europe 2019 video!

another round of that santorini sunset...

 these photos just came in from the beautiful & talented gihad (THANK YOU!!!), and i had to post them. i know i JUST posted a few dozen of these already, but it's my page so i get to do what i want. they're just so, so special!!

lost milos - the best island..... part 2?

...the post in which i stared at my archive and although i swear i posted these, i cannot find them. so i shall post again. my brain has melted. another client gallery is uploading as we speak- TIS THE SEASON- and as i watch the upload bar tick towards "complete," i shall reminisce on this magical place i've already spoken about a lot.

the rest of milos.

not really culling much with these. just going to throw them all in. minus the naked shots running around the quiet beaches since the internets isn't the safest spot for those;) it's been a month-and-a-half already, and there isn't a day i don't think about this island oasis...

our first morning in milos we got up early and headed to tsigrado beach. this gem is accessible only by ladders. which i GREATLY underestimated in terms of access and sketchiness. we pulled in just ahead of another vehicle (ya know, atv's. man, i miss those atv's), and peering down from above we could see it was empty. which put a little fire in my anxiety-ridden self. the desire for photos overcame my fear.

and so the adventure began.

this is the wtf moment when i realized i had to climb backwards, and my feet barely fit (barefoot) in the sandy rock slats. i put my camera away, but kept my phone handy.

these pictures DO NOT do justice. 

1 long rope for the long path down (i can't imagine doing this when people are going 2 directions- i have NO idea how they fit. or balance).

the ladder was missing QUITE a few rungs, including the main ones at the top. so basically it was a wing, prayer, trust fall, and death grip on that rope to make the first jump down and on to the first ladder.

just when we thought we made it, we realized there was another ladder. 

it's hard to tell, but these things were REALLY high. like, really, really tall.

also, crooked.

BUT WE MADE IT! dropped our bag and started losing our minds.

then our friends arrived, and offered to take some photos for us! so nice! they're sprinkled in now...

i spy mike.......

we jumped off rocks into the water, and although i like to pretend like it was utter perfection, frankly the clear water and excess of fish FUH-REAKED ME OUT, and i spent most of the swim SQUEALING in fear. i hate seeing (and feeling) fish touch me. eeeeek!!! for the record, mike was stoked.

we explored a few more beaches around the island, but ended up staying for a while at fyriplaka. it was quiet, and WOW, so big and so empty. there were more mega yachts floating in the distance than people on the shore. also more naked people than clothed. again. running theme. mike tripped on a rock and we're pretty sure he broke his toe, but it's fine now;) this was mike's favorite place we saw our entire trip. it was INCREDIBLE. (we returned one last time later that night at sunset.)

we headed back to plaka for lunch. i LOVED plaka. such a charming, beautiful town with the most delicious food. *greek yogurt, greek yogurt, greek YOGURT!* and this view, which we had to ourselves, as we sat behind an old church and chowed down because there were just too many bees on the restaurant patio.

our final morning in milos- sunday- we planned on visiting sarakiniko again before heading to the airport. we SO looked forward to this visit, but it was cold and UNBELIEVABLY windy. like, gale force winds that you could barely stand up against. clearly we had the place to ourselves, but it hardly looked like it did 2 days before. which was a total downer. it's shocking how rough and cloudy the seas were since they were like glass last time we visited! heartbreak. but in some ways it made our departure easier since we knew we couldn't do much with the weather that day. *and man oh man it got me excited to fly on a micro-plane in said winds.    *NOT*

we packed up back at the hotel, put on all our layers because 1) cold, and 2) we didn't want to pay for our carry-ons since we KNEW they were overweight (we legit had on 6 layers of clothes and all my cameras hoping they wouldn't notice).

we waited in the 2-aisle airport parking lot where we were to meet our atv-dude (this was our arranged-upon drop-off point). the building and tarmac had no fence. there was a single tiny plane in the distance which i tried to ignore. free parking. no signs. it was a 1-room situation, and it was fascinating. we saw our first law enforcement officer here- he was the security agent, gate checker, and every other role you would imagine at an airport. 

we walked straight onto the tarmac after "security," they closed the airport door, and we were the last aboard the plane (the atv dude forgot to come so we were a liiiiittle late, but still took off ahead of schedule). the flight was a bouncy, bouncy mess. the couple next to us was clearly on their honeymoon, and the groom had NO CLUE what to do with his new wife who was CLEARLY not fairing well in terms of motion sickness. i felt awkward for them. (were we ever that unsure about each other and so uncomfortable???) the fact that our plane was hardly above the sea (i figured we'd live if we crashed), and the fact that the flight was a mere 30 minutes was the only thing that got me through. that and clawing mike's arm. i was HAPPYhappyhappyhappy to touch down in athens. and then to board a bus to the main terminal because apparently those tiny planes have no business being anywhere near the big boys;)