I woke up on a pirate ship today.

That’s the great thing about life, and I know I’ve said this before, but you always have a 50/50 chance of something really awesome happening, and also that same chance that something really crappy will happen.…and you really have no idea which it will be, or even what kind of experiences you’re going to have in a day, or a year, or a lifetime…It’s kind of a crapshoot. You wake up, and BAM, you’re given this amazing gift- 24 hours of unexpected surprises. If you would have told me a year ago that I would be writing a blog that starts with the sentence I woke up on a pirate ship in Greece today, I never would have believed it for a second….Life is pretty exciting eh? But don’t worry if your day hasn’t started off on a pirate ship….tomorrow’s a new day…dream big.

Where was I…..oh yeah, the pirate ship. Now you must understand that with this blog, some things may be a wee bit exaggerated….You see, I’m currently caught up in the middle of this fantastic book of adventure, which means I’ve been thinking in book. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to get sucked into a great read…you may know what I mean. Suddenly, after a few days of reading, I am a main character, and every thought I have is somehow part of my own adventure story that I’m authoring in my head.

The unbelievable settings of Crete have created the perfect backdrop with which to let my imagination run wild. Within the last four days, I’ve been in the middle of a breathtaking Gorge, hopping from rock to rock. I’ve lounged on a beach with water so clear and blue, you’d think you were in a dream. The side streets and people of Hania have enough charm and character to satisfy any type of storyline, and then of course there’s this pirate ship in the middle of the Mediterranean. Seriously, right now, my life is a book.

It’s hard to say how I got in such a predicament, but there I was unable to move…lying on some type of table or bench. My view to the left endless blue sea, above me the large mast of the ship against the brilliant cloudless sky… it’s flag waving fiercely in the wind…taunting me with it’s freedom.

I drifted in and out of conscienceness, rocked by the constant swaying of the boat, vaguely aware of the hot sun burning my exposed legs and arms, and the taste of sea salt on my lips….I was trapped….my only escape would be to somehow jump off the boat and swim to the island of the Kri Kri. My swimming skills were mediocre at best, but it was the jump that worried me most. Both thoughts I pushed from my head, I had no time for fear now…I needed to stay sharp and figure out a way to ……

Now that’s book talk. It’s also lying. Ready for the real story? Ok, you’ve been patient with me and my tangent :)

It’s true. Today I did find myself on a pirate ship (AKA really cool boat looking like a pirate ship), but I wasn’t being held captive. I boarded on my own with my traveling buddies. We made our reservations the day before, during one of our many walks along the harbor. First we passed all of the persistent restaurant owners who wanted our business. (We became known I’m sure as those American girls who always say “no thank you”). Then we picked up about five different flyers from tour companies wanting us to spend the day with them on their boat, snorkeling and swimming. We had lots of options, but in the end, the amazing pirate ship boat won us over and the next day we embarked on our three hour tour…a three hour tour:)

The three of us started out in the very front of the boat, and then made our way to the very top where we discovered three benches surrounding a large table. This quickly became our own private laying out quarters. I felt a little bad about monopolizing such a great spot, but I soon got over that….as Chandler on Friends says, “It’s so hard to care when you’re this relaxed.” I somehow managed to drag myself off that bench twice for snorkeling which wasn’t quite as great as in Hawaii, but of course still a fun time. Oh, and we really did jump off the boat. We made sure the younger kids survived first and then cowabungaed right into the sea….so sweet!

Two side notes: The islands we stopped at were actually just big rocks supposedly home to the kri kri (that’s a goat incase you didn’t know)…I didn’t see any. Also, the free fruit and drink the flyer originally enticed us with wasn’t exactly as advertised. I had a slice of watermelon and a shot of that burning alcohol, which was more than my comrades got.

These trivial things in no way lessened the awesome experience of basking in the Cretan sun atop a ship, skipping across the Mediterranean. Life is full of unexpected surprises, and I am thankful.