#GOOD MORNING my own cat decided to jump and lay on me at like 6:30am and now i cant stop thinking about it

[lavieenjones]

August/September 2017

Greece: paradise, in sheep's clothing. The most beautiful vistas, water that sparkles like it's littered with diamonds, amazing wines and garlic-rich foods, and all the expensive trappings of a holiday in heaven- spa services, boat adventures, jewelry, all the wine, and VIP experiences. We did it right though I think; yolo'd the shit out of it in fact.

After meeting up with Rachel and Keith in Oia, we walked down "donkey road" to the water, turned left and after scrambling and side-winding across some rocks we had Amoudi Bay in our sights. We swam out to the jump off cliff and climbed up. Rachel showed zero hesitation and just took a running jump off the edge; she is my hero. Keith and I hung back for a minute but at some point I was alone on top with the other I-thought-I-was-made-of-more-grit non-jumpers. Rachel and Keith take to the cliff a couple more times and in the end let's just say that there was a lot of GoPro battery wasted in the build up of my jump, which never happened. Listen, if it weren't for the jump of 2015 where I almost but not entirely cleared my bed after jumping off a 12' lofted wall I might've been more willing to chance gravity and follow my adventurous companions. However, I can still feel the scar tissue around the fracture from that fateful jump and blah blah blah, cut-to me walking down the rocks and diving into the water from a 2' ledge. Like a normal person. After this death-defying excursion, we had tzatziki and mussels sitting on the edge of the bay in the late afternoon sun. Heaven. I'll also take this opportunity to note that we/I ordered tzatziki probably 15 times over 8 days. After this seafood delight by the water we made our way to Fira for dinner at a local taverna. Tzatziki (obviously), octopus, pastas, and meats were ordered. That octopus I'm still thinking about.

Day two was for the water. We chartered a semi-private boat and went all over the Santorini coast stopping at a hot spring- which turned out to be somewhat warmer water the color of spicy mustard because of the mud? I don't know. It felt like they just brought us to a shallow bay which would be naturally warmer and let us swim around in dirty water. Only real upset for the day though, the rest of swimming points were amazing. On the boat with us were: two Long Islanders, three Aussies, one Kiwi, and a couple of New York sorority sisters (I'm assuming; they sucked). The Cyclades are so small we ended up seeing this motley crew over the next week and various islands- our own little Grecian community. Anyway, we spent this day on and in the water and to say it was my bliss is an understatement. I did muster the immense courage to jump off the side of the boat I'll have you know. I wish I could accurately describe Rachel's zero build up to jumping because it was so casual and everyday. She'd just walk off the edge. No muss. Anyway, I was obviously endlessly impressed by this. We were back in Oia by around 4pm and lounging by the hotel pool by 4:30pm. Then, thanks to Rachel's perseverance, we sat atop some Grecian ruins for two hours waiting for the sunset to hit the West face of Oia. It was worth the wait and actually kind of emotional how beautiful it was. Following this, we did a little shopping (kind of on Rachel's side), and ate gyros and drank local beers while sitting outside a concert at an elementary school.

The next day we went wine tasting with California native and 30-year Santorini resident, Phoenix, which included semi-frequent chastisement for not paying enough attention, Old Testament fact checking, sensational claims to Atlantis, and some really great wines. After our morning lecture series Rachel and Keith set off for a massage and I swam at the hotel pool then ran some errands before my own massage. Then we had a private sunset viewing with champs on the spa terrace. Très romantique and perfect for honeymooners, or a married couple and one tagalong. 😒 Lol, it was actually super fun and we felt like celebrities with our own terrace. We ended up missing dinner by doing a little more (reckless/drunk) shopping, and got a wine flight (so good) and then some more wine at a few other places. You know, just living our best and most expensive life in Oia. Oh then we were desperately looking for food at 2:30am and a little kid, maybe 10 years old, with glasses and sweet face sacred the shit out of me by innocently running up to his family. I yelped and everyone laughed at me in greek. Or rather, everyone that happened to be Greek laughed at me. Also why was that kid up so late anyway?!

On our last day in Santorini we awoke with the sun to take some last chance photos posing with classical Santorini domes, then we set out for Mykonos. Oh boy, this place is so special and outrageously beautiful- might've been my favorite island. We checked into our hotel and spent the next ~4 hours drinking caipiroskas by the pool. Just heaven. Then we listened to the new Taylor Swift a few (10) times and went out in Mykonos. We were out too early though so we filled our time with drinking and getting lost in the labyrinth that is Mykonos old town. And as apparently this was the time to visit Greece, we met up with Steph and some of Keith's friends and danced our hearts out until 4am. Rachel also convinced me to get up on the stage and dance at some point in the night; her joy and abandon were contagious! Before you know it, my top was off and I was smoking a cig on stage wearing a bodysuit, jeans, and all the arrogance of.. the best dancer alive? Aka the best time. I also fell into a cactus on the walk home and a spike is still in my hand.. is this going to be a problem?

We had an expectedly shaky start the next day, eating hotel breaky in relative silence trying to recover from the night before with intermittent flashbacks to our running the Scandinavian for a night. Didn't matter though, within two hours of being awake we were laying in our cabana at beach club, Scorpio, feeling like bosses ordering bottomless rosé and pita chips and just having the perfect day. Rachel and I got a little carried away when we realized we too could live and look like everyone at the resort. That is to say we could spend hundreds on one or two pieces of Mexico-made woven textiles found in a tent at the entrance of the compound. Good thing we hadn't been drinking for hours in the sun otherwise we might've made some poor decisions. Like buying three of the same thing so you and your sisters could match.. for example. Oy vey Maria. Anyway we had dinner there and you can't put a price on table-side prepped beef tartar, incredible salmon and sea bass accompanied by more rosé and a breathtaking sunset. Or you can and it's so much money. YOLO.. ?

On Friday I parted ways with my sweet friends and head out for Naxos solo and they to Athens. I regretted slightly not going to Athens but was drawn to that island life and couldn't resist. I spent this day mostly poolside recovering from Mykonos. I decided to stay in and get room service but when I called they said the kitchen closed early for no reason (or no reason they cared to share) and so I was faced with leaving my cocoon of watching some Dutch (?) version of say yes to the dress and walking the 6 minutes to the nearest beachfront restaurant or rummaging my luggage for half a Toblerone from the flight in. I'll give you one guess which I chose. Anyway the next day I spent on the water again. I was the only person not on my honeymoon on this boat, but two of the three couples were fun and nice and took pity on me so I didn’t have to sit in silence the whole day. There were so many highlights from this trip, and this was no exception. The clearest, and coldest water, cave swimming exploration, and amazing views of the island’s arid coastline. When I was back ashore, I bought a few gifts and then tried not to throw up my dinner as 1) I was still rocking from 12 hours at sea and 2) talked into a local delicacy that was actually disgusting. I ate some, tossed some to the wild cats when no one was looking (hopefully), and then pushed around the rest on my plate like a kid not allowed to leave the dinner table. I also threw the shot of whatever digestif they gave me under the table (into the sand)- seemed more polite than just leaving it there? Maybe I was just ready for home, though I am already imagining my next trip back there. It takes less time Paris>Greece than it does Chicago>NYC, what kind of small miracle is that?