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Well, it's been almost two months and we're still married!

Sifnos to Athens, the end (09/12/2009)

On our last day in Sifnos, the weather was finally sunny again. We didn't have much time to do anything, though -- I walked down the street to the bakery to buy some pastries for breakfast while Carl tidied up our apartment. We took a few pictures of the place, and then it was time to leave for the ferry.

The ferry ride to Piraeus (port of Athens) was interminable -- hot and crowded. When we arrived in Pireaus, we thought it would be a simple subway ride to our hotel, but of course the subway was out of service at that part of the route, so we had to take a crowded and confusing shuttle bus ride to another stop on the line. We finally made it, though, and dropped off our bags at our hotel in time to walk to the Acropolis at sunset.

We didn't make it in time to actually get into the Acropolis, but were able to walk around the outside of the grounds (you can actually see quite a bit). Carl was surprised that the Parthenon was still covered in scaffolding like it was when he visited Athens in 2001. I guess some things take a while. We also saw the brand new Acropolis Museum, again only from the outside, and a Greek wedding taking place that was WAY fancier than ours.

We walked through Plaka, which is a very touristy part of the city, and I was having a hard time adjusting from quiet island life to a crazy city. Remarkably, in this huge city, we ran into the couple who had been staying next door to us at Dana Villas in Santorini! The man had twisted his ankle there, and when we saw him in Athens he had gotten a walking cast and was using crutches, the poor guy.

We had an unremarkable dinner and then had a drink at Bretto's, a very visually appealing bar we had seen earlier in the evening. The decor there features bottles filled with different colored liqueurs set against backlit walls all the way to the ceiling. We walked back to our hotel and enjoyed a last drink on the roof deck, which had a view of the Acropolis.

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and took the subway to the airport. Fifteen or so hours after getting on a plane in Athens, we arrived back at home. We got married, we didn't get sunburned once, and we took over 1600 photos: all in all, a successful trip. I hope you enjoyed following along!



Click here for more photos from this day!

Sifnos day 3 (09/11/2009)

In the morning we went out to buy some pottery souvenirs for friends and family (Sifnos is known for its pottery) -- we experienced one of the only true language barriers during our entire trip at the pottery shop, where the proprietors didn't speak any English and we had naturally left our phrasebook back in our apartment. However, we managed to buy what we wanted (ah, the universal language of money).

After lunch at a taverna on the beach in Platys Gialos, we decided to visit a church at the top of a nearby hill. The owner of the place we were staying recommended visiting there, not so much for the church itself but for the view we would have of the surrounding area. She recommended taking a bus to a stop nearby and then walking a kilometer to the church, but we decided to walk the entire way, since there seemed to be a path that led to the church from the main road in Platys Gialos. Well, it was a bit of an adventure as the path was either not clearly marked or no longer fully in existence. After some wrong turns, we got onto a different path that ended up bypassing the church but was still very beautiful. The entire valley was redolent of wild oregano and thyme. We eventually got to the church by way of the main road (here's a panoramic view of the area from the church), and then got lost again trying to get back down the hill to Platys Gialos. Eventually we made it back just as it started to rain.

We had been planning to take a swim in the ocean afterwards, but the rain turned into a thunderstorm and we decided to stay in and take a nap instead. The thunder, lightning, and torrential rain continued into the evening -- very unusual for the Greek islands at this time of year. We had planned to go into Apollonia for our last night but the weather was so bad (and we misread the bus schedule) that we decided to stay in Platys Gialos instead. We ate dinner at a local fish restaurant where I got to go into the kitchen and pick out what fish I wanted to be cooked for me -- it was expensive but a good meal. There were some ridiculously cute kittens at the restaurant putting on quite a show of begging.



Click here to see more photos from Sifnos, day 3!

Sifnos day 2 (09/10/2009)

We started the day by returning to Lazarou, this time with our swimsuits and beach gear. We had discovered the day before that they had free beach chairs and umbrellas (at every other beach you have to pay 7 euros), and we loved the location. We went for a swim and once again were glad we had our water shoes (thanks, Gigi!) because it was pretty rocky. We were even able to swim into a secret sea cave!

After lunch we got on the bus and rode to Chrysopigi, a famous church perched on a tiny island right off the coast (like, *right* off the coast...maybe 10 feet?). It was actually pretty busy there, with the priest in attendance speaking with visitors and women kissing the icons on the walls. It's a small church and I kind of felt like we were intruding -- we didn't linger too long.

We had decided earlier in the day that we would spend the afternoon walking to various beaches along the coast and swimming, but alas, the weather was not great. It was overcast and windy, so we did the walking but skipped the swim at the first two beaches we came to (Apokofto and Faros). By the time we got to the third beach (Fasoulou), though, we were hot enough to jump in the water. Fasoulou is allegedly a nude beach, although this seemed surprising to us as there's an outdoor taverna right there. Needless to say, we kept our bathing suits on. After our swim, we met an extremely enthusiastic little girl who showed us some gymnastic maneuvers on the beach. And then it started to rain, so we decided to head back to Faros to wait for the bus in a taverna.


View Sifnos day 2 in a larger map

We took the bus to Artemonas, which is a small "suburb" of Apollonia, the main town. We had thought we might have dinner there, but there wasn't much action, so we walked back to Apollonia (downhill, fortunately) and ate at a taverna there, after which we headed back home to Platys Gialos on the bus. (The last bus leaves at 11 pm, so there's not much opportunity for late-night lingering unless you take a taxi.)



Click here for more photos from Sifnos, day 2!

Sifnos day 1 (09/09/2009)

We were really excited to finally be on Sifnos because our entire trip was more or less planned around when we could get a fast ferry there (as opposed to the slow ferry that takes 8 hours... no thanks!). So, we managed to pack in quite a bit in the three days we were there.

On our first day there, we started by walking over a steep hill at the end of Platys Gialos, where we were staying -- Gigi had recommended a place on the other side of the hill called Lazarou. What we found was an amazing waterside cafe/bar that went down the hill on several levels, with the bottom level right on the water. The place was practically deserted, probably because it was getting late in the season for tourists. They were getting set up for a big wedding reception being held there that evening (we had overheard some of the participants talking about it at dinner the night before, and our downstairs neighbors were also involved in the wedding -- it seemed like everywhere we went, we couldn't get away from this wedding). We had lunch at Lazarou and promised the friendly waitress/cook/owner that we would be back the next day to take advantage of their free beach chairs and go swimming.


View Sifnos day 1 in a larger map

In the afternoon we took the bus into Apollonia (the central town on Sifnos) and did some sightseeing there. From Apollonia we walked on an ancient marble path across olive groves to the Kastro (a medieval Venetian town like on Naxos). The path wasn't very well marked and turned into a dirt path after a while, and eventually we got lost and ended up tramping through some pastures. It took us a bit longer to get to the Kastro as a result, but the scenery was still beautiful, and it wasn't too hot. We walked around the Kastro and met a million friendly cats (who were clearly all related -- funny). After it got dark we took the bus back to Apollonia, had dinner and a stroll, then took a bus back "home" to Platys Gialos.




Click here for more photos from Sifnos, day 1!

Santorini to Sifnos (09/08/2009)

On our last day in Santorini (Tuesday, September 8), our ferry to Sifnos didn't leave until 5:30 pm, which gave us plenty of time for a little more sightseeing. We had decided we'd like to go back to Oia, so we could see it a little better without the mad rush and crowds for sunset viewing. The weather was variable -- sprinkling one minute and sunny the next, with lots of wind. But we had a really nice afternoon in Oia, including lunch at an outdoor taverna overlooking the caldera. We made it back to the hotel with no problems, picked up our bags and said goodbye to Panos, our wedding coordinator.

The driver who took us to the ferry port told us about the cruise ship that crashed and sank into the caldera in 2007 -- we had noticed that the area was still marked off as if there were an oil spill and asked what was going on. They had recently brought in a company to drain the oil out of the ship, which sank almost 200 meters and will be there forever. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Sea_Diamond or see videos of it here: http://bit.ly/4i8aZF. (After hearing that story, you can bet I paid extra-close attention to the safety video on the ferry...I even had a plan for how I would remove the memory card from our camera and take it with me from the sinking ship, thus saving all our photos.) I don't think the Wikipedia entry has been updated for a while, because our driver told us that the two people who were supposedly missing later turned out to be running a scam for the insurance payoff.

Don't worry, though, we made it to Sifnos just fine, although a little late. The owner of the place we had booked met us at the port in Sifnos and gave us a nice tour of the island on the drive back (even though it was dark). We dropped our stuff off at our place (more like an apartment than a room or suite), and headed out to get some dinner. It was a big adjustment coming from Santorini, which was so crowded and touristy, to Sifnos, which seemed practically empty. The village where we were staying Platys Gialos, seemed like a ghost town! We had a quiet dinner at a taverna on the beach and then enjoyed the rest of the evening on the balcony of our place.



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Santorini day 2 (09/07/2009)

We started the day with a trip to another beach -- this one in Perissa, further down the coast from Kamari. This beach was also lava rock, but finer sand rather than pebbles. (Still pretty hot!) I liked this beach better than Kamari because it seemed less touristy. Everything was on a smaller scale. We stayed on the beach until mid-afternoon and then headed back to Fira for some more of that delicious ice cream (this time we had both fig and mastic-flavored scoops).

From Fira we took a bus to Oia, on the northern tip of the island. It's known for its fantastic sunset views -- known a little too well, in our opinion. The narrow lanes and steps there were completely mobbed with other sunset viewers. The streets were also crowded with dogs -- not strays, because they had collars. It seems dogs just get to run loose in the streets of Oia. (It's not very dangerous because most of the "streets" are pedestrian-only paths and stairs.) People put out bowls of water and kibble for them -- sounds like a nice life! We enjoyed the sunset but decided we'd like to come back to Oia the next day to see the town a little better without all the crowds.


View Santorini day 2 in a larger map

We took an extremely crowded bus ride back to Firostefani, during which we got to know our fellow travelers extremely well. (Carl struck up a conversation with an Aussie guy, while I was squeezed in next to some Japanese girls.) We had a delicious dinner at a traditional taverna near our hotel and headed back for an early night since it was actually very windy and chilly.



Click here for more photos from Santorini, day 2!

Santorini day 1 (09/06/2009)

On our first full day in Santorini, we headed to the other side of the island to Kamari Beach. Not having scooters this time, we relied on the public buses in Santorini, which are actually really nice "coach"-type buses, but cheap and (mostly) reliable.

The "sand" at Kamari is actually black lava rock, and good god is it hot. There are little boardwalks made out of plywood all over the beach so you can avoid walking on the pebbles as much as possible, but to actually get to the areas of beach chairs and umbrellas you have to go onto the pebbles. I tried to emulate the meditative state of someone walking on hot coals, but mostly I wanted to take my feet off and throw them in the ocean. We were really glad to have water shoes to put on (recommended to us by Gigi) because the pebbles go right into your flip flops.


View Santorini day 1 in a larger map

After an afternoon at the beach, we took the bus back to Fira (the main town on the island) and, not wanting to make the uphill walk to our hotel in Firostefani (smaller village north of Fira), we decided to change buses and get on one that would drop us off in Firostefani. But alas, we missed the stop because the bus driver didn't announce it, so we ended up riding further than we wanted, up to the next town, Imerovigli. It wouldn't have been so bad, since we only needed to walk downhill to our hotel at that point, but we were in a hurry to get showered and back to Fira in time to catch the sunset at Franco's, a great cliffside bar with lounge chairs. So, we were a little rushed, but we did make it to Franco's in time. After the sunset we had a tasty meal at a cliffside restaurant with a great nighttime view of the funicular that runs up and down the mountainside from Fira to the port. We finished up the night with delicious fig ice cream.



Click here for more photos from Santorini, day 1!

Wedding photos, part II: Now with more kissing!

Hi folks, sorry for the lack of updates this week. We've now uploaded the post-ceremony photos to Flickr! The photographer put us through our paces, at times bending and arranging us into some rather silly poses at different scenic locales across the hotel's many levels. If you were to speed through the 300 + photos she took of us, you'd see us slowly wilting in time-lapse. We've (hopefully) edited out the ones where we look a bit bedraggled.



Click here for the post-ceremony photos!

After the grueling photo-shoot was finished, we changed and went to dinner at a fabulous restaurant called Selene in Fira. We were definitely rubbing elbows with some extremely elite people there, including a well-heeled Englishman who was lamenting that his stable is down to "only" three Arab Chargers. While we ate dinner, some crazy clouds drifted in from the ocean right on top of us, basically (remember we're on the tops of cliffs in Santorini). Everyone at the restaurant was excited about it, as this was a very rare weather event for the usually arid island. We walked back to the hotel through a dense, noirish fog:



When we returned to our room, we found that it had been secretly decorated for us with rose petals and candles while we were away! (I thought that only happened in movies...) Carl's stepmom, Judy, also contributed to the surprise because she had sent us some flowers and a bottle of wine:





This was the perfect, non-anticlimactic way to end the day!

OMG Wedding Photos!!!!

Here they are! Apologies for the delay. There is another potentially large set of photos of after the ceremony that is still yet to come. (These should be posted tomorrow, we hope.)

We'll just let the wedding photos speak for themselves, more or less – enjoy!

OK, although we just said we'd let the photos speak for themselves, kindly keep in mind that it was probably in the mid-90s during the wedding. Any shininess you might observe was purely weather-related and denotes neither nerves, flop sweat, nor second thoughts, we assure you.

Click here for more wedding photos!

Naxos to Santorini (09/05/2009)

On the morning of our wedding day (Saturday, September 5), we left Naxos by catamaran for Santorini. Although the sun was shining, there was a bit of fog on the water that delayed our arrival in Santorini by an hour or so. We arrived at our hotel, Dana Villas, in the midafternoon, and finally got to meet our wedding coordinator, Panos, with whom I've been corresponding by e-mail for several months. He took us to the wedding site at the hotel and went over some logistical details with us.

We had lunch at the hotel and relaxed in our room for a few hours (they upgraded us to a VIP suite -- sweet!). Then it was showtime! Panos and our photographer, Artemis, came to our hotel room and led the way to the wedding site. The sun was just starting to set and everything was beautiful. The ceremony seemed short, considering all the planning that led up to it, and before we knew it, we were married! Photos of the ceremony coming up in the next post...



(I love this photo that Carl took of his hat at Dana Villas.)

Click here for more photos of this day!

Prelude to Wedding Pix

Many of you have expressed some (legitimate) impatience at not having seen the wedding pix yet. We feel your pain. After we got back, we both got sick, one after the other. That, combined with the daunting task of reviewing the hundreds of pix from the trip (not to mention having to go back to work, ugh) caused a bit of delay. We PROMISE, the real wedding pix will be up very soon. In the meantime, we're keeping things chronological.

So here are a few shots we took of the wedding terrace when we arrived at the hotel in Santorini. We really weren't prepared for just how gorgeous the terrace was with its unlimited view of the Aegean. Once we arrived, Panos, our able and affable wedding coordinator, took us to the site and gave us a brief preview of how things would go down. Our jaws dropped. Here are the pix. Seeing the site made things suddenly feel VERY real. We were really moved by visiting the spot we'd be married at in just a few short hours.



I was especially glad that the canopy was basically a chupah, the traditional wedding canopy in Jewish weddings. Although we opted for a civil ceremony, this detail meant a lot to me.











Stay tuned. The next pix will have the flowers in place, and, oh yeah - us!

Naxos day 4 (09/04/2009)

On our last full day on Naxos, we decided to take another long scooter ride. This time, we headed for Aparanthos, which our guidebook pronounced the most charming town on the island (or something like that). We got sidetracked on the way there when we saw signs pointing to the Temple of Demeter. It was quite a bit off our intended route, but well worth it. It was unbelievably hot that day, although a bit cooler when riding because of the breeze. Back on the road, we rode through the valley town of Filoti and then up into the hills to Aparanthos.


View Naxos day 4 in a larger map

At the highest points, we had views of valleys and hills on one side and of the Aegean on the other side. It was quite a ride! We had lunch in Aparanthos and walked around a bit, then rode back to our hotel. (On the way back we tried to find the Cave of Zeus, following signs off the main road, but to no avail. Maybe it was closed?) In the evening we rode to Chora for one last visit.



Click here for more photos from Naxos, day 4!

Naxos day 3 (09/03/2009)

On Thursday we spent most of the day at the beach near our hotel, Agios Prokopios. This is a pretty long beach and can get crowded, but our hotel was near the northern end, which is much less crowded. It was another great day for being at the beach (maybe even better than Wednesday because it was less windy). We had lunch at a taverna on a hill overlooking the entire beach, which was beautiful.

In the early evening we rode our scooters into Chora, the main town on Naxos. We had done this the night before, too, except we forgot to bring the camera, so on this evening we spent a lot of time going back to places we'd already seen to take photos while it was still light out. Not that this was any hardship! The Venetian Kastro in Chora is probably one of my favorite places on Earth. So many winding passageways and historic ruins combined with contemporary living spaces. Plus, there are lots of cats! We emerged from the Kastro in time to take in the sunset at the Portara, which is the symbol of Naxos -- the ruins of a giant unfinished temple to Apollo at the end of a short causeway.

We finished the day with a nighttime ride back to our hotel. I was apprehensive about riding our scooters in the dark, but it turned out to be a really exhilarating experience (not to mention chilly!).



Click here for more photos from Naxos, day 3!

Naxos day 2 (09/02/2009)

After lounging at our hotel pool for a little while, we headed to the beach on day 2. We had heard good things about Plaka, which is a long stretch of sandy beach along the west coast of the island, further south from us. We rode our scooters there without incident (other than getting turned around a little) and spent the afternoon lounging and swimming. The water is incredibly clear there, although just as cold as the North Atlantic! We were surprised it wasn't warmer, being so much farther south. Oh, well... when the weather is hot and dry, even cold water feels good!



Click here for more photos from Naxos, day 2!

Naxos day 1 (09/01/2009)

Our *real* first day in Naxos was really the day we arrived (August 31), but we were so jetlagged and out of it that we mostly snoozed by the pool at our hotel. We went into the main town for dinner that night but didn't take many pictures. So, I'm considering "Naxos Day 1" to be Tuesday, September 1st. We rented scooters and went on a looong ride into the interior of the island, to the Citron distillery in Chalki (called Chalkio on the map), to a 7th-century church in Moni, and back down some really STEEP hills. Here's a map of Naxos:


View Naxos day 1 in a larger map

We were staying near the west coast of the island (Agios Prokopios), so you can see this was an ambitious ride for my first time on a scooter. I did fall off once and got a little banged up, but nothing major (fortunately my wedding dress came to below my knees :). By the end of the day, though, I felt like a scooter champ!



Click here for more photos from Naxos, day 1!

Updates coming!

Hi, all -- We're finally back and ready to start posting photos and updates from our trip! I have an ambitious plan to create a post for each day of our trip...we'll see how that goes. :) Coming up, Naxos Day 1!

PS: wedding photos coming soon, I promise...

Alive and well in Naxos!

As promised, here are a few (of the 600+) photos we've taken in our 5 days on Naxos. I can't believe we have to leave tomorrow. I'm already planning our next trip here!

Sorry for the wacky arrangement of the photos...I'm using the hotel's computer and it's a little weird. Also all the commands are in Greek. (Go figure.)

Tomorrow is the big day! Update to follow...

Island-hopping

By now everyone knows we're getting married on Santorini, but not necessarily where else we're going. We're actually getting married in the middle of our trip, due to the multiple moving parts involved (hotel availability, ferry schedules, alignment of the stars). We arrive in Athens on Monday, August 31, then take a small plane (which I'm a little nervous about ) to Naxos. Naxos is one of the larger islands in the Cyclades, and one of the greener. It's known for its groves of citron (kit-ron), which is citrusy but different from a lemon. Citron is distilled into a delicious liqueur which we plan to sample liberally. It's really available only on Naxos, too.

After 5 nights on Naxos, during which we will attempt to avoid sunburn and scooter accidents (not good for wedding photos), we take a catamaran to Santorini, where we will get married the same day we arrive! Let us hope we don't miss the boat. (Although as my mom says, it's not like we'll be keeping a lot of guests waiting if we do miss it.) We'll be on Santorini for 3 nights; this is pretty much guaranteed to be the most expensive part of our trip, due to our swanky hotel and the higher prices on Santorini. Our mantra is, "It's okay, it's our honeymoon!" although we have to keep that in check or else we'll be parading around on elephants and wearing tiaras.

On September 8 (which is the feast day for the Virgin Mary in Greece, so we may get to see some interesting things)*, we're taking a ferry to Sifnos, which is a smaller island favored by Greeks for their holidays. We'll spend 4 nights there at a place recommended by Carl's friend Gigi. (Gigi's sister Elaine hooked us up with the person at the Greek consulate here to translate our official documents, so thanks are due to both of them for their help!)

We'll spend the last night of our trip in Athens. With any luck we'll have a chance to quickly see the Acropolis and such.

We got a new camera for our trip, so expect lots of photos! We'll try to post some here during our travels.

*In response to Gigi's comment, here's what our book on the Greek islands says: August 15th is the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and it's a national holiday. But September 8th is Gennisis tis Theotokou, the birth of the Virgin Mary, which is "an important feast day in the Orthodox church calendar."

Is that all there is to a Wildfire? Let's hope.

Over the past week there had been some alarming reports of wildfires in Greece. A few of you expressed concern. Happy to report that it sounds like they are mostly contained. None of the islands we're touring were affected. Last year Greece had a ferocious season of wildfires. Mercifully, it's looking like these latest fires won't come anywhere near that in magnitude. So, carry on. Nothing to see here.

Now Available in Fine Record Stores Near You....

Since we returned from Paris back in May, Hillary has been the point person for a LOT of logistics, coordination, and planning for this (supposedly) simple wedding of ours. She's done an incredible job handling the lioness' share of the arrangements. Sure, I've pitched in along the way, but really, she's been the brains behind this entire operation. But now....now it's MY turn to shine.

I am pleased to present to you the official soundtrack to our wedding and to the mini/micro receptiton that will follow (as in the two of us, two flutes of champagne, a bit of cake, and a million-drachma view of the Aegean)...

The songs start off on a spare, but elegant note and get incrementally more joyful and celebratory as they progress. We managed to work in a few cuts from the soundtracks to some of our favorite films. How I managed to justify a track off the Rushmore soundtrack, I'll never know. Please, forgive me. There's just something so irresistibly warm and twee to the minute-long whirl of harpsichord and glockenspiel on "The Lad with the Silver Button." If working that tune in was somehow subversive, jejune, or just plain wrong, then, people, I don't want to be right.

Palladium: it's what's for dinner

As Carl mentioned in his previous post, I've become quite a fan of palladium. It's a member of the "platinum family", which means that it has similar properties (hard, "white"-looking). But, it's much cheaper than platinum! Since my engagement ring is platinum, I wanted to get a wedding ring that would match it, and palladium was a more affordable choice. Palladium is becoming more popular for wedding and engagement rings, especially since the price of platinum has gone up quite a bit in recent years. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium.

I bought my ring from a jewelry designer who is based in Central Massachusetts, although I found her on Etsy, which is a website for crafty people worldwide to sell their creations. It's shaped like a Mobius strip, with a twist at the top. Here's a picture of a similar ring (mine is a bit narrower):



It was important to me to have a ring that's made out of recycled metal, and one that was hand-created by an artisan, and also something that's a little unique. Thanks again, Amanda! (Visit her Etsy shop.)

Lord of the Ring

After much ill-advised procrastinating, I finally selected a wedding band. Feeling the need to remain aerodynamically sound and ultra-lightweight, I went with a titanium ring. The thin stripe is palladium, which will match Hillary's ring. During our extended search for rings, Hillary got to be pretty gung-ho on palladium. In fact, I began to suspect that the Palladium Advisory Council had gotten her into their hydra-like clutches....

My ring is slightly darker than the one shown here.

I bought my wedding dress!

Well, technically it's a bridesmaid's dress -- it seems to be impossible to find a knee-length wedding dress (let alone anything that's not strapless, sigh). It's from J.Crew, and it was actually the very first dress I saw online. I spent ages looking at other dresses but eventually decided that my first choice was the right one. Here's a link to the dress on their website: http://tinyurl.com/mtelk4 -- the color is "champagne". (I have to confess that I tried on the dress at J.Crew but bought it for a lot less on eBay...)

So why Santorini?

So, some may wonder, why, of all the places on Earth, did we choose Santorini?

I've actually been there once before, and always vowed to return someday. The sheer improbability of it — the brilliant-white cubist jumble of its terraced villages, its perfect blue domes, all forming a graceful arc one thousand feet above the dazzling blue Aegean — it all needs to be seen to be believed.

Traveling Greece with my good friend Bill was an unforgettable experience. Previously, we'd toured Morocco and Nova Scotia together and we were excited to head out on another adventure. Our friend Gigi, a Greek-American living in Athens, was a great host to us, and she gave us some great insider travel tips. (And she's helping Hillary and me with our upcoming trip, as well - thanks, G!) After a couple nights with Gigi in Athens, Bill land I left to set out on our own, first to tour the ruins at Delphi, then, on to the unfathomably precarious monasteries of Meteora, and then, finally, to the Cycladic islands of Mykonos, Naxos, and Santorini .

We pulled into Meteora, one of the most serene places on Earth, on September 11th, 2001. Like all Americans, we were thoroughly traumatized by the events we saw unfolding on the television screen of a local taverna where we'd stopped in for lunch after a quiet morning of touring. Desperately, we implored the concerned employees of the restaurant to interpret the news to us, which was unfolding in Greek.

By the time we pulled into Santorini a few days later, we were still recovering from the trauma. Being on vacation during the aftermath of a historic national tragedy is no fun. We felt so guilty being on holiday, and we considered cutting it short and returning home to help (how we did not know), but there were no flights to be had. How could we possibly allow ourselves to have fun under such circumstances? Amidst the stunning tableau of Santorini, the juxtaposition of our depressed states of mind made for a surreal few days. This isn't to say we didnt' have ANY fun, but there was certainly a pall cast over the trip.

On a lighter note, Bill and I soon learned that we'd landed in one of the Honeymoon Meccas of the world. Among all the smitten and smooching newlyweds gazing out at the otherworldly sunsets, we may have drawn more than a few quizzical looks. September 11th aside, I think we both vowed to return someday under more, um — romantic — conditions, and with lady traveling companions at that!

This is all to say that Bill and I both returned back to the States claiming an eventual Santorini "do-over."

I can't wait to return there to be married with Hillary. Not a bad "do-over," eh?

Perhaps it's fate that we'll end up being in Greece on September 11th, 2009. We're hoping that the fact that our wedding date is the same forwards as backwards ( 9-05-09) may trump any numerological danger that the looming 9-11-09 date may pose.

Honestly, if something bad happens AGAIN, we promise, we won't go back. What's that old saying? "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice....."

Getting married in Greece for dummies

My mom e-mailed me yesterday to say "did you know you can't just show up in Greece and get married?" (paraphrasing here) Yes. Yes, we do. There are documents to be procured, stamps to be stamped, translations to be made. As Matt on our favorite Greek travel website says, "Getting married in Greece requires some red tape and in Greece, any red tape is too much." We did have to make two trips to the Division of Vital Records on our two recent vacation days, but other than that it's been fairly painless. Our awesome wedding coordinator at Dana Villas is helping us make sure we have everything we need.

Here's what the U.S. Embassy in Athens has to say about getting married in Greece: http://athens.usembassy.gov/marriage.html

(And, in answer to Carl's dad's question, no, we will not be Greek citizens afterwards...)

So, first we got engaged

We got engaged in Paris, right here:



(At the tip of the Ile de la Cite, in the Pont Neuf area.)

While Carl was getting the ring out, he distracted me by telling me to take a photo of these ducks. The Pont Neuf bridge is in the background.



Here's another picture to put it in perspective - the tree in the first picture is in the lower left corner of this one:



After we got engaged, we celebrated by eating this macaroon:


(almost actual size)

Our two awesome engagement cakes

From Herb and Judy (Carl's dad and stepmom):



We were really impressed with this Eiffel Tower! I even love the little trees.

From Carl's Aunt Gloria and family:


From Lulu's, the amazing bakery in Scarsdale.

We would have gotten engaged much sooner if we had known there was going to be cake!