tony's bday weekend!

we just got back from a really awesome weekend -a vacation from our vacation i guess you could say. for tony's birthday weekend, we stayed at the vedema, which is one of the nicest places on the island, and probably the nicest place either of us have stayed at! we checked in on friday and were really excitd to stay in a place where we could walk aroudn and shower without flip flops on all of the time :)- AND flush toilet paper! (here in most places you have to dispose of it in a bin in the bathroom). although we've been having a lot of fun here, we really wanted to relax a bit, veg out by the pool, and soak in the temporary luxury :).

we were really impressed! when we checked in we were greeted with 2 glasses of champaigne and notice that we had been upgraded. we were taken on a brief tour of the hotel (more of a resort i guess), where all of the main walls are built out of volcanic rock. we got to our room and were blown away. for tony's bday they left us a complimentary bottle of wine and fruit basket. we walked around and had a living room with tv/dvd player/stereo (which was wired throughout the bathrooma nd bedroom too). the bathroom was also really nice... all covered in marble, with a jacuzzi tub, 2 sinks and a shower stall as well (with walls!!) we had a hallway with closets and then a bedroom. there was a private balcony connected to the bedroom and living room which had 2 sunbeds, a table and chairs, and a private jacuzzi!! not too shabby!!! everything was decorated in the traditional white and blue with some furnitures with accents.

we hung out by the pool on friday for a bit, and then went to fira for tony's bday dinner. we were really craving pizza so we found a restaurant with pizza and a great sunset view. it was probably one of the prettiest sunsets yet, though i think tony is gettting tired of watchign the sun set :). after that we went back to the hotel, watched a movie and relaxed. saturday we spend a good deal of time out at the pool - allowing me to catch up just a LITTLE to tony's 'i work in the sun all day every day' tan. i read a good deal of a book (the 3rd of my trip) - i already finished the te of piglet, memoirs of a geisha, and am now reading 'hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world'. i remembered how much i missed reading, but forgot just how much i missed it, and am so excited to have some time to read for fun (as opposed to decks, research, and school books!). after the pool, we got ready for a wine tasting we signed up for at the hotel. they have a 400 year old wine cellar there (the hotel was actually built around a winery) - turns out we were the only people to sign up, so we got a private wine tasting!! just wait till you see the pics! really cool, old candle- lit wine cellar. realllly nice evening. there was a really cool sommalier who told us all about the history of santorini wines, and we tried about 8 different local wines (mostly whites). after the 2 hour tasting, the sommalier had to leave to work in the restaurant, and he left every single bottle out and said 'have fun!'. we drank some more but had to leave for dinner. we had reservations at blues, which is where i work, and did their indian dinner. they bring a chef in from the uk who does really really really good indian food. unfortunately we were a bit full already from all the wine so didnn't eat as much as we would have liked, but ah well. after that we were pretty sleepy from the wine and went to bed pretty much right after dinner.
sunday we were really sad to have to leave. we had an AMAZING breakfast buffet, full with smoked salmon, figs, all kinds of fresh juices, greek traditional pies, prosscuto, cheeses, tarts, fruits, yogurts, etc. we then spent some time at the pool, on our private jacuzzi on the balcony (just to say we did), and walked around for a bit to explore and take pictures. we checked out at 4, and actually went off to meet the sommalier from the hotel at a bar on the beach, after we made good friends with him at the wine tasting.
the bar was INSANE. it's this place called jojo's, and it is crazier than all but MAYBE one bar here is at night. this place gets busy around noon, and actually closes at 11 pm - you go by around 3 or 4 pm and the place is slammed. there was a dj from the usa there, and people were just drinking, jumping in the pool, dancing in the bar, etc - fun way to end the weekend.

now we're back at the place we are staying (and they actually moved us to a worse room) and missing the vedema very much! i told the place i'm working at today that saturday will be my last day, and tony and i plan on putting the finishing touches on the tourist things we have to do on sunday. can't believe we're leaving so soon. we're sad to go but also very much missing home in many ways.. and excited for the adventures that await us in berkeley!!!

pictures!

above left: me and tony watching the sunset from akrotiri; above right - tony at work. this is the beach he works on: note the black sand literally melted his flip flop! it gets to be over 100 F in the days and as you can imagine the sand gets super hot! bottom left: our friends from belgium : roxanne and jens. this is them and tony cooking this awesome dinner in their kitchen. jens' family has a house there and we hung out there a few times. we made lamb chops, chicken, burgers, tzaziki, feta, beans, salad.. yum..... bottom right - sunset from oia.

...try "writes" again :)

hey guys,

sorry i haven't posted in a while.. we've been settling in to the swing of things and also doing some more stuff after work. my fave thing we've done so far, and i think tony will agree, is see the sunset in oia. oia (pronounced EE ah) is on the other tip of the island, from which you can see the volcano, other small islands, fira (major city) and also, a great view of the sunset. it is also a very cute town, with a bunch of homes built into the mountains. i mean, literally built into the rock. i'm going to try downloading some pics from my camera to post as well. we took our second trip out there last night, and it was awesome. we went to a very cute cafe afterwards, with a great view and great food (which is very rare here). i got a yogurt with honey and fruit and it was HUGE (and soooo yummy). tony and i eat about three yogurts per day each here - greek yogurt is the best! tony got this really good chicken wrap. most of the food here sucks - its pretty much all the same thing - tourist "greek" food, which apparently half the time isn't authentic greek food (i.e. mousaka). luckily the restaurant i work in is reallly good- i've heard several people say its the best food they've ever had (i actually had the best french fries i ever had) - so it's nice to get my free meal there every day :). anyway, we're also really looking forward to our weekend that's coming up for tony's bday. our resort is supposed to be very nice and we're looking forward to some time off of work and staying in a pimped out hotel!! :)

will post pics in a minute...

mel

TheZamm rides again..or should i say rights again

As Melissa wrote a lil bit ago, we are settled in. We are having a blast. I never knew I could drink so much. We became really good friends with this Belguim couple. Yanis and Roxanne. Jesus, the belguims are huge people. And guess what they love bacardi. As you all know that I do too. And you all also know that I have a big ego and I think I can take on the world. I decided to keep up with Yanis with bacardi's. ya that was the stupidest thing I did that week. The bars know him and have actually got buckets of bacardi and coke waiting for him. I fricking serious. It's crazy. I passed out the first night and got really wasted the second...he was barely buzzed. I have never been called a light weight before.

Anyway, I am a beach boy. I literally live the dream working in paradise. I serve cocktails to beautiful naked people all day and get paid for it. I work on the beach in Greece...and get paid for it! There are no laws or rules..this place was ment for me. Also, its been nice to settle in so now we can go back to working out and have some sort of normal life again. After looking at the pictures Mel had posted I was inspired to seriously work out again....lost a few pounds....hell yeah!

We have tons of pictures to show you all....over 500! So get ahold of us when we return. Friday is my Bday. We have a rocking hotel set up...I would tell you the cost but I dont want to make anyone jealous!JK. hah. But really we have this awesome place set up...the second nicest on the island for 2 days.

I am not as good at this stuff as Mel so I will have to team up with her to get a better entry to you all. anyway miss you all a ton and cant wait to toast a welcome home bacardi.