Adventuritos | Small Adventures

#oia: Occupy Istanbul Airport & Homecoming

Our journey back took us from Athens to Istanbul, where we had a 7 hour layover. Then from Istanbul to Doha. We flew on Turkish Airways, and it provided excellent service. The seats were slightly larger, and the menu/booze were excellent (must like Qatar Airways). We could have spent the layover in Istanbul, but the taxi ride there and back would have been expensive and we did not want to take any risk of missing the plane...

Here are a few bits of this last part of the adventure.

John "smuggling" the Santorini olive tree home, which Hank had named "Phenina" (pronounced Fah-nee-nah). No one said anything, and Phenina is now growing happily in our backyard.

The Istanbul airport has a Popeye's Fried Chicken, which was a source of enormous joy and monetary expenditure. Since coming back, one has opened in Doha, too!

'Twas also the last call for a cold beer before landing back in the city of the Syndicate.

Of course, these international airports have huge duty-free shops (in fact, multiple, huge duty-free shops). Where the boxes of chocolate, cigarettes, and booze are sized like they are at Sam's Club and where the limited toy selection is bizarrely overpriced. After much wrangling with the 5 year old, we settled on a battery-free "hair twisting" thing. This cost $25 USD and kept our attention for 7.23 minutes.

I timed it officially at 7.13 minutes.

Hank got a Samurai top knot.

Funny what you end up with in your tiny travel purse after 3 weeks abroad.

Jack bought a small backgammon set, which was an excellent source of occupation in Istanbul.

Hannah ended up splayed out, rolling around on the filthy floor, playing card/puzzle games. After 5 hours in the Istanbul airport, I did not care.

This is the scene after arriving back in Doha.

A Final Night in Athens

We are sort of pitiful. The whole time we were in Athens, we ate at only one restaurant. But when you're old and tired and hauling around three kids on international adventure, sometimes you glom onto something of great comfort. God's Cafe was our glomming spot.

Hannah had the camera. These two guys (both worked at the restaurant) flirted with her all the time. They were actually very sweet and helpful, and we felt like extended family there.

"Homecoming" after two weeks away. We'd been to Mykonos and on a cruise since we had first made this cafe our own.

Noodles. Endless noodles. Hank needs nothing else.

God, I remember that beer. It was a hot day and we had walked over half of creation (pre-biblical creation, at least) and had wrangled kids and Iannous brought me out a big, cold beer and I didn't even have to ask for it. Mmmmmm.

Back at the hotel. Being in a hotel makes me realize how much I love the vacation rental apartments. This hotel was nice and actually had a great pool on the roof...but still...it wasn't like the privacy of your own rooms and kitchen. And the hotel cost much more than the VRBO (http://www.vrbo.com/).

View from the hotel roof. This was very much the "city" of Athens, whereas before we had been in the tourist area under the Acropolis.

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed Athens. The taxi strike was a pain and it's a big city where you have to pay attention to your surroundings, but the metro was excellent, the people were kind and helpful, and the history was unbeatable. Many people told us "two days in Athens is enough," but I would say that you could find a week's worth of stuff to do/see here if you were feeling adventurous. Those who said Athens was no more than a two day city were wrong. I loved that town, and could spend weeks walking around those ancient places.

A Long Walk Back through Athens

Did we happen to mention that the taxis were on strike in Athens? The strike was due to end the day after we returned from the cruise. Getting to the boat was easy...a bus picked us up at a hotel. Getting back from the boat was our own personal problem. They packed us up and wished us farewell...but not before our newly purchased SECOND suitcase from the Athens Carrefour busted completely open? Thirty minutes, several yards of packing tape, and one pair of scissors later, we set off on our walk.

The walk meant going from the outer post area of the port back to the Piraeus metro station. My guess is that it was just under 1 mile. For two adults with no baggage, this would have posed no problem and in fact could have been quite pleasant. For a family of five, at the end of three weeks abroad, hauling five heavy backpacks, two suitcases--one of them broken--and a duffle bag of dirty clothes, this was the walk from hell. We had known this was coming and had warned the kids to find and keep a firm hold on their bootstraps. It was indeed a hellish walk, but everyone maintained a patient if stoic attitude and we survived it plus the 20 minute metro ride plus the 1/2 mile walk from the metro to the hotel with only minimal threats of death. I think the whole journey took us about 2 hours...that was totally spent walking or riding. Ugh. Indeed, taxis started running at 5 PM that evening...

That picture of me downing the beer at God's Cafe in the "A Final Night In Athens" post is immediately following this trek. Hence the look on my face in that picture.

Off the boat, but not yet cognizant of our exploded bag.

Trudging. Hank gets the award for stepping up and hauling more than his appointed allotment.

Jack is leaning on the piece of sheeeeeeeeeeet suitcase from Carrefour.

That suitcase will forever be referred to as the "sheetbox," drawing from our best attempts at a Turkish accent.

In fact, about 1/2 way to the port metro station, the bag (which I was hauling) was becoming noticeably more difficult to drag. I thought it was just my worsening attitude, but no, it was plastic wheel failure.

Back we go to the Athens Carrefour, which was, mercifully, only about 4 blocks from our hotel. We are, for better or worse, rather familiar with this "Walmart of the European World" as one is located about 10 minutes from our house in Doha. The Athens version, however, was practically English-free.

Did we mention that Carrefoure is a French company? Enough said.

We started with one black suitcase and five backpacks.

We left with one black suitcase, three blue suitcases, and five backpacks.

You know, traveling teaches you a lot...about some expected and some unexpected things...

This is the pile of garbage we left in the hotel room.

Our expat friends, along with this shenanigan, have thus taught us the value of leaving home with "nested" suitcases--one with your clothes inside a larger, empty one.

Cruise: Heraklion, Crete

We didn't have a tour on Crete either. Although himself and I would have enjoyed the wine tour, we know what happens when long conversations about fermented grapes intersects with a bored teenager and a bickering pre-teen and five year old diva.

We also could have toured Knossos Palace, which is famous...however, it has also been "rebuilt" (not just restored), and while some love its colorful re-envisioning, others compare it to the Disney version of ancient ruins. And all comment on it being incredibly busy, so much so that the guides are hard to hear. Although our cruise ship only held around 1,000 passengers, other ships hold up to 4,000...when 5-6 arrive in one destination at the same time, this can become an issue. We decided to forgo Knossos, having just had three busy days. The collective patience can only bear so much. You can read about it here: http://www.heraklion-crete.org/knossos.html.

So we just walked into the town. It was a ways away from the port, but it was a lovely day and the walk was fine. Heraklion (the city we visited) had a different vibe compared to the other Greek places we visited. The island actually has a lot to offer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crete), but weren't in the humor to devise our own grand adventures, so we meandered.

A wonderful market was under way. This was a great place for wandering.

Lots of spices, just like here, but the smell was not the same (equally good, but different).

I'm a little disappointed that the Lecturer did not include a picture of the skinned rabbits hanging for sale. They were fat ones.

Street musicians made the ambiance even more wonderful.

This was the Cretian dudes' coffee shop...like Dairy Queen in Texas.

I bought a long cotton dress, and one of the shop ladies brought Hannah a flower for her hair.

We ate lunch at a restaurant in the open-air market. Stuffed peppers...mmmm.

Wild greens...sort of like collards...omg, I miss collard greens...

Then the owner brought us a big bottle of raki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakı)!

It was like ice-cold tequila...or lighter fluid...

On the path to/from the boat.

Cruise: Santorini

We were supposed to go on a guided Santorini tour to the (still active!) volcano that blew the center out of this island about 3,600 years ago (here's more on Wikipedia). But the tour didn't "make" and we were left on our own for adventures. We decided to rent a car and spend the day driving around the small island.

The cruise ship parked in the middle of the "caldera" and we took small boat taxis to the shore.

Once ashore, we took a tram up the side of the cliffs.

On the way back down in the evening, someone might have tooted in the tiny, little, airproof, glass box.

We rented a small convertible for the day. Hank sat in front, John drove, and we others sat in the back.

After renting the car in the main town of Oia and then drove around/up the island to Fira. This took ~15 minutes. That's how small the island it...

First stop: Breakfast!

Did I mention that there's fresh-made boughatsa on Santorini, too?

Views from Fira.

If you look WAY out across the caldera behind these hams, the beach we show below is off in the distance. It's too far to see it, but it's there, promise.
It's under my butt.