Well. In the middle of my trip to Spain and Morocco I declared I wasn’t interested in European travel and want to stay stateside (mostly due to long flights and too much time in airports and having to fill out all the forms. ALL THE FORMS, PEOPLE! Not to mention I did get Covid on my Spain/Morocco trip which was not a gas.) seeing some National Parks and riding some trains.

And here I am on my way to Greece. This trip was already in the works and I am glad that it was and AFTER THIS I swear I am staying in North America for at least a year.

But until then! I am going to Greece! My mom and our family friend are joining me – maybe I’m actually crashing their trip? Hard to say. Who can remember.

However, I’ve been doing the planning and I just want to take a minute to blast Expedia and Aegean Airlines. Thank you for letting me do that here.  I hate them both.

A fun part of this trip is my friends David and Tony will be leaving on their honeymoon to Greece the same day as us and we will be meeting them in Athens for dinner! Tony found this funky place with fairy tale inspired décor called Little Kook. Looks fun!

Roxy, Kim and I will be spending a few days in Athens before moving on to Crete and Naxos. I am most excited about our daylong train trip where we visit no less than SIX monasteries! I may finally become a lady monk and never return. We will also be taking an olive oil tour (obvi) and maybe even cooking with someone’s Grandma while doing some island hopping.

Now lets talk books!

I am taking two with me. The first, titled Freedom and Death (or sometimes Freedom or Death....weird) by Nikos Kazantzakis, was recommended as THE Greek book in this article by Conde Nast Traveler Magazine and the second, Bluets by Maggie Nelson (I have read this before, as assigned in one of my Lighthouse Writers classes and I LOVE IT and am delighted to be reading it again) is basically a love letter to the color blue and inspired by the blue rooftops of Santorini (even though we aren’t going there).

Additionally, I used my 199 Cemeteries To See Before You Die book to scope out two cemeteries (Proto Nekrotafio Athinon and Kerameikos Cemetery) I want to check out in Athens. I’d rather see those than the Acropolis or Parthenon. Am I fired?

And finally, I can’t wait to track down a Greek language copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland! Wish me luck!!