So.... we're back from Greece. Here we are at the top of the Acropolis in front of the Parthenon. For those planning a trip to Greece: don't plan to stay in Athens longer than a day. It's not worth it... there's not a lot to do after you see the main sites, and the islands are so much more beautiful that there's really no comparison. I will post photos later of our time in the islands. We're definitely going to go back but we're skipping through Athens and focusing on the islands... Crete, Santorini, Paros, Myos, and Naxos.... I am excited about getting to go back. However, I think our next trip will be to London, Brussels, Paris, and surrounding areas either for summer 2008 or Spring Break 2009. We like to mix it up a little! I'm really hoping that we can somehow coordinate a trip to meet up with my sister and her husband... one can only hope!

I don't know how we would have survived our trip without sunglasses. It is so unbelieveably bright in Greece! The whole country is like this, and you can barely see without sunglasses. The minute you take them off you're practically blinded by white hot light. The top of the Acropolis was even worse... because the entire thing is constructed out of white marble which reflects the sun.

After we left the Acropolis we were tired and extremely dirty. I could feel the dust of Athens ground into my skin and my sweating wasn't helping. I have never wanted a shower more badly then I did then. We headed to our boat, The Festos Palace, early and were able to get on 2.5 hours before it was scheduled to depart. Ethan and I weren't expecting the boat to be quite as big as it was! We were also pleasantly surprised to find a SHOWER in our cabin...which we promptly used! It was tiny, but effective. The overnight boat trip was really interesting. It was cool to be able to go to the deck and see the moonlight reflecting off of the sea and feel the warm wind. We slept for about 6 hours on the boat, which was pretty good. It took me a while to fall asleep because I could feel the vibrations from the boat engines. Once I got used to it, I fell asleep but I immediately woke up when the engines were killed when we arrived at our port.

In other news... we are closing on our loft on September 24th! We are both so excited and ready to move. The movers are coming on September 26th, but we'll move a few things beforehand. I'm determined to have my kitchen completely set up and organized before the movers come. For some reason, that is the one place in my house that has to be ready to go for me to be okay with chaos. I guess it's because the kitchen is the heart of the home... I don't know. But if my kitchen is fully functioning, I'm happy. I can't believe I'm actually going to have space for everything that I have and be able to really exercise my cooking chops. There are so many things that I want to bake and cook but didn't have the counter space in the apartment to make it work. Our walk through is on September 17th so rest assured... there will be photos! We're actually going to try and go there today to see the progress but we don't know if they put locks on the doors yet. We'll find out!