Greece: Santorini, Boys

Here's looking at you, kids.

Greece: Santorini, Cactai

OH! Hai!

Greece: Santorini, A Gander

Literally within seconds of putting our luggage down at our hotel, we were off to explore the island that is Santorini. Here's what we found along the way.

Greece: Santorini, Sunny Villas

What's it like living in a cave, you ask?

I was dying to stay at Sunny Villas after my endless research on hotels in Santorini. The idea of staying in a CAVE was appealing. In real life, it was a difficult hotel to get to, but I imagine many of the hotels on Santorini to be the case, as the town is built on the side of a volcanic caldera, not to be confused with a crater. And it's STEEP, y'all! Hotel Sunny Villas had incredible caldera and sunset views from the terrace, but the actual cave-like habitat was rather claustophobic, for us. Still, it was incredible to be situated right in front of the Skaros rock, which used to be a medieval fortress, that we hiked on the last day of our trip (more on that later). For now, this.

Greece: To Santorini

Time for another ferry ride, this time to Santorini! That was the littlest truck we'd ever seen!

Greece: Mykonos, at Night

Nothing like some twinkly lights reflected upon the water with a warm summery breeze fluttering through your hair.

And. Seeing these guys, again. Have a lovely weekend!

Boston: Marathon, 2012

It's interesting that Greece is currently being featured on the blog, because the "marathon" race comes from the legend that a Greek soldier Pheidippides ran from the Battle of Marathon (a town in Greece) to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated. He ran the distance of 42.195 km or 26.2 miles, later established into the marathon sport at the 1896 Olympics in Athens.

And so, it's very exciting to be in Boston during THE Boston Marathon. Although I wasn't able to see the runners actually RUNNING, I managed to catch a bit of the aftermath close to the finish line near Arlington Station. It was HOT, people. At 4pm it was still hot, and I couldn't imagine how the runners got through it.

Bravo to everyone who ran.

Greece: Mykonos, The Wind Mills

Oh, the famed Wind Mills of Mykonos.

As we turned around a narrow and crowded corner, this was our first glimpse of the wind mills. The timing couldn't have been better; with the sun just starting to drop it created the most gorgeous light.

Most of the cafes facing the water boasted the "best sun set view", but expensive cocktails at over crowded cafes like Scarpa didn't make sense, especially when the sun set could be viewed from anywhere. So, this is what we did, instead.

Breathtaking, to say the least. See how these windmills compare to Zaans Shans, in Amsterdam.

Greece: Mykonos, The Town

The next day we took the shuttle bus into downtown Mykonos. What an incredibly stunning place Mykonos is. Would love to go back, it's absolutely gorgeous. Blue and white paint? Check. Churches? Check. Narrow cobblestone walkways? Check. But who knew about the stray cats? So cute!

Greece: Mykonos, Hotel St. John

Only the best. hotel. ever.

Greece: Ferry to Mykonos

The next morning we were off to Mykonos via Hellenic Seaways' high speed ferry, which took about 4-5 hours includinng stops along the way at smaller islands. We boarded from Piraeus in Athens. If you see vendors selling breads and pastries that look tasty, pass. They were quite disappointing. The food on the ferry is equally tasteless. The journey itself wasn't uncomfortable, however there were some hiccups with seating arrangements and a huge delay when we returned to Athens from Santorini, but that may have been due to the taxi strike at the time. However on the way to Mykonos from Athens, excitement prevailed over anything worth complaining about. And the views from the outdoor deck of the various islands were phenomenal.

Greece: Athens: Fallen

I don't remember the name of this particular historic site, but it was, as all the other ancient architecture in Athens, magnificent. One of the pillars lay there, fallen, in a domino effect, and we wondered when and why it had fallen. But like a lot of ancient history, it's shrouded in mystery.

Dusk was falling, and the light was just perfect for this last day in Athens. Tomorrow, off to Mykonos!

Boston: Bruins + The Yellow Bees

I'm happy to introduce my niece's blog! It's called The Yellow Bees. She, along with a group of friends from school have started this blog where they post about the jewelry they make and the things that they are involved in.

My niece recently posted about the Bruins vs. Toronto Maple Leafs game we went to at the TD Garden where we had amazing box seats.The Bruins won 8-0. Yep, that's right.

I'd love it if you would stop by and say hi to The Yellow Bees!