Our Holiday "Couplmance"

As many of you know, the Santorini portion of our week in Greece was planned with our friends Adam & Trish, who live in Zurich, and their friends Nikki & Neil, who live in Chicago, who we met for the first time on the Saturday before (at Trish's 30th birthday margarita celebration). Unfortunately, we found out in Mykonos that Trish was having some health concerns and she'd been advised by her doctor not to fly (darn conservative Swiss). So, last minute, Adam & Trish, the friendship link between the other two couples, had to bow out of the trip. Mostly, we were concerned for Trish, but found out mid-way through our Santorini stay that all was most likely completely fine. Sigh of relief.

Joe & I were definitely questioning how this was all going to go down. I mean, we'd known each other all of 5 hours and were now going to share a "compound"/villa/house. It was pretty evident we were all going to get along just fine when Nikki started talking about how our villa was 'definitely nicer than Osama's compound' and I refuted that I'm pretty sure 'I'd rather have all those wives to do things for me.' Then, we proceeded to make one of the most chaotic grocery store runs I've ever had, with Neil stating 'he always gets in trouble for buying the wrong crackers' and Joe pushing for an All-Bran purchase. Not an hour after we arrived, we were sitting on our rooftop, drinking wine & beer, eating cheese, soft sausage (another immediate joke), the 'right' crackers and generally carrying on. When we finally went to bed at 2am that night, we'd danced (well Nikki & I had, sort of), the boys had drank 'microwaved, watered-down Jack Daniels shots', enjoyed other 'value' beverages, we'd biffed high-fives, fallen down, and generally were more than comfortable with each other.

The next morning, in an attempt to shake off some of the hangover, and to show Neil just 'what there was to do around here,' the other 3 voted we hike to Oia. I dragged myself along as well. Not 5 minutes after we got on the path, Neil started saying he was 'already negative calories,' and we were joined by a dog who hiked with us the whole way to Oia (no small task as it was a 2-hour hike, it was sort of hot and we all probably were oozing booze out of our pores -- so we smelled). Sidenote, a dog joined last time we were in Santorini, but this was definitely a different dog. No one was really feeling this whole dog following us thing. Some negative things were said about 'blue' (the name we eventually came up with, after considering 'tequila oven mitt'). Neil was seriously concerned blue was going to jump out of nowhere and attack his jugular. By the end of the hike though, we were all pretty attached to blue and certainly impressed with the distance we'd walked (it was hazy so our starting point looked even further away). The afternoon was spent napping poolside.

That night, Thursday, we'd booked a table in Ammoudi Bay (200 steps below the town of Oia). Joe & I both thought I'd be fine to wear my wedge sandals as it's paved in town. We arrived to the steps, I walked down about 10 steps and realized I was going to eat it big time, or I was going to take off my shoes. Off with the shoes it was. There were a lot of people lining the path to watch the sunset, so I got some looks. However, about 130 steps down, we started to encounter some shit on the path. Then, we encountered a charging herd of donkeys, which was combo the funniest/scariest experience of our lives. There was a Greek man sitting on one of the donkeys yelling at us "other side, get to the other side" as donkeys rushed by us. Only Nikki ran to the other side, the rest of us just pushed our bodies against the low stone wall and prayed a donkey didn't buck us over the side and down the cliff, or in my case, step on my bare feet. A small group of people were witness to this event and the man said in broken English as we walked by with my shoes in my hand, dodging donkey shit on the ground, "keeping your shoes clean?" Unfortunately, the further down we got, the more donkey business there was on the ground and I resorted to tip-toe dodging. It was one of those experiences that clearly exemplifies my classiness. And, my now good friend, Nikki, got lots of photographic evidence of the experience. Dinner paled in comparison to the walk to get to it.

The next day, Friday, was our private sailing tour! It was an incredible experience on a beautiful little sail boat. Captain Ted and Danny (from Lombard, IL peoples -- he did not know Bielendas, I asked) were awesome and seeing the island from our net over the ocean was incredible. The endless white wine, delicious food, fabulous scenery and fun peoples made for a day that will not soon be forgotten. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that Joe & I went back the next day, on a larger boat, for another tour and another great time.

We also hit up Sigalas Winery, ate some more fabulous food overlooking the stunning caldera, spilled beer all over white pants, played more Eucher, talked with a pretty awesome oldie, napped poolside, loved life. Then, suddenly it was Saturday night, post-dinner. The last day always comes too fast and it certainly was the case for this trip. We had such a fabulous time, that yet again, we are already plotting a return. Plus, the fact that we spent more than half the trip with such awesome folks (who remember, we just met) shifted the dynamic a bit. You know how traveling can really bring out the worst in people sometimes? Well, lucky for us, it seemed to do just the opposite. And, lucky for us, our new friends are Chicagoans, so we've added a few more people to the list to visit next time we are in town!

Mykonos, GR Round 1

We left for Mykonos early. Like before even Nick wakes up early. I'm pretty sure Joe was still drunk from the night before (we'd celebrated our friends 30th birthday) and Joe had made margaritas (there's two tequila bottles in our recycling, if that is any indication). So, we set 4 alarms and woke up just fine. The flight to Mykonos was pleasant and by 10.30 we were there! Arrived to the hotel, got an 'upgraded' room and soon after, we set off for the beach, Platis Gialos. There are basically all these little coves along the coast where the water is calm, stunning hues of blues and greens that you can see straight through all the way to the bottom. Every beach has chairs for rent (or in the low-season, just buy a drink!). We were still low-season so could get a chair on every beach we visited: Elia, Paradise, Panormos, Platis Gialos. Joe really got used to those beds and even made the comment, no more laying on the sand for him!;)

One day we rented a car and tooled around the island, checking out many of the beaches listed above, ate lunch at a secluded spot down a dirt road where you could choose fresh fish from the fisherman who caught it that morning. Most importantly, we set out to see a few monasteries (because we are so religious) in a town called Ano Mera. We happened upon a small monastery with a bunch of cars parked outside so we stopped off and had a look in. Through the open door we could hear a myriad of loud female voices. Joe said "I am not going in there, it sounds like a bunch of Greek women, yelling at each other." I jumped in and left Joe outside the door. When I emerged a few minutes later, there were 2 or 3 middle-aged Greek women surrounding him, indicating he should go upstairs "for cake and coffee." He was laughing and said we're not going up there. But, Greek women are insistent and a few minutes later we were seated in a small, dark, crowded room where women shoved food endlessly into Joe's hands (all the while ignoring me) and chattering to us in Greek. The most histerical moment of the whole experience was a woman putting together a plate of food for Joe, then turning her head as she pushed it towards him. Then, the moment he took a piece off the plate, she immediately replaced it with another pastry.

Luckily we knew the nicety words and were able to employ them with the women. The one woman who spoke English well told us that it was a feast day and that the monastery only opens twice a year for such celebrations. It was one of those moments when you give in to the randomness of life and the small, odd joys that an open-mind allows. The generosity and hospitality towards us, and our ability to accept it shows me how far we've come since we moved here. Honestly, we would have been far to uncomfortable 3 or even 2 years ago to walk up those steps into that loud, chaotic room. It was truly an unforgettable experience.

We also visited the sacred site of Apollo's birthplace, Delos, which is forgettable and quite frankly, I'm already trying to. It's one of the most important sites of Greek antiquity but, as most of you know, I have a hard time appreciating crowds (and there were throngs of them). That, and the site has not been reconstructed whatsoever, so mostly you look at half walls, get scratched by thorns and weeds, then look at some pillars, a bit of rubble here, there, everywhere and it just makes imagining a bit challenging. Joe would say 'he's glad he saw it' so even he didn't give it rave reviews.

Mykonos was really nice, not necessarily a place we were return to, but we ate some lovely food, most notably the steamed mussels at Joanna Nikos, enjoyed our post-meal Ouzos (cinammon was the best) and relaxed in the sun. Really, how can it get better than that? Oh, yeah....Santorini up next.