dum vivimus vivamus...
A digital scrapbook of travels and adventures from a blogger, ketchup aficionado, karaoke junkie, theme party enthusiast, WASP and certified smart ass.
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Gallowilkins Rules Athens
Our whirlwind day in Athens was driven primarily by my secret boyfriend Rick Steves. If you've not used on of his guidebooks in a European city, I strongly recommend it - I'm not the tour book type, but I had my nose in this thing so often that my tripping over my own feet and bumping into things became an ongoing joke.
Our day in Athens featured a walk down Ermou Street, a couple classic Byzantine churches, the Greek Orthodox Church, a stroll through the Plaka, lunch at the New Acropolis Museum and some serious and sustained times with the kitties of Greece. After watching the sun set on Mars Rock overlooking the Agora, the Acropolis and the city of Athens we headed to a great Taverna at the base of the Acropolis for dinner - then headed back to our bungalow for one last night of red wine and crashing waves. The next day I took off for the WPP Stream Conference, and Todd headed to Paris to meet up with Tony - and we both headed to Google to get to the bottom of all the lingering questions that came up on our trip. (What is leprosy? What's the name of the women in the Bourne movies? Who sang the Ghostbusters theme song?)
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The Poet Sandal Maker of Athens
Our day in Athens included two things I love more than anything else - the Olympics and shoes.
After grabbing omlettes (with no olives, TODD) at a cafe beneath the Acropolis we started on a leg of Rick Steve's Walking Tour. This took us through a small open air market where we passed by a man selling pins - turns out he's THE Greek Olympic pin guy. For 15 euro I picked up an Athens pin, a '88 Calgary Jamaican Bobsleigh pin, and an '88 Seoul pin to add to the collection I started in Beijing last summer. Watch out Vancouver... Then it was on to a few more sites, which took us past Stavros Melissinos' shop. Stavros is known as the "poet sandal maker of Athens". The shop was opened in 1927 by Stavros' father, and Stavros has been making sandals and writing poetry since the '50s. Over the years he has made footwear for The Beatles, Jackie O, Sophia Lauren, and now ME. The Rick Steve's guide retold a great story - when The Beatles came in for their sandals Stavros didn't ask for their autograph. When someone asked why, he replied, "Why didn't they ask for MY autograph, I'll be around a lot longer." I met Stavros' son who is a playwrite - that's him putting the finishing touches on one of the three pairs of sandals I bought. (Whoops!)
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The Westin Athens: "You've Been Upgraded to the Bungalow Suite"
When we arrived at the Westin Athens we heard the words that every traveler is dying to hear, "you've been upgraded to our bungalow suite." Major, huge, gigantic shout outs to the W Washington, DC for putting in a "good word" with the GM of the Westin - because the bungalow suite is quite frankly the fucking coolest place I've ever stayed.
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Day Trip to Knossos, Elounda and Ag Nik
Our second day in Crete got off to a slightly delayed start due to my accidental reliance on the mis-timed iPhone. Nevertheless we made it out to Knossos, the ruins of a palace thought to be the cradle of Minoan civilization. While much of the ruins remain intact, a British archeologist "reconstituted" parts of the palace blending the ancient with the imagined - for good or for bad. The architecture, and infrastructure was truly impressive. The palace dates back to 2000 BC and included plumbing, bathrooms and other refinements.
After this healthy dose of history Todd force fed me a rock hard almond bar to keep me from getting cranky, and we headed out to the resort town of Elounda for lunch. The drive out along the cliffs was totally fucking nuts, and got us some of our best views of the trip. Post-lunch Todd went out windsurfing (which is as close as either of us got to the Venetian fort turned leper colony of Spinalonga), and I hung out on the nudey beach in a red wine-induced haze. On our way back to Rethymno we swung through Ayios Nikolaos (the San Francisco of Crete), a harbor town with a "bottomless" lake near the town center. The town was cute, but didn't offer much new by way of sites or shopping. I think the best part was actually: "CSI: Ayios Nikolaos...It's all Greek to me... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
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Day Trip to Hania: "The Scenes Were Shocking!"
Six (miraculously on-time) flights later, Todd and I both arrived on Crete for the beginning of our Greek adventure!
We rented a car - which turned out to be totally clutch, but saw us in several death-defying situations on the mountainous Greek roads filled with crazy ass Greek drivers who believe in passing (and sometimes double passing!) on blind curves, headed into tunnels, and in a variety of other totally freaky situations. That's right - double passing. Leaving the airport we headed towards Rethymno, with a quick stop in the cliff-side beach town of Bali for a snack. After dropping our stuff we ventured down to the harbor and had a delicious dinner of black snapper (me) and goat (Todd) before heading a bit further down for drinks (with sparkly sparklers!) The next morning we grabbed coffee at "The Acropolis" and then hit the beach for a few hours to plan out our day - which we decided would be a tour of Hania. Hania was built up by Venetian merchants during the Turkish occupation - so the town is a very bizzare mix of Venetian, Turkish and Greek architecture. The highlight for Todd was finding, and purchasing his vacation hat. The highlight for me was definitely lunch at Tamam, an old Turkish bath tucked in a back ally. The red wine, meat pie, green peppers with yogurt, and feta stuffed aubergines turned out to be one of the best meals we had in Greece. After an afternoon of shopping, and a quick stop at the Naval Museum we walked out to the light house to watch the sun start to go down. We headed back to the car and got lost for 45 minutes (which would become a trend), and made it back to Rethymno for a late, mediocre dinner. (We would later mark our 9pm, pre-dinner nap as the moment we accidentally started using my iPhone for time, which was set an hour behind the real time in Greece...)
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Hola Mexico City!
I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Mexico City, where I had the opportunity to conduct a Digital Influence training for 15 of Ogilvy Mexico City's finest. Simply learning about social media beyond the US and diving deeply into Mexico's social media scene was exciting - and that was before I even got on the plane to travel. I was very impressed with the Ogilvy team - these guys get social media and are chomping at the bit to apply their creative ideas to clients as they become increasingly interested in social.
Check out some pictures from the office, of our team, my digs at the Four Seasons Mexico City, and a great shot of some of Mexico's finest tequila!
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Paris Girls - c'est chouette!
Liz, Rachel, Abby and I at Carolines reception at the Chevy Chase Country Club. (photo credit: Scott Lewis)
Sent from my iPhone
Posted from Chevy Chase, MD
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Destiny & Dustin's Chesapeake Adventure
Quotes of the Weekend:
"Together, we form one functioning adult"
"What the fuck is the 'essence of salsa?!'""I be sproutin!" "Oh look, a Gucci outlet."
"WHAT!?""Fuck it. Let's go outside, eat cheese, play cards and drink wine."
"I love everything that you are saying right now." Catchphrase...
"Satchel of devious things!""I call foul. He said three ring scratch and sniff.""Where they dropped the bomb in Japan, but not Hiroshima."
"Nagasaki!"
OK, a city where they didn't drop a bomb in Japan..."
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