End of a Sci-fi Era

Tonight the final episode.. ever... of SG-1 airs on Sci-fi.

I'M. SO. SAD.

For 10 years Casey and I have been following the most awesome adventures of the SG-1 team as they battled the Gua'uld, and most recently the Ori. Granted, their fight against the Ori isn't as exciting, but they managed to keep me interested with Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell (hummina-hummina).

I have to admit, I fell in love with the SG-1 story before it was a series. Yes, I remember seeing Stargate in the theatre back in 1994. Traveling between galaxies, ancient Gods (Ra), and James Spader as Daniel Jackson. I was hooked. And once the SG-1 series got off of the ground, I was still captivated by the storylines, but also fell in love with Teal'c (Christopher Judge). That character rocks! And speaking of rocks -- Christopher Judge is a rock. That man's muscle mass is.. massive. Holy Frick!

Although the series is ending, the story isn't. Right now, the cast and crew is filming 2 follow-up movies that will wrap up all loose ends. That's right. Tonight episode isn't Il Fine because we'll still be left hanging, waiting for the first movie to be released. YAY!!!

Currently I'm watching the fans' favourite episode of all time. SciFi.com had a poll to find out which episode is most loved by its fans. As I predicted Window of Opportunity won. It's when Teal'c and O'Neill are caught in a time-loop. Hilarious.

SG-1, thanks for making my Friday nights and giving me those breaks when I was in school. You're going to be missed by many of us and not forgotten. See you in the movies!!

_{This post brought to you by Geek-Grl.}

Back in Athens

We're nearing the end of our vacation. It's been... an adventure. Mostly due to the long list of issues that seem to be b*tch-slapping Casey in the face. I believe it all has to do with a karmic imbalance. Yet, rather than waiting for us to return to the states, Karma decided that the imperfection in the universe would best be rectified during our long-awaited holiday. I can't argue with Karma and I'm not going too. It just made the days in Santorini and Rhodes extremely tense.

Rhodes itself was nothing more than an urbanized island. If we knew more about the islands before this trip, I would have loved to have stayed in Santorini longer and not have travelled to Rhodes. What I did love about Rhodes was that everything was much cheaper -- especially after paying exhorbanant prices in Mykonis and Santorini. My 3€ cocktail was much appreciated.

As for right now... we quickly discovered that our hotels' air conditioning unit is busted and "...it should be fixed in a few hours." Rather than sweating it out in our room, we took to the streets to find some A/C. Our first stop, a cute little cafe that sold cappucino freddo decaffeine. Mmmmmmm... sold!! A cappuccino and several sudoku games later, we bee-lined it to the internet cafe. Not only was our quest for AC ver-ver important, but it's keeping Casey out of the sun. I, on the otherhand, am beginning to go nuts b/c I need to move.. MOVE... M.O.V.E!!

Something else I'm looking forward to doing is exercising when I get home. I might just create my own town marathon with all of the energy I have stored up inside of me.

Overall, I absolutely love Greece and would come back. It's hot outside, sunny, beaches as far as the eye can see, I'm TAN (ahhhhh!!! the sicilian/italian in me is so so happy) and I'm surrounded by a wide variety of europeans. In the Rhodes airport I was all proud of myself for understanding a bulk of conversation had by a group of Italians who where waiting for their plane back home.

Oh yes, and swimming. I'm still a bit of a freak out on the beach, but I'm getting the hang of swimming outside of a pool. Casey was laughing at me when I was enjoying the waves (very minor waves) on one of the Santorini beaches. It also helps when the water you're swimming in is mostly salt and the possibility of sinking is next to none.

Alright, enough blogging. I'm going to see if I can drag vampire man out into the sun for some walking.

Topless

When in Rhodes... :^)

2 for 2

Today is our last full day in Santorini. The guide book we have suggests various driving tours. There were 2 we could accomplish today that would not only get us back to the beach, but show us the history behind this volcanic island.

If only we knew how to plan properly.

The first tour we took led us to the southern and western most part of the island. Akrotiri is home to an excavation site, that is somewhat like Pompeii. As luck would have it, one of the roofs to a dwelling collapsed and the tour ended before it began. So off to the Red Beach it was.

After playing in the ocean and getting my tan rockin', we decided to take the 2nd road trip, which would take us to another archeological site: Acient Thira. Before viewing the site, we decided to stroll the boardwalk that stretches from Kamari to Mount Vuono (site of Acient Thira). Once we refueled -- at the most amazing restaurant where prices were reasonable and the seafood was caught once our orders were in .. SO YUMMY! (*side note: I ordered Spaghetti frutti di mare, where bits of octopus were found among mussels, squid, shrimp and clams. OH. MAH. GAHD. The taste -- ver-ver nice. The texture -- ver-ver weird. It was like having bubble wrap pop in your mouth because of its suckers) Cripes.. that was the longest run-on sentence yet. Where was I? Oh yes.. once we refueled we were ready to take on Acient Thira.

The drive had us going up the cliff in a series of 15 switchbacks. Before our trip began, it ended (de ja' vou?). It seems that the site is open from 8 - 14:30. DANG-IT!! We missed again.

The reason we chose to visit Santorini was due to its history. The only history we truly saw were the layers of sediments mixed in with volcanic ash on the cliff sides, the black sand beaches and various hot springs in the ocean. It seems we need an extra day at every location to give us the leeway for our flakiness.

Fingers crossed we get our butts in gear and see the sites (other than beach) in Rhodes.

More Greek Highlights

Yesterday i started running again. After leaving Athens I haven't done much in terms of working out so why not fall back on my default.

That first run was along the coastline of Mykonos, beginnig at the Adonis Hotel (our home base). I'm forever going to be in awe over how crystal clear the water is. Whether I'm viewing it from the coastline or within the water itself, I can see EVERYTHING!!! It's absolutely amazing.

My runs, and our own drives around the islands, has taught me that Greek drivers are IN. SANE.

For serious. If you thought New York, LA, or DC was bad, you've just lost. Stop signs are for decoration only. Walking along the street brings on a series of *honk-honk* or in most cases, a car aiming directly for you. You either jump into the bushes (or over a cliff in the case of Santorini) or get hit. Not a lot of options.

Today we decided to spend the day at Perissa beach. Casey needed a low-key day to deal with a cold. He's doing wonders on this trip. Anyhow, we snorkeled and I discovered that the sea life is very minimal. Compared to the Galapagos and Grand Caymans, the fish are very bland in color and the life itself is hard to come by. I believe it has something to do with how salty the water is. If the water can keep me a-float then you know that there is a lot of salt in the water. (Anyone anyone who has gone swimming with me knows I sink within a blink of an eye if i'm not constantly moving.)

We did come across hot pockets in the sea. Santorini is just one island in a series of islands that make up the caldera of a volcano. The last BIG explosion took place in 1650 B.C, which is how the caldera formed. Since we are on part of a volcano, I believe the hot pockets are a product of the volcano activity itself. Pretty neat, so long as nothing too dramatic happens.

There was something else about the sea that was a neat distortion of reality. Before leaving Mykonos, we went to Paradise Beach. As I sunbathed (building up enough of a sweat to brave the cold water) I zoned out on itty-bitty waves crashing onto shore. It looked like the ocean floor itself was breathing. Pulsating every time the water rose a bit. And then in Perissa, the ocean shore had a neat ripple effect. Sort of like the pattern found in the desert from a snake. That pattern was placed row after ... row and when we hit pockets of either hot or cold springs in the sea, it looked as if the sea bed was shifting. Crazy ways in how I entertain myself.

Ok.. tonights highlight. We went to Oia to watch the sunset. Found a cute little cafe to get some drinks and the most scrumptous dessert. Met some fellow Americans from Nashville, TN. Received the bill. *JAW-DROP* 15 Euro for one drink. Approximately $17 US! What did we order? A Mohito and a 'Chi Chi' (nothing more than a glorified daquari). 15 Euro!! All because they are located in in the side of the cliff (with a few dozen other cafes) and feel that can charge 15 euro. I'm in the wrong business. I need to open up a cafe in Oia and charge by the number of actual liquors that go into a drink. **Dina: You with me?!?! We can open up the bakery/sweet shop we've been talking about and charge ridiculous amounts of money because our shop would also display the sunset behind the caldera!** Needless to say our tip was rather light -- the first time this trip.

Now we're back in another internet cafe and I'm enjoying a normally priced B52. Yes, we're internetting again. I know.. addicts.

Liquor? Why I ...

If you know how that ends I can hear your giggles.

Why can't all bars have samplers? No, I don't mean shots. I mean a tray of samplers so lil' ol' me can taste all of the yummy flavours that exist in those colorful bottles sitting behind the bar. I'd also find it much more economical on my wallet.

I also believe I'm drinking enough to make up for all of the non-drinking days spent between holidays. It's just so hard to ... stop!

My new drink o' choice is the B52

I'm showing the beach/party-ers how to really dance.

This vacation was much needed. And we haven't gotten halfway through our holiday!!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Our Travels Begin

Right now I'm sitting in an Internet Cafe ... in ATHENS, GREECE. I know, there's so much to see, why be on the Internet. Because I'm addicted and if it's here I'm going to use it.

This post is a mind dump of what we've done so far. I don't believe I'll capture everything -- that's what my journal is for -- but it's something. So please forgive me if there are spelling and grammatical errors. I'll deal with those later.

The trip out here was long and given that they are 7 hours ahead, I think we were up for about 36 hours. The plan ride itself wasn't too bad. Got too see "Freedom Writers" -- a movie I highly recommend. And the woman sitting next to me was very interesting. She quit her job to live in Greece for 3 months with her boyfriend, who's a boat builder. And when she returns she's going to take a boat apprenticeship in Maine for a year. Talking to her confirmed my need to live in Italy for a few months. I told Casey, his eye's widened in shock? Anxiety? Anticipation for when? I'm going to keep thinking the latter option because how could you not want to live in Italy for a few months.

After arriving in Greece, it took about 45 minutes to get our luggage. Slow going unpacking the plane. We met up with a representative from Fantasy Greek Travel, who gave us everything we need to get from alpha to beta, along with drivers so we won't have to fuss with cabs, etc. Ver-nice. And speaking of drivers -- our cab driver was hilarious. Everytime he answered/made a call it SOUNDED AS IF HE WAS CONSTANTLY YELLING HIS STATEMENTS. Nice language.

And my apologies to Vicky if I woke her up. I was trying to figure out the Athens calling code to get in touch with the rep who was supposed to meet us. Completely forgetting we're 7 hours ahead, I called my home phone at 3am! Luckily Vicky says she and Ollie were too tired to even notice. Although this 7 hour difference is confusing since I'll text another friend while she's at work and then receive a text 11:30p my time from her. aaaahhhh!!!!

And the language. I've been able to speak Spanish, Italian, Japanese and French when needed, but Greek! H.A.R.D. I'm still trying to remember efkharisto -- wait, I just remembered it. That means "Thank You". "Ya soos" is Hello. Ooooo... and translating the signs. I think I'm back taking Calculus and Discrete Math. I've given up on trying to translate and will speak either Italian or English.

There are plenty of tourists here, but their mostly from other European countries. It's the European vacation spot (like Florida or Hawaii is for Americans). I'm loving it. We do come across Americans now and again, but not like in Florence where they were coming out of the cobblestones!

As for sights, yesterday was our dumb day. I believe we walked through the National Gardens, a couple of blocks from our hotel. Couldn't tell you much except it was refreshing to be out and walking around. We did see quite a bit today. The Acropolis is AMAZING. The Parthenon - brilliant. The Theatre of Dionysos, the Odeion of Herodes Atticus -- absolutely beautiful. The Greeks really knew how to build a theatre so that everyone could see the stage (so unlike the ones we have today).

We then headed over to see the Greek Agora, where we saw the remains of the Altar of the 12 Gods, the Stoa of Attalos and the Hephaisteion. The Hephaisteion was absolutely gorgeous. What I really love about all of these ruins is their age. I've seen Roman ruins, but the Greek ruins dating back to 2, 3 or later B.C. is mind-blowing.

Hmmm.. well that's all for now. If we get to another Internet cafe on the islands I'll be sure to write about some more of the cultural interactions we've had with locals.