greece: taking the bus to paradise

day four thru six: greece has a fantastic bus system. instead of paying the cruise company $200 a day to take an "excursion" with 39 members of the AARP and spend 40 minutes at each and every touristy spot, we opted to head to port, take the bus, and find out what these islands were all about.

mykonos lives up to its reputation as euro hot spot. it is small, dry, and full of beautiful beaches and great places to have cocktails. we spent a whole day on free sun chairs, drinking corona and heineken, swimming, and being glad that there were only a dozen or so people on our piece of paradise. are you jealous, yet? sorry about that. it is the nature of my blog right now. wait until february.

santorini was the most dramatic island i've ever seen. it's the remnants of a volcanic explosion in 1300 BC. the island is just half of the caldera that is sticking out above the water, and the cruise ship parked right in the middle of the lagoon. no sh*t, like crater lake/ocean. awesome. we hopped on some donkeys and rode the 1200 feet from the dock to the town above, found the bus, and went to Ia where we enjoyed ocean views, Greek beer (Mythos), and the best tadziki and feta i've ever tasted in my life. there was probably more in santorini -- museums or learning, but we need balance in our lives. for every day of learning, there must be a day for beer and beautiful relaxation.

crete. unfortunately, the boat dropped us off at the biggest city in crete, heraklion. a city like every city. so we opted for learning. we went to knossos, a minoan palace, and a museum. the minoans were the ancient-er greeks (wiki-wiki-wiki, learn, learn, learn). at this point as we go back in history (1500-1100BC), it stops having meaning. time compresses and i get a crisis of mortality. a perfect segue to a day at sea...