Finale...

Of all places... I´m in the Madrid Airport´s business lounge for platinum fliers for American Airlines, in between Iberian flights on my way from Athens to Minneapolis... and I´ve never even signed up for frequent flyer miles... Turns out one of the dudes I met in Corfu was on my flight to Madrid and is on my next to Chicago, and he can bring a guest in. I gotta get hooked up with a platinum membership- free internet, grub, cocktails, tv, newspapers... the only way to pass the time in a layover.

With my last day in Ios to myself, as Ben headed home a day before I, I took it easy: chilled on the beach, went it to town for some last-minute gifting, and went on a date with a Belgian girl who was also traveling alone. It was quite a pleasant farewell.

The trip on the whole- pretty much what I´d expected it to be once the plans were in place.

I have been pretty damn successful living my life with minimal regrets to date. This trip has not steered me off course. Nonetheless, there are a few choices I would made done differently given my budget and time...
- spent one day in athens and seen another island
- bought the right train ticket to the athens airport (painful story)
- purchased a 6-day eurail pass and coughed up extra dough if we needed to, rather than an 8-day pass to give us (unnecessary) cushion
- brought a female - not ben - to santorini... i love you man, but seeing you topless on the most romantic beaches i´ve ever seen just isn´t the same
- taken more EMAIL ADDRESSES. so stupid. i met so many people, made some pretty solid connections given the circumstances (relaxed atmosphere and condensed time frames...and aboundnig inebriation), but I was a compelte and utter failure at doing what was necessary to maintain those relationships. it´s so valuable to have a connection in san francisco or athens or london or wherever. idiot.

Biggest learnings/takeaways?
- a much more realistic grasp on how big the world is. I now know that I literally CANNOT imagine in my mind what places like Egypt and Laos and South Africa and the Philippines are like.
- don't travel with anyone who loves good food as much as you... otherwise the food budget stretches its belly a bit.
- when backpacking... don't try to get by on a used bath towel for 5 weeks - especially when hitting the beach.
- language is power. both ability to speak multiples and the accent you carry - it speaks volumes about your world and your worldliness.

athens...again?!

t minus one hour from my second of three departures from athens' airport. currently getting all my pictures from my memory card dumped onto a CD, serving two purposes- 1) backup. 2) ability to use my camera since benny SAT on his screen a couple of days ago, keeping the camera in tact but destroying the screen. shit. hopefully our pics have been turning out. technology- can't live with it nor without it.

lazy night in athens last night... we'd seen all we needed to see and a full day on the beach left us pretty gassed.

looking forward to more sand in my toes later today. tomorrow is either volcano and hot springs tour or more 4-wheelers.

not really looking forward to coming home. after meeting all the different travellers i have hearing about 3,4,5,9 month expeditions.... i wish i had that kind of time. everything in moderation i suppose...

don't have to be royalty to stay at the PINK PALACE!!

what a time in corfu... our recommendations to stay at the pink palace could not have been more spot on. while it's not the cheapest place in the world, they see thousands of backpackers a year and know exactly what you need (seeing as how 30 of the 100 person staff are backpackers themselves). 3 days jam-packed with cliff jumping, booze cruising, 4-wheeling, bat caving, sun-bathing, wave-playing, toga partying, plate-breaking, greek dancing, yamas-ing.... what a great island. throw a few hundred english-speaking backpackers together with sun, beach, and booze... the kind of fun i've found nowhere else. shame we have to leave. and back to ATHENS of all places!! (we've got a 20-hour layover on our way to santorini, so are spending the night in a different-and cheaper- hostel than before)

in hindsight, i might have not booked our entire gretian tour before we left. time is a hot commodity for us, but we've got LOTS of first-hand advice from fellow travellers to take a slightly different path than we are. but... we're in gretian paradise so i'm full of nothin but smiles.

off to island number 2