Introducing Project Joy

Yesterday was not a great day at work. One of those days where you start to wonder if you really chose the right profession. Those feelings always pass, but sometimes people can really ruin your day, your confidence, and your self-worth. Joy thieves. They are rampant.

However, not everyday is this way. On Monday I had a patient, an 11 year old boy, and he was by far and away the happiest person I believe I have ever met. Seriously. This little boy was so happy about everything. School was great, he loved fifth grade because he had the best teacher ever. He loved learning, learning was fun. Coming to the dentist was fun and he loved getting to pick out his flavor of fluoride. Fluoride was the coolest part of the dentist. Picking out a Halloween costume had been the event of the weekend. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas - he couldn't pick a favorite holiday because each one was special. He wasn't just hyper or little-kid-excited. This little boy was genuinely happy about anything and everything. I kept thinking to myself, "Man, if I had this much joy...." Joy is really the proper word to use. This little boy had so much joy for the world. For life. Often times I have children as patients and I find myself rolling my eyes or feeling frustrated. Instead, this little guy was interesting to talk to, and his joy was contagious. Just being around someone like that made my day better. I was in such a great mood after chatting with this patient. Wow. How much better would the world be if we were all like this? If we could just ooze joy?

This weekend I was sitting on the couch in my pjs drinking a cup of coffee while flipping through a magazine. It was nearing that time of day when you should consider taking a shower and changing into real clothes. As is typical for me on a Sunday, I felt a bit of melancholy at that moment. Showering and putting on clothes would signal the downward spiral of my weekend into Monday. After the real clothes go on it is only a few hours before the laziness ends and the workweek begins. I'm never quite prepared to part with my lazy Sunday. I enjoy having those few hours of me time to do whatever I want - read a book, play online, find a vacation deal, online shop, watch a movie. I don't like it to end. Right around this moment I came across an article in my magazine which was talking about how you can help improve your mood and find long lasting happiness if you consciously name things you are grateful for every day. I read that, thought about it, and then named off five (somewhat trival) things I was grateful for... and wouldn't you know, thinking of those things made me feel a little spurt of happiness. Hmmm. Crazy how that works.

This leads me to the point at hand. For the last few years I have had friends on Facebook who post something they are thankful for everyday during the month of November - a 30 days of thanks. Not that these posts are earth-shattering - a lot of them are, "Day 13 - I am thankful for naps." But. Forcing yourself to find something to be thankful and grateful for each day can't be a bad thing. Maybe by having some self reflection I can bring a little bit more joy to myself, and possibly to others.

So, I introduce to you Project Joy: Kirsten's 30 Days of Thanks. I know it might be a stretch of me to blog every day of the month of November when some months I only post once in the entire month... but I am up for the challenge. Stay tuned. Maybe you'll find yourself with a bit more joy.

Halloween Party

I worked on Saturday (insert large sigh here), which isn't my favorite thing to do... but after work one of my co-workers hosted a Halloween party. This is the first Halloween party we've attended since we've lived over here. We've been invited to a few, but the invitations either haven't worked out timing wise, or they have been too last minute for us to make plans to go. This party, however, I had about a month to plan for. But I didn't. Sadly, I'm not on of those people who searches for ideas of a costume, then spends countless hours assembling the pieces. Hats off to those of you who are that kind of person, because your costumes usually rock. I am just not that creative. I'm also incredibly lazy. I was also spoiled as a child, and my mother who is incredibly crafty and creative made me my costumes (which were always awesome). I find myself between a rock and a hard place - I won't spend the money to order a costume online, but I don't want to take the time to construct one from scratch. For this party I had originally thought I would spend the time/effort to come up with costumes for Josh and I... but that thought went out the window when we got home from our cruise. I was tired and had other things to do. Fast forward to two days before the party and I was scrambling to come up with ideas which would be easy and require no work. I finally came up with some, and they were a huge hit.

Presenting the crazy cat lady and white trash.

Planning the Parents Trip - Part Two

I had started to share the details of my parent's upcoming trip in an earlier post. Now it is less than a month until they arrive, and I realized earlier this week I needed to hurry up and finish getting their trip planned - especially anything which needed a reservation. Prior to leaving on our cruise, I had made the executive decision that after our few days in Berlin we were going to go to Dresden. Similar to Berlin, I had found a good hotel deal which made it hard to pass up. I debated staying in Dresden one day, or going for two. Rick Steves (my constant "advisor" of European travel) says Dresden can be done in one day. However, when I thought about travel time to the city in addition to the things I wanted to see and do, I decided to plan to have two days in Dresden. I've heard the Christmas markets in Dresden are beautiful and plentiful, so I didn't want to rush through that either, he he. This would occupy about a week of my parent's trip, but there was still a few days to fill. I suggested many different ideas of things we could do and was leaving it up to my parents to decide.

Then I got an email from Edelweiss. We have stayed at Edelweiss both with my parents and with Josh's. It is a beautiful resort in Bavaria, and we've always enjoyed our time there. The email I received was talking about winter sport specials and was highlighting skiing in Bavaria. Josh and I both grew up skiing, but haven't been in many years. We've talked about going skiing while we are over here - to fulfill every skier's dream of being able to say they have skied the Alps. I threw the idea out there for my parents. My dad still skis, but my mom gave it up a few  years ago after multiple knee injuries. I suggested that Josh and Dad could ski while mom and I did Christmas markets in the area. They thought this sounded like a fun idea. I had told them to think on it, then tell me what they wanted to do. But... then my mom got sick and we left on vacation. I never officially got an answer until earlier this week. So, I made reservations for four days for us at Edelweiss. This should (hopefully) give the boys two days of skiing if the weather/snow cooperates. I am hoping it will for them. There is always a lot of things to do if the snow/skiing doesn't pan out. But, Dad can check skiing the Alps off his list, and we can have fun as well.

After Edelweiss we will come back to our house to re-group and let Josh get ready for going back to work. There will be a few days where we can be lazy around the house, or we can choose to go to some local area sites or Christmas markets depending on how everyone is feeling and what we want to do.

I'm excited for them to get here and have some fun! I'm also feeling better now that I've got everything (mostly) planned out.

Greek Island Cruise Part Three

For our fourth day - third port - was Chania, Crete. As with the rest of our days, we were up early and some of the first people off the ship. We took a local bus from the port into Chania, about a 20 minute ride. When we got into Chania it was still early and none of the shops were open. We started wandering around the town as the sun was rising. We found a small hill to climb up and look over the town/take pictures. The vantage point gave us a great view, especially with the sunrise.

Then we headed down to the harbor, which is a beautiful area full of shops, cafes, and an old lighthouse. We walked out to the lighthouse, which was on the other side of the harbor. It was a longer walk than we thought it would be, but it made for a good way to see/take pictures of the waterfront. The lighthouse itself is closed and you can't go in it, but it was still a picture-perfect area.

We went from the harbor area into Old Town, which again, was a maze of streets around shops. I liked Chania's Old Town better than Split or Corfu - I felt there was more charm than the others. I also felt the people of Chania were more friendly and open to tourists.

As we walked the sun was becoming more and more intense. I felt like I could feel my part burning. In each port there had been many market stands and shops selling hats - and with the sun, I could see why. The first day I had giggled at all the hats, the second day I considered one, and on the third day I bought one. At first I felt kind of goofy wearing it... but I could feel less sun on myself, and well... I didn't stand out compared to anyone else walking around.

After exploring most of the "tourist" areas, we decided to take a glass bottom boat ride. The boat took us out into the bay. During a warmer time they offer time to stop for people to swim/snorkel. It's not that it wasn't warm, but no one on the boat had prepared by bringing/wearing a swimming suit. But an employee of the boat company did go snorkeling to feed the fish under the boat so we could see them. Although the tour was only an hour, it was neat to see the fish and see another view of the town from the water. We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting at a cafe. We split a Greek salad and then had gyros. I've always been a fan of Greek food, but I'm pretty sure the salad we had was one of the best things I've ever eaten. Then as usual, we went back to the ship and got ready for trivia, followed by dinner. That night the show was a violin player... and we decided to skip it.

The next day we arrived in Santorini. I will say this was the stop I was most excited about. Santorini is the spot most people think of when they think of Greece - picture-perfect white houses, blue domed churches. Santorini was a little different from our other ports as we needed tenders - the ship was anchored off shore, and we had to take smaller boats or "tenders" into the island. Because of the need to take tenders and the limit of only being able to load/unload one tender at a time, I was concerned about getting off the ship. But, there was no reason to worry. We were on the first tender that left the ship around 7:30. We had to sit on the tender for about ten minutes while they loaded all the other passengers- and the inside of the tender was hot and the boat was rocking with the waves. It was the only occasion on the whole trip where I had to convince myself NOT to get sick. Once the boat was loaded we made it to the island within five minutes. The town is set on the top of a cliff-face. To reach the town you have the choice to climb up a switch-back path made of 600 stairs, ride a donkey (the donkeys share the path with people who walk), or take a cable car. For obvious reasons, we chose to ride the cable car (which is basically like a chair-lift) to the top.

Santorini is the name of the island. The picture-perfect white houses are actually from two towns on the island - Fira and Oia. Oia is the town which is photographed the most and probably what people think of when they think of Greece. Fira was the town the cable car led us to. My plan was for us to take the bus to Oia first before the crowds arrived in the town. It took us a bit to find the bus station as we kind of got disoriented along the streets. But, we found our bus and took the half hour ride over to Oia. When you looked at the island from the ship, Fira and Oia seem close together. However, to reach Oia the roads lead inland, so the drive takes about thirty minutes. We got to Oia as the sun was trying to peak through the rain clouds. We were some of the first people over to this town, so we took advantage of the quiet to get our pictures. Santorini is the beauty it is suppose to be.

After our photo surfari through Oia, the crowds were starting to show up. The day we were in Santorini we were one of three cruise ships, so there was probably close to 6,000 or so people trying to wander through the small, cramped streets. Everyone was flocking to Oia to get their pictures, and it was starting to get crowded. We decided to take the bus back to Fira to look around there. The bus was full of people who all got off in Oia, so when we climbed on for the return trip we were some of the few headed back to the other side of the island.

However, there was no escaping the crowds. Because the morning was now creeping into afternoon, more and more people were making their way to the island. Fira isn't quite as pretty as Oia, but there are more shops. Well, Oia has shops, but most of the shops I saw were mainly tourist trinket shops. Fira had more options for jewelry, clothes, ect. We were wandering through the streets when we passed by a leather shoe store (one of the items Greece is known for - leather sandals). I saw a unique pair of leather sandals unlike anything I've ever seen. At first I hesitated - the shoes were 72 Euros. Not a price tag a cheap-skate like me is willing to consider. We wandered to some other shops, but I couldn't stop thinking about these shoes. I've never seen a pair of shoes like this before. Honestly, how many times in my life would I be able to say I got handmade leather shoes in Santorini? So I let my cheap side go and went to purchase my special shoes. I am so glad I did. I wore them to dinner twice on the ship and both times received many compliments.While I was shopping Josh had found a bakery and bought himself a HUGE slice of baklava. I tried a bite - it was amazing, but extremely rich. One bite was perfect for me. Needless to say, I could have bought ten pairs of shoes... since Josh had baklava, he was happy.

 

The next morning the ship pulled into Mykonos. Right away as we walked to the bus you could tell it wasn't going to be the best weather day. The wind was howling, there were clouds threatening to rain, and the sea was the roughest it had been for the whole trip. In fact another cruise ship attempted to pull into port, but had to leave as it was too rough for them to safely dock. As usual, we were some of the first people off the boat, and as we wandered through the town most of the shops were still closed and it was quiet. However, I like it this way. It is kind of nice to see a place without a ton of people or noise. We had an activity planned for later in the morning, so we toured through the town first. Like Santorini, Mykonos had lots of white building with colorful accents. As you can tell by my pictures, I quite enjoyed this. Mykonos is also well known for the four old windmills which stand at the side of town. We met a mom and daughter from our ship who were also out early taking pictures. They were kind enough to take a picture of us by the windmills.

After cruising through the town, we went to hop on a boat to take us to the island of Delos. Delos is on an island right by Mykonos - the boat ride there was about thirty minutes. Back in the day Delos was a bustling port, but the ancient Greeks worried about competition and conflict, so the residents of Delos were ordered to leave the island. Fast forward a couple of thousand years and what is left of the area is in ruins. It is like an ancient Greek ghost town. The ride out to the island was rough - the wind was still howling and the sea was full of waves. We went wandering through the ruins of the city. For the most part you had free reign to walk wherever you wanted to. In some areas it was easy to tell what things where - to distinguish between a house or some sort of temple. But this is one area which might have been better to have had a tour guide to explain things better or elaborate on what we were looking at. It was interesting to see, and hard to imagine an area which had been built up was just abandoned.

We hit a point where we could walk back down to the rest of the settlement, or we could continue up to the top of the mountain. At the top of the mountain was supposed to be a temple/shrine to Zeus. I had assumed Josh would want to hike up there. I was surprised when he said he didn't want to. I was even more surprised when I decided I wanted to. I convinced Josh to hike up there with me. The walk up wasn't that bad - it definitely got your heart rate up, but the path was a slower incline made up of long stairs. The most difficult part was the stairs were from ancient times, so the rock pieces were uneven. You really had to watch and pick where you stepped so you didn't lose your footing.

 

Where we were headed

All I could think was no wonder those ancient Greeks were in good shape! 

So I huffed and puffed my way up to the top of this mountain. More than once I thought about how I was hot and tired and how I was out of shape and hated hiking. But I made it to the top. I, Kirsten Lehman, self-proclaimed lazy fat ass, made it to the top of the mountain. I was rewarded with some breathtaking views. By far and away, being at the top of the mountain was one of the highlights of this trip for me. 

At the top we had a decision to make - we could hurry down to make the next boat back to Mykonos, or we could take our time, wander through more of the ruins, and go to the museum. It was windy and you could tell the rain was on its way. We decided to hurry back to the boat. The only spots left to sit were outside next to the railing. By this time the sea was even rougher than it had been in the morning. With every wave the boat hit I would get splashed with spray. I was a touch on the wet side. When we got to Mykonos we had enough time to grab some lunch before the rain started. We decided with our walking that morning we'd seen all we wanted to, so we went back to the ship. I'm glad we did, because as we got back it started to pour. Josh went to the gym, but I took a hot shower to warm up and to wash all the salt water and tangles out of my hair. Josh and I both agreed we liked Mykonos better than Santorini - I think were were somewhat swayed by the crowds we encountered in Santorini. Mykonos is a summer time beach destination, and although I'm not always a big beach person, I could see myself wanting to go back.

The next morning we arrived in Athens. When I was doing my research, it seemed to get from the port into Athens required either taking a train (while inexpensive, the schedule wasn't clear and couldn't be promised because of the government/financial issues Greece has had) or by taxi (but many tour books warned of negotiating with taxi drivers. However, we spoke with passengers who used taxis and had a wonderful experience). I had decided in advance to use an excursion, and I'm glad I did. In the morning we were taken from the ship to a bus. Our tour guide was already on the bus. The ride into Athens took about 45 minutes, but the whole time our tour guide was talking about Athens, about the history, and about the sites we would see. When we got into the city we made a stop at the modern Olympic stadium. We basically had enough time to get out, take a picture, and then we left. This was plenty for me. 

We then went to the new Acropolis Museum. It was recently built right below the Acropolis. There were quite a few tour groups there and a large school group, so it was a little crowded. But, it was nice to go through the museum with a tour guide. I feel she explained things further and in more detail than the written museum explanations would have. She also explained what certain aspects of the museum or how things were laid out or what they were suppose to represent. I definitely got more out of the museum having a tour guide. After the museum we were taken down to the Plaka, which is the shopping district in Athens. We had a scheduled lunch stop - more delicious Greek food - and then had an hour of free time to go shopping. I did find a treasure while I was shopping. I got a white gold ring which has the Greek Key on it. A lot of the jewelry in Greece had the Greek Key. I liked this ring because it was a flat band, but had the key, and it was a unique shape. I couldn't get a good picture of the ring with my camera. However, this is what the Greek Key looks like.

After our time in the Plaka (which I could have easily had more time at. Not that I needed to shop more, but it was interesting) we were taken to the Acropolis. Our tour guide explained the reason why she does the museum first and then the actual Acropolis in the afternoon is there are less people. There were still some people there, but it probably was less crowded than it would have been in the morning. I was grateful again to have a tour guide - I feel I got so much more out of our time. Had Josh and I gone on our own I would have seen everything, but I probably wouldn't have understood as much about it as I did with a tour guide. Everyone had told us what a hike it was up to the Parthenon. I really didn't think it was. It was also 75 and not 100 degrees outside... but I still didn't think the walk up there was that bad. Besides, it is a once in a lifetime thing to see.

By the time we got back on our bus and got back to the ship the day was over - the ship left about a half hour later. I was prepared to not like Athens - you hear plenty of negative things about. I surprised myself and really enjoyed my time there. Josh and I agreed it would be nice to go back to have some time to do some museums and see some more history. The one thing I took away from Athens, which really applies to the whole situation in Greece right now, is how run-down things are. You can see where there were, at one point, nice buildings, but it is like there was no maintenance done to keep things up. Even our tour guide talked about how there was no real planning for things. Athens hosted the 2004 Olympics, and many new stadiums/sport complexes were built. However, many of them today stand abandoned. Buildings which cost millions of Euros to build are now just standing there. There was no plan in place for what to do afterwards.... or that plan didn't follow-thru. We saw that in many areas in Greece. It seems things are either brand new, or completely run-down and in disarray. Just... interesting food for thought I guess.

That evening was our last formal dinner. For a person who doesn't dress up often, I really enjoyed dressing up for our dinners. There was something about having an occasion to get dressed up which was fun. It was also nice to see Josh in his suits because he is so handsome in them. As a small side note - I am a little disappointed we didn't get any formal pictures of ourselves. On the two formal nights we dressed up, but didn't want to stand/pose for a picture outside the dining room. We did get our pictures taken by the photographer who walked around the dining room, however in all of those pictures we looked a bit "deer in the headlights." Sigh. Oh well, we did get some good photos of us... but more on that later. After dinner we watched a show in the center/lobby area of the ship, and it was an aerialist show - one of my favorites. It was neat to watch them perform in such a unique space.

The next morning we arrived in our last port - Katakolon. I had arranged for us to take an excursion here as well. In the morning a bus took us from Katakolon to Olympia, which was original site of the Olympics. We had a tour through the original Olympic grounds. The grounds were quite crowded as we were not the only ship in port that day, and going to Olympia is about the only thing to do in Katakolon. I once again found myself really appreciating having a tour guide at this site. I got so much more out of our visit and learned a lot more than I would have if we had tried to do it on our own.

 

This is where they light the Olympic torch every two years

Tunnel entryway to track

Entrance to the tunnel

The track

The track

The original starting line

 

 After viewing the Olympic grounds we went to the museum. Again, it was nice to get a tour guide, especially for this museum. After our time in the museum we had some free time to go shopping or get lunch. I managed to do both. While Josh found a place for us to eat, I found a sterling silver bracelet and earrings to match my ring. I was quite proud of myself. We ended up having to inhale our lunch (more delicious Greek food) to make it back to the bus in time, but it was worth it.

When we got back to the port we still had a few hours before the ship left. The town of Katakolon has shops which basically line one street right outside of the marina. We decided to wander past the shops to see if there was anything we couldn't live without (there wasn't). We got back on board and got ready for dinner and our show.

Our last day on the ship was an at sea day as we cruised back to Venice. We didn't have any major plans for the day. Josh was a good boy and went to the gym in the morning (side note -because he was a good boy and ate healthy and worked out every day, Josh actually lost weight on our cruise. He did have dessert every night - in fact some nights he had double desserts. He also had about two glasses of wine each night But, I'm impressed with his metabolism. Lucky). While he did that I sat outside and read. We met up to play Bingo later in the morning. I had a touch of my Grandma Shirley's luck and won the first game of bingo, and ended up winning enough money to pay for our Bingo cards. However, that is where my luck ended, but I'll take what I can get. After lunch we went to the adult only indoor pool. Josh swam, and I sat in a chair looking out to the ocean and read. It was a really nice relaxing end to the day. Going to dinner that night was bittersweet. It was kind of sad to say goodbye to everyone and wish them luck on their trips home. We went to watch the farewell show. First there was a juggler, who I could have done without seeing, but then they had the ships dancers and singers do a last performance, which was nice. It was hard to believe the vacation was over and we had to pack. We went back to the room, packed up our bags, and set them outside the door. We set one last alarm.

In the morning we were up early and went to eat breakfast. We went to our assigned meeting spot at the assigned time, and we were actually released early. Our luggage was already sitting out waiting for us. We then re-traced our steps back to the plaza to catch the bus back to the airport. We checked in for our flight quite early and had a few hours to sit reading. We had a beautiful landing into Germany - since we left the fall colors have blossomed on the trees and the sun was shining. One small damper was when we got out to Josh's truck the battery was dead. We're not sure why or how it happened as we didn't leave the lights on. I was thinking to myself, "Great, all I want is to get home and relax, but we'll probably be here another hour." Josh went to walk back to the terminal to see if there was someone who could help us and ran into some Americans. They happened to have some jumper cables and came over to give us a jump. I was surprised that I recognized the people - my parents and I had met them over a year ago when we were on our brewery tour down at Edelweiss. Small world and thankful to see a familiar face!!

My only on-board purchase (beyond Bingo cards and wine) was some photos. As I said, I wasn't happy with any of our formal ones, but there was a nice picture from our first night at dinner. At each port the camera men are waiting like vultures to take your picture. It's pretty annoying, and whenever possible we would try to avoid the photographers. More than once they grabbed us to force us into a picture. So more than once we did some fake enthusiastic photos, which turned out hilarious. Excuse the quality of these as they are a photo of a photo... but...

So... to wrap it up... we had an amazing trip. It was everything I could have hoped it would be. I got to see/do everything I had wanted to. I had looked at this cruise at first as a floating/moving hotel, which is what it was. It was the perfect way to see Greece as each morning we would wake up in a new place. However, I also like the aspect of cruising, the atmosphere of it. The food, meeting different people, having activities, shows, games.... We really liked it. I think cruising is like a lot of things, you have to try it to know if you will like it. Josh and I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of our trip. I think we are hooked and we're more excited now for our cruise in February. In fact... I spent a good chunk of this morning researching cruise possibilities for our next cruise after February... A fun and great way to travel. As I said in an earlier post, every decision I made regarding this trip I made for a reason, and I'm really pleased with how it all turned out. If anyone is interested in going on a cruise, I believe it can be affordable and fun as long as you do your research before-hand and decide what is best and most important to you.