To start, here’s the email log that Mike sent to keep everyone up to date on the trip. There were separate messages each day, I cut and paste them together for this post. all posts and pictures are from Mike’s Blackjack phone.
—–Original Message—–
From: “Michael J. Bruckner”
To: “Steve Crowley” ; “Joe & Al Deluca” ; “Steve DeLuca”
Cc: “Pete Kostakis”
Sent: 6/1/2007 8:37 PM
Subject: Mike and Pete in Greece
Day 1 complete
Pete and I survived our day in Athens and even found time for some backgammon. If you look closely at the background of the picture you can see the Parthenon (OK you cant but trust us we are in Athens, not LBI). Our next pic will be of the great scenery and there has been plenty – Pete even saw an incredibly hot Asian chick who spoke Greek. My Greek is coming along nicely – I hold up money and everyone seems to understand me.
Yasas (thats Greek for adios)
Mike
Michael Bruckner
Day 2 complete in Santorini…..
Highlights -
- Pete almost drowns when he realizes he cant touch the bottom of the Med when we go swimming off the boat we went sailing on to an active volcano
- Mike almost causes a 14 donkey pile up when his donkey goes head on into oncoming donkeys while riding them up from the volcano
- Backgammon continues with another Greek national treasure nearby
- International drunkie call from Steve D and Wally at unknown time in the am kicks the day off with a bang
Tommorow we hit the beach – will try to send backgammon pics with more treasures in the background
Michael Bruckner
Day 3 was another great day in Santorini. We saw some ancient ruins (no backgammon allowed using the ruins for a table top – go figure) and then some modern ruins at the beach (why is it that the ones you want to see topless are not and the ones you dont want to see are – Steve D called this one).
Mike went scuba diving only to find out that the greek theory of not hassling over little things like safety or pre-planning extends to scuba diving – not a good thing. The dive was only ok – hard to compare to the great barrier reef though.
Day 4 we have our first major hiccup…….
Day 4 started well. We checked out of our hotel and rented ATVs and cruised the island – neither Pete nor I crashed, ruining the Vegas oddsmakers line of 3 crashes. Then the fun started. Upon our arrival at the port for our ferry to Crete, we learned that the ferry line we had tickets for had been canceled – not our particular ferry that day, but the whole friggin line (interestingly Pete checked the blackberry and they are still booking seats on it). There was another ferry 1 hour later – but it was full. We were told the next ferry was at 4 am and to a different city in Crete than we wanted. Pete worked his Greek magic to get us a ride to and from the port and a hotel room for a few hours near the beach. So it is now 5 am and we are sitting on a boat in the Med playing some sleepy backgammon (a back and forth match so far) and thus the attached picture. Next update from Crete (hopefully).
Day 5/6 – We meet Pete’s family
Day 5 was a nice recovery from the ferry fiasco. We made it by boat and bus from Santorini to Agios Nicolas (Crete) on the ferry and then took the bus to Iraklion and saw the temple everyone says is a must see – it was interesting. We then got on another bus and headed to Chania where Pete’s family lives. They all seemed very nice. One issue – when Pete said that most of them spoke at least some English what he really meant was “I am the only one who knows any English”
Day 7 – The Hike
Our final day of the Mike and Pete Show was a great one. We got up at 6 am and met Pete’s uncle outside the apt with his bus. He took us to the bus station where we were comp’ed the bus tickets up to Samaria Gorge (membership has its privileges). We started our 11 mile hike by
descending 5000 feet on rocky switchbacks to the Gorge floor where we hiked next to a stream where the gorge opening was only 10 feet wide but the cliffs were 1000 feet high. It was incredible. The backgammon games were a bit tough in the gorge. For those of you wondering what the over/under was for Mike on the number of rocks tripped or stumbled over – forget it, it was the over. The importatnt thing is neither of us died (distinct possibility) and Pete fulfilled his planning task of getting us to and from the gorge.
Yasas (goodbye in Greek), I’m off to Italia.
PS – we also included some local scenery that was requested.
Michael Bruckner