Just got internet for the first time since we got here. I haven't finished writing about everything we have done so far, but I wanted to post what I have while I have the chance.
Transit
What is there to say about being on and off airplanes for 24 hours, sleeping little, and crossing a bunch of time zones? I was a little upside down. Took an advil pm on the flight to Athens but I could only sleep about an hour and a half. John is a travel pro - he slept the whole way and was immediately adjusted to the time change. Bastard.
Our first big adventure was when we bought cheap prepaid cell phones in the Athens airport and went to find a place to sit down. First, we wanted to figure out what our phone numbers were and program them into our phones so that we could call each other if we got separated. This proved a difficult task, as the phones were set up in Greek and we couldn't read a single thing. I looked up 'language' in my greek dictionary and saw that it was 'Γλοσσα.' John started looking around for that while I started looking up words I saw on the phone. I think our low point was when, after painstakingly finding and typing in the right letters for a word from the phone into my greek dictionary, I got the translation "netting." (We found out later that was actually "network"). We were cracking up the whole time and trying to decide whether we could figure this out on our own or if we had to go sheepishly back to the phone people and ask for help. We had purchased two different phones because of what had been in stock. John managed to find "Γλοσσα" on one phone and change it to English. But the other phone wouldn't let us do anything on it at all. Every time we pressed a button, it came up with some sort of warning message. In Greek. We joked that this was the crappier phone because its only function was to yell at you anytime you tried to do anything. After some fiddling, John figured out that it was a screen lock message and he just had to hold down the star button to unlock it.
Our next big adventure came after landing on Ikaria. We were planning to take a taxi to Thea's Inn, which she had told us was about an hour and 20 minute drive. What we weren't counting on was the fact that there were a limited number of taxis. The airport was really quite small. We walked outside and everyone was getting in taxis. I saw one taxi that looked like it might be free but I tried to make eye contact with the driver and he didn't look up. We hesitated and someone else went up and asked him if he was free, and they took off, leaving us standing there looking confused and stupid. John said, "I have a plan. Let's stand here for an hour, and if that doesn't work, we'll make a new plan." To his credit, a nice Greek man walked up and asked if we needed help. He called a taxi service for us and helped us figure out where we were going. He told us to go inside the airport and get some coffee while we waited for the taxi driver. He said that the driver would pay for our coffee and that he would be there in 15 minutes. We went back inside and got espresso, which we had every intention of paying for, but the guy at the counter said, "No, no. Your driver will pay." It was like everyone in the town knew what was going on. We waited and waited and saw people walk up who looked like they could be our driver, but they all just left. I asked John if we should go outside and try to find the guy, but John pointed out that 15 minutes is probably a very loose term in Greece. I don't know how long we waited, but eventually a guy went straight to the counter, paid for our coffee, and told us, "Let's go." He was in a bit of a hurry and he said he didn't want anyone to start yelling at him because they needed a cab so we had to go quickly. I took this to mean something very sketchy. We started driving off into the middle of nowhere, driving up a road so windy and steep that it made Lombard Street seem like child's play. The road was barely wide enough for two cars in the widest parts, and our driver was pretty liberal about going over the middle divider line when there was one. We raced around corners overlooking the hillside, and I probably would have feared for our lives if I hadn't been so busy trying not to throw up.
Thea's Inn
Twenty hours later, or so it seemed to my stomach, we arrived at Thea's Inn. Thea was super welcoming and took us up to our room, shooing cats who were sleeping sprawled along the stairway. Our room is very quaint. It has two twin beds, a mini fridge, a tiny bathroom, and a balcony overlooking the ocean with a table and chairs and a clothesline. We were quite hungry, so we pretty much just dropped our stuff and went downstairs to Thea's restaurant to eat and watch the sun set over the ocean. Thea is half Ikarian, but she was raised in the US. She came and sat down with us to talk about the menu. We ordered vegetarian moussaka and homemade cheese with Ikarian red wine. She brought us fresh bread with incredible olive oil, which I could easily live off of by itself. The moussaka was also incredible. Very rich and creamy and filled with delicious vegetables. The homemade cheese was surprisingly hard. It was excellent on bread doused in olive oil. There was a tiny cat going from table to table begging for affection and table scraps. When we were finished eating I sat with the kitty on my lap for a little while as John finished his wine. Then we went upstairs to our room and passed out.
I slept really hard and comfortably through the night. When I woke up in the morning, I heard some sort of bird call, then another, and then a goat. I just smiled from ear to ear. I was lazy in bed for quite a while, letting myself wake up slowly. John was already on the balcony, watching a bat circle and hunt for bugs. It didn't sound like anyone on the entire island was awake, so we decided to just walk around and explore. There are a lot of restaurants nearby, and we walked along the main path to explore them. One said that it opened at 9 o'clock, so we figured we would get some breakfast there eventually. After several restaurants and taverns, the path opens up to the side of the hill, revealing a long and windy staircase leading down to a small beach. We sat there for a little while, playing with another cat from a nearby restaurant and watching the sun come up over the mountains behind us. We saw a really cool little lizard that was black and orange on the head, fading to black and yellow on the body, fading to black and greenish blue on the tail. Eventually we headed back up to one of the little stores and got a tiropita and a sausage pie for breakfast. We took it back to our room and ate on the balcony. Then we went back to sleep, because in Ikaria naps are part of the way of life.
Breakfast at Thea's and my new best friend
Near Thea's
<-- lizard!!!
Beach Time
When we woke up, we went down to Thea's restaurant for some yogurt with honey and bread with marmalade. Then we got into our swim suits and headed down to the beach. We set up the mat and umbrella that Thea loaned us and headed for the water. The water was surprisingly cold, but it felt really nice. As we got further out, we discovered that there were swirls of very warm water and swirls of very cold water. We saw a bunch of little fish and a tiny crab. I later saw a weird fish that clung to the rock like spiderman right at the surface of the water. We sat in the sand at the edge of the water, which was not very wavy. To get out of the sun, we laid under the umbrella and watched numerous lizards crawling up the rock. Eventually we got hungry and climbed back up the hillside to Thea's.
We walked into the restaurant and Thea was gone (napping, perhaps?). The cook, Athena, was there cleaning in the kitchen. She speaks no English at all, so we had a fun time trying to order food from her. We decided to get souvlaki and tzatziki, and the local Ikarian wine. One of the women who works at Thea's came out as our food was ready and she said she was impressed that we had figured out a way to order our food, adding, "Athena knew exactly what you wanted." As we ate, we were attacked by what we call "bumblebirds," or bees that are unthinkably huge.
We went back to the room to shower, which is quite a task because the shower has no shower curtain or any sort of barrier between it and the rest of the bathroom. Basically you have to be very careful, and then you have a bunch of water to mop up. Obviously after our shower, we had a nap. When we got up, I did a little laundry in the sink with the laundry detergent paper we had packed, and then hung everything up on the clothesline.
View of beach from path near Thea's
Venturing Out By Car
The next morning we got up late and went downstairs for some yogurt with honey and an omelet with home made cheese and tomatoes from the garden. Thea also made us some "mountain tea," which was basically just a bunch of local herbs thrown into a teapot, served with a little honey. We asked her how we should get to an ATM and also what else was a must-do activity on the island. She wrote down several things we were supposed to go do, and in which order it was best to do them in. We went and got a rental car from a guy next door. Then we headed for the nearest town to buy a map and ask for directions to the places Thea had told us to go.
First stop was the monastery at Theoktistis. We drove up into the hills on extremely winded roads. High up on the hillside we came to a gate. We went inside and saw a big church to the left. There was no one there, so we weren't sure if we were allowed to go inside the church. We peaked in and saw some candles burning. We walked past the church through a little walkway and saw a couple of women cleaning. They clearly didn't speak any English, but pointed further up the path, indicating that we should continue along. The path contained intermittent stairs, and we made our way up to a tiny structure built into a bunch of huge boulders. There was a tiny doorway about three feet tall, and we crawled in to find a small room with what looked like an alter. I'm not sure how old it was, but I think it existed long before the current church near the entrance, which was built in the 1400s.
Armenistis (a nearby town) - cool path to the water
John driving us up to the monastery
Funny spiky balls at the monastery
On the grounds of the monastery
This is the old church from the outside
Back side of the church
Walking inside
That door behind John is how we came in, Alice in Wonderland style
View from the steps of the church
More spiky things
We saw one of these on the road - a hoopoe, apparently
Stay tuned!
