Dawson’s Greek

There’s a show here called “Holiday Showdown” that I love. The premise is this: Two totally different families take each other on their respective typical vacations. For example, Family A takes Family B on an adventure holiday, while Family B takes Family A on a solid week of tanning on a chaise lounge. Or A takes B on a super-indulgent week of eating and drinking while B wants A to help them feed starving people on a volunteer trip to Zambia. You get the picture.

Every episode, someone inevitably has a showdown breakdown, someone else threatens to leave, and ultimately, everyone learns an important life lesson like, “Sometimes I have to just relax and spend time with family,” or “The grand I spend on champagne every night could get a Zambian village drunk for a year,” or “If I had never been forced to venture beyond the resort I might never have known that Spain has a TGIFriday’s.” You know, the ever-so-enlightening, resolved-in-an-hour lessons of reality TV.

Whenever I watch this show, I try to imagine what I would do if charged with taking a family on my ideal vacation (within my means). Obviously since I’m not a stripper from Blackpool, or an alcoholic millionaire ski bum or some similar extreme character, I would never be asked by the geniuses at RDF Media to do so, but nonetheless, I enjoy trying to determine what sort of holiday best represents me.

After five days in Greece, I think I’ve found my answer. Not only was it a great time with good company in a beautiful locale, but it was also the right blend of active and relaxed, authentic and familiar, engaged and disengaged that suits me most. I’m sure there are a great many things that would have freaked out a potential Showdown opponent (the earthquake tremors, the rocky beaches, the no-toilet-paper plumbing policy, and the choose-your-fish dining adventures), but for me, it was a near-perfect way to spend five days. (Not only that, but I discovered on my last day there that everyday Athens TV includes first season eps of Dawson’s Creek, 90210 and Melrose Place. IS THERE NO END TO THE GLORY??!!!!)

I don’t have any pictures to share just yet, but I’ll post them (along with my cultural observations about Greece...in case you were tiring of the UK variety) as soon as I can wrangle them from my travel partner in crime, Kristen.

So don't forget to tune in to tomorrow’s very special episode of Holiday OckleShowdown. It's sure to be a doozy.