Labor Day Long Weekend: Block Island, Rhode Island

Long weekends are for ferry rides, champagne celebrations, mass production of breakfasts, petting zoos, wishing rocks, pink lemonade, outdoor showers, badminton and croquet tournaments and lots of photo ops. 

Greece: Santorini, Green + Blue

How about throwing in some green in there for a change?

Greece: Santorini, Cactai

OH! Hai!

Greece: Santorini, A Gander

Literally within seconds of putting our luggage down at our hotel, we were off to explore the island that is Santorini. Here's what we found along the way.

Greece: Santorini, Sunny Villas

What's it like living in a cave, you ask?

I was dying to stay at Sunny Villas after my endless research on hotels in Santorini. The idea of staying in a CAVE was appealing. In real life, it was a difficult hotel to get to, but I imagine many of the hotels on Santorini to be the case, as the town is built on the side of a volcanic caldera, not to be confused with a crater. And it's STEEP, y'all! Hotel Sunny Villas had incredible caldera and sunset views from the terrace, but the actual cave-like habitat was rather claustophobic, for us. Still, it was incredible to be situated right in front of the Skaros rock, which used to be a medieval fortress, that we hiked on the last day of our trip (more on that later). For now, this.

Greece: To Santorini

Time for another ferry ride, this time to Santorini! That was the littlest truck we'd ever seen!

Greece: Mykonos, The Wind Mills

Oh, the famed Wind Mills of Mykonos.

As we turned around a narrow and crowded corner, this was our first glimpse of the wind mills. The timing couldn't have been better; with the sun just starting to drop it created the most gorgeous light.

Most of the cafes facing the water boasted the "best sun set view", but expensive cocktails at over crowded cafes like Scarpa didn't make sense, especially when the sun set could be viewed from anywhere. So, this is what we did, instead.

Breathtaking, to say the least. See how these windmills compare to Zaans Shans, in Amsterdam.

Greece: Mykonos, The Town

The next day we took the shuttle bus into downtown Mykonos. What an incredibly stunning place Mykonos is. Would love to go back, it's absolutely gorgeous. Blue and white paint? Check. Churches? Check. Narrow cobblestone walkways? Check. But who knew about the stray cats? So cute!

Greece: Athens, Theatre of Dionysus

After the mating turtles, we finally came to the Theatre of Dionysus. The sun was starting to descend, creating a beautiful light across the seats.

Greece: Athens, Out n' About

Some randoms from the outskirts of the Acropolis.

(Can you see the black cat hidden in the shadows?)

Throwback Monday: Toronto Beaches

Summer '06, Toronto Beaches.

Throwback Monday: N'awlins June '08

Today's Throwback Monday is from N'awlins in '08!

Beignets, architecture, catfish and a whole lotta Bourbon. 

For more N'awlins check out:

N'awlins  \\ Cafe Du Monde  \\ Mr. B's Bistro 

Amsterdam: Land of Bicycles

It's no secret that Amsterdam's #1 mode of transport is the bicycle.

Here, some shots of them without their riders.

Amsterdam: Zaanse Schans Part I

Zaanse Schans was a day-trip for us whilst in Amsterdam.

The 17th-century town is a short bus ride away from Amsterdam and located along the River Zaan. Described in one word, Zaanse Schans is: Touristy with a capital T, but as we were, in fact, tourists, it was rather interesting to visit.  

The highlight was the working windmills. We chose one to go up into, however in the midst of purchasing tour tickets we found out that that particular windmill was NOT actually one of the originals but a replica of the original. Did I say it was tourist trap? 

Regardless, Zaanse Schans is beautifully scenic and wonderful to walk around in.  This is part I. Oh and as it was touristy, there are a couple of photos of us (and fellow tourists) thrown in for good measure. 

And for more Amsterdam, check out my Travel album, here.