My Journey: Becoming A Sheckler (Book 4) ***COMPLETED***

April 24, 2013

So Ryan is as close to 100% as he can get for how many times he hurts his feet and ankles, haha. But no, he’s good. He’s so good that he surprised me with a trip to Greece for my birthday. That’s where we are right now.

On the 2nd I was sleeping in on my Tuesday off when the bed shook violently. I wake up to see Ryan lying on his side fully dressed with a smile on his face as he watched me. “Why would you do that?” I groaned as I buried my face in his chest.

He laughed lightly and rubbed my back, “because I have a surprise for you that I couldn’t wait to tell you about. Plus it’s 11:30.”

“Your point?” I mumbled. 

He laughed again and rolled me on my back. I grudgingly looked up at him and his smile was still bright. “Come on, you’re going to love it.”

I put my hands on his shoulders as he wrapped his arm around my waist and half laid on me, “I’m listening.”

“So you were talking about how you have Spring Break this weekend and all and it happens to coincide with your Birthday so I was thinking about what we could do all month.” I nodded so he continued. “And not that the party with friends every year isn’t fun but I thought we could do something just the two of us.”

“Okayyyy,” I extended the ‘y’, waiting for him to just say what it was.

He smiled, “pack your bags baby, we’re going to Greece!”

I gasped, “Really?!”

“Yes.” He said mater of factly.

I pulled his lips to mine and kissed him. When he pulled back I smiled, “yay! I am so freaking excited!”

“I knew you would be.” He sat up and pulled me with him to explain what we’d be doing there. “We’re gonna see everything we can! We’re gonna visit old cities and temples, we’re gonna surf and hike and we’re gonna have 21 days to do it all.”

“Seriously?” I asked amazed we were gonna be there practically all month.

“Yupp,” he pulled a piece of paper from the edge of the bed and showed it to me. “Here, this is our itinerary. We’re not going to have a guide, we’re gonna do it all by ourselves.”

I raised my eyebrows at him, “wow.”

“So get packing!” He smiled then kissed my cheek before jumping off the bed and going to get our suitcases.

I laughed and looked down at the itinerary. We would be leaving on Friday the 5th and our adventure would start on the 6th in Crete. We’d spend 4/6-8 exploring the island then head up to Chorefto and spend the 9th surfing. After that spend 4/10-12 in Thessaloniki, 4/13-16 hiking in Zagori, 4/17 on the Egremni Beach, 4/18 in Delphi,  4/19-22 exploring the ancient cities of the Peloponnese area, spend 4/23 on Hydra Island, and end the trip with a few days spent in Athens. We would finally return home on the 28th. Damn, he had a lot planned but I was so excited!

It didn’t take me long to jump out of bed and get packing. After he pulled out our suitcases we got to work gathering the things we would need for the 21 day trip. On Friday in the wee hours of the morning, we got dropped off at the airport and were off to Athens. 

When we arrived, there was a car waiting to carry us through the country. It had 2 surfboards strapped to the roof and a slew of hiking gear in the trunk. We threw in our suitcases and drove to the ferry that would be carrying us to the island. After the ferry started moving I moved to the front and leaned against the railing, watching the water split before us. It was late and we had a 5 hour ride to the island.