. . .over thinking, rumination, head scratching, list making, and research we finally decided the islands we will be hopping to and from in Greece.

Can you blame my lengthy and over thought process? I only had about 150 to choose from and three weeks at the most to see them so it was an involved decision which threatened to become fraught with anxiety because the two islands I loved the most are “opposite” from one another: Corfu and Rhodes. With a budget of three weeks, I didn’t want to lose yet two more days to travel so I started an exhaustive search and found myself put off by “Other People’s Itineraries” . It was at this point I said good-bye to the idea of Corfu on this trip because the more I researched Corfu, the more it seemed we could devote the entire vacation to this single island. I was feeling a little desperate by this time. Even my favorite travel bloggers didn’t have a lot to say about the Greek Islands so I couldn’t copy their routes.

But finally I reached a decision employing Lonely Planet Greek Islands and my finger. I flipped through the book with one hand and when the time felt right, I jabbed the thumb from my other hand between the pages. My eyes were tightly shut so I couldn’t cheat and land on the Corfu page and as the pages flipped I promised I would stick to the destination the book gave me even if it was someplace I wasn’t sure I wanted to go.

Our first stop after a couple of days in Athens and on Rhodes will be Naxos. I hadn’t ever heard of Naxos until I landed on page 173. I hope we like it.

In keeping with the completely random nature of my island selection, I’m going to put the names of the other Cyclades islands in a hat and draw one more. I just hope it’s not Santorini because I think I’m the only person on the planet who doesn’t get pie-eyed and drooly at the mention of Santorini.