Greekin it

We set out for Athens and the Greek Isles last Monday and it didn't take long to figure out that the Greeks like to do 3 things: sleep late, drink coffee/eat at a cafe for hours, and not do much of anything all day... activities that we liked to refer to as "greekin it".

We spent our first couple of days in Athens doing the typical tourist thing and seeing the sights and the ruins of the ancient city.

obligatory pose in front of the parthenon

After awhile, we soon realized that all of the ruins start to look alike and that once you have seen one you have seen them all. We decided to rent a car and get out of the city for the day and make our way to the coastal town of Sounion where we found what of all things but... more ruins.

Adrienne and Blake in front of the House of P (Temple of Poseidon)

We "greeked it"up at a cute little restaurant that sat on top of a peak that overlooks the Temple of Poseidon and then enjoyed hiking down to the water and seeing the Temple of Athena. After two days of seeing the sights, we were ready to set out on our adventure to the Greek Isles.

We arrived in Mykonos on Wednesday and decided to rent a car so we could explore. This in itself proved to be a great adventure because we were the only tourists on the island so it was hard to find a car rental place that was open, and when we did find a car Adrienne's stick shift driving skills were definitely put to the test on the hills and backroads. After making it to some of the beaches, stalling out a dozen times, laughing incredibly hard, and almost dying once we decided to return the car and take a ferry and spend our last day on the island of Tinos.

famous windmills in Mykonos

After spending two week in Europe eating delicious food with the best travel buddies I could ask for, it was time for me to come home. I arrived back in the States last night and will probably spend the next few weeks "greekin it" until my next adventure.

Just call us Harry and Lloyd

We arrived in Nice late Monday night and our main mission was to ride mopeds along the coast into as many different cities as we could. As always with traveling, you can't count on the weather but thankfully on Wednesday it was a warm and sunny day.... perfect for mopeding.

We drove west along the French Riviera from Nice into Antibes, Cannes, and St. Raphael and saw the most beautiful views. Anyone who has ever seen Dumb and Dumber can only imagine what mopeding up giant hills looks like. For those of you who cant, let me give you an idea...

somehow for 8 hours Adrienne and I fit on a moped that was clearly made for 1 person

Lauren's was a bit roomier

Red Rocks along the Coast



why not do some yoga?

Ironically, the next day Nice got more snow then they have in 20 years. We decided to make the most of our day and take a train into Italy and get an authentic Italian meal in a cute little port town called Ventigmilia. When you can't tour around a city, the best thing to do is eat your way through it.

Our last couple of days we enjoyed going into a small port town called Ville Franche, where we had a picnic lunch right on the water. We also made our way into Menton for a lemon festival and back to Antibes for a Chocolate festival. We arrived back in Geneva late last night and are flying into Athens tomorrow. Hopefully we can have a repeat of mopeding fun in the Greek Islands...

Skiing in the Alps

I arrived in Geneva early Saturday morning (1am US time) and Adrienne and Lauren were so sweet to get up early and greet me at the airport. We took a bus right over the border into France to their cute little town of St. Julien. After taking a little bit of a nap to try to beat the jet lag, we went back into Geneva to celebrate Lauren's 25th birthday with some delicious gumbo and some of their international friends.

The next day we decided to drive up to Les Contamines in the French Alps to go skiing for the day. I was a bit nervous because as everyone knows I have the worst luck and I didn't want to break anything that would ruin the rest of my trip. Thankfully, it had snowed the day before and the powder on the slopes was absolutely amazing. We ate our lunch right on the slopes and were able to enjoy the beautiful view from the top of the mountain. After I gained a little bit of confidence skiing for a couple of hours, I decided to upgrade to a little harder peak and I had the best fall of my life that unfortunately no one was able to enjoy but me. Thanks to a kind French man, I was able recover one of my skis that flew off and somehow ended up on the other side of the mountain. Fortunately, I finished out the day with no major injuries and was in good shape to continue on to the rest of our adventures. Next stop Nice....