The Return of Annabelle Goldentan

I'm back. And I'm black.

Well, more deep golden brown, all thanks to the past week in Greece. 

95 and sunny everyday with not a cloud in sight! Water so clear and fluorescently blue you feel like the ocean is an enormous pool. Fresh swordsfish souvlaki, pita, tzakti, and olive oil that makes you want to cry it's so delicious. Secret caves and the most beautiful beach in the world accessible only by boat. And best of all - no other Americans in sight. 

Two years ago Josh and I decided to plan a trip to Greece and started researching which islands to choose. I had my heart set on Santorini, but after my expert travel research I learned that from June-August, it is a crowded zoo of tourists. While I am one myself, I hate being surrounded by other tourists in a foreign place. I want to be surrounded by the locals. I want to eat where the locals eat and do as the locals do. 

So we headed for a lesser known, much smaller, island I discovered called Zakynthos and it's neighbor, Kefalonia, and had found exactly what we were looking for and more. Josh and I reflect back on our travels often and discuss our favorite trips and experiences. While we agree that hot air ballooning over the vineyards of the Loire Valley and staying in a french chateaux was our favorite trip, we always said the one we would most want to repeat was our time on the Greek Isles. And so we did. 

As much as I love to go to new places, it's also wonderful to revisit old ones. We arrived and felt like we were locals as things sparked memories and we instantly remembered how to navigate the winding roads on our four wheeler. We stayed at the same, wonderful little village of villas run by three Greek women who are as sweet as baklava, and went back to our favorite haunts in town for fresh fish dinners and baked feta. They must truly not get many Americans - because people remembered us! By the end of the week we were embracing the fit bartender at "The Two Brothers," where we had our daily cocktail. Or mocktail - if you are Josh.

We spent most of the week on various boats cruising around the Mediterranean to secret beaches, eating insane amounts of Greek food, having gin tournaments, and getting so tan we barely recognized ourselves in the mirror.  We even took up our old nicknames - Captain Whitebeard and Annabelle Goldentan. I gave us these names on our last visit when Josh shaved his scuff mid-trip to reveal a white tan line where his beard was once. Since he was now a pirate, aptly named Whitebeard; I had to be his wench, Annabelle Goldentan. 

We couldn't possibly have had better time. Of all the places I've vacationed - the Greek Isles has the most stunning scenery. And Captain Whitebeard, who has sailed the Seven Seas and beyond, agrees that there is no beach he's seen that is more gorgeous than Shipwreck Beach.

While we revisited a lot of old, we also found some new things. Whitebeard was utterly obsessed with tzatziki the last time we were in Greece. He had it at both lunch and dinner, everyday. This time around the tzatziki obsession was trumped by his newfound love for baklava. Josh had baklava with ice cream everyday, sometimes twice a day. It was surprisingly a little hard to find, so before we would sit down at a taverna he made a point to ask the waitor  - "Baklava - you have?"

For reasons unknown to me, whenever we are in Europe Josh stops speaking proper English and instead speaks what I have come to refer to as 'European English." He speaks English as if he took a few years of it in high school and never really nailed it down. He even takes on an accent, unspecific to any exact country, and usually throws in some charade-like hand gestures. To be fair, I think he is trying to speak English the way that Europeans speak broken English, so they will understand him better. While this is actually, a very smart tactic, it cannot be overlooked that he sounds hilarious.

For example:

Renting our four wheeler: "Hello. You rent to us 4 wheeler? 7 days, we keep. Good price - ok? Opa!

Getting the check after dinner: "Scuzzi (which is Italian - not Greek) bill now, ok? We need. Thank you.

Ordering dessert: Baklava, you have? No!?! Where I buy? Where I buy the baklava very good?

Meanwhile, I've got my legs crossed and am rocking back in forth in attempt to not wet myself because I am laughing so hard. Oh, we make quit a pair, Whitebeard and I. 

I have never really liked baklava, so I found his new obsession rather unfortunate because we usually share a dessert. So rather than getting half a cheesecake, or half a banofee pie, I ended up reluctantly eating half a baklava that I thought was gross, and then being annoyed with myself afterwards for wasting calories on it. 

"If you don't like baklava, why not order your own dessert sweetheart," Josh would say.

While this is a perfect and generous suggestion from my very considerate boyfriend -  the thing is, I don't want to eat a whole dessert, because I've already had Nutella at breakfast and an ice cream bar or two at the pool and don't really need a dessert at all - but I want a little something. So I share his sticky, flaky, nut torte because I literally cannot have something sweet in view and not take a bite of it. I found it strangely grew on me, and I even mildly enjoyed our beachside baklava sundae on our last afternoon.

We had a lot of fun at the villa, interacting with the other guests. There were lots of little european families on holiday. We particularly liked a cute french family that we spoke only french with, and a Dutch family whose adorable children were all either swimming naked, or bottoms only all week. I was splashing in the pool with them and they asked their mom in Dutch what language I was speaking, she replied, "the same language as Mickey Mouse," and their eyes lit up like christmas lights.

Watching children play in the pool inspired us to do the same. We had handstand contests, breath holding contests, and played washing machine, an old pool game favorite of mine.

I never wanted the week to end. Vacation is the best idea ever. Why are we not all in a permanent state of vacation? Why not sell our homes, belongings, and just own what fits in a suitcase or two and just travel from island to island, city to city, year-round? 

I was dreading leaving Greek perfection and landing in England. So I nearly died from shock when we got off the plane and encountered 85 degree weather. Did we get on the wrong plane? Is this really London?

Yes!

We are having a heat wave here! And I am LOVING IT! We got back yesterday, and went on a Thames River Cruise and then to dinner and I wore shorts! It's especially nice that is warm and sunny here because it makes it feel like our vacation is not totally over. It's just become a stay-cation. Josh leaves Thursday so we still have 2 full days for stay-cation fun in London. And because we are back on English-speaking soil, Josh can interact with people in normal English again.

Let's have an Opa! and a "Cheers" to that!