The Swedes are Evil

With Gina back in town, we quickly got down to the business of getting settled into our place. That meant new furniture, including dressers, a desk, and a dining table with chairs, so we headed to Ikea. Never again. Kind of like when I decided I would never move myself again, I will never buy unassembled furniture again. Huge pain to get home, and an even bigger pain to put together once it got there. Blech. I know it's cheaper this way, but so is moving myself. Who writes these instructions anyway, the Swedes? Sheesh.

Anyway, it's all behind us now, and we're all unpacked, so we'll soon be ready for guests. We can play Rock Band, which we just got for the Wii!

[Brook finally goes ten to New Jersey. A bit lower than expected, and he looks miffed, but he's still set for life. Plus the Nets will get Lebron soon, so he'll have a chance to win a title there.]

Gina started residency yesterday, and she's already doing her first overnight shift tonight. Tough to get used to... for me anyway. On the plus side, she gets Friday afternoon and all of Saturday off, which is the biggest chunk of time off she can expect to get. On Saturday we'll celebrate Steve's birthday and watch a crappy movie like Zohan. I actually didn't mind the idea of watching something so ridiculous, because I wanted to go to the movies and there was nothing else out there that interested me, but WALL-E is getting rave reviews, so now I want to see it. I should never have doubted Pixar, but the trailers just didn't look good. Dark Knight, on the other hand... can't wait.

It's a rare day this summer when I'm not taken out to lunch, but I had nothing scheduled today, so I headed to Google to eat with Tom and Dave (hey, I'm getting a free lunch one way or another). God I miss that place. The food was better than ever (my ridiculous plate: ahi hand roll, tilapia with mango chutney, pork shoulder, beans with bacon, caesar salad, and freshly made ice cream for dessert), and it was great catching up with everyone. Well, almost everyone. What's up with you avoiding me, Vicki, huh? Punk. I swear, if I had a box of styrofoam popcorn...

[Robin goes 15 to the Suns! Anyone still think he should have stayed? Set for life and gets to learn from Shaq, who will probably buy him a bunch of jeans. It's just too bad he didn't last till 21 for the Nets to draft him.]

I added a new box to the sidebar that'll show the latest entries from my blog roll. I'm eagerly awaiting Gerlad's review of step one, and whether he was able to fall asleep beforehand. Hope you killed it, Gerlad. We'll have to hang out this weekend... at my place!

Honeymoon, Part III of III

Athens

Our final stop was Athens, with its many ruins to visit. It feels like we visited them all. We stayed at the Grande Bretagne, considered the top hotel in the city, and one of the few modern buildings that was interesting to look at. Lots of bland, nondescript, boring architecture throughout the city (you just used three words that all mean the same thing). Even the neighboring Parliament building was nothing to look at.



The Acropolis is officially the preeminent monument in Europe, so it was the focus of our time there. Our first night, we took a cursory stroll around it before having dinner at the nearby rooftop Strofi, with its view of... the Acropolis, of course. We went for the view, but we came away raving about the food: pork chops for me, lamb and eggplant for Gina, with Greek coffee and yogurt with nuts and honey for dessert. We took our sweet ass time eating to make sure we were still there post sunset, when the Acropolis is lit up beautifully, but in Greece, that's unnecessary, since they'll never rush you through a meal.

Our first full day in Athens, we shopped at the Monastiraki flea market, then checked out the nearby ruins of Hadrian's library.



We then took a tour bus to see the Temple of Poseidon on Cape Sounion, a perfect location for sailors and fish merchants to worship the god of the ocean. It was around this time that the 6.5 earthquake rocked Greece, but we somehow didn't feel it at all.




That night we had another nice meal, the food in Greece having been consistently excellent. But for some strange reason, Gina was craving the cornetto McFlurry (crushed up sugar cone with chocolate sauce), which she saw on the way to the restaurant, so after our Greek meatballs and codfish, we got our McFlurrys. For shame. But I must admit, we need the cornetto McFlurry here in the states... damn tasty.

On our last non-travel day of the honeymoon, we finally went to the top of the Acropolis, which has two main buildings still standing, the small Temple of Athena, and the massive Parthenon.





Also fairly intact below the walls of the Acropolis were the Theatre of Dionysus, and the Odeon of Herodes, which still hosts productions to this day. I can't think of a cooler place to see a play. Maybe the Globe. :)



Our last glimpse of the Acropolis buildings up close. This side of the Parthenon had more scaffold work going on, but the impact wasn't too harsh, especially from afar.



The designed footpath next led us to the Ancient Agora, or ancient center of Greek government. Here we saw the Agora museum, with some ancient artifacts, the ruins of old meeting places, and the Temple of Hephaestus, the most well-preserved Doric temple in Greece.




With sightseeing over for the trip, we had our final dinner at the Grande Bretagne's rooftop restaurant, with even better views of the Acropolis than Strofi. I've never seen so many people taking pictures during dinner.




For full slideshow:

[Athens]

And like that, [poof], it's over.

Honeymoon, Part II of III

Santorini

Santorini is right up there with Venice, and probably surpasses it, as my favorite vacation destination. Gorgeous surroundings, warm weather, great food, no price gouging at all (shocking in a tourist town), and everyone spoke English.

It also helped that our hotel was paradise. The Mystique is in the northern town of Oia (pronounced EE-uh), built on the cliffside, with an infinity pool looking out over the caldera. We were upgraded to a luxury suite because of our honeymooner status (though it seemed like everyone there was on a honeymoon), so we had our own hot tub and gym, as well as a big patio facing the ocean (of course, with 18 rooms built on a cliff, everyone had an ocean view). After a fast-paced time in overcast London, things were about to slow way down and brighten up.




The views were amazing, and the town, with its signature white and blue buildings, picturesque.





We did manage to get off our butts the next day to take a boat tour of the caldera. It started with a long walk down the Fira switchbacks to the old port, which involved passing numerous donkeys (which tourists ride on the way back up) and the surprises they liked to leave in their wakes. One of us, however, was not so skilled in the art of donkey crap dodging (hit on the leg and shoe-top) and swore off the donkey ride on the way back (we took the tram instead).

The wooden boat first took us to the center of the caldera, where we hiked to the top for 360 views. We then took a swim to the volcano's hot springs, or lukewarm springs, as I prefer to call them. Pleasant, but not nearly as hot as I expected. We stopped for lunch on another island, then passed by the beautiful port of Oia before docking back in Fira (and taking the aforementioned tram ride).





Afterwards, we headed to the northern tip of Oia to watch the sunset, walking through the town's main plaza of shops and restaurants.



For our final day in Santorini, we headed to a new hotel further south, Mystique's sister hotel Vedema, where the island's numerous vineyards were concentrated. Same management, so we were once again provided deluxe accomodations, with our own private hot tub and a view of the vast coastal vineyards.



We did two wine tastings, first at Sigales, which had excellent dessert wines, including Vinsanto, a Santorini specialty. We then went to Gavala and were given a tour of the premises, after which we made the exciting realization that we had seen this very vineyard featured on a Food Network special on Santorini by Giada De Laurentiis!



Not only does Santorini have great wine, but it has great food to go with it. We tried all of the local specialties, including tomato balls (fried battered tomato cakes) and fava split (a fava bean mash), as well as a lot of chloro (Santorini goat cheese), Gina's favorite. But my favorite meal might have been the two-Euro gyros (say that ten times fast) we had at a streetside stand. Amazing, and so cheap! I would later try to find its match in Athens, but to no avail.



When we returned to our hotel after dinner, the staff had a nice surprise waiting for us, with flowers and decorations prepared for our room.



A nice touch, and a great way to end our too-short stay in Santorini.

For full slideshow:

[Santorini]

Finally, it was onto Athens for the conclusion of our trip...

Honeymoon, Part I of III

London and Beyond

I'm still on a honeymoon high. Thanks to Gina's dad, we traveled in style. We flew business class on his United points and got lodging through his Starwood points, which allowed us to save a ton of money and stay in much nicer places than we otherwise would have. Consequently, we were able to largely ignore the prices for everything else and just focus on having fun and eating well. And thank goodness for it, because the exchange rates are pathetic!

Our trip began with three days in London, and we decided to start things off by taking a spin on the London Eye to get a bird's-eye view of the city. Dan and Drew gave us the heads up to pre-order tickets, which saved us a lot of time. The Eye draws a big crowd, and based on the photos we got from it, I can see why. The sky was overcast (pretty much our entire time there), so we couldn't see much way off in the distance, but we got great shots of Parliament in particular, which is just an awesome building.




We took it easy the rest of the day, enjoying a very nice Indian dinner before crashing early to get ready for a tour of Windsor, Stonehenge, and Bath the next day.

Windsor is the Queen's preferred place of residence, though she's forced to spend most of her time at Buckingham Palace. The interior reminded us a lot of the palace at Versailles, though unlike Versailles, Windsor does not allow photography inside, which is a shame, because there were a lot of cool coats of arms, pieces of armor, weaponry, and the like. But I was just happy to see a genuine castle, even though the moat is now a boring garden. Shame.




Next it was onto Stonehenge, and I was psyched. Something about Stonehenge just really appeals to me. It lived up to my expectations, and I took a ton of photos, including 13 different wide angles of the 'henge.




Afterwards, we stopped at a pub for lunch, where Gina and I put back some pints. They come in pints?


Finally, we headed to Bath, home of Ravi's mom. It was a cool town, with all the buildings made of the same distinctive stone, giving the city a signature look. We finished with a visit to the Roman baths that gave the city its name.



On our last day in London, we took a whirlwind tour of the city, and we pretty much hit all the big sights. In the morning we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, followed by the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.




After a lunch of fish and chips (tasty), we quickly toured the Parliament/Westminster Abbey area, then took a boat ride down the Thames to the Tower of London, a former prison that now houses the impressive crown jewels. No pictures of the jewels allowed, but they were gaudy. We did take a bunch of pictures of the Tower Bridge, then we hit Shakespeare's Globe Theatre for a guided tour just before closing. Looked like a great place to see a play. Next time.




We finished our stay in London with a showing of Wicked at the Apollo Victoria. Although the songs weren't memorable, the story was clever, and the singing by the leads was incredible. Two thumbs up.



For full slideshows:

[London] [Beyond London]

After three touristy days in London, it was off to Santorini for some rest and relaxation...

Settling Down

Things are finally starting to settle down. Over the past month, I finished finals, I moved, Gina graduated, we got married, we honeymooned, I started my new job, I picked up Gina's new car, and I finished sorting through the honeymoon photos. Once Gina starts residency in about a week, I figure we'll finally start to settle into our routine.

The job has been good so far. First day, Wednesday, was solo orientation (everyone else had started two weeks prior), followed by a wine tasting event at a partner's house. Thursday I got started on a couple of projects, and Friday was a Habitat for Humanity event, in which I helped to lay the foundation for a housing project in Redwood City. Back-breaking labor, seriously! Next time, I'm putting up drywall, damn it. The latter half of next week, I'll be in San Diego for a nationwide retreat for summer associates in the firm. So considering I started about ten hours after the end of the honeymoon, it's not as painful as it sounds. Still pretty painful though.

Gina's new car, a dark gray Prius, is a nice ride, especially given the $0.58 increase in gas while we were in Europe. $0.58!!! What the hell happened? It cost me $67 to fill up my Honda today!!! As a result, I tried to maximize the mileage on the way back from the dealership, and I got about 57mpg over 20 miles. Awesome. Thanks to Uncle Harry and Aunt Josie for helping us swing the great deal on the car!

WOOOO, Tiger Woods, what a freakin' putt!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't write after that. I'm shaking! I'll post about the honeymoon after dinner.

The Honeymoon is Over

Only literally speaking, of course. Trip was great, with plenty of posts and pics to come. But for now, gotta get ready to start work tomorrow. Gina heads back to Hawaii for a few days before settling in here. Looking forward to this weekend to sit on my ass and do nothing but sort through photos.