We Are Home!  

Posted by: Valerie and Bryan

home safe and sound. jet lagged, but home.
i'll try to do a little ditty about the 2nd week of our trip in a couple of days.

First Trip Update (Athens to Thessaloniki, and in between)  

Posted by: Valerie and Bryan

Mara & Nik


Nik hammering some nails.

Me with Mara & Arthur

Me & Bryan hanging out (self portrait)


one of the monasteries - would have to look up the name.. not sure right now.


Our Hotel in Athens - Hotel Electra Palace


Bryan setting up a shot in front of the Parthenon

Mara & Arthur's house at the bottom of the rocks.


Bryan, an accidental self portrait mis-fire at the monastery!


Look! the Greek's invented Legos! (on top of the Acropolis)


Fresh coconut in Athens


The Acropolis from our hotel


Well I am finally sitting down to take a break to write about our trip so far. It's been interesting to say the least. No hiccups really just one last minute change of plans. I wouldn't say that it's been a cultural shock.. but it's been an eye opener for sure. My eyes have really always been open to just how good we Americans have it in the states. We are fatter, more boisterous, and apparantly there's only a few things that are important in life to us.. house, car, and money. But hey isn't that the American dream after all?

We landed in Athens on Tuesday and I was so glad to get off of the airplane. The flight was uneventful and as pleasant as any 10 hour flight could be. Before boarding in Newark, the asian boarding agent announced that we would all be boarding for "Continental Fright 104" in just a few moments. "Fright" !! Do we really want to get on this plane?! All of our bags made it without any problems so after gathering up, we headed outside to the public transport ticket office. No need to drop 40 or 50 Euros on a cab ride at a minimum. Two bus tickets for the X95 to Syntagma Square was less than 7 Euros. Not a bad deal. We could have paid full price, but why waste our money on that. We didn't skimp on our lodging but certainly weren't coming here to spend everything we had either. After a short walk from the bus stop to our hotel, mostly downhill - LOL, we checked in at the Hotel Electra Palace. I must say, I loved this hotel, except the bed was way too hard! It was beautiful and the staff was so friendly, well, except for the bugged-eye guy at the reception desk on our 2nd day.. he reminded me of Telly Savalas! I just googled him and I didn't even realize he was born to Greek parents in NYC! LOL. I swear this guy must have been a relative. He was just a little too rude on the second morning (Wednesday) when I asked about the train timetable to Kalambaka. He finally looked it up and told us there was only one train at 8:20 a.m. the next morning.

Tuesday evening we just walked around the Plaka area and found a great little hole in the wall joint that had cheap Gyros. They were awesome too! Lots of street vendors and tons of suvenior stands - all of which we just passed on. Don't anyone think we are bring back a bunch of cheap crap! LOL - we can do really awesome photos but not the typical suveniors. Sorry!

Wednesday we spent the entire day out. We hit most of the sites that we intended too and had a really good dinner on our way down from the Acropolis. We were pooped when we got back to the hotel and decided there was no way we were going to get up at the butt crack of dawn, take the metro to the train station, buy a ticket and get on the train by 8:20! It was about 3:30 p.m. back home so I just picked up my cell phone and called up my travel agent. He immediately reserved us a car to pick up at the airport by noon the next day and return it on Saturday in Thessaloniki. It cost a little more than it would have to have taken the train but I am so glad that we did it. Even though I had to drive this little tin can for over 5 hours from Athens to Kalambaka, it was still the best choice.

After breakfast on Thursday we hiked back up to Syntagma Square and caught the same bus back to the airport. We had a little confusion finding which car rental company to go to but it didn't take long to figure it out when they were all side by side. After making a quick call to let Mara & Arthur know we were not coming by train, we loaded up in the little car and off we went. It was about 12:15 p.m.

I have never driven in a foreign country. I cannot speak nor read the language here but the signs are pretty self explanatory. Bryan was the navigator and the GPS on our Blackberry was right on target. I also haven't driven a standard on a regular basis in almost 10 years but it's like riding a bicycle. I certainly miss the power behind the 5.7L DOHC 32V i-Force V8 engine of the Toyota Tundra at home. That's 381 horsepower to be exact! Much better than the Chevrolet Matiz I was sitting behind the wheel of. Oh well, I knew it would be tiny and there would be no place to park a big truck - this is Europe after all.

I guess it was about 5:30 in the evening when we made it to the Koka Roka. We pretty much drove right up to it. It was really nice to finally meet Mara & Arthur, and of course, Nik. He is really a cute little boy. I split a beer or two with Arthur and chatted about this that and the other.

On Friday, Bryan and I drove up into the Meteora. We didn't visit any of the monasteries specifically. That is, we didn't go inside them. Not really our thing. But we did enjoy driving up the rocks and photographing some really cool stuff. It was really starting to get crowded around Noon - there were tons of tour buses everywhere. Time to head back down for a late lunch and a much needed nap. We took a little walk down into the town later in the evening and turned in relatively early.

Rain was the wake up call this morning. We left Kalambaka about 9:30'ish and headed toward Thessaloniki. I don't even remember what time we got here. It rained most of the way. The weather is really nice here. It's probably 70-something. The drive was pretty interesting since the road tunneled through many mountains. We again took the public bus from the airport to our hotel just off the harbour and Aristotaleous Square. We are spending tonight at the Hotel Le Palace. We have an awesome room on the corner of the building with a great view of the streets and intersection below.

After settling in, we took a walk for a few hours around the area and had some great pizza at Locanda. Of course we are back in the room and Bryan has been photographing with the fish eye lens out the balcony. He just went down to this little bakery on the corner and came back with some to die for chocolate! Guess I had better go enjoy it!

Here's some pics from the first week. Tomorrow (Sunday) we fly out to Venice, Italy!

Mostly Packed & Ready to Go!  

Posted by: Valerie and Bryan

Well, it's Friday night and I made through the week at work. Bryan has been off since Wednesday. We are super excited about our trip. I wish we were leaving tomorrow morning but we don't fly until Monday morning. Stay tuned as I will try to blog during the trip from time to time!
Love you all!
~V

Another Blue Ribbon for Lightwave Foto!  

Posted by: Valerie and Bryan

On Monday night I attended the monthly meeting/seminar for Austin Professional Photographers of America. As a member, you may bring one 16x20 print to enter in our monthly Print Competition. All members are eligible to vote for first, second, and third places.

I took in my "Rhapsody" print from our June 6th wedding and brought home the Blue Ribbon! Several of the more experienced photographers, the masters, literally they have the designation of Master Craftsman from PPA, all commented on what a stunning image it was. Talk about a boost of confidence! They have been encouraging me for months to continue to enter my prints and compete because it just makes you a better photographer.

The cool thing is that now on the Austin PPA website, my print is featured for a month. So go check it out! You can click on the print and read the story behind it. Also, by clicking on Print Winners, you can click August 2009 and see a picture of me with the print and the 2nd & 3rd place winners. Oh, you'll also find me in May 2009 too if you haven't seen those.

And of course, everyone knows that I could not have done it if it weren't for Bryan! He held the reflector for me in this shot! It takes the both of us - and we are a team! Sometimes it's his concept, sometimes it's mine.

Enjoy!

Late Poster  

Posted by: Valerie and Bryan

Man, I'm getting worse and worse at this keeping up with the blogging business.. We had a great 4th of July weekend. And, we've been busy ever since. Weddings and bridal shoots. It looks like our mid-summer will come to a crawl until the end of August - which is fine by us considering how stinkin' hot it is outside! Next wedding is 8/29. Then well shoot 9/5 & 9/6.. and then the big trip across the pond the very next day. It's going to be hectic but alot of fun.

I finally have some closure on the boob lump.. apparently it's nothing. Report from the MRI said that there were no lesions, no secondary signs of malignancy, yadda yadda yadda. I'm getting old and since I've never been pregnant, my boobs haven't functioned for the reasons they were given to me - so over time, they start to get dense. I guess better for them to get dense than my head - but who knows that might be next!

Same old same old here. Work and Weddings. I'm converting images right now from the 7/10 wedding and when I finish those, I am going to work on an album design. Bryan is working of course.

Hope everyone is doing well.
Val

Vacation!  

Posted by: Valerie and Bryan

Well, we are officially on vacation... at least until Monday! This morning we loaded up and headed down to San Antonio to Janice & Kenny's. And, right now, I'm in charge of stirring the infamous "Cheesy Poblano Pepper Soup" while Bryan and his mom went to the store; Kenny's at physical therapy; and Julie's at work. I thought this would also be a good time to read up on what everyone else has been up to and do some work on the laptop. There is no end to that.

We are looking forward to meeting up with Tim & Rhonda and I think Jon & Kelly too, for dinner tonight in New Braunfels. We haven't seen them in a long time so it will be nice to visit.

Tomorrow we are grillin' and chillin' !!! That's why Bryan went to the store with Janice - he doesn't think she will get the steaks that he wants to grill LOL.. he's so picky.

On Friday, Bryan and I will be headed down to McAllen for a couple of days. We have some friends there that we will be doing some maternity photos for... so you can bet we've got all the camera gear and the studio lights all packed up with us today. We're going to stay Friday night and Saturday night at the Embassy Suites there so we can take advantage of the pool and relax a bit.

Then it'll be back to the daily grind on Monday.. but the days are counting down until the big trip across the pond. Can't wait! I'll post some pics and stuff later.

love to you all!!
~V&B

a recent wedding  

Posted by: Valerie and Bryan


from the other blog.. the business side.. this is my favorite from June 6th... for a better look, go to www.lightwavefoto.com/blog
this reminds me of something out of 1940's gangster movie...