I couldn't fall asleep till about 6:30 AM this morning, so I ended up hitting my snooze button until I finally got out of bed at 1:00 PM. Probably not the best way to get over jetlag, but whatever. I went downstairs to the hotel restaurant to have lunch, and it was a brilliant idea, since I really don't know the area. Check out the hotel pool. Nice, eh?
This hotel was only about $35 USD a night, which is awesome. A place like this in Greece would've easily been at least 120€-150€ a night, especially in a place like Santorini. The food was probably more expensive than if I had gone elsewhere, but it was still delicious.
After lunch, I got to take advantage of the free 15-minute massage the hotel had offered me when I had arrived. It really doesn't get much better than this, does it?
Once I got ready to head to the wedding, I called the front desk to request a taxi for me. Apparently, there are a bunch of sketchy taxi services here, and there's only one service that uses a meter. I learned this the hard way, I suppose. This guy worked for the good taxi, but he had no idea where I was going. Good thing I had Google Mapped it and had an idea of my orientation, so I ended up giving him directions. He would've taken me in the complete opposite direction!
I've been to some pretty spectacular weddings before, but this one was pretty breathtaking for a ton of reasons.
First of all, the location was other-worldly. Just look at this place!
I didn't really know anyone outside of some of the wedding party members, who were of course occupied. So I ended up signing the guest book, taking a polaroid picture for their photo collection, and then snapping pictures of the surroundings.
Then Jess's dad came over (I had never met him before tonight), and it was really cool getting to know him. He was so nice; he introduced me to so many of Jess's cousins and other family members. He introduced me to a few of her old schoolmates from Indonesia, too. The guests hailed from all over the world!
The ceremony started around 5 PM, and the sun was already going down. You can tell I've never lived near the equator before (outside of the first six weeks of my life), since I was completely surprised by the sunset by 6:30 PM or so.
I sat with one of Jess and Fredrik's friends from Norway, whom I had met when I visited them in Trondheim in April 2011. I also sat with another of Jess's old schoolmates who said she didn't know too many people either. Go us for making new friends!
The ceremony itself was very sweet and just perfect. Oh, and I forgot to mention that today's weather was spectacular, because it wasn't blazing hot or unbearably humid either. There was a nice, comfortable breeze to keep us all in good spirits. The view certainly helped as well.
After the ceremony, we mingled, and I had the chance to catch up with my friends from UW. I hadn't seen Jenna in years, and I could hardly believe it'd been over a year since I had caught up with Anjali. We all lived in the freshman dorms together at UW.
We had a fun evening celebrating the happy couple, and there were smiling faces all around.
Perhaps the pig's included?
We each had a specially-made stone with our names engraved in front of our seats at the tables. Awesome, eh? And, yes, I kept it.
After a delicious dinner, we had a chance to go on the beach, write notes on paper lanterns, and then let them off into the night sky. These pictures simply do not do the whole event justice.
We celebrated well into the night with dancing, drinks, and some swimming (though I did not partake, since I did not want to have wet clothes). Plus, we had tons of fun photo ops.
The taxi ride home was a bit of an adventure, since the driver wanted to charge me and another UW grad I met tonight 100,000 Rupiah to head back to our hotel. I already knew it only cost about 11,000 Rupiah, since my ride to the wedding had been metered. The guy put up a big stink until I opened my door and was about to step out to walk back.
He finally agreed on 50,000, but he had apparently heard the wrong hotel name (which must be much farther away), because he started driving down some road I did not recognize. Thankfully, we corrected it before too long and made it home.
Now, I'm snacking on some sweet bread and water, while watching TV and finishing up some work I roped myself into. I still have not learned to effectively say "no." But, the plus side is that I do not have to check out till 12 PM tomorrow, when we head south to a villa/hotel near the beach. A bunch of us are hanging out there for the next few days with Jess and Fredrik. Excited to spend more time with them!
I know I am living a very charmed life right now, and I am 100% thankful for all the blessings, despite all my gripes about the little things. Looking forward to more over the next few days and weeks!
This hotel was only about $35 USD a night, which is awesome. A place like this in Greece would've easily been at least 120€-150€ a night, especially in a place like Santorini. The food was probably more expensive than if I had gone elsewhere, but it was still delicious.
After lunch, I got to take advantage of the free 15-minute massage the hotel had offered me when I had arrived. It really doesn't get much better than this, does it?
Once I got ready to head to the wedding, I called the front desk to request a taxi for me. Apparently, there are a bunch of sketchy taxi services here, and there's only one service that uses a meter. I learned this the hard way, I suppose. This guy worked for the good taxi, but he had no idea where I was going. Good thing I had Google Mapped it and had an idea of my orientation, so I ended up giving him directions. He would've taken me in the complete opposite direction!
I've been to some pretty spectacular weddings before, but this one was pretty breathtaking for a ton of reasons.
First of all, the location was other-worldly. Just look at this place!
I didn't really know anyone outside of some of the wedding party members, who were of course occupied. So I ended up signing the guest book, taking a polaroid picture for their photo collection, and then snapping pictures of the surroundings.
Then Jess's dad came over (I had never met him before tonight), and it was really cool getting to know him. He was so nice; he introduced me to so many of Jess's cousins and other family members. He introduced me to a few of her old schoolmates from Indonesia, too. The guests hailed from all over the world!
The ceremony started around 5 PM, and the sun was already going down. You can tell I've never lived near the equator before (outside of the first six weeks of my life), since I was completely surprised by the sunset by 6:30 PM or so.
I sat with one of Jess and Fredrik's friends from Norway, whom I had met when I visited them in Trondheim in April 2011. I also sat with another of Jess's old schoolmates who said she didn't know too many people either. Go us for making new friends!
The ceremony itself was very sweet and just perfect. Oh, and I forgot to mention that today's weather was spectacular, because it wasn't blazing hot or unbearably humid either. There was a nice, comfortable breeze to keep us all in good spirits. The view certainly helped as well.
After the ceremony, we mingled, and I had the chance to catch up with my friends from UW. I hadn't seen Jenna in years, and I could hardly believe it'd been over a year since I had caught up with Anjali. We all lived in the freshman dorms together at UW.
We had a fun evening celebrating the happy couple, and there were smiling faces all around.
Perhaps the pig's included?
We each had a specially-made stone with our names engraved in front of our seats at the tables. Awesome, eh? And, yes, I kept it.
After a delicious dinner, we had a chance to go on the beach, write notes on paper lanterns, and then let them off into the night sky. These pictures simply do not do the whole event justice.
We celebrated well into the night with dancing, drinks, and some swimming (though I did not partake, since I did not want to have wet clothes). Plus, we had tons of fun photo ops.
The taxi ride home was a bit of an adventure, since the driver wanted to charge me and another UW grad I met tonight 100,000 Rupiah to head back to our hotel. I already knew it only cost about 11,000 Rupiah, since my ride to the wedding had been metered. The guy put up a big stink until I opened my door and was about to step out to walk back.
He finally agreed on 50,000, but he had apparently heard the wrong hotel name (which must be much farther away), because he started driving down some road I did not recognize. Thankfully, we corrected it before too long and made it home.
Now, I'm snacking on some sweet bread and water, while watching TV and finishing up some work I roped myself into. I still have not learned to effectively say "no." But, the plus side is that I do not have to check out till 12 PM tomorrow, when we head south to a villa/hotel near the beach. A bunch of us are hanging out there for the next few days with Jess and Fredrik. Excited to spend more time with them!
I know I am living a very charmed life right now, and I am 100% thankful for all the blessings, despite all my gripes about the little things. Looking forward to more over the next few days and weeks!
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