Ode to the Grecian Sun..

Eric and I planned on going to Greece for out 16th Wedding Anniversary...ok. Let me go back. When we married on September 17th, 2005, we wanted to go Greece for our honeymoon. We could make it happen. We spend too much on the wedding, over 75K, and the honeymoon had to scale down. But Greece was always on our must visits. We finally went, October 11 - October 14th '2021, after Eric's death. I went to continue the plans we made. My mom and I went to honor him, release his ashes in the Agaen sea. However the plan changed just a tad.

I checking the weather feverishly. I wanted it to be perfect, beautiful, but the weather forecast was not aligning with my hopes. My Mom told me that since we're going to an island, the weather can change at any moment, stop trying to control something you can't. So I tried my best not to look at the weather. When we arrived in Athens, it was partly cloudy. When we arrived in Santorini, it was cloudy and I thought it was going to rain, but it didn't. It turned out to be absolutely beautiful with some of the most majestic sunsets I've ever seen, more on that later. We landed safely and were picked up on time and headed to our beautiful accommodations. What I noticed about the island is that it's dry, not really green. It's some disarray due to the '2008 economic crisis. They have not fully recovered. I wondered and asked my mother, why are the most beautiful places ladened with poverty and under duress? But that's a whole other blog.

We stayed at Maregio Suites in Oia. Santorini is made up of many villages: Imerovigli, which is higher in the mountains, Fira and Oia to name a few. There are plenty more and twice as many churches, but I'll get to that later as well. Our Jr. suite was perfect. We arrived with champagne and roses in the room. I provided the hotel with our backstory as to why we are visiting. And they were very accommodating. They knew I wanted to spread some of Eric's ashes, but knew that since Greek law recently changed regarding cremation, it might not be feasible to spread ashes and you couldn't just spread them anywhere. So we opted for the roses instead. I would go down to the bay, which is a 392 stair trek and release some of them in the water to honor my husband. But back to the room, which was amazing, it was like a cave house. It was all white washed with marble floors, and open concept for the kitchenette, bed, sofa and living area. the bath was behind the bedroom and very large. The room came with a jacuzzi pool, chaise lounge chairs and a table with chairs, for breakfast. Breakfast came with the room, which was great, one less meal we'd have to worry about.

When we arrived, all we wanted to do is relax soak in the village and have some room service. We unpacked, not everything, and started to relax a bit. Then the sunset, wow, the sunset, it was, as I said before, majestic. Everyone travels to Oia for the sunsets and I can see why, it's worth the trek and has the most amazing sunset views I've ever seen. The only thing I would say about the hotels in Oia is that there is some lack of privacy, since everyone is there to take pictures with and of the sunset. There is a trail, that is above our hotel, filled with people waiting for it. Our first night there, there were droves. I'm glad we went in shoulder season, because if it was high season it would have been madness.

Back to the sunset, I did a separate blog on how they are like life. I think I'm in this mode of comparing everything to life since my husband's passing. The sun stayed high for some time and then it started to set slowly, changing color as it descended into the horizon in Greece and prepares itself for the new life it will have in another time zone. As I've stated before, majestic, my vocabulary is limited. How about awe-inspiring, striking or alluring. What ever word I use would not be even close to what I witnessed. And I must add that first day was the best sunset days we had. The remaining days we were there, the sunsets were ok, but nothing like that first day. Every sunset, every day was amazing as "Eric's eternal summer has not faded" and never will.