Paris in a Day: Eiffel Tower Escargot and Inadvertently Undressing in the Street

/ Angela Ballard / 2 Comments

On my way to Morocco last April, I scheduled a long layover in Paris. I'd never been there before, and as a general rule, I try to pack as much into a layover as possible, even if it's somewhere I visit frequently. No sense in staying at the airport and missing an adventure!

Video Tour: Greece and Turkey

/ Angela Ballard / 1 Comment

As Mike wrote, everything old was new again this time he visited Greece, and our experience was so wonderful that Rhodes is currently in our top three possibilities for a new home. He put together this awesome video of our adventures in Turkey and Greece so you can experience them along with us!

Greek Adventure: Coming Home to Rhodes

/ Mike Ballard / 3 Comments

We were coming to the end of our travels in Greece, sailing from our secluded anchorage in Tilos, skirting along the northern coast of Rhodes, and arriving once again in Mandraki Harbor, where we had begun the whole thing. And I was already missing it. Both the good and the bad. Stolen plums, ouzo dreams, dormant volcanos, impossible stars, and gracious grandmothers in the kitchen.

Greek Adventure: Grandmothers in the Kitchen on Tilos

/ Angela Ballard / 3 Comments

Our week of sailing the Greek isles on our private yacht was coming to an end, but we had one more stop to make after diving Pserimos and heading out of cosmopolitan Kos: we wanted to see tiny Tilos.

Greek Adventure: Outlaw Diving in Pserimos

/ Mike Ballard / 5 Comments

Up until 2005, scuba diving was essentially illegal in Greece. In a country that boasts over 9300 miles of coastline, only about 62 miles of it was legal to dive, and that small portion was heavily guarded and restricted by the government. It made sense, really. With thousands of unexplored shipwrecks and literally entire cities submerged during ancient earthquakes, the Greek authorities were trying to protect antiquities from poachers and treasure seekers. That all changed in 2005, however...

Greek Adventure: Hip Dining in the Land of Hippocrates

/ Angela Ballard / 5 Comments

After leaving the volcanic island of Nisyros, the next stop on our yacht tour of the Dodecanese was Kos. Kos is known for many things, including being the home of Hippocrates, the father of medicine. This was fortunate for me, since I was running low on Dramamine, a very necessary thing to have when one is sailing on a small private yacht and being tossed about the sea like a damselfish in distress. To further soothe my pain, there was no shortage of elegant cocktail bars on the island. Thank goodness for small miracles.

Greek Adventure: Riding the Volcano in Nisyros

/ Mike Ballard / 4 Comments

Nisyros is one of the six currently active volcanoes in the Greek islands, and its signature as such is undeniable when viewed from above, with the whole island seeming to rise out of the Aegean only to crest at a distinctive circular rim before falling back down to sea level at the center of the caldera. And I wanted to be in the center of that volcano.