Brady Visits 2009

Our first guest since we've been married! Guess who? Of course, it's Brady. Technically Michele and James visited as well, but they live in Brooklyn. Michele and I went to an outdoor Dr. Dog concert in Prospect Park as part of the summer Celebrate Brooklyn! concert series, and then met up with the boys. We ended up at Brooklyn Social to celebrate the birthday of Kevin's former classmate and writer Lila. Happy birthday, Lila!

James W, me, Kevin, Michele, and Brady


Brady beating Michele with a flower.

Honeymoon in Greece Review 2009

Our honeymoon in June was basically the best trip ever. It was a good trip on its own with wonderful beach weather, beautiful sites, nice hotel rooms, and great places to relax and do nothing. Add to that the fact that it was our honeymoon, so we're permanently biased in favor of it, and I wonder if anywhere will ever live up to it. But it's a good problem to have.

We started our trip in Athens where we took in all the big sites including the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, the Ancient Agora and the Roman Agora, Theater of Dionysus, Hadrian Library, and even the ruins in the subway. Basically classical sights heaven.

 

Acropolis- Parthenon 2009

From Athens we went to Folegandros, a small fishing island a ferry ride from Athens. Kevin loved this place. It's definitely my favorite place, maybe ever, but I don't know how much of this was from soaking in how happy Kevin was. There was nothing to do there ("and it was everything I thought it could be." - Peter Gibbons). The people at our hotel were super nice-- I mean, the 80 people on the entire island were super nice. The weather was perfect with the breeze off the water. The seafood was so incredibly fresh. The Greek food was the most delicious I have ever had. We spent the mornings on the different little beaches near the harbor and hotel in the village of Karavostassis. In the evenings, we had dinner just uphill in the village of Chora.

Folegandros from our hotel balcony

From there we took another ferry to Santorini, which was much more touristy. We hiked around the volcano that the island of Santorini hugs, soaked in Mediterranean Sea hot springs, and watched the amazing sunsets every night. Our hotel room looked like it was built into a cave and had the most amazing view of Santorini and the village of Ea. I had a sniffly cold the entire time we were on the honeymoon, but the trip was still perfect.

Santorini from our hotel balcony

• View our wedding ceremony, 
• Go to our 1-year anniversary, or 
• Open our "Message in Bottle" wedding guest book

Santorini, Greece 2009

Santorini is a small, circular archipelago of volcanic islands located in the southern Aegean Sea, about 120 miles southeast of Greece's mainland. Santorini has an active volcanic center.

The largest island is known as Thira, made of the town of Thira and the town of Oía. The island is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions, the Minoan eruption /Thira eruption, which occurred some 3,600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization. One theory holds that the Thira eruption is the source of the legend of Atlantis.

We enjoyed walking around Santorini, enjoying nice meals, and watching every sunset from every location possible while we were there. But compared to Folegandros, it was more of a touristy island.

Our hotel

 

View from our room

On our balcony

View from our hotel room's balcony

Walking around

Near our hotel

I like it here

So pretty

 

At Stani Restaurant with a view of the volcano

 

Kevin and the Santorini sunset

We took a boat to the volcano, and then hiked up the volcano to enjoy stunning views and a tiny bit of volcanic steam. But beware, it's windy up there! We then went to the hot springs which involved jumping off a boat and swimming through a little bit of cold ocean before we could get to the warm part. Also, you have to be able to tread water for about 20 minutes in the ocean, which isn't too difficult, but it's not exactly relaxing either. The island is definitely best for its stunning views.

 

Boat to the volcano

Us on the boat

Port of the volcano

Hiking up the volcano

Fresh out of the hot springs

That evening we went out for a fancy dinner out.

We clean up nice

Sunset in Oía

Fancy dinner in Oía

Last day in Santorini:

Beachy


Beach cafe


Likes his drink


The town new the beach

Back at our room

Ready for a casual dinner after the sunset

Our balcony

Nikolae Restaurant


Nikolae Restaurant

Folegandros, Greece 2009

Folegandros is probably the best place in the world. I am going to tell you more, but that's the only important part. It is a small Greek island with about 700 inhabitants. We stayed in Karavostassis and spent most of the morning there and then had dinner each night in Chora. (The third village which we never made it to is Ano Meria.)

Karavostassis is the port of Folegandros where we arrived by boat. Most of the hotels there have a view of the port. Kevin's favorite activity while we were there was watching boats appear on the horizon. I enjoyed beach hopping as the beaches on one side of the port were completely different. It was basically heaven. Add that we were on our honeymoon, and you can imagine what this place means to us.

The bay where ships come in


View from our balcony


Kevin with his feet in a hot tub, pointing at ships coming over the horizon


Beautiful and secluded beaches


Sunning on the black sand beach


We had the most delicious octopus, Greek salad, and chicken that fell off the bone


Leaving was the worst idea we ever had

The village of Chora is built on the edge of a 200-meter high cliff. It's not that far from the port, but we made the mistake of thinking we could walk back from Chora to the port while the sun was setting. And by we, I really mean me. That was the most terrifying walk of my life both because it was almost pitch black on a narrow road with buses careening downhill. I jumped into painful brush in my flip flops countless times.

The church of Panagia in Chora is located on top of a cliff was likely built where an ancient temple was previously located. Its inhabitants were Dorians, then Athenian , then the island was conquered Venice until 1566, then by Ottoman Turks. The Greeks took it back in 19th century.

The main square in Chora

Little roads filled with restaurants and stores.

The Path up to Panagia Church in Chora

Climbing to Panagia Church

Check out the second closest cross on the right

We both climbed up there for the photo op

Sunset from the cliffs of Chora

Athens, Greece 2009

Our honeymoon was basically the best trip ever. It was a good trip on its own with wonderful beach weather, beautiful sites, nice hotel rooms, and great places to relax and do nothing. Add to that the fact that it was our honeymoon, so we're permanently biased in favor of it, and I wonder if anywhere will ever live up to it. But it's a good problem to have.

We got married Saturday, June 6, and did our air travel on Tuesday. We started our trip in Athens, the capital and largest city in Greece. We spent June 10-11 there and took in all the big sites including the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, the Ancient Agora and the Roman Agora, Theater of Dionysus, Hadrian Library, and even the ruins in the subway. Basically classical sights heaven.


At the Acropolis, in front of the Parthenon


More in front of the Parthenon


View from our hotel balcony of the Acropolis at night


In front of the Erechtheum at the Acropolis

Kevin on the spot where Socrates lectured (Ancient Agora)


At my favorite, the Temple of Zeus

Temple of Zeus
Kevin wandering around the Theater of Dionysus Athens gets a bit of a bum rap, but after going there, I think it's only because the islands are so incredibly beautiful that by comparison, Athens is just regular-beautiful. The people we met in Greece were friendly enough though none seemed to speak any English outside of menu choices. On the other hand, all the signs in Greece were in both Greek and English, so that's handy.

Walking around Athens

Alphas beer, better than Mythos beer

Honeymoon hot tub