we are santa's elves

happy holidays ho ho ho

fira heights

our first stop on the island of santorini was the main town of fira.  we spent our first two nights on santorini in fira at a really charming little place called hotel antonia.  they were extremely well reviewed on trip advisor, and for good reason.  priced extremely affordably, we were welcomed by marios with wine and a quick map-rap session where we were directed to the best restaurants, views, and things to do on the island.  truly, the hoteliers of the greek islands are absolute gems.  we always felt like the most well-treated guests.

after enjoying a little welcome wine on the spacious balcony of our room at hotel antonia, we continued the somewhat lush, dionysian evening with a stroll through the winding staircases, considered to be streets, per marios' recommendation for the restaurants with the best views in fira.  we stopped for a few big mugs of mythos at a caldera view bar, to give the sunset a little catch-up time so it would be part of the entertainment at dinner.

of the many delicious looking restaurants over-looking the caldera in fira, we settled on fanari, where we enjoyed incredible service, local wine, and a sampling of the seafood specialties we would spend the next week eating.  i had my first taste of grilled octapus at fanari and life has genuinely never been the same.  goodness gracious is it ever fantastic.  i'm also pretty sure the waiters on santorini all have training in photography.  they are pros at capturing that view.

it's still pretty mindblowing to think the trip only got better from here, but our first night in fira really set an unimaginable tone.  if ever you're looking for a spectacular value in fira don't hesitate to check out hotel antonia.  we felt incredibly welcome and centrally located between all parts of the island we ultimately visited.

these are probably getting boring, but oh well, i'm going to keep posting one day at a time!  happy new week everybody!

SANTORINIBOAT!!!

there are a lot of ways you can travel between the greek islands if you ever decide to make the best choice ever and go.  the best methods probably depend on how much time you have in greece to spend getting from place to place.  steve and i experimented with almost every option, standard ferry, high speed ferry, and a flight via agean airlines.

more on options 2 and 3 later, but if you are planning to travel from athens to santorini i must insist you take the standard (read: not high speed) ferry.  when i booked our tickets on the blue star ferries out to santorini i was a bit worried by the 8 hour sailing time.  not only does 8 hours on a boat seem potentially claustrophobic, but when you're in a place as amazing as greece you don't want to waste an extra moment cooped up en route to your destination.

little did i know the blue star ferries are like a day trip attraction unto themselves.  this is not your average ferry boat.  our ship, the blue star delos (though we booked our tickets for the blue star naxos so i'm not sure why the name swap) was really more like a luxury cruise line.  besides it being the only ferry with open air seating (as opposed to the high speed lines) we had no idea it would also be stopping at ports on the islands of paros, naxos, and ios before docking in santorini.  basically we got a espresso and photo filled boat tour of the cyclades before getting to our second hotel.  it was such a wonderful surprise!

after a very early morning cab ride from our parthenon hotel to the port of pireaus, we watched the sunrise over athens as we headed out into the agean sea and ate breakfast and lunch on the ferry getting the grand tour of other islands we know we'll need to return and check out.  since we were up so early it was a welcome benefit that there were coffee shops all over the boat and the weather shifted from a pleasant morning breeze to sun that made the water around us glitter.  the view from the ferry approaching santorini was absolutely breathtaking and when we rode in our hotel shuttle up from the port to fira we got our first unbelievable view of the caldera from over the cliff.

more to come!!

we got married!

i don't even know where to begin blogging about it (mainly because i've been waiting until the wedding was over to blog EVERYTHING about it from the cocktail hour playlist to the cake topper to the napkins) so for starters here are the two "sneak peek" shots our amazing photographer showed us while we were honeymooning.

more to come.  being steve's wife is definitely my favorite.

brief fupdates and evidence we still exist

bachelorette selfie with my sister, only semi relevant, but you need a picture right?  there will be more eventually.

let's be honest here folks, things are currently rather surreal.

my name is going to be different in less than 18 days and between trying to finagle a new job and tie off all the pre-nuptial loose ends it just doesn't feel like i have much to blog.  things are simply too vague or surprise-inducing to announce to the internet right now, so i've obviously found solace about my bloggers-block in the form of a 1028 page novel and 6 seasons of jersey shore.  rest assured there will be much more to be said, some hopefully sooner than later, but should you be knee deep in concern for my absence from this blog, you can expect to see more around maybe halloween-time, when hopefully things reach some semblance of normal.

in the meantime, here are some fleeting thoughts about our new home and current conditions:

1.  cost of living differences between houston and ann arbor are blowing my mind.  gas is so cheap (not really a shocker), groceries are basically free compared to michigan, also there are forms of gainful employment here that render people more upbeat than the metro-detroit attitude of "you have a job, you thus have no right to complain about anything ever.  genocide?  deal with it.  you have a job.  be thankful."

2.  on the topic of the upbeat people of houston the friendly-factor is probably the biggest culture shock here.  people are just so darn nice.  i feel like an ice queen for not striking up a conversation with the cockroach i found in my dishwasher.  midwesterners have a much more "you do you" (thnx jwoww) attitude about what constitutes politeness.  probably because it's so cold you can't really be expected to leave your house to talk to anyone 8 months out of the year.

3.  also yes i found a cockroach in my dishwasher.  just a small one.  he was not the first.  there also aren't 8 months out of the year here where everything freezes and dies.  thus bugs.  they happen.  i'm learning to deal with this.

4.  on the topic of cold: it is not.  unless you're indoors because, wisely, everything is air conditioned to the max.  i am essentially in heaven.  i hate the cold.  cold ranks somewhere below human trafficking and somewhere above the big bang theory in terms of things i do not appreciate.  if you read this blog often, i would guess about 80% of its contents refer to my hatred of the cold.  i'm so pleased and warm and tan in houston.

5.  on that note, the locals here tend to think it's way too hot and they can't believe i think the weather here is a plus.  this, to me, is like whining about your broken laptop to a starving child.  you do not understand the suicide-inducing misery of months below 0 degrees fahrenheit.  seriously.  i don't like cold.

also there are little lizards all over the place in our apartment complex and i love them.  hopefully i will get to posting the rest of the pictures from our bachelor/bachelorette weekend very soon (thank you to my 10/10 maid of honor sister for taking pictures and also crafting hard).

there: we still exist. ta for now.

san antonio - {grams}

we became hardcore road-trippers on sunday when we decided to take a day trip to san antonio in 100+ degree heat.  we still had an amazing time on the river walk and walking through the galleries and restaurants.  we opted to split queso and a dos-arita from rita's on the river and after a little bird-related mishap, and lots of sweat we still successfully enjoyed our afternoon in san antonio.

namely, we have a great weekend itinerary planned for a future overnight mini-vacation.  it's a long haul to do in one day though.  but look!  we went to the alamo!  it feels good to be checking out our new digs.

hope everybody has a great week!!