Balloons and Confetti!

Holy crap - that last post was my 500th! That is something, right?

Brakes - ON

Have ceased the Summer O'Travelin', and am back in The Iraq for some more of The Teaching. Come visit at BurkaGretta!

To ease the burden of the looooooooong flight from Portland, Oregon USA to Erbil, Iraq, I did the following:

• Upgraded (again) to First/Business Class
• Stopped over in London for 32 hours
• Stopped in Vienna, just overnight

Jet lag was no match for my savvy planning.

Full-On Fernando

I finally sat down and went through all my Fernando posts (there are 23), and tagged them all, so you can scroll to the beginning and then read UP (you know, if you're bored at work, or bored at home, or bored at the pool with your laptop):

http://travelgretta.blogspot.com/search/label/FERNANDO

What Goes Around...

The morning after my birthday, I think Fernando felt slightly guilty about his behavior, and so he wanted to make himself useful.

He slipped on his new Croatian flip flops, and stepped outside to get the morning paper, for my parents.

Now, I'm sure we all expected this sooner or later...

There was no note, just the baby piglet in the basket. Fernando went running for the cigarettes.

My mom was left to attend to the piglet.

McGone, I am sending Fernando back to you this week, as he is now a new father and will have to put his traveling on hold - at least until he can find someone on whom to unload the baby. We haven't named the piglet - you may want to help Fernando do a little research and try to locate the mother...

My Birthday

So, in between Greece and now, we celebrated my birthday. HOORAY! I love my birthday. It was July 12, if any of you would like to mark your calendars for next year. I am registered at Christian Louboutin in Paris.

Like many travel companions, Fernando and I were starting to wear on each other's nerves by this point. We had been traveling together since June 17th, without a break, and Fernando, without a shower. Something about how he "doesn't trust the foreign water", and I refused to bathe him in Evian despite his incessant requesting.

It was a welcome respite to stop at my parents' home in Portland, Oregon to unpack, relax, do some laundry, and have birthday cake. And also to have other people to keep Fernando occupied.

I shouldn't have worried - he managed to occupy himself just fine.

Poor Herb was completely caught off guard, and kept looking at me as if to say "Was it because I was scantily clad? I wasn't wearing my collar..."

And then there was the situation with the cake.

Fernando hadn't realized there was a camera nearby, and was swearing up and down that he had no idea why the frosting was mussed.

He then proceeded to bump into silverware and several plates, as his vision was slightly blurred by something...

He miraculously rebounded when my mom brought out the port.

When I went to bed, he was still staggering around the living room, singing some blues song about "She done me wroooooong...". Egads, 'Nando, get it together.

The Rest of the Greece - Wrap up.

Apologies in advance for this rushed post - but we feel like Greece was SOOOOO long ago...and so much has happened since... (cliffhanger).

In a nutshell:

Fernando drank too much

He ate too much

He almost got shot out of a cannon on the Wine & Appetizer & Hot Springs Cruise (which, in another nutshell was more like a 3 Hour Tour...a 3 Hour Tour...only a half hour of which included the wine & appetizers. Buh!)

And then, rolled around in our dolma plate at the winery. The dolmas were made with the grape leaves of the winery - fabulous!

We leave you with one last look at a gorgeous Greek sunset.

And then will explain the reason for the rush, in the next post. Cliffhanger! After the photo of the cliff! I can't make this stuff up!

Even Greecier

Santorini is undoubtedly one of the most astonishingly beautiful places on Earth. We arrived by plane (stunning - get a window seat), and were then taxied up to the town of Fira, where our hotel, the Villa Renos, was located.

We checked in, then checked out the digs. Fernando was the first one out on the patio to take in the view:

This was taken standing in front of the French doors of our room (neener neener neener). We had a private patio sitting area, with table, chairs, and two lounge chairs; and a shared patio area with table, chairs and a plunge pool. Since Fernando did not have his own lounge chair, he spent most of the time in the pool.

Or, it may have had nothing to do with the absence of an extra lounge chair. He may have preferred the plunge pool because, when we arrived, there was a topless girl sunning herself in said plunge pool. Sarah and I both agreed that if you are sharing a plunge pool with two other rooms, you may want to keep your top on. I know you're in Greece and everything, but you, yourself, are Canadian.

We just ended up using the pool when Topless and her weird boyfriend weren't there. Don't even get me started on having to sit next to them at breakfast - with him making loud smooching noises all over her, while we're trying to eat. At least she had her top on for breakfast.

Next up, after enjoying the patio? Shopping! Sarah was on a quest for jewelry. Not crazy-fancy-precious-gems-jewelry, just fun, semi-precious rings the size of dinner plates.

I got one Fernando can use as a fancy headdress:

Fernando was a little bored during the jewelry store extravaganza, and I caught him trying to join this group:

He claimed they were in some sort of very important parade, and that he was the guest of honor, or something. I think he may have snuck into the mini-bar of our room before we went out shopping.

Later, we went out for our first official dinner in Santorini at a lovely place called Archipelagos. The sunset viewing is outstanding, and the wine wasn't bad either.

At the recommendation of one of our hotel's proprietors, we had booked an "All Inclusive Wine & Appetizers & Hot Springs Cruise". Fernando pretended to walk the plank, in anticipation.

This may have been his best idea yet.