Moms in the House!

I had a whirlwind trip back to Canada for Ma and Pa’s 50th wedding anniversary party.  Apologies to those I did not visit with, I wasn’t in any one spot for very long.  We’ll be home for a couple weeks over Christmas and will do some proper socializing.

I boarded my bus to Athens early August 14th and waved to Coral with a tear in my eye as the bus passed by.

The bus ride was tolerable as the young couple sitting next to me in the back row got off after an hour, so the following four hours I had room to stretch.  Upon arrival in Athens I checked into the lovely Athens Cypria Hotel.  With an Acropolis view from my room I was feeling pretty worldly.

Perusing Google Maps for a place to eat lunch close by, I stumbled on the delightful Taqueria Maya.  Tasty carnitas and a great margarita–so good I went back for dinner!  I wandered around for awhile, but didn’t do any serious touristing.  I did stop by the Hellenic Parliament to see the soldiers with the funny shoes and funny walk (no disrespect meant to the Greek folks).  A better photo of one of these guys will appear later.

    

The next morning I embarked on my own little odyssey back to Canada.  We flew over Greenland!  If I were an evil Bond villain I would leave my enemies on a fjord in Greenland.  Bleak stuff.

Canada was a whirlwind of activity: shopping for things we can’t get in Greece (paint can openers, tack cloths, peanut butter), setting up Mimi’s new work computer (seriously, can anyone recommend a good IT crew in New Brunswick for this girl?), paying bills, fighting with the City of Ottawa parking ombudsman (doing my best to get you fired, Eric), and feting Ma and Pa.

Before I knew it, it was time to return to Greece with our moms in tow.  Thelma and I left from Ottawa and met Mom in Toronto.  Toward the end of a loooong flight over the ocean we saw a brilliant earth-curving sunrise.

 

We landed in Athens at 9:30am and hopped on the subway to the Plaka district and our hotel, the freaking adorable 360 Degrees Hotel.   Everything was so clean with retro cool splashes, but a perfect modern bathroom.  Highly recommended!  We had a triple room that suited us perfectly, and the rooftop restaurant and bar has unparalleled views of the Acropolis at night.  Staff was beyond helpful and kind. I guess I should transcribe these raves to TripAdvisor.

In a vain attempt to fend off jetlag, we went for lunch and a wander.  We ate at a classic taverna:  club sandwich for Ma, stuffed tomatoes for Thelma, and, as always, chicken souvlaki for me.  I shared it with this kitty.

We debated climbing the hill to see the Acropolis, but it was so hot we decided it looked lovely from afar and stayed on flat-ish ground.

Hot and tired, we retired to the hotel for catnaps.  The ladies decreed that they were in for the night, but I had some more shoe shopping to do, so I left them to enjoy the A/C.  I revisited my taco place, bought some shoes and a nice small leather backpack, and when I returned to the hotel was shocked to hear from the guy at the desk that they had gone out!  I accused him of teasing me, but he assured me that they had really gone out.  I went for a drink at the rooftop bar and when I returned to the room they were back.  Apparently as the evening cooled off and Monastiraki Square started to fill up with people, they worried they were missing something and went out for ice cream.

The next morning we were out the door by 6:15 to catch our train to the airport.  At 6:20 our first disaster struck–Mom had an incident stepping on the down escalator.  I heard her hollering from above and looked up to see her shoes descending on their own.  She took a nice chunk out of her hand, but we managed to bandage her up and didn’t even miss our train.  I guess Nana was right to be scared of escalators.

We got to the airport with tons of time to spare and settled into our gate area with coffees and snacks.  Mom and Thelma both had little walkarounds, and I perused the excellent bookstore, leaving with my own copy of The Corfu Trilogy, which Mike is currently really enjoying.

Our gate changed shortly before boarding and we headed to the new gate.  The flight was soon called and folks lined up and started boarding.  I like to wait and get on last as I have nothing to stow up above.  When the plane was half boarded, Thelma stood up and said she was going for another little walkaround.  I processed this and then said “You realize our flight is in the middle of boarding?” Needless to say, no, she did not realize this.  She had a good laugh imagining us getting off the plane in Corfu without her, Mike wondering where the hell she was, her still wandering the concourse of Athens airport.  Close one.

Mike awaited us in Corfu with a tiny rental car–Thelma’s dreams from the past five months finally came true and mother and son were reunited!  Sorry I don’t have video of that precious moment.

We popped into Coral so the moms could get the lay of the land, had lunch at the marina, and then took a little drive across the island to Palaiokastritsa, a small beach town with a monastery.

We drove up to the monastery, but Thelma, Mike and I had a drink at the tavern next door while Ma checked out the monks.  Apparently eight monks still live there, but needless to say they were not out greeting tourists.  Back to the boat for a little dip in the marina pool.  They have great amenities at the marina.  They’d better for 70 Euro/night!

The next morning Mike took the rental car back and we spent a quiet afternoon recovering from our travels.  Mom and Thelma relaxed on Coral while Mike and I hit the pool again.  That night we went to a marina restaurant for a tasty dinner and hit the hay early.

In the morning we indulged in our last full showers for awhile, topped up the water tanks, and pulled out of our berth.  Ma and Thelma did great!

We headed south for a three hour motor, anchoring in Voukari for the night.  We got some swell from the boats beetling in and out of the harbour, but again, the ladies were troopers!  Mike and I went for a swim in the crystal clear water and then we all assumes our natural positions:  Thelma and Mike playing Scrabble, Mom in a lawnchair on the bow reading, and me reading the news on the internet but not allowed to speak the name Tr**p out loud.  Very frustrating in this day and age.

The next morning showed some wind coming our way in the forecast, so we headed over to the mainland to a sheltered bay just north of Igoumenitsa, Ormos Valtou.  Dinner was a Kathy and Mike classic, pasta with tomato sauce and fried dry salami.  Mike went for a solo late night swim, but the rest of us weren’t too tempted by the murky water in the bay.  Ma and Mike were both stung by wasps that got caught in their clothing.  I think she may be a smidge allergic, that sting site seems to be getting worse, not better.  Stay tuned…

Thelma woke up to the site of naked Germans swimming next door.  Quite an Ionian initiation, but we all need to suffer through it at some point.  Mike took the ladies for a short walk on shore–they were very brave in the dinghy!

The afternoon proved warm enough that we all went for a swim–you heard me, all of us!  I don’t have evidence of Thelma’s dip, but I made mom stay in the water so I could snap a pic.  Someone lost money in that betting pool!

We capped the afternoon with Mike and Thelma playing Scrabble, Mom reading, and me blogging.  I see a pattern here.  The excitement was that Thelma also got stung by a wasp.  Five months of Greek wasps on board and no stings, now three in three days!  Stay tuned, who knows what will happen next!