Apparently, the Blue Star Ferry lines are working magic now, because their trip from Kalymnos to Rhodes travels back in time.  You depart Kalymnos on Friday, January 25 and arrive in Rhodes on Thursday, January 24!

It's magic!

The cool thing about ferry schedules, I have learned, is that they are generally the same every day of the week, i.e. every Monday schedule will be identical.  So if you are planning a trip that is, say 4 months away, and whose dates aren't in the search engine yet, you can search for the same weekdays in earlier months and it will generally be the same.

I could so do this for a living.

~RLM 

Helpful sites: 

• Ferry Booking Search Engine 
• Ferries.gr 
• Flying Dolphin from Santorini to Crete - Hellenic Seaways
• Matt Barrett's Greek Travel Guide - possibly the most indispensable website every created
• Also from Matt Barrett, his Youth Hostel Search Page
  

Indianapolis, IN**
Fishers, IN*
Louisville, KY*
Lawrenceburg, KY*
Georgetown, KY*
Frankfurt, KY
Raleigh, NC**
Wilmington, NC*
Blowing Rock, NC
Charlotte, NC
Providence, RI
Mystic, Groton, and North Stonington, CT
Chicago, IL
Philadelphia, PA
Washington DC
Athens, Greece**
Greek islands visited: Santorini (Thira), Andros, Hydra, Lefkada, Kefalonia
Greek towns visited: Delphi, Mycenae, Olympia, Nafplio, Livadia, Tolo, Sounio, Rafina

Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.
Cities marked with ** were residences.

I miss the sight of the moon hanging over the Acropolis during a midnight walk, watching sunsets from a hilltop, and wandering down Adrianou after getting gyros from Tony's. The chaos of the big city - Monastiraki on a Sunday morning, Plaka at dusk as the tavernas fill up, Psirri at 2am, Ermou on late days when the shops stay open past five.  The random peaceful moments - walking back to the apartment through Plaka at 3am when the streets are deserted, free of tourists as the shopkeepers close up - climbing Filopappou on a bright afternoon to take in the staggering view of the city's massive sprawl - long lunches at Byzantinos, lingering over bread with olive oil, teeming bowls of tortellini, and endless conversation with good friends. I miss ferry boats, standing on the top deck in the middle of the night - alone in the vast darkness, watching sunrise on the Mediterranean, coming in to Ios just after dawn on the overnight to Santorini, the expression of awe on my friend's faces as we approach the staggering cliffs of the port at Fira.

I can't wait for May, can't wait to show Sonia, Dylan, and Andy my favorite place.  I need so much to share it with people who will appreciate it the way I do.  And I need to get back - to the city, to the islands, to me.

~RLM 

It was our friend Chris's last night in Athens.  We decided to take him to Lykavitos Hill to watch the famous sunset and say farewell.

The girls glittered in the matching dresses we bought from a little old lady in Plaka and the boys looked dapper and gentlemanly in nice shirts and ties.  The scorching Athenian heat was tempered by the hill top breeze, ruffling skirts and tousling hair as it whipped around the summit.

Close narrow streets perpetuate an enveloping atmosphere in Athens and it's difficult to realize how massive the city is until you see it from such a great height.  We sat, surrounded by throngs of tourists, in awe of the scene unfolding before us.  The expansive sprawl of the city spread out around Lykavitos, monuments sticking out in the crowd as development occupied all the available space.  A clear night, our view extended on one side past the Acropolis to the sea, and on the other side to the mountains, where the hills around the city appeared to be on fire.  We sat in reverence, silent as the light faded from the sky, as our friend said farewell to the city that had become our home.

It became a little game we played, and soon we were noticing Borfs all over the city.

When I returned to Athens in 2006, we found a huge Borf in the Monastiraki neighborhood, with a face in place of the O.  I took a picture and sent it to Sarah as a postcard.

Then, this morning as I was checking gridskipper to see if they had any off-the-wall reccomendations for stuff to do in Raleigh, one of the two articles that popped up was all about Borf and his 'coast to coast graffiti tour.' Apparently he made a stop in the RAL a few years back...and it turns out Borf is famous!

I started clicking on links, and pretty soon, the whole borf story had unraveled.  And its pretty interesting.
Gridskipper: Borf's Coast to Coast Graffiti Tour
N&O: Borf is Watching Us and Arrest May End Artist's Spree
DCist: Who is BORF?
Washington Post: The Mark of Borf

You can view my entire BORF album here. 

It is now apparent that I am very weird and need a life.

~RLM 

Love Cafe
1501 U Street
amazingly awesome/adorable bakery

Teaism | A Tea House
locations in Penn Quarter, DuPont Circle, and Lafayette Square
refined taste, incredible concept, cool menu

International Spy Museum
the corner of 8th and F
you get to crawl through air ducts...enough said

 Favorite

 California Tortilla
7th Street in Chinatown
discovered it last year, awesome food

National Gallery of Art
on the Mall
always have excellent exhibitions, great permanent collection

H&M
1025 F Street (near Chinatown metro)
reasonably priced cool European clothing, what more do we need?
since they don't have one in NC, we go here

I found my plane ticket at CheapTickets.com, for the amazing price of $951--which is half of what I paid last year to fly Delta (which sucked).  I get to fly USAir, my favorite, and not sit in the back of the plane.

I also found the guest house I'm going to be staying in for the first two weeks I'll be in Athens since the apartments are full.  Its $240 for 8 nights and the hotel is conveniently located next to my favorite monument.

Cara and V-nasty are planning on coming over a few days early so we can hit Santorini before classes start.  It should be the perfect way to orient them to the Greek lifestyle.

My friend Caitlyn will be studying with the Meredith Abroad program, so we're going to try and meet up somewhere, which should be pretty fun.

 Dad is coming to visit me for the week of July 4th.  We're planning on going up to Thessalonica for a day or two, which should be awesome; its one of the few places that I really want to visit that I haven't made it to yet.  I also want to at least show him an island, so we'll probably do a half day trip to Poros or Hydra since they're so close.

I also picked my thesis topic yesterday: The Changing Status of Women in Modern Greek Society, which will be coupled with a photography project documenting different images of women.  I'm rather excited to work on it, plus its the perfect excuse to invest in the new camera I've been eyeing.

Last week I hit up Old Navy's early spring sale and invested in a new bathing suit, a cute jersey sundress, a couple of tank tops, and another jersey skirt, so I'm pretty set clothes wise.  I also found an adorable set of stowaway totes in LL Bean's sale section, which are perfect for weekend trips and hauling souvenirs back home.

Now that every thing is in line, I just have to buy my ticket, reserve my hotel, and figure out how to pay for the camera.  And then I'm good to go.

Oh, and I should probably brush up on my Greek.

~RLM 

In exactly two weeks I leave for Athens, in search of something that I know I will not find.  I have known this for quite some time, and yet I am still going.  Perhaps I will find closure, although that is not something I really want.  I don't want to be over last summer, I just keep hoping that maybe, by some miracle, things will work out.

And I have to say that this year my motives are significantly less emotional and more based on the fact that I don't want to not spend my summer in Greece.  Well, that and I now have a fabulous internship deal worked out, which is my sole motivation in getting through this semester successfully.

~RLM 

You can view them on flickr .

I'll probably be putting more up when I get the time again. 

~RLM 

I've been asked to write up something/work up a project about my experiences in Athens and compile a sort of guide for the Odyssey program students by someone at the main campus in Indy; my idea involved me working on the project in Athens for a few weeks before the summer session started as a sort of internship.  

If it worked out, it would be the coolest thing ever.

But it involves a lot of people thinking its the coolest thing ever too.

So now I'm anxious and worried that it won't happen, but also incredibly excited at the very tiny chance that it actually could.

Everyone last summer joked about me writing a tour guide  and it really is the most perfect combination of almost everything that I love, so fingers crossed.

~RLM