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...

turkye: if by more fun you mean....

day one: turkey is a fairly modern place, it seems. istanbul is a huge city of 9 million, second only to paris in europe, boasting a skyline of minarets, an amazing history, and men who stare unabashedly at blonde women like me. our travel team included jonathan and erin (brunette with highlights), jeff and erica (really brunette), and dan and holly (sorta blonde-ish). as soon as we got off the boat, jeff started counting the shifty eyes and head turns as dudes checked out my pseudo-golden locks. we went to the Spice Market for a bit of shopping and one dude asked me to touch him and another asked me "do you want a baby? i will give you a baby!" holy cow. i don't know if blondes have more fun in turkey, but they sure do get more attention. stop trying to smell my hair, please.


day two: blue mosque (wow!) and aya sofia (wow times two!!) and grand bazaar. i won't bore you with the details. use wikipedia if you are a learner-type.


late in the afternoon of day two, we had our first "at sea" overnight as we cruised to our next stop, izmir (google maps: turkey). we soon noticed that not only were we bringing the average age on the boat from 69 years old down a few decades, but we were easily dropping the average weight down a deuce, deuce-and-a-half. these folks were not our peeps. they were mostly our parents peeps, but not as fun as our parents. we found out that it was best to hole up in Tankards and ask our friendly bartender to put on some hip-hop to keep the crowd at bay. they were especially not thrilled when, during the mandatory emergency life jacket drill, dan and i brought our Coronas to the staging area -- why sit through safety talks if you can't enjoy yourself? we're on vacation, people!


day three: izmir where we bartered for a couple of cabs to take us to ephesus -- aahhhhhh!!!! -- little english, crazy driving, and a few moments of uncertainty when the other cab suddenly stopped mid-freeway and ours kept going. luckily we had the walkies to keep in touch and we didn't pay until we were safely back at port. (you know, ephesus where the Ephesians lived in bible land. riiiiight. well, it was pretty awesome if you like toppled marble columns and history. i was duly impressed. they sure built things to last back then.)

vacation from vacation

my type of vacation usually entails shlepping luggage onto public transportation and hefting it through foreign streets whilst trying to find an unmarked hotel or driving down bike paths as directed by my GPS to find a hidden gem of a restaurant or an elusive but expensive parking space. this time we went on a cruise. i wasn't sure if i'd like cruising at first -- there are little asian women literally around every corner spritzing you with hand sanitizer to prevent the cruise ship sh*ts (mission not accomplished, thanks), there are two hefty life jackets in the closet, and the whole idea seemed sterile as compared to the hectic or slightly uncomfortable up-close vacations i'm used to.

but, in all, cruising was the way to go for this vacation from vacationing -- a relaxing, fun, easy, worry-free, with my husband, no planning required, no hotel finding, no restaurant disappointments, way to see three countries, four islands, a few pyramids, and a ton of toppled marble columns.

i could write a seventeen page blog about our 13 day trip to turkey, greece, and egypt, but that seems excessive. instead, i am going to download my pictures and maybe write a few short blogs, like this one, about things that were especially interesting (turkey, greece, egypt) or uncomfortable (like almost missing the sunset because i was stuck on the toilet on deck 12 aft).

this is actually the reason i started this blog in the first place -- because i travel. i started it so i could look back and remember some of the places that i've visited, not just to talk about toilet cleaning (white vinegar, trust me) and rainy british days. i already tried a conventional travel journal. talk about BORING. so this is it: my cruise journal. hopefully i can stick to it like an egyptian cabbie to a group of american tourists.

is cuddling possible?

after a long absence from one's partner, there is a tendency to idealize the reunion -- it will surely be chalked full of engaging conversation and comfortable silence, laughs of things forgotten and familiar about each other, additional extracurricular activities, and hours of cuddling. i have found 75 percent of this to be true; however, i have concluded after years of research that cuddling is in fact an impossible activity perpetuated by Hollywood and Hallmark.

i have an interesting inability to regulate my own body temperature, i.e. i am the same temperature as my immediate surroundings within 45 seconds, and dan is a personal furnace walking around warming the air around him. you'd think this would be good as he could keep me warm.

oh no. as he sleeps on his back, and me on my side, i try to casually drape my arm across his chest in a cuddly goodwill way, and within two minutes, my arm is en fuego, melting into him. we sit on the couch watching a movie and i lean into him, his arm around me. after a few minutes i shift positions. and then a few minutes more another shift. by the end of the previews, the only part of my body touching his is when we accidentally reach for the glass of ice water at the same time.

and the ultimate -- spooning. we don't have the heat on in our bedroom, even though the windows are drafty and the outside temperature is regularly dropping into the 30s at night. with only a couple of light blankets on the bed, you'd think it would be the perfect spoon environment. oh, hell no.

but we keep trying. me on my side, he scoots up next to me as i am usually freezing. he drapes his arm over my hips. minutes pass. i warm up. he's putting out 4,000 BTUs of heat. suddenly our legs are a pool of lava, and because of our unique position, my fine neck hairs are sporting icicles as a cold rush of air hits me every time he exhales. i have my head in the freezer and my legs in the oven! arrgh! i squirm away, he rolls over.

these days we sleep comfortably together, knowing cuddling is impossible and we shouldn't feel bad for failing at it, completely intertwined from the ankles down.

emotions? hand me a bottle

author's pre-post-script: ewwwww...this seems un-quippy and not at all funny.
don't read it. and if you do, let me know if i am a stupid sentimental POS.

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not the drinkin' kind of bottle. the hide-away-your-feelings-until-they-suddenly-burst-out-unexpectedly-at-your-mom-husband-or-friend bottle. you know, that kind of bottle.

or maybe a bucket.

this may seem like an odd topic. and maybe it is. maybe i am not sure where i'm going with this. let me think....

ok, well first, i realized today as i was driving that there is nothing like seeing your life as reflected by others to help appreciate it. the grass here is so green. the lorries are like box faced, not like semis at home with their long noses. the road is curvy, for no reason. the clouds are huge and puffy and when the sun comes out it makes you wonder why you are wearing the blue scarf you so carefully picked out. but then it goes back behind a cloud, and you remember.

the hedges make it impossible to sight see, but then there is a sudden break and i see my favorite spot in england. it's nothing special, really. just a stone church in the back of a field of this green-all-year-round grass. in the field there are two bay horses, always grazing.

it is a standard charming spot, but to me, more because it is like a flash as i drive along the hedge-lined roads. a peek. a spot too dangerous to stop and take a photograph, but that makes it more special because every time i see in, i feel happy about england. my life here.

why was i so emotional as i drove along belting out a pop song from 2004? i think it was two-fold. first, my parents just left. all of these familiar things that i have begun to take for granted, were new to them. charming. exciting. british. i could explain things like funny road signs and Norman architecture. i shared stories about my coming to this place and growing as so i could begin to take it for granted.

and second, because dan was supposed to be home sunday afternoon and isn't home. not monday. maybe not tuesday. i was upset when i heard this on sunday morning. not devastated. not my-life-is-over-without-one-more-day-with-him hysterical. more irritated, frustrated.

this morning when i found out it would be yet another 24 hours, or more. i actually laughed. it was silly! how can we have this? why is one more day after months so much harder? ha! haha!

then i got in the car. i popped in a CD from '04 and saw my commute to run errands as my parents saw it last week. saw this extra 24 hours as a way to get all of these emotions, that i would ordinarily tend to bottle up or burst forth (both unhealthy, i might add) just exist. i sang! i got teary! i laughed at how silly i felt! i put my face up to the sunny window and really took a minute to let my cheek get hot. i let myself miss dan. i let myself get excited for him to come home. i noticed things. i let irritation, frustration, anxiety, sadness, happiness, silliness, sing-a-longy-ness, and aloneness, especially aloneness, all exist.

now i just feel strange, like after a good cry, and right before one, too. it's a good feeling. a jumble feeling. i can have a most fantastic day under an un-fantastic circumstance. how odd. maybe like when people laugh and tell jokes at funerals or cry at weddings...i'm waging my battle against sentimentality or melodrama or co-dependence or hysteria or ungratefulness. dan will come home. maybe not tomorrow, but sometime. and, really, my life is f*ing awesome. i am happy. that's ok. i am sad, and that's ok, too.

for now, i'm glad to be a bucket full of good ol' fashioned jumble.