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."