Thank you!

Thank you everyone (here and at home) that made my 27th birthday such a wonderful day yesterday!

Greece is the word....

It is hard to believe that the long awaited Greece trip has already come and gone. Time sure flies when you're having fun, doesn't it? On April 30 we set off for Athens (via Milan...go figure) with our friend Josh. The rest of the group of 9 took a different route and the plan was for all of us to meet on May 2nd on the island of Paros where the 70 ft Stressbuster and crew were to pick us up. After arriving in Athens, we met up with our friend Erin for a crazy night out. We stayed out until 2am at which point we high-tailed back to her hotel to catch 1.5 hours of sleep (with all 4 of us sharing 1 queen sized bed ;) before waking up again at 3:30am to head for the Athens airport. The plan was to catch our flight at 4:30am to Santorini, spend the night there and then ferry to Paros to rendezvous with the crew. Unfortunately, due to some inclement weather the flight was cancelled. We wound up spending the entire day in the Athens airport hotel sleeping in the pool area (until we got kicked out!) and lounging on the bar couches while we waited for our alternate route to Paros. Sadly we had to skip Santorini, but it is a good thing the 4 of us have such an awesome time with each other - we really did make the most of it!

Long story short - we finally arrived in Paros and met up with the whole group. We spent two nights on the boat there in Paros which was a good way to get accustomed to the rocking of the boat in the harbor (I was pretty excited to find out this did not make me sick at all even without meds).

Finally on Sunday May 4, the boat set sail for Mykonos....Andy and I both made the mistake of not taking Dramamine this day (thought we could be tough) and both of us spent the 6 hour sailing day concentrating pretty hard on not losing our lunches...We did learn our lesson and the rest of the trip stayed on some non-drowsy motion sickness stuff that worked wonders. We were both able to keep it together the rest of the trip.

For the most part, the weather was beautiful. Crisp, clear, sunny...if only a little windy. Each day we would sail to our next destination in time to have dinner either on board the boat or at cozy little Greek cafe style restaurants on some of the smaller of the Isles.

One of our favorite days was spent on the island of Syros where we rented ATV's and Scooters to wander around the island. We found a great beach (where the 9 of us were the only people there). We parked our little rigs and laid in the sun for hours, only getting up for Anna to drive me on the quad over to the store to pick up more beer :)

We only ran into a minor snag on the last day when we tried to get from Kythnos to Kea. The waves were nearly 9ft high and the boat was rocking so much we all thought we might see the end! Thankfully Costa (El Capitan) knew better and turned us right back around where we got to spend another full day on Kythnos which was a lot of fun. We rented a little "jeep" if you can call it that and toured the whole island visiting about 6 different coves and beaches. The next morning, we were up at 6am to watch the beautiful sunrise and head for Athens...

A lot of people write Athens off since the Greek Isles are so beautiful whereas Athens seems to be just another European city. For us though, we just loved Athens. We got another full day there before flying back to Switzerland and spent the day wandering the little markets, drinking coffees and seeing an outdoor movie on the rooftop of one of the buildings. It was a beautiful evening and we could see the Parthenon / Acropolis from our seats.

We're now back in Zurich after 10 wonderful, relaxing days away and just wondering what our next trip will be....Most likely going somewhere this weekend but not sure where yet. Such is our life :)

I only posted a couple pictures of the Greece trip, but will add more as soon as Andrew brings home the memory stick. We miss you all and can't wait to see you in July!

Congratulations!

To our good friends Derek Barry and Mary Lee Savol (soon to be "Mary Lee Barry") who just got engaged :) In case anyone out there is listening...

A couple more photos.

It's a Dromadaire, not a camel. My mistake.

We kicked off the spring travels with a pretty solid trip - first Barcelona with the big group, followed by Morocco with our Africa buddies, Coy and Kacey. We spent 2 nights / 3 days in Barcelona eating delicious tapas and drinking sangria and squeezed in tours of some of the main attractions (Barcelona has some seriously beautiful architecture). We didn't see the beach as much as we would've liked - on the last day just before departing for the airport we finally set foot on some sand! After 3 relaxing days we left for crazy Marrakesh and arrived just in time to see the sun go down over Djemaa El Fna square - the biggest city square on the entire continent of Africa. It was a major sensory overload - busy and full of snake charmers (see photo of Andy above), fresh juice stands, monkeys on leashes, story tellers, food stalls, magicians and souks (markets full of leather goods, pottery, spices, carpets....you get the picture). After two nights in Marrakesh, we were picked up by our private driver, Hassan, and set off for the Erg Chebbi - otherwise known as the Sahara desert. It took two full days of driving to get there, but it was worth it. That's us in the photo below on our camels :) We rode out from Merzouga through Erg Chebbi (the only Erg - or dunes - in Morocco) part of the Sahara desert which extends 3,500,000 square miles!! The camel riding was pretty uncomfortable, not really at all like riding a horse, but it made for some pretty cool photos. Our guide there (Josef) had been guiding tourists through the Erg for 8 years, and though he'd never been to school (as his family was a nomad family in the desert), he spoke 8 languages as a result of meeting tourists from all over the world. When we had troubles in English, he and Kacey (who is fluent in Spanish) would fill in the gaps in Espanol. He told us some great jokes during our night in the Berber tent as we were sharing dinner (Chicken tajine - kind of like a chicken stew).

Joke 1: How do you put a camel in a refrigerator in three steps?
Answer: Step one, open the door. Step two, put the camel in. Step three, close the door.
Is anyone laughing yet? Ohhhh, it gets better. Now imagine this next part was told about 20 minutes later.
Joke 2: How do you put an elephant in a refrigerator in four steps?
Answer: Step one, open the door. Step two, take the camel out. Step three, put the elephant in. Step four, close the door.
Now imagine this NEXT part was told about an hour later after we'd all forgotten about the first two jokes.
Joke 3: The lion, king of the animals, is getting married. He invites all the animals to the wedding - but one doesn't show up. Who is it?
Answer: The elephant. He's in the fridge.
Obviously we loved it :)

Anyhow - after our night in the berber tent, we woke up for the sunrise and cameled out (is "cameled" a word?) back to Merzouga. We drove for two days back, stopping in many smaller towns along the way, and spent another night in Marrakesh before leaving for Essaouira on the coast...After two nights and three days of strolling the little streets, shopping the souks and eating all the fresh grilled seafood we could muster, we headed back for one last crazy night in Marrakech and flew out the following morning. It was an amazing and relaxing trip and the country was just beautiful. As per usual, we'll be back some day :) Until then....our Greek isle sailing adventure is coming up in just 4 weeks!