Hanging in Paris

I have survived and I am now in Paris... typing on a French keyboard... you thought the work ones are a pain... dont ask me for une apostrophe! No idea where they are and they are used SO much in French!!

Anyways... Paris is awesome as always! This morning I visited Notre Dame and then walked along the Seine. I did some shopping and actually found skinny jeans for a 2 year old! and a cute hat for me. I toured the Opera Garnier... well, if I cant see an opera while Im here at least I can visit the opera house.

I leave tomorrow for the long trek home... I wish I could stay.

For the Second Time on this Trip... We Packed and Left a Hotel in 30 minutes

We started the day checking with SAS (Anna's airline) and everything was fine and on schedule tomorrow.

We then left for the Acropolis museum which was very neat! Build on top of a Christian settlement, they have incorporated see-through floors so you can see the settlement while visiting the museum.

The museum was short and sweet, and it was very neat to see all the art taken from the Parthenon. Although the ongoing dispute about the art Lord Elgin took (and now is in the British museum) is very evident.

We then headed back to the Hadrian's Library.... Oh, great story I forgot to tell yesterday. So coming back to Athens, at the airport, after we had collected our bags, we headed for the metro. On the way, Anna notices someone looking at us and she sort of smiled. The women approached us and asked us if we were staying in Athens. We said yes... Thinking, arg... Is this a hotel or taxi trying to drum up business but, no, get this, they had purchased the €12 tickets to all the Greek monuments and she wanted to know of we wanted her tickets which included (no kidding!) tickets to the Acropolis, and basically EVERYTHING we wanted to see. So we toured around and saw the sights for nothing! crazy, no?!

I purchased a print just outside Hadrian's library and we were close to the hotel so I thought we would head back so I could pack my print and check to see if they moved my flight any further ahead (they moved it 2 hours earlier yesterday morning.) Anna was checking her flight and it was all green lights and then on a whim she refreshed and it came up cancelled!

Anna the called the airline... After a bit of discussion she was able to get on an afternoon flight today to Crete and then to Copenhagen... Getting in and some crazy hour in the morning after train from Copenhagen to Århus.

Seeing as we were both leaving this this afternoon, we figured it would be worth a try to speak with the hotel about checking out early and not paying for the last night. The hotel agreed so long as we were out for noon. Checking our watches we had 30 minutes to pack all our stuff and leave again! Seriously! How on earth does this happen twice during one vacation!

After packing and checking out the hotel, the hotel agreed to hold our luggage in the basement... Heading to the basement, Anna gets a call from the airline... Could she make a 13:55 flight that gets her right to Århus?! If we ditch the metro and hop in a cab we just might make it. We literally flag down a cab NYC style and head out to the airport... Anna checked in with 15 minutes to spare and was right off to security.

I've checked in and am now waiting for in the airport for my flight. Seriously... I'm ready!

I've died and Gone to Shoe Heaven!

I can't believe we started the day in Santorini! George (the owner's son) drove us to the airport and the flight was only an hour! It's amazing that it probably took us longer to take the subway from the airport to Athens than to take the plane from Santorini to Athens!

Because I'm heading back to Paris tomorrow (and sadly, my 6:30 flight was moved to 4:20!) we headed right to the Acropolis. It was so amazing to see it up close even if it was being renovated (although I think it's always under renovations.)

We then wandered around heading to the National Art Museum... We never made it there but I saw some of the most amazing shoes I've ever see in my life. If fell in LOVE with this pair that look like werewolf shoes! I can't believe I left them in the store! I might just go back tomorrow!

We then found ourselves at the main government building (oops, luckily no protests!) and the most interesting metro station where they display all the archeological items they found while building the metro system.

We then headed back down the road of chocolate stores... Making a few purchases along the way :)

We had a light dinner at one of the many tourist places (I can't believe it only cost €10!)

Early night tonight because I want to see the Acropolis museum before I leave for the airport.

Fingers crossed I get out of Athens tomorrow... And keep 'em crossed for Anna!

Wine Day!

In a crazy turn of events there was a cancellation for the wine tour I really wanted to go on, so I snapped up the opportunity to go!

We visited three wineries and the tour guide is a sommelier, I couldn't ask for more, you could tell that he was very passionate about wine! There are 8 wineries on the island of Santorini and it seems that every square inch of Santorini is covered with wine plants from family vines to "make your own" wine to the large estate wineries. With the tour we visited three wineries.

The first winery I visited was the Gavalas Winery. We were able to see the machines and barrels at this winery. It is also the only winery that makes Vinsanto the old-fashion way... Yup they stomp the grapes with their feet! Vinsanto is a very sweet wine... The leave the grapes out for 12 to 14 days (6 to 7 days if they are making Vinsanto Mezzo) so they start to look like raisins and then they press them.

On the way to the next winery we stopped to see the vines up close. The basket Wine growing strategy was very interesting... Plus I got my photo taken with a wine :)

We the went to Estate Argyros which was my favourite winery (and I suspect our guides favourite too) and we tried several wines. I really enjoyed the Ktima Argyros Assyrtiko so I bought a bottle. Sadly, I didn't like the award winning wine (apparently one of the top 24 wines in the world in it's category.)

We then went to Domaine Sigalas, we tried only three wines, another Assyrtiko (which I liked and bought a bottle.) I was very surprised on how good the red wine was but I soon learned that they imported the grapes from mainland Greece. While the wine were very good, I felt a bit like I was cheating on the Santorini grapes.

Anna wasn't up for the wine tour so she spent the day at the black beach. Another beautiful day in Santorini!

We met up late afternoon and we had an awesome dinner at the place we went last night. We had some old favourites like the white eggplant with tomatoes and cheese, fava dip and Greek salad but we also tried spicy feta dip and meatballs.

Early night tonight and tomorrow we leave for Athens (hopefully we can leave no problem!) where we will try to see the Acropolis early because I'm all set to leave the following day!

Couple of Beach Bums

Yesterday was another beach day!

We decided to head out to the red and white beached on the south part of the island. We took the city bus which took about an half hour and when we arrived we were surprised to find no beaches, just restaurants. We had lunch the day before on the beach so we were looking for the same thing again. But we saw the guy giving boat rides to the red and white beach. We asked if there was food on the beach and he said "yes, of course" so we climbed aboard and paid €5 each. We took the ferry to the red beach and saw the walking path to the beach. Seeing the path, we figured we should go to the white beach (the beach you have to take a boat to). We got some amazing shots of the rock formations and how they turn from brown to red to white. It was very beautiful.

Because of the waves, the access to the white beach required that we swim to shore. Both Anna and I were hungry and oh... I forgot to mention that "of course" there were no places to eat on the beaches! So deciding we got some great picks of the white beach to just take the ferry back to the port where we started to have lunch. Not bad for a €5 tour. We got some fantastic pics.

We then had the €25 lunch which was Greek salad, tzatziki, and fresh fish grilled on the outdoor charcoal grill. It was very tasty! We then trekked over the rock formations to the red beach. The water was much calmer than the black beach and was truly great swimming. I had another one of those moments where I realize all over again that I am so lucky and my life is truly awesome!

Coming back from the beach we showered and set off to find a restaurant. We went back to the first place we visited and the lineup was out the door and down the stairs. So we wandered around trying to find someplace else... Not wanting to eat in a place not busy. We found this great place near the caldera and we had Mezes (small plates) of awesome Greek food. I think I fell in love again with Greek food! We had eggplant and tomatoes and cheese, barley rusks salad, fava beans puree (think hummus but with fava beans), and I had Greek sausage. It was all super amazing! Oh, I forgot we also had my favourite Greek dessert, Greek yogurt with honey and nuts. We topped it all off with ouzo! OPA!

We then headed out to the clubs for a night of dancing as last night was the closing night for most of the clubs.

Stupid Strike! Let's party like it's 1999!

Yesterday was a great day!

We started out early and headed to the black beach... All lava rock beach. It is very windy there so the waves were crashing! Anna and I both went in for a bit but it was not relaxing swimming weather. We reserved the beach chairs, ate spinach and cheese pies and watermelon, and basked in the awesome Greece sun!

We started back around 2pm and stopped at the wine museum which was kinda creepy at times with the mannequins that move demonstrating the ways wine was made when the winery was first opened but the wine tasting at the end was very fun. Both Anna and I like the dessert wines (which is unusual for me because I don't normally like dessert wine.)

We made it back to the hotel in time for us to book the bus to Ia to see the sunset... Imagine hundreds of tourists converging on the the small town to see the sunset. The sunset was beautiful and the town of Ia was even more gorgeous! Pics to come...

After we made it back to Fira, we then headed out to dinner with a view. I was a bit down as we had just heard they moved the general strike to the day we are leaving Athens (October 5th) and we could be both stuck. I was also done with Greek food (sad, but it was my way of general striking!). So I had spaghetti, yes, I've said it, I has spaghetti... And it was good! Anna had dolmades and Greek salad. Both, she reports, were very good!

On the way back to the hotel, we found the club that our hotel recommended... With 2 for 1 drinks and awesome music we stopped in... And we stayed! It was awesome! I haven't had crazy clubbin' fun in years! Whoo-hoo!

This morning, Anna and I have been working on alternative flights... I have been able to book a flight to Paris on October 4th. I'm working on extending my hotel booking in Paris but so far it looks good that I will be getting out early (sad, to leave Greece but I'm happy to be getting out early.) I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I do not want to miss my connecting Paris-Montreal flight!

Anna's airline advised her to wait... And Anna has her work with her so she doesn't mine being stuck on Athens a bit longer.

Santastic!

While we slept most of the day away (we got bed around 3am, the ferry was 2 hours late arriving!) once we got up and at 'em, we headed down (well, up) to downtown Fira for shopping and sparkling wine.

Anna and I made a pact that if we made it to Santorini on this crazy last minute route that we would celebrate in Santorini with sparkling wine! We found this bar with a spectacular view and amazingly specialized in sparkling wine.

The views from the caldera are breath-taking... The best view I have ever seen! Apparently they are even better in Ia... Not sure how that could be possible! See the photos below.

I also came across some awesome shoes made in Greece, first store, first shoes! I can't wear them in Santorini (all the maps have pictures of high heel shoes with red "X") but they are totally awesome, check the photo.

We had dinner at a Greek taverna, we shared a Greek salad, and I had moussaka and Anna had stuffed tomatoes and green peppers. The moussaka was SO good, the cheese, potatoes, and lamb. It was awesome.

Tomorrow we are heading the black sand beach, the wine museum, and hopefully the sunset in Ia.

Beach in Milos



View of the Caldera in Santorini



Our sparkling wine in Santorini


The stairs are numbered... they top our around 600... we didn't brave below 500...


My new killer shoes

Funny Thing Happened on the Way Back from the Beach

Today was the beach day! We missed the bus by 8 minutes so we had to cab it but the beach was beautiful! The sand was tiny pebbles which was so much nicer than sand because it didn't get everywhere. We swam and relaxed at the beach bar drinking UK-imported coolers.

It was awesome and relaxing until Anna got a voice message saying our ferry for tomorrow was cancelled! We debated about going back early but there were really no cabs to take and we already spent €15 on the cab out. We decided to stay until the bus came at 3:30.

We got into town and we realized that the tourist place were we bought our tickets was still open. We asked her about our options because of the cancellation. She said we could go to Sifinos and the take another ferry to Santorini. After asking if we could do that tomorrow (and she said no) it dawned on us that this was the only way we were getting off Milos before Friday.

GAME ON! We had 40 minutes to run up the hill to the hotel, pack all our stuff, check out, change our tickets (because we didn't bring them to the beach) and get to the port!!!

So we RAN up the hill to our hotel, I paid for the hotel and Anna went up to the room and threw everything (well, almost everything) into our bags! We were packed and ready to go 15 minutes. Our awesome hotel (thanks George!) agreed to drive us to the port however just as we got to the travel place to exchange the tickets, we realized we forgot a bunch of stuff on the balcony. Anna jumped (forward roll ninja roll style) out of the car to exchange the tickets and I went back for the stuff.

I have no idea how we did it but we did it with time to spare! I can't believe we did all of it in 20 minutes! Although we were still in our damp bathing suits and cover-up we looked like the craziest people waiting for the ferry.

So, I'm writing this blog post from Sifnos eating Greek salad and Farmer's pizza (eggplant, tomatoes, onions, and artichokes.) A well deserved break before we depart for Santorini! Sifnos is gorgeous... mountains that go right to the sea, bars on the beaches... A quiet town.

Biggest score of the day, our hotel in Santorini is going to come get us at the port and are going to let stay a day early.

Next stop Santorini... Who knew!!!

Maxin' and Relaxin'

So after yesterday we were spent so we decided to have a uber relaxing day. I made omelettes for breakfast and grill cheeses for lunch. I read and Anna worked it was a great day! Around mid-afternoon we headed for mini ice creams, so delicious! Although the prices are a bit random... We have paid everything from €0.80 to €1.40 it seems to be whatever they feel like charging us, but it is always super tasty!

Around 7pm we went for a drink on the top of the hill and got wind whipped but we did get to try Raki a strong liquor from Crete. They serve it warm and mixed with honey. Very tasty.

We then trekked out to out usual dinner spot and so happened we were there when the New Zealanders came for dinner so we decided to dine with them. We had this crazy good dish with tomatoes, feta, and peppers baked in a clay pot. Although we are sad to report the souvlaki was not super good :( But we will be back tomorrow for favourites night :)

There have been some request for photos so here are a few of our favourite shots:


Garden Sculpture at the Musée Rodin


Eiffel Tower for the light show


Acropolis in Athens


The rabbit rock


Magma, ash, and sulphur (according to Captain Paul, the colours of ice cream)


The money shot



Tomorrow beach day!!!

Thank Goodness for Gravol!

Today was day cruise day! We woke up early and were at the harbour for 8:30 to see if any of the boats would be going out. All the boat captains we talked with yesterday said it was too windy but this morning there was a boat going out and so we set sail (literally it was a catamaran with sails) for a trip around part of the island.

It was a beautiful but very windy day! The sea was rolling and I was ever so thankful I bought AND remembered to bring gravol with me on the boat. I was okay for the first hour and then it hit me and it was gravol time! As soon as we stopped I was out of the boat and in the sea. The sea was beautiful, clear blue, with turquoise in the shallow areas. The water was cool (think cottage in august) and we could swim to the beach.

After a two swim spots we headed to this spot with beautiful rock formations and we snorkelled around and chased fishies. They are actually pretty friendly! Although I was unsuccessful in catching one... They are pretty fast.

We also had lunch out there which was local speciality bread spread with garlic butter or tomato sauce, Greek salad (which tastes amazing!) and a pasta with octopus. Very fabulous!

We headed back and we sat at the front of the boat as we headed back to the harbour... We got completely soaked because the wind got crazy strong and the waves were huge like the waves where you see all sky and then all water.

We got home cold, exhausted, and a tad sun-kissed. We showered and headed out the restaurant we visited yesterday. So today we had tzatziki, beet salad with yogurt, chicken and eggplant cooked in a clay pot, and cheese pies. It was just as delicious as yesterday! I can't wait for dinner tomorrow! Yummy!

Anna's Corner
A great day and we're both exhausted! I want to give a HUGE shout-out to Laura who agreed to check out the catamaran today in waves big enough to even satisfy me. I got to fulfill my dream of a hammock-boat (google image catamaran if you don't know what I'm talking about) despite Laura's lukewarm feelings about rocky seas. Thanks Laura!! Best. Travel. Partner. Ever!

Milos is for Lovers

Yes... That's right... that's Milos' tagline. Something we didn't know until we got here and they had only made up one bed. That and the signs that said "Milos is for Lovers." But no worries the guy made up the other one lickity split.

After we dropped off our stuff we headed out and spotted an ice cream bakery store with freezers full of pre-made mini ice creams (cones and sticks!) Anna and I both tried the square chocolate covered one... To our surprise it was not only ice cream there was a cookie inside. What a glorious surprise! We then walked along the port scoping out potential boat for a day cruise around the island. We are hoping we can do it tomorrow but it depends on the winds. Keep your fingers crossed for nice weather tomorrow! We also scoped out the kayaking situation... However it's Sunday and a lot of the places are closed.

We walked down to the local beach but sadly we did not think to wear out suits... So feet in only. Little cool but oh so refreshing. We had lunch (not so exciting... Just expensive... Not worth describing... Sad.)

We headed back to the room... Siesta time and the we put on our suits and raced the sun to the beach. The sun won but we went in anyways. There were cool fishies that were all white with a fake eye on their tails. There were about seven and they were super curious. Sadly, Anna, despite her extensive training, was unsuccessful in catching one.

We headed back to the room to shower and changed and headed out on the quest to find the mythical best restaurant on Milos. Trekking 25 minutes out of town we found it and it was SO worth the trip. Oh! Hamos (the restaurant name) is all about home-made. They make their own wine (yummy), cheese (OMG!), and only use animals that they have raised on their local family farm! We order the house wine, a salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, grouts, and an amazing vinaigrette. We had fried zucchini (don't think the sticks) with feta cheese, and wild goat with potatoes and roasted feta tomato. Followed by a chocolate orange cake that we did not need! Before we left they gave us this interesting water with a spoon of white paste that was sweet and piney. Very tasty and gave us the kick to walk home.

Sleep... Early morning tomorrow so we can snag a boat to see the island of Milos!

Cheese Heaven

After braving the airport (the air traffic controllers are working to rule which means a lot of things are delayed) Anna and met up at the airport around 3pm and took the subway into the city.

No riots to be seen (knock on wood) in fact it was quite relaxed. Our hotel is block away from the metro station and we spent the rest of the afternoon roaming the city and taking photos of the Acropolis from many different angles. We found a great jewelry store with lava rock... We both got a great new necklace. We walked by Plateía Lysikrátous which is the only intact choregic monument from 334 BC. We both wish Anna's Dad was here to give us more details!

We then had souvlaki dinner... I had souvlaki shots which was 5 mini souvlaki sandwiches. We had yummy tzakiki and barbecued cheese, and Anna had a very interesting bread salad but the feta (yes, more cheese) was feta-bulous (groan... Anna's joke, not mine.)

I think the most interesting part was the tzakiki did not come with pita so we ate it with forks... Yes, it was that good... No pita required!

We are off to bed early... I can't believe it's only 8:30! and we get to sleep in, score for booking the later flight. So long as the air traffic controllers let us go!

Cough, Cough, ah...Non!

I'm rocking the cough... Let me tell you no one wants to sit next the coughing lady on the subway. Besides the cough I'm feeling well (fingers crossed it stays that way) so maybe it's a airplane cough. We shall see...

First stop today was Poloâne a bakery not to far from my hotel where I had probably the best croissant of my life! Flaky, buttery, and oh so delicious!

I then made my way to Musée d'Orsay. Last time I was in Paris we were rushed out because of an alarm... Thinking I would be back, I left and today (4 years later, I'm back!) It was great to see more of the collection but sadly the museum is being renovated so I didn't get to see it all. so I'll be back... It was great to see my fav piece from the last time I was here Femme au boa noir by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He's my new favourite... I love his work, its do dynamic.

After the Musée d'Orsay, I was off to the Musée Rodin and it was every bit as good as I remembered. I got some great photos and in had lunch in the gardens. A super fresh sandwich - mini baguette, tomatoes, cured ham, fresh mozzarella, and roquette (I think trip to Paris has a Roquette theme!)

En suite, I went out shopping... Highlights were some really neat grocery stores, cooking stores, H&M, C&M, and a crazy large wine store (where I spotted a €5,000 bottle of wine... It was awesome to just see them.)

I'm now off for a quick dinner of mussels and hopefully making to the Eiffel tower in time to see it light up.

Stay tuned... Next stop Greece!!

J'ai 33 ans à Paris

Another fantastically awesome birthday!

I arrived in Paris this morning at 9:50 am (10 minutes late) which had me running the gauntlet to make my cooking course at 1pm. I was doing so well... Got through customs (seriously easiest country to get into... They didn't ask me anything, slide passport, stamp, next!) found the train, switched to subway, dropped off my luggage and I was off to find Le Ritz with plenty of time.

Yeah... After getting off the subway, I had 20 minutes to find the école, sadly, I got TOTALLY lost... Even the shop owners I asked had no idea where I was going! I've long since realized that I often don't go far enough when searching for something so although I thought it was the wrong way I went several blocks but when I found myself surrounded by sex shops... I figured Le Ritz could not be near. Wrong! It was the next block... Grr. But instead of turning right I turned left on another street that started with a "C" that started with building 1 and I was looking for 38. After several blocks I finally realized I made a wrong turn. I retraced my steps and I finally made it but (10 minutes late so I'm going with "if the plane was not late I would have been on time.")

The cooking class was amazing!!! I learned how to cook saumon avec sauce verge et roquette et épinards. Besides being delicious they showed us how to plate it Le Ritz style so it was beautiful too (as soon as I figure out how to get photos off my phone I will post them.) Out of a class of 12, I would say only 3 (including me, first language was english.) it was so fun to learn to cook from a French chef, he was nice, helpful, and spoke most of the time in French (whoo-hoo!) I learned several cool things:

• The inside of sweet peppers (i.e. green, red) is bitter you can remove it with a sharp knife.


• Pre-cooking the salmon makes it very easy to prepare. Creates a crust and only takes 8 more minute in the oven at 200C when you are ready to eat


• I don't put enough salt when I prepare food. I was making the vinaigrette and after adding the salt, the chef prompted me to add more and then he added even more after tasting it


• I'm in serious need of some chef quality cooking utensils. I'm completely in love with the whisk I used, the vinaigrette turn out amazing! That and I want the rings we used for the semolina.

After dinning on our amazing dinner and having little chocolates and café, I set out... In the direction of the Musée Rodin, roaming the Jardin des Tuileries and just enjoying being in Paris, I then realized I was exhausted! I headed back to the hotel, checked into the hotel and slept for 4 hours!

Waking up hungry and with it still being light I headed out to wander along Blvd St-Germain stepping into a few shops and lookin' for a place to eat. I didn't really find anything to my liking... They all had the tourist wranglers out front. I headed back to my hotel because I thought I saw a restaurant just across the street. It looked super cute so I figured I would go for it.

For my birthday dinner, I had la table d'hôte of salade de roquette, herbes et fromage de chèvre, boeuf bourguignon, et un salade de fruits. All in all a delicious meal.

Thats it for now... Time to plan tomorrow.

C'mon Ride the Train... Woo Woo

I'm on the train making my way to Dorval... Although my luggage almost went to Montreal! Who knew there was a difference... Luckily, the baggage guy did and fixed it :)

So far I'm lovin' the train... A bit queasy (shout out to Mo for the ginger candy!) but incredibly productive and quiet. It has also made me realize I'm completely in love with my iPad (and the plugs next to the seats so I can recharge) movies and music. Can't wait.

This is going to be a long journey but I can't wait to see Paris so far (knock on wood) it is partially cloudy and 20's. Let's hope it says that way.

Stay tuned more to come... Next post in Paris... Unless I get bored.

Holy Crap I Leave Tomorrow...

So I have been SO delinquant in posting the latest on my upcoming trip to Greece (with un petit sejour à Paris)!

This is the plan:


Stay tuned for more details... Paris, j'arrive!