15: Going Home...

Up at 6am, quick eat, on the bus, on the plane, an next thing you know it is 11pm Athens, 4pm Toronto.  Our next flight is 7:30pm with a landing at home of 10pm Halifax time.  Yeah!!!!!

Please check www.genosajko.com in a few days for more pictures and videos.

...More pictures from Lisa

Lisa has always tagged me as Karsh, and Wayne as Karsh Jr.  Well, now here are more images from our newest photographer...  Karshette.

 

 

 

 

 

 

14: Back to Athens...

A quiet morning with breakfast and hanging out around our room.  As always, I take a few wienies from the buffet for our booter-like pusser cat.  She's so sweet.  She usually waits for me a flight up from our patio (which is yet another 3 flights down from breakfast.  Anyway, she eats the wienies, takes some rubs, gives some purrs, grooms after the meal off course, wants to come in for a nap, but remains out on the patio. 

Easy checkout, easy bus ride to the ferry, easy upgrade to first class, and then to relax in the wide seats, 4 per section with a large table in between.  I came up and scouted the seats and got the only one with a plug for electricity.  No worries anyway, 50 seats up here, only 8 people including Lisa and I upgraded.  For a 5 hour ferry ride, well worth the expense.  And hey, this ship has free wi-fi.

So we are currently 1.5 hours out of Athens, I have been blogging and adding images since we left 2.5 hours ago.  I hope to end this soon, but I fear I don't even have enough time to do what I want and need to do. 

On the news, on TV, is the Greek parliamentary elections.  Polls just closed.  Parliament is across the street from our hotel.  I hope this won't present problems for us getting in at 9pm and trying to get to the hotel, out for a quick dinner, and to bet for the flight tomorrow.

Of our 15 day trip, one could call 4 days travel.  To from Canada, 1/2 day to Mykonos, 1/2 day to Santorini and a day back to Athens.  So it is almost like 2 days a week traveling.  Doing it by sail is the better option as I see it.  You travel, you see, you swim, and you sleep.  No pack/unpack, and no excursions to the water.  You are on the water.  If we ever return, I think it will be to sail.  But there is so much more of the world to see, especially other locals in Europe, so we'll see...  Santorini was beautiful, but we were far from the ocean atop that cliff.  A swim in the ocean was an excursion.

There may be no blog for the next day or so as wi-fi access may be spotty and/or I may be bushed and thinking watching an episode of the "Dream Season" of Dallas on my iPhone may be a more relaxing and well deserved thing to do.

Ja sas.

13: Pool Day

Today we decided to make it a pool day.  I started with a 1.5 hour breakfast where I ate slowly (and a lot less) while I blogged the past 2 days.  Besides hanging out at the pool, we spent some time on our patio, the view there amazing.

View from slouched position on patio chairs

 

View looking up from patio

 

View looking down to patio

Wayne and I (he is getting too much airtime here), went north from our hotel (first time we ever did) and found many things.  The Blue Note restaurant, recommended by a couple of couples at Mykonos town.  So this place was earmarked for dinner tonight.  The most extensive menu we found to date.  We could have eaten here everyday and I would still have no problems selecting from the menu. Nope, no duck Dave, but most everything else.

As we walked to the top, there is always a top, we searched for the way across to that adjoining cliff you will see in some of the images.  The extra and a bit lower separate hill/cliff to the left of the resort/main cliff.  We could see the path across, way down there, but not the way to get to it  Then, alas, aha, yep, I thought I found it, and off I went, little knowing Wayne decided not to follow.  I meandered my way down 8 or more flights of steep steps only to hit - a dead end.  An entrance to the lowest most hotel or - at this point - who cares.  I should have ducked, had a seat and waited for Wayne, so that he could experience the walk.  But by now Wayne had found the path.  So he (Wayne) says.  Anyway, I walked back up the 8 or so stories.  I counted the steps, well over 160.  Met up with Wayne, and Wayne and I started the now 10 or so stories of stairs downward to the path across to the cliff.  Where yes of course, we climbed up and up, Wayne and I, me and Wayne.

Took many pictures along the way.  We did not climb to the top, a bit treacherous, and with really no easy visible clue as to how to get there.  And I had a nightmare last night where I almost fell off a building roof along a cliff-side something into a gorge with a waterfall or something. 

On the climb back, Wayne suggested we walk up the left side of the concrete stairs as they were cracked and split down the center.  We wouldn't want to have it crack and fall over.  It wasn't that bad, Wayne is a bit of a worry wort.

Once we got back up top,  it wasn't that tough.  Coming down is more effort, requires more balance, more stability, more planning, watching each step because as I said thee are no standards or building codes for stairs - it seems.  Wayne agrees.  Anyway, the trip down, across, and back up, with stops for pictures, at our fast pace was still just over 40 minutes.

Back at the ranch, Wayne and I went for another swim.  Wow that felt good.  We were hot (as our wives pointed out) and so we thought we'd cool off.  And we did.  And when we got out, they still said we were hot.  So we got back in.  After several more attempts, seems the water did not make us "not" hot.

Dinner at the Blue Note, back to our patio for some reminiscing, drinks, cheers - the girls like to do the cheers thing with every drink.  Wayne and I limit it to the first and last drink of the trip.  The last will happen in Athens tomorrow night.

A couple of cats came around, including our cat, for some snacks.  Hm, reminds me as I eat breakfast to bring some cocktail wienies down for our cat.  She will be there when I get there.  Oops, I'm talking about now and not yesterday.

As I look through my images to select for post, I realize  how magical a place this is, the history, the beauty, the scenery, the people.  Amazing...