{Back to Reality}

...yeah, you can say that again! Corey and I got home from Santorini Sunday night only for me to get deathly ill!

I've been home from work the last couple days trying to recuperate. Ugh. 

I have so much to say about Greece. And so much to show you...

What I'll say for now is it was the most luxurious, indulgent, romantic, magical, awe-inspiring vacation we've ever been on. Not exaggerating one bit.

I thought Positano was it. 

And then Greece happened. 

sigh...

We will definitely be returning!

Here are some iPhone snaps to hold you over (even some non-instagrams!)

Captions at the end!

1. our hotel

2. our hotel room

3 & 4. our private terrace. i know.

5. view (to the right) from our private terrace

6. our first santorini sunset

7. hangin' by the pool, admiring the stunning view

8. watching the sunset from our private hot tub!

9. walk from Imerovigli to Fira

10. mad about this guy

11. picture perfect sunset in Oia

12. sending postcards & drinking coffee on our terrace our last morning in Greece

{My Travel Style on Running on Happiness!}

Hey Guys! I'm currently soaking up the Santorini sun & Katie from Running on Happiness also happens to be galavanting around Europe. While she's away, she asked me to fill in and blog about my travel style! Hop on over there to check out my post! Katie's blog is one of my absolute favorites. She has killer style, is drop dead gorgeous (seriously though.) and takes stunning photos. I'm sure you already know her and her beautiful blog - but if not, I know it will now be added to your daily reads! Enjoy!

{Photo ©  Tricia Seabold}

{Santorini Here We Come!!}

I can't believe it's finally here! Tomorrow we are off to Greece.

Santorini is one of my ultimate dream destinations.

We splurged on our hotel and plan on doing nothing but lounging on our private terrace, cocktail in hand, staring out at the caldera. all.day.long.

If you happen to have any Santorini restaurant recommendations send them on over.

And if you have recommendations for things to do on the island, send those, too. Although I can't guarantee we'll do much more than relax by the pool!

I'll be back in a week. I'll be semi-unplugged, probably tweeting and posting the occasional Instagram here and there. 

If you're interested in following along:

Twitter: @LizDenfeld

Instagram: lizdenfeld

And here's a photo of our pool. You know, just so you can visualize where we are while we're away... :) 

Have a great weekend and week next week!

{Capri, Italy}

The forecast the day before we left for Positano was actually comical. Rain. Every.Single.Day. The forecast for Amsterdam? 75 and sunny every day. Would you believe it? I mean, since when does gloomy Amsterdam have a better forecast than southern Italy?! For a nanosecond I seriously considered booking us a different vacation – I so didn’t want to spend six days in the rain! But we decided to stick it out since the forecast had been so temperamental –changing from sun to rain from hour to hour. Luckily for us we had gorgeous weather… Well, all but one day. And it happened to be the one day we were on a boat. Oops.

We started our  journey to Capri in cloudy, chilly weather. We were able to see all the grottos before it started to pour. From that point on it was a serious torrential downpour the entire time we were on the island. I was not dressed for a storm and was freezing and wet and uncomfortable.  Instead of exploring we opted for a 3 hour lunch instead, then took the first available boat back to Positano. So yeah, we definitely need to go back someday and explore Capri, but we were just happy to have part of the journey be dry and to be able to see the famous Blue Grotto :)


A few things that were super fun and unexpected on our boat trip.. Jelly fish! There was one grotto that was FULL of jelly fish - it was so crazy! I had never seen so many in my life. They were a lot smaller than I imagined, and absolutely beautiful. It was thrilling to be so close to them, but safe in our boat! Also, I had no idea you had to get off your boat and get into smaller row boats to actually see the Blue Grotto (and wait in line with a bunch of other boats!). The entrance is so small, you have to duck down into your boat, almost laying flat. Once you get in it's a rush of darkness and you see nothing but black. Then you turn around and you see it.. That incredible blue water. It truly looks fake, but that is the natural color of the water! There's some kind of science behind why it is so bright blue. I'm not sure about all that, but what I do know is that it was really gorgeous. I purposefully didn't enhance the photos at all. That is the real color! I highly recommend you check them out if you ever find yourself on the Amalfi Coast.

{Photos ©  Liz Denfeld}

{Case of the Mondays + Vlog?}

I’m in the mother of all bad moods today, so I’m not much for words. Thought I’d leave you with another favorite photo from Italy and a question. I’ve had a few requests for a vlog (video blog if you’re not up with the lingo :)… I think vlogs are really cute, when I’m not the one vlogging. But if that’s what ya’ll want, then what can I say? I’m a people pleaser. I figured I’d go the standard route and let you guys ask some questions in the comments (I wanted to keep the comments private, but I couldn't figure out how to do that...) and I can answer them in a vlog! What do you think? Ask away if you'd like! Feel free to email me questions as well: exploredreamdiscoverblog {at} gmail.com

{Photo ©  Liz Denfeld}

{A Relaxing Day in Positano}

Vacations to the south of Italy should be all about relaxation. We put it at the top of our list.

Our favorite way to relax in Positano was to rent lounge beds on the beach (10 EUR/each for the day - worth every penny!) and just lay in the sun for hours.

It didn't hurt that our view was the gorgeous cliffside hotels and residences of Positano - stunning!

We laid there for hours, only getting up to break for lunch.

There are a few cute and yummy places right in Spiaggia Grande (the beach), but on this day we decided we wanted to lunch with a view (so spoiled we are!), so we hiked up the hill 15 minutes or so to Cafe Positano.

It provided stunning views for a leisurely lunch.

Then we headed back down to our sunbeds that were waiting patiently for us.

Ah, take me back!

{Photos ©  Liz Denfeld}

{Amalfi Coast: Path of the Gods}

One of the things I miss most about Portland is hiking. We had so many awesome hikes within an hour and a half of our city – from coastal hikes to gorgeous Columbia River Gorge hikes. The Netherlands is super flat (which is great for biking), so we haven’t been on a hike in ages. When we read about the Path of the Gods in our guide book we knew we had to do it.

Our B&B was located in Nocelle, right on the path, so it was super easy to just walk out our door and get going. The entire hike actually takes you from Positano to Praiano, but it takes 6 hours, and let’s be honest, we were still on vacation so I wasn’t interested in that extensive of a workout! :)

The walk took us about 2.5 hours from our doorstep in Nocelle to Praiano (another gorgeous, quieter coastal town on the Amalfi Coast). It had the most breathtaking views that for some reason I could not capture with my camera! I hesitated even posting photos, as they really do not do the views justice at all. Around every corner the view got better and better and I was just in complete awe. My heart was so happy. I was smiling the entire 2.5 hours and squealing with excitement! At one point we ran into a herd of sheep and mountain goats! They were maneuvering the cliffs so well – I was so impressed! It was such a fun and unexpected sight.

Once we got down into Nocelle we walked 20 more minutes to the tiny marina in town for a long, lazy lunch right on the water – but more on that another day. 

{Photos ©  Liz Denfeld}