Arrival on Santorini, Greece

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SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

Several years ago I found myself living in Florida.  My best friend down there was a guy named Alfredo who’s job is to conduct international business for a large company that regularly flew him all over the world.  In the course of business he has had the chance to eat his way around the globe. 

Just a couple switchbacks

One day in Florida Alfredo was recapping a recent trip to Europe and was so excited to tell me that the best salad he ever had was on the Greek island of Santorini and insisted that I must go there to eat the freshest vegetables in the free world. 

Olives by the 5 gallon bucket

To understand how ridiculous that suggestion was at that time, you would have to understand a bit about my situation.  I wasn’t broke.  I was beyond broke.  After leaving my financial planning practice in Detroit, I rolled the dice and lost pretty big on a start up project in Ft. Lauderdale.  The rent on my ghettofab 220 sq ft (there's no digit missing there - 220 square ft) apartment in the Hollyhood District of Hollywood, Florida was more than the mortgage on my home in Michigan which lay vacant.  Salad al fresco in Santorini?  How about beans and rice on the floor of my funitureless studio.

That was 2006.  Today my parents and I arrived in Santorini on my dime.  And I crushed that salad.