in my writings about Athens. We went to the port 30 minutes ahead of time, and stood there waiting for the ferry for 2 hours. The Greek time table. Whatever. The ferry arrived, we boarded, with assigned seats inside this time, and we were off for the beautiful Santorini!
Stay tuned for the post about Santorini. It's about to get really good, y'all.
(otherwise known by me and Dana as "Meeeeee - ko - nooosss", said in a singsong to the tune of the Riccola commercials)
Five hours, one Grecian sunrise, and two island stops later (Syros, the capitol island of the Cyclades, and neighboring island, Tinos), Dana and I arrive on the island of Mykonos. Departing the ferry was very eventful. On the way onto the ferry, they had escalators that would take you and your very heavy luggage up the 3 flights of 50 stairs each to the main deck. On the way off of the ferry, however, they turn off the escalators and leave weak, American girls to drag their luggage down the stairs, ker-klunck, ker-klunck, ker-klunck, to the amusement and jeers of the locals. Three flights, 150 stairs, and 6 bruises later, we're ready to embark on the Mykonos experience.
Off of the ferry, there are a barrage of hotel representatives with 4-color brochures and business cards from their establishment ready to sell you on a room at their place. It's very hectic with strangers coming over to show off their brochure while others shove theirs in front instead, all of them spouting off the features, benefits, and pricing of their respective place. Dana and I decided to go with a hotel that was in-town as opposed to on the beach because we wanted to be close to the action. A man showed us a brochure of his place, and the view of the pool shown in his brochure, along with the 50 euro ($60) a night price tag, tempted us, so we asked to see rooms at his hotel before committing to stay. Pocketing other hotel's business cards in case we weren't pleased with what we saw, we jumped in the van as he loaded up our luggage. A 5 minute drive up the cliff and we were there. He opened the cobalt blue wooden double-doors to the pool area entrance and our mouths dropped open in awe. After checking out a room for cleanliness (it even had a shower curtain) and the rest of the hotel, we eagerly signed up for at least 2 nights at Hotel Tagoo. Wouldn't you?
(the uploading of pictures isn't working so you'll have to actually click the links to view)
The Amazing Pool
The Hotel
The View from Our Room
We spent the last few hours of the afternoon at the pool, drooling over the 3 British guys that showed up a little later that day, and then ventured into the town for a look around that night. I found the whitewashed buildings with doors and shutters the color of the blue Aegean, paired with flowers in pinks and oranges, a beautiful contrast against the rocky backdrop of the undeveloped areas of the island. Town was very quaint with small tavernas and shops peppered along the harbor, but extremely overpriced and touristy. We ate outside at a restaurant directly on the water that night called Babulas, and had many cat friends come over looking for a morsel or two of our dinner. We're both animal-loving people, so we didn't mind sharing. (In fact, an orange and white tabby cat at the hotel had adopted us so we brought him home our leftovers at night, gave him water, and named him George, short for Georgia.) We made good friends with the older gentleman that owns the place, and he ended up bringing us some sort of lemon cordial in a shot glass when we finished our meal. After dinner, we wandered the streets a bit longer, and then found a place in the center of town to have dessert and a cappucino. With it being the end of the tourist season, Mykonos wasn't quite as "happening" as everyone describes it to be, but we still had a good time. We really didn't want to party all night anyway; maybe we're getting old, but there was too much we wanted to do and see and didn't want to waste our trip in Greece sleeping off a hangover.
Saturday morning we woke up and decided to head out for one of the beaches, so we threw on our suits and headed for the bus station. We stopped in a mini-market to pick up some bottled water and snacks for the day, and wouldn't you know that while picking out our Ruffles Oregano flavored chips, my bathing suit strap snapped and I had a total Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction right there in the potato chip aisle! I desperately grabbed the strap and held it back up to make myself decent again. Ready to get going to the beach and unmotivated by the hot sun to walk up the cliff back to the hotel to change swimsuits, I improvised and bought a black shoelace from the market to rig my bathing suit back together again. Just call me Macgyver. We bought a bus ticket from the lady at the rental car place as indicated to do on the bus schedule scribbled on a black chalkboard with the bus times and locations running for the day. This was our second encounter with the Greek time table. We stood at the bus stop for 45 minutes (when it should have only been a 15 minute wait according to the time it was supposed to show up and the time we purchased our ticket). Once the bus finally showed up, it backed into the bus parking spot and the driver got out. We went over, showed him our ticket and said we were waiting to go to Elias Beach, and he shook his head and said we missed the bus and the next one wouldn't be for another 2 hours. What? How could that be? We were there 15 minutes early for the designated time it was supposed to come! He didn't seem to care all that much as he made a brush off motion with his hand, mumbling in Greek as he walked away from the bus, I guess on his break. Confused but determined to get to a beach, we decided to try a taxi to the beach instead. We walked back into the center of town where tourists catch the taxis and again waited for an hour, in line for our turn with a taxi, also known as your death wish. The taxi was doing at least 80 mph around very windy, very narrow roads with sharp drop offs down the sides of cliffs and no guard rails. I'm all for driving fast, but I have to admit that I was scared for my life in the 20 minute, 10 euro ($12) ride to Elias Beach. Disney's Space Mountain's got nothing on Mykonos taxis, that's for sure!
Elias Beach was fairly quiet and very pretty. Tall, rocky mountains lacking in any vegitation surrounded a large cove of crystal clear, sparkling azure water, that was a bit on the chilly side. The sand was a nice tan color with a mixture of a few small pebbles. Unfortunately, there were also quite a few cigarette butts on the beach as well. The European tourists obviously haven't gotten the memo about smoking just yet because everyone over there still seems to do it. We spent the remainder of what was left in our day at the beach, seeing the sunset and then actually catching the last bus back to town. Ha! And I thought the taxi ride was bad? Now we're in a bus doing 80 mph through windy, narrow roads with sharp drop offs and no guard rails, but the new element to the death wish game is that the bus is overstuffed with people, standing room only, to the point that Dana and I had to sit on the steps of the bus because that was the only space left to squeeze us on!
Later that night we went back into town and ate at Nikos Tavern, a restaurant tucked right in the middle of the meandering streets, where everyone just walks through and amongst the tables along their way through town. After dinner, we started off on our journey through the maze of whitewashed pathways leading to shops interspersed with dance clubs, more restaurants, small churches, and private homes. Bobbing in and out of the overpriced shops and intrigued by what we'd find around the next path, perhaps even looking for a small bit of vacation trouble, we walked the town of Mykonos thoroughly, finding that most of the night life left on the island at this point in the tourist season wasn't for us. We were two single girls looking for straight single men, and while we found a gamut of single men, it was guaranteed they weren't looking for girls like us. Back at the hotel that night, we decided not to stay any longer in Mykonos as originally planned and to begin our journey to the island of Santorini instead. While Mykonos is a beautiful place, it felt a little too touristy and contrived, and we were satisfied that we had seen what we came to see in the two days we were there.
The next morning, we packed up, checked out of the beautiful and incredibly relaxing Hotel Tagoo (I still miss the pool), and went back to the center of town to the travel agency that Cathy's boyfriend's sister worked at. We met Maria, Petro's sister, inside the agency and she helped us book our ferry ticket to Santorini, on a fast boat this time so our trip would only take 3 hours. We also decided that since we had a hard time finding a hotel in Athens the first time, that we should go ahead and book our ferry ticket back to Athens from Santorini along with hotel accommodations in Athens for once we got there. This was the only part of the trip that we actually planned. Keep that in mind, because it will come up in my writings about Athens. We went to the port 30 minutes ahead of time, and stood there waiting for the ferry for 2 hours. The Greek time table. Whatever. The ferry arrived, we boarded, with assigned seats inside this time, and we were off for the beautiful Santorini!
Stay tuned for the post about Santorini. It's about to get really good, y'all.
Monday, October 03, 2005
The Girls Weren't Ready for Athens
My trip to Greece - Athens Part One, The Arrival
I'm starting with stories from Athens because it was the starting and ending point for our trip, and I thought I'd just go in sequential order in the hopes it would help me better remember everything.
My friend and co-worker, Dana, and I show up in Athens, Greece at 4:30pm on Friday, September 16, weary after about 13 hours of travel that began in Atlanta at 5pm the day before. We saw the edge of night over the Atlantic Ocean by plane (where night falls going West, and day begins going East). Even at my best attempt at sleep, Tylonol PM included, I didn't get much rest. The sleep that I did succumb to was extremely light and very elusive. I'm a side and/or stomach sleeper, which makes finding a comfortable position in a mostly upright chair, lying on my back, and on the aisle seat, nearly impossible. Regardless, I was simply too excited to sleep. After tight quarters on the plane, airplane mystery meat food for "breakfast" (yuck, can I just another dinner roll instead please?), and running the rat maze they like to call Gatwick Airport in London for our layover, we were glad to be on land for a while. We pick up our luggage from baggage claim, head for the front of the airport, and stop dead in our tracks. Now what?
You see, Dana and I are somewhat of the adventurous types. Please don't get us confused with the "backpacker" type, because our 50 lb suitcases filled with cute clothes, make-up, razors, and hair products will attest that we're anything but that. However, we literally purchased round trip tickets to a foreign country where we didn't know the language whatsoever, and yet didn't make the first reservation, plan, or agenda. We didn't really even do any research. We just showed up ready to do and see and experience - whatever. We purchased a phone card, realizing first hand that standing in line over there meant absolutely nothing, and made our way to the pay phones. Dana had an acquaintance in Athens, so we decided to call her to test the water on the potential for a free night's stay with her. That was a no go, but we'd meet up with her, along with her boyfriend, later that night for dinner. In the meantime, someplace to stay for the night was top priority. So we walked over to a travel agency there in the airport in the hopes of finding a room.
The first travel agency we went to said that there were 3 conventions in town and no hotel rooms that they could help us with unless we wanted to spend 120 Euro ($144) or more. On a budget and not quite willing to spend any major money on a hotel, we asked to go ahead and catch a ferry to the island of Mykonos that night instead. The travel agent all but rolled on the floor in his fit of laughter at this request. In his broken English and between his cackling, we were able to understand that Fridays are a popular day to catch the ferry to the islands, and seats book up quickly. All reservations for the last ferry had been made already. That was pretty much the extent of his helpfulness. Bewildered at the lack of courtesy or service, we move down to the next travel agency for some help. We fare a bit better at this agency, booking a room down at the port of Piraeus for 55 Euro ($66), and a 7:30am ferry ticket to Mykonos for the following morning. All of this happened in the span of 2 hours. Yes, 2 reservations took 2 hours. Another of our first observations that the Greeks are definitely on their own time schedule. When they feel like it, they'll do it. When they do it, they'll take their time. Quite the culture shock coming from a country that prides itself on "quicker, faster, better."
Directed to the express bus bound for Piraeus, we figured out the purchasing of a bus ticket, the validation of the ticket, and took our seats after handing the driver a slip of paper asking him to notify us of our stop. The city whizzed by in a flash, with honks from the bus driver and other cars (apparently driving is one of the few things that creates a sense of urgency in Greek people), and I wasn't all that impressed with the view. Even coming from a large city myself, Athens seemed very dirty to me. Bleak. Cluttered. I was very surprised that the Olympic Committee agreed to hold the games there to be honest. You could tell there were attempts to freshen up for these games last year, but most often only the fronts of businesses and condo complexes were painted, leaving the sides of the buildings an eyesore; the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig in my opinion. I was yet to be impressed with Greece. Several stops later, Dana gets up to ask the driver when we're supposed to get off (they don't announce stops on the express bus - you're just supposed to know I guess), and he shouts at us that this is our stop. Thank goodness she asked! Hurriedly, we lug our suitcases off the bus amidst the crowd still packed on there, and are suddenly standing left in the bus exhaust on some random street in Athens. Unsure of exactly how to get to our hotel from the bus stop, we get out a map and anxiously begin trying to figure out street signs. But, it was all Greek to us. A good Samaritan sees us with the map and stops to help. As he's trying to figure out where we need to go, I happen to look down one of the streets and see the sign for our hotel: The Dream Hotel.
Trudging down the street with carry-on and a rolling barge of a suitcase, we make it the 5 blocks safe and sound and check-in. The very small "lift" will only hold one of us with our suitcase at a time, so Dana goes up the elevator first. Once I make it up to the room, I find her standing in a dark room that appears very clean and very nice for the money, just extremely tiny. Just enough room in there for the two twin beds and nightstand, but we weren't complaining. We just wanted a shower, but first, we needed to figure out how to turn on the lights. After fumbling around feeling up all the walls, we realize that we had to slide the key in the lightswitch in order for the lights to work. Voila...or should I say Oompah...the lights came on. She called shower first, which was the first experience with showers in Greece. Very few have shower curtains, and usually when you're done with your shower, you've pretty much flooded the bathroom. They're basically just a platform, open to the rest of the bathroom, with a faucet and handheld showerhead. We quickly learned to move the toilet paper to higher ground while showering!! While she showered, that left me to call her friend, Cathy, to make plans for the evening. They were to come pick us up at the hotel and we'd go to dinner somewhere close as to not make it a late night out. We were pooped, and had to get up early to catch our ferry, so her friend suggested a local restaurant at the marina called Skippers.
Cathy and her boyfriend Petros came to pick us up about an hour later, and Petros drove us around Piraeus. It's more of the business district of Athens, so there's not much to see, but we did end up seeing a few of the venues built for the Olympics. At Skippers, they only had one thing on the menu - Greek salad. I'm not kidding, that's all they offered that night for dinner. However, the atmosphere more than made up for the lack of offerings. We sat down by the docked boats, as far as the eye could see, all waiting for their turn to sail the Aegean Sea. The Greek salads came, and this was my first realization that Greek salads don't have any lettuce. A true Greek salad consists of tomatoes, black olives, onions, green peppers, cucumber, a block of feta cheese, and olive oil. The only thing I really eat out of all of those ingredients is feta. Starving after the disgusting plane food, I power through a few cucumbers, green peppers, and the feta. We learned a few pointers from Cathy and Petros during dinner - when to tip and how much, learning that you have to ask for your check to be brought to you instead of like in America where it arrives at the end of the meal, how to get to the port in the morning to catch our ferry, and some suggestions on beaches to visit while in Mykonos. After a few hours visiting with them, they dropped us back off at the hotel, and we were out for the count.
6am came fast. We loaded up the suitcases, threw on some clothes, hair back in a pony tail, and waited for our taxi to take us to port. Once there, we climbed aboard the Blue Star Ferry, waded through the crowd for an iced coffee and a cheese pie (flaky pastry phyllo dough wrapped around a soft cheese) for breakfast, and found some seats outside so we could enjoy the view while on our 5 hour trip to the Greek island of Mykonos. The sunrise was amazing...
I'm starting with stories from Athens because it was the starting and ending point for our trip, and I thought I'd just go in sequential order in the hopes it would help me better remember everything.
My friend and co-worker, Dana, and I show up in Athens, Greece at 4:30pm on Friday, September 16, weary after about 13 hours of travel that began in Atlanta at 5pm the day before. We saw the edge of night over the Atlantic Ocean by plane (where night falls going West, and day begins going East). Even at my best attempt at sleep, Tylonol PM included, I didn't get much rest. The sleep that I did succumb to was extremely light and very elusive. I'm a side and/or stomach sleeper, which makes finding a comfortable position in a mostly upright chair, lying on my back, and on the aisle seat, nearly impossible. Regardless, I was simply too excited to sleep. After tight quarters on the plane, airplane mystery meat food for "breakfast" (yuck, can I just another dinner roll instead please?), and running the rat maze they like to call Gatwick Airport in London for our layover, we were glad to be on land for a while. We pick up our luggage from baggage claim, head for the front of the airport, and stop dead in our tracks. Now what?
You see, Dana and I are somewhat of the adventurous types. Please don't get us confused with the "backpacker" type, because our 50 lb suitcases filled with cute clothes, make-up, razors, and hair products will attest that we're anything but that. However, we literally purchased round trip tickets to a foreign country where we didn't know the language whatsoever, and yet didn't make the first reservation, plan, or agenda. We didn't really even do any research. We just showed up ready to do and see and experience - whatever. We purchased a phone card, realizing first hand that standing in line over there meant absolutely nothing, and made our way to the pay phones. Dana had an acquaintance in Athens, so we decided to call her to test the water on the potential for a free night's stay with her. That was a no go, but we'd meet up with her, along with her boyfriend, later that night for dinner. In the meantime, someplace to stay for the night was top priority. So we walked over to a travel agency there in the airport in the hopes of finding a room.
The first travel agency we went to said that there were 3 conventions in town and no hotel rooms that they could help us with unless we wanted to spend 120 Euro ($144) or more. On a budget and not quite willing to spend any major money on a hotel, we asked to go ahead and catch a ferry to the island of Mykonos that night instead. The travel agent all but rolled on the floor in his fit of laughter at this request. In his broken English and between his cackling, we were able to understand that Fridays are a popular day to catch the ferry to the islands, and seats book up quickly. All reservations for the last ferry had been made already. That was pretty much the extent of his helpfulness. Bewildered at the lack of courtesy or service, we move down to the next travel agency for some help. We fare a bit better at this agency, booking a room down at the port of Piraeus for 55 Euro ($66), and a 7:30am ferry ticket to Mykonos for the following morning. All of this happened in the span of 2 hours. Yes, 2 reservations took 2 hours. Another of our first observations that the Greeks are definitely on their own time schedule. When they feel like it, they'll do it. When they do it, they'll take their time. Quite the culture shock coming from a country that prides itself on "quicker, faster, better."
Directed to the express bus bound for Piraeus, we figured out the purchasing of a bus ticket, the validation of the ticket, and took our seats after handing the driver a slip of paper asking him to notify us of our stop. The city whizzed by in a flash, with honks from the bus driver and other cars (apparently driving is one of the few things that creates a sense of urgency in Greek people), and I wasn't all that impressed with the view. Even coming from a large city myself, Athens seemed very dirty to me. Bleak. Cluttered. I was very surprised that the Olympic Committee agreed to hold the games there to be honest. You could tell there were attempts to freshen up for these games last year, but most often only the fronts of businesses and condo complexes were painted, leaving the sides of the buildings an eyesore; the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig in my opinion. I was yet to be impressed with Greece. Several stops later, Dana gets up to ask the driver when we're supposed to get off (they don't announce stops on the express bus - you're just supposed to know I guess), and he shouts at us that this is our stop. Thank goodness she asked! Hurriedly, we lug our suitcases off the bus amidst the crowd still packed on there, and are suddenly standing left in the bus exhaust on some random street in Athens. Unsure of exactly how to get to our hotel from the bus stop, we get out a map and anxiously begin trying to figure out street signs. But, it was all Greek to us. A good Samaritan sees us with the map and stops to help. As he's trying to figure out where we need to go, I happen to look down one of the streets and see the sign for our hotel: The Dream Hotel.
Trudging down the street with carry-on and a rolling barge of a suitcase, we make it the 5 blocks safe and sound and check-in. The very small "lift" will only hold one of us with our suitcase at a time, so Dana goes up the elevator first. Once I make it up to the room, I find her standing in a dark room that appears very clean and very nice for the money, just extremely tiny. Just enough room in there for the two twin beds and nightstand, but we weren't complaining. We just wanted a shower, but first, we needed to figure out how to turn on the lights. After fumbling around feeling up all the walls, we realize that we had to slide the key in the lightswitch in order for the lights to work. Voila...or should I say Oompah...the lights came on. She called shower first, which was the first experience with showers in Greece. Very few have shower curtains, and usually when you're done with your shower, you've pretty much flooded the bathroom. They're basically just a platform, open to the rest of the bathroom, with a faucet and handheld showerhead. We quickly learned to move the toilet paper to higher ground while showering!! While she showered, that left me to call her friend, Cathy, to make plans for the evening. They were to come pick us up at the hotel and we'd go to dinner somewhere close as to not make it a late night out. We were pooped, and had to get up early to catch our ferry, so her friend suggested a local restaurant at the marina called Skippers.
Cathy and her boyfriend Petros came to pick us up about an hour later, and Petros drove us around Piraeus. It's more of the business district of Athens, so there's not much to see, but we did end up seeing a few of the venues built for the Olympics. At Skippers, they only had one thing on the menu - Greek salad. I'm not kidding, that's all they offered that night for dinner. However, the atmosphere more than made up for the lack of offerings. We sat down by the docked boats, as far as the eye could see, all waiting for their turn to sail the Aegean Sea. The Greek salads came, and this was my first realization that Greek salads don't have any lettuce. A true Greek salad consists of tomatoes, black olives, onions, green peppers, cucumber, a block of feta cheese, and olive oil. The only thing I really eat out of all of those ingredients is feta. Starving after the disgusting plane food, I power through a few cucumbers, green peppers, and the feta. We learned a few pointers from Cathy and Petros during dinner - when to tip and how much, learning that you have to ask for your check to be brought to you instead of like in America where it arrives at the end of the meal, how to get to the port in the morning to catch our ferry, and some suggestions on beaches to visit while in Mykonos. After a few hours visiting with them, they dropped us back off at the hotel, and we were out for the count.
6am came fast. We loaded up the suitcases, threw on some clothes, hair back in a pony tail, and waited for our taxi to take us to port. Once there, we climbed aboard the Blue Star Ferry, waded through the crowd for an iced coffee and a cheese pie (flaky pastry phyllo dough wrapped around a soft cheese) for breakfast, and found some seats outside so we could enjoy the view while on our 5 hour trip to the Greek island of Mykonos. The sunrise was amazing...
Teaser
Here are a few picture teasers from my trip to get you ready for what's to come:
Three crosses in Mykonos
One of my favorite pictures from my trip.
It says, "Love Nikos"
Sunday, October 02, 2005
First Thing's First
I know I haven't had time to write about my wonderful trip to Greece just yet but it's been a whirlwind ever since I returned. I got to work and had literally hundreds of emails to wade through, then my 10 year high school reunion was last night (which was so lame, I can't even tell you - only 10% of our class showed up, but I had a good time with my friends regardless), and of course, catching up on Alabama football. I promise to write about my trip in great detail with pictures in the next few days, but now that I'm caught up with my football, first thing is first...
September 17, 2005
Alabama vs. Univ. Of South Carolina
Alabama 37, South Carolina 14
"Alabama running back Kenneth Darby (34) breaks away from South Carolina's Ryan Brown, right, during the first half Saturday, Sept. 17, 2005, at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C. Darby ran for 145 yards and a touchdown in Alabama's 37-14 win."
Suck-it Steve Spurrier...
September 17, 2005
Alabama vs. Univ. Of South Carolina
Alabama 37, South Carolina 14
"Alabama running back Kenneth Darby (34) breaks away from South Carolina's Ryan Brown, right, during the first half Saturday, Sept. 17, 2005, at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C. Darby ran for 145 yards and a touchdown in Alabama's 37-14 win."
Suck-it Steve Spurrier...
September 24, 2005
Alabama vs. Univ. of Arkansas
Alabama 24, Arkansas 13
"Alabama running back Tim Castille (19) dives into the end zone past Arkansas' Weston Dacus (30) for a touchdown in the second half at Bryant Denny Stadium Saturday, Sept. 24, 2005 in Tuscaloosa, Ala."
Arkansas got hog-tied...
October 1, 2005
#16 Alabama vs. #5 Univ. of Florida
Alabama 31, Florida 3
"Alabama's Travis McCall sacks 5th-ranked Florida's quarterback Chris Leak during the second half of their 31-3 win over Flordia at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa."
Gators went down in a death roll, rolled over by the Tide...
ROLL TIDE ROLL!
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