our pirate ship


the circle of islands are made from a blown out volcano


climbing it was tough because it was a fine layer of volcanic ash
(and it turned my socks yellow)


i claimed the top...'croftapalooza'


it was like being on a martian planet


plato wrote about 'atlantis' in terms of it once being the island of santorini. here you can see his description of the black, red and white cliffs that once held atlantis before it was buried in the sea during the volcanic eruption


we climbed back down the volcano and sailed our pirate ship to a cove where we jumped off the boat! argg.


we swam through the brilliant emerald water, as cold as it was, to find a sulfur hot stream,a little volcanic action hot tub :)


the water was blood red, which was a little creepy, but at least it didn't really smell like egg farts


we enjoyed a lovely sunset on the boat


once we got up the mountain of the mainland, we ate gyros and saddled the donkeys of doom...which we took back down the mountain, while attempting to take photos, while attempting to not fall off as they slip on the cobblestones full of donkey shit

This island is SO worth checking out!

Arabic is not an easy language to learn. Lots of new sounds, which means new pronounciations, and of course an entirely different alphabet. It's a bit overwhelming at times when you're trying to cram in all that information.

At this point I know about half the alphabet and we're starting to learn how the letters are strung together (it's like learning to write cursive before you learn to print).

I noticed a can of Pepsi tonight and took a closer look. Things started to make sense. I could see how the letters were put together to write out 'Bebsi". It's actually called Bebsi because "P" doesn't exist in Arabic. It was a reafirming moment for me. We need those small moments in life when you realize you ARE learning and that you ARE quite capable. It looks like this.



On the funny side of things, did you know there are complaints choirs all over the world?

dinner


one of 'those' guys that just weirds everyone out with his creepy stares and attempts at touching the ladies


chapel on mykonos


remember the end scene of 'bourne identity'...it was here, on mykonos, with the windmills


streets of mykonos

My older sister sent me an e-mail with this photo:





Ha! I'm gonna laugh about this for a long time.....

I have 2 days left before I hand over my rental car. 2 days. I've been navigating the roads of this ass backward country full of Cracker Jack licensee drivers for 3 months without incident...and I wait until 2 days before my car is due to do something brilliant like this.

Have you ever been driving through your neighborhood and the county or city suddenly put up a new road sign. There wasn't any type of cautionary "hey there's something new here" warning or light...they just slapped a new do-dad up there. Have you ever been driving through that neighborhood like you had for the last 3 months you lived there and missed that newly placed sign? Don't lie, you know you have!

You see driving is a conditioned response. We go into autopilot mode when taking regular routes. That's how you can go from work to home in a dream like state and not even realize you were driving until you pull up to your house.

For 3 months I've been entering and exiting my little world through a security gate. On the way out, if you have a permit, you use the right late and you drive past the guard hut. There is a giant speed hump to clear, but you just cruise on out. On the way in you usually drive past with a little wave, once again conquering the speed hump, unless it's late a night and the guards can't really see the sticker on your windshield...but anyway the point is you drive out with no problems and you may or may not have to pause on the return journey.

Well APPARENTLY the security company decided to install gate arms in the exit lane for permit holders. The EXIT lane! It was a white pipe. (notice the use of 'was' not 'is'). Not striped, or bright, or noticeable in any way, just white. White blends in with the light sand environment as good as a polar bear's camouflage in the snow.

Are you starting to envision the scene? Are your lips curling from ear to ear in a cheshire grin? Are you starting to chuckle? Yep, Lady Croft blew right through that pipe like a knife through butter! Well, make it frozen butter because I didn't cut the thing off, entirely.

I STILL can't believe it!!! I went up and over the speed hump, then started to accelerate as always. I didn't even SEE the damn thing until it was 2 inches from my windshield, then WWWWWWHACK! Right into my windshield, up and over the hood, and snapped my antenna off the trunk. PISSER!

The guards must have thought I was on crack. I couldn't stop laughing because I realized how absolutely ridiculous it was that I just mowed down a security gate! But honestly, why the fuck did they install an arm on an EXIT lane for permit holders??

I can pass off the scrapes along the top as a dirty car because the car is white. I should be able to buff the marks on the windshield (thank GOD it didn't break!)...but I can't hide the fact the antenna is a mangled bit of aluminum. BUGGER BUGGER BUGGER!

I'll just keep laughing about it and say 'hey, at least it wasn't your brand new car!" as I hand over some money for a new antenna.