Learning Love Through Travel in Santorini

Infinite Honeymoons

The Ecology of Love

Jewelry for Your Heart

Infinite Honeymoons

There is no more romantic place than Santorini. And given that Kait and I had been dating for about 32 days before we arrived on the island of Santorini, it is no wonder that so many people asked us if we were on our honeymoon. We were being asked about whether this was our honeymoon by well, almost everyone. The guy on our sunset pirate ship tour asked immediately if we were honeymooners. At a volcano our tour stopped at, a guy carrying his kid up it had just enough breath left to ask if we were married and on our honeymoon without even saying hello. Kait and I began to get creative with our answers. Yes, this is actually our 69th honeymoon. Yup we sure are and we are honeymooning every day from here on out. To be honest, I love honeymooning with Kait. As we slowly made our way around Santorini, with a strong wind blowing from all directions, it was stunning to take in the views of the expansive ocean from every angle. The architecture of Santorini is built into the side of the mountains so that every bar and restaurant is set up for ocean from views as far as the eye can see and when you look up – the fullest night sky of stars you can imagine.

Even though we just started dating, the idea of the honeymoon is just too good to do just once in your life and to wait till after marriage for, ya know?  So, it was in Greece that we committed to each other to have “Infinite honeymoons.” That is a number of honeymoons that I can get behind.

The Ecology of Love

So, what is it about a place that makes it so damm romantic? I mean to be fair if you had a horrible relationship with someone and you went to Santorini, I don’t believe the setting will solve your problems. The Santorini sunset over Fira is only so powerful. But, if you are in love or teetering on the edge of love, then I feel like Santorini actually enhances the depth and texture of that feeling because Santorini embodies a lot of the qualities of love. 

The winding path around Fira, Santorini

First of all, Santorini is patient. What does it mean for an island to be patient? Well, as you walk around Santorini, it seduces you to slow down. It provides dramatic cliffs contrasted by calm clear blue waters that cause you to pause and take it all in. The romance is in the slowmance as I have never said before but am now typing. It really is. Santorini waits for you to refresh your eyes and your senses and the sensuality of slow is in waking up to the details of your lover and the delectable idiosyncrasies of your own unique love story. 

2nd of all, Santorini is kind. It is kind on the eyes with the way the human-made blends with the natural with its white and blue gentle architecture that hugs the curves of the natural land. It is kind on the heart as you are treated to a peacefulness and contentedness to savor the simple things that, despite Santorini having many luxury options, are totally free like a sunset, the warmth of the breeze, and the vastness of the ocean. And It is kindness from others-like the time Kait and I took the gondola down the cliff and despite my attempts to be supportive she was terrified and making quite a kerfuffle in our gondola and when we got off, the quiet lady in the one in front of us came over to us and said “I just want you to know I heard everything and I am glad you are okay.” 

On our Pirate Ship! Also notably the one time I am a “hair” taller than Kait.

3rd of all, Santorini is simple. We stayed at a place called Bedspot Hostel and despite having a name that does not connote luxury, we found it to be the perfect romantic boutique hostel. It was aesthetically designed with a majestic simplicity and an eye for the way in which the interior design can flow with the exterior beauty of the island. And later that day for our sunset cruise we made the choice to keep it simple by choosing a Pirate Ship over the more luxurious Catamaran. Also the Pirate Ship was somehow cheaper! So, we took that. We loved how simple it was. Us. Pirate Ship. The ship stopped at a Volcano to hike and then we took a dip in the clear refreshing water and then a simply delicious dinner on board as we watched the sunset. With all the hype about Santorini being so romantic it had a lot to live up to. And it surpassed those expectations.

Fira, Santorini during the day

Santorini was the most romantic place I have ever been and I kept falling more in love with Kait because the inner matched the outer, the environment matched the heart, and when the “Ecology of Love” is aligned, the depth of love is unbounded and expands the possibilities of the imagination. Now with the love I have for Kait I am certain that a honeymoon to Ohio would continue to deepen the love betwixt us but hey I’m just saying that Santorini has that special spark, that sparkle, that boom boom, that… you know what I’m trying to say. Or as one of the 2nd graders at the school I worked at Detroit Leadership Academy said about his heart after running around after a soccer ball “my boy be going boom boom boom right na.”

Jewelry for Your Heart

Santorini has so many glamorous little boutiques and as we walked around I was just noticing what caught Kait’s eye. In one boutique, there was one necklace in the shape of a pizza that Kait was like “Oooo I like that” when she saw it in the window of a jewelry shop. I noticed that, of course. I had been thinking how much I love Kait’s style – very elegant, minimalist, and simple. So, when she took a shower in the morning of our last day on Santorini, I quickly decided to make a run for it back to that jewelry shop to get that pizza slice necklace. And this was after a morning run we did together that involved us getting chased by three dogs, jumping a fence, and ended with us finding an ostrich farm right by the water of Santorini. So, I was already tired but I ran hard. And fast, And luckily it was right around the corner from our place. I ran back with the necklace in a box in my pocket and came back in the room right when Kait was coming out of the shower. It was the only time I have ever felt that I had something to hide from Kait and although it was a surprise for her I didn’t like that feeling. Jewelry is nice. Very shiny. Looks good sometimes with outfits. But the real jewelry for the heart is trust. It is safety. It is honesty. And that is the kind of jewelry that I will always give to Kait. The kind that makes the heart shine.

Learning Love Through Travel in Athens

Kait looking out over Monastiraki Square

Love at Airports

Views from the Rooftop of Love

 Rapid Tests Up the Butt

Love at Airports

There is a magnanimous scene in the beginning of the movie “Love Actually” that highlights how love is all around us, especially at airports.  If you pause and look around as you are standing at departures or arrivals, you will not just see tired travelers talking tersely about TSA or turbulence. All alliteration aside.. you will see love. It will warm your heartsicles. Airports could really be called loveports, airloveports, loveydoveyports…love is in the air ya know?  

It was only a few weeks ago that Kait and I started dating and then of course I invited her to go to Greece with me (or as she sometimes jokes I said “hey, do you want to go to Greece together?” the day we met right as she was peeing in front of me. More about that pee-tastic story can be found on our About US-triches page.

Air France, how dare you!

As a teacher, I had a long summer break and so I had already been relaxing in Greece a week before Kait got there. I was trying to become fluent in Greek and get my Grecian tan on before she arrived. The night before Kait was going to take flight she messaged me that all her flights were cancelled. I was like “Nooooooooooooo this can’t be happening!!” It just seemed so bizarre as it wasn’t related to a new Covid update or a world event that would cancel a flight. It must be a mistake, I thought. I was ready to head to the Athens airport to see how I could change her flight back, but then Kait texted me that she’s got this and not to worry. Kait soon later sent me a video of her laughing about how Air France was trying to stop her dating life being magical by trying to cancel her. I felt myself in awe of how Kait was handling this stressful situation. And then Kait called Air France and she got it reversed. Yay!!! A few minutes later, I went to a local shop to get two matching couple shirts screen printed with her now famous line on them “Umm ALL my flights were cancelled?”

And that is a t-shirt.

And then there I was standing in the Athens airport at arrivals waiting for Kait’s beautiful self to fly into my arms out of the sky. I was holding a volleyball that I had decorated for her arrival that said on it in sharpie “Welcome to Greece Kait!”  I looked around and found myself in good company. There was a hum of excitement amongst the crowd each time the arrivals door opened and passengers walked out to find their loved ones.  The guy in front of me had a whole thing of balloons. I was hoping Kait would see me through all those balloons. 

I ate a Reese’s so my breath would be chocolatey and then found a better spot to wait away from the balloons guy, so Kait would actually see me. As I was standing there, I was feeling BIG sparks in my heart of gratitude and excitement for the adventure about to begin. This moment that I had been wishing for had finally come true. I had travelled up to that point to almost 50 countries but I had never travelled in love. In fact, it had always been my dream to travel in love. To learn love through travel. In that moment when I saw on the arrivals screen that Kait’s flight had landed I felt like the whole world was about to be renewed to me and all of its magic again a surprise.

And then the door opened, and out flew Kait. We hugged and kissed deeply and in that moment I felt like we were in the opening scene of the movie “Love Actually.”

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate… General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends… If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling love, actually … is all around.” 

-Love Actually

Views from the Rooftop of Love

I have a lobster on my head.. cause love!

When we got out of the airport, I had a feeling we may find ourselves on a few rooftops. The first rooftop we explored was our own hostel – The Circus Hostel in the heart of Athens. We loved this circus-themed hostel complete with a dress up room, very cute circus-themed rooms, and a nice café and bar in the hostel…and free breakfast! What I loved most about it is when you go up to the roof and you can see the whole city of Athens and the Acropolis off in the distance. The view of the Acropolis from the Circus Hostel rooftop was gorgeous, especially at sunset. Two ostriches in love on a rooftop hugging while watching the sunset – that was UStriches!

Now even though many go to Athens to see the incredible amount of ancient history there, Kait and I mostly enjoyed just meandering around and getting lost in the vibrant colorful city taking in views from rooftops. We walked through the Monastiraki Square which was bustling. Some guys handed us bracelets as a invitation to a breakdancing competition that night. We decided to watch the festivities from above at a rooftop bar overlooking the square. It is one of my favorite pictures of all time – Kait looking out over the square with a wine glass in hand, her eyes wide with wonder and joy.

Views from the rooftops give you a larger perspective and appreciation of your part in the dance of life. It gives you the feeling of flying even if you are a flightless bird like an ostrich or a flightless human. The rooftop of love is this perspective of the rush of the wind supporting your wings to go to new heights and sights together. When you are on a good rooftop you have a chance to see things from a “birds-eye” view. Kait is pretty much a bird and if she is a bird – I’m a bird. Before we got to Greece, Kait and I tried to find rooftop bars for many of our dates because we both loved the feeling up there. The air is clearer up there, you can get away with farts up there more often, and the view allows you to breathe more deeply between farts and gather some perspective on life and love. To be in love and to feel it fully is the greatest gift. It was on the rooftops of Athens that Kait and I really began learning love through travel.

Rapid Tests Up the Butt

Kait and I at the airport in our matching Air France outfits!

This love fest inaugural trip began in Athens and then ended in Athens…but what happened in between is scintillating content for more blog posts coming soon in the next few weeks; Learning Love through travel in Santorini, Learning Love Through Travel in Mykonos, and Learning Love through Travel in Hydra! The first two by me and the second two by Kait/Pidge…only ordered this way because we chose the cities we wanted to write on and then organized our posts by the order we visited them.

On our last day of the trip, I remember feeling sad that it was ending but mostly grateful that it had happened. And I knew it was only the end of the beginning of our travel adventures so I felt so much joy. We got to the Athens airport over 4 hours early for our return flight – just as my parents would have liked just to be safe to make sure we didn’t miss our international flight. We first had to get our Covid rapid tests before going through security and soon found ourselves in a line that was no more than 15 people long. Great, we will be through this in no time – maybe “rapidly” I thought. Little did we know that the line would cause us to miss our flight. At some point about 2.64 hours into waiting and barely moving in line, Kait and I decided we needed to take action. I swooped over to the Air France desk and convinced the manager to move our flights to tomorrow free of charge and Kait checked in with her work and made it okay for us to stay one more day. Then I quickly booked an AirBnB right near the airport. There was a couple in front of us in line who persistently were making negative comments and complaining about this line and their trip and honestly their whole lives. They did have a point about the line but I remember when Kait turned to me and said “promise me we won’t ever be like that couple.” And I promised. I was learning how important it is to work together with your partner to make the best out of unexpected situations and at the right point try to find the humor in it all. I loved how Kait and I worked as a team to deal with missing our flight and honestly I felt lucky to have one more day with her in Greece – yay! 

When we got into the last part of the Covid line, Kait and I started laughing really hard. It was just everything. And the couple in front of us looked so uncomfortable with us having fun despite this whole situation. I love that about us. We dealt with a challenging situation and had a good time doing it. Then we got into the Covid test room together and we joke now that Kait almost dropped her pants for the nurse to do an anal covid test even though it was a nasal swab test. I mean what actually happened was Kait just took off her mask completely and wiggled her nostrils and was like too ready and the nurse told her to put her mask back on and anyway you had to be there. We laughed our way out of there and then had a quick facetime call with Kait’s mom who doesn’t believe there should be any space between the phone and her face on calls. I guess she takes the idea of “Face-Time” seriously and I appreciate that. 

One more day in Athens – Delicious 🙂

We went out of the airport to our nearby AirBnB and then went out to a local beach to swim and relax in an area called Marco Polo. I was so grateful for one more day in Athens with Kait and to have a day at a local hot spot was a real treat. We hung out at a café for some delectable delights after swimming and I remember how we had some deep conversations over beers and treats each sharing about our dreams and what we want in this life. Time felt slow and cozy.

Watching Flights Coming in Together!

We then got a few beers from the local market and made our way back to our AirBnB to get ready for a short night. We had to get up at 4am to get to the airport so that we wouldn’t miss a second international flight! When we got back to the AirBnB we opened our balcony and found that it had an amazing view of the airport landing runway. We watched planes land during the sunset while playing a card game we love called Egyptian Rat Screw.  I remember looking over at Kait and beaming in pure delight.

Yup, that is a home-made heart lovers double travel pillow folks.

We made it to the airport the next morning at butt o’clock and had a smooth journey back. I remember pretty much making out with Kait the whole flight and at some point Kait was joking with the flight attendant that she didn’t know me, even though I was sitting in her lap, and that I needed to be moved to the back of the plane. Right before landing, we were watching Titanic together, (as lovers do of course), and Kait wrote on a napkin how she was falling for me. I wrote something back to her that I felt with total certainty more than anything else I know for sure in this world.  “I love you Kait”. 

Then of course we made out the whole landing.

Pidge’s Corner

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