From waterfalls to beaches

The previous post on this series is here..

We moved on from Buenos Aires to Rio. We got scammed right outside the airport where a fake Uber showed up to pick us up... after some tense moments once in the car, we did get out close to where we needed and after the local Airbnb lady negotiated in Portugese we got out. 

Brazil is a sharp contrast to Argentina. You cannot trust folks on the road. Scammers everywhere. Everything is expensive and the locals are not exactly the welcoming type.

The Airbnb itself was very good. A walking distance from the Ipanema beach and close enough to grocery stores. 

The kids had had enough and decided to stay in after doing groceries. San and me decided to go to the beach for a short time to see the sunset. There was so much fog that we didn't really get orange hues that day and it just started drizzling when we made it back to cook dinner!

We called it a night.. there were a lot of interesting art books in the Airbnb and we just decided to crash early after watching Rebel moon on Netflix!

The next day was going to be spent touring Rio!

We already got a glimpse of the Redeemer statue on the way from the airport. The plan was to see him up close the next day!

My name is Thira.. and when in Thira.. don't be a D!^# !

The previous post in this series is here..

This is the last post on our Greece trip. 

After that all day bus tour and the last minute dinner plan change, the hangry family went to bed safe in the knowledge that we had a rest day of sorts. We had three back to back flights.. from Santorini to Athens on Agean Air with a 3 hour break then from Athens to Instanbul with a ~3 hour break and Instanbul to SFO! Almost a whole day of travel! So the plan was to stay in our Airbnb till 11:30 AM, leave our luggage with our host, then wander around the shops, have lunch, wander around some more, have dinner and be back at the Airbnb for the ride to the airport. 

We learned a lot of lessons that morning. The little one woke up with a migraine and didn't even want to get out of bed. I also got hit with a migraine and light sensitivity although at a much lower level. The clouds had moved in the previous night and the outside temperature and pressure had changed. Our sinuses were struggling. It had rained but the rain had stopped and the sun was in and out. We frantically called our host and told her the situation. She told us to go out and leave the little one in the Airbnb and come back at 11:30 and she will see what she can do. 

So the three of us wandered off through the one street and took some pictures.

The two donkeys!

We walked to the top of the hill past the shops and walked through a few art galleries. The art was fantastic. So was the price tag. One piece of art that could have funded 4 such trips for the four of us. The lady asked are you American and once we said yes, she said "we can ship to you, no problem".. the shipping cost made me smile, relative to the cost of the artwork. We admired the art and walked around some more and also saw a nice Church!

One interesting thing we observed was the hanging dicks and a blue eye looking stone in every store. We did not understand why and the meaning behind that.. one lady in broken English said "it is a good luck charm to hang outside your door!".. We figured hanging that eye would be a good idea instead of the dick and went with that!

When we came back to the Airbnb, our host said "it is okay, take a few more hours and leave the room as is" 

So we checked on the little one and then had lunch at what seemed to be a hookah place called "Bohemia, the Journey". They had Cheese pizza that was decent and some other vegetarian dishes. We all ate a decent meal there . There was a cannabis shop right close to it, so we went and sat inside. It was nice and breezy. 

Having seen dicks hanging everywhere all morning, it took me a second look at the pasties in our new favorite pastry shop( Svornos Bakery).. we got some for an early afternoon snack.

When we came back, all of us decided to sleep. Our host said we are good till 7PM as her other clients had not showed up yet. Apparently there were flight issues because of the storm in the Agean sea. That should have warned us, but nope! Given our situation, we were just happy that there were beds to sleep in. 

After a nap, it was decided that the best thing for the stomach before a long day of flying was desi food.. Rice and yoghurt had to get involved. We were told that the best Desi food in the island was almost a 2 mile walk away called the Jaipur Palace. 

We started walking there (thanks to Google Maps for once) and were not disappointed. A guy who had come there to study in Greece, decided to open an Indian place on this island instead with his wife five years ago. The food was good. The service was good. There were only three sets of customers as we were early. 

We ate to our hearts content and walked back and waited for the car. Said bye to our host, who will always be fondly remembered. Good people come in your life in tough moments. Fotini is "good people!".

Was saying bye on the way to the airport and it all clicked.. Whenever you call the island "Santorini" the locals give you a look. Santorini is the name the Italian occupiers of the island gave it. Thira is what the Greeks call it. Apparently the blue and white for all buildings was started as a way to show solidarity to Greece instead of the Italians a long time back and eventually the island got back its Greekness and now it is mandatory to paint in blue and white. 

Everytime you call it Santorini, you hurt a local's feelings! So here is a tip. When on the island, call it Thira !!!

A short video of our bye to Thira..

We made it to the airport and were in for a rude shock. There were 600 people waiting in the gate area. Apparently none of the incoming "rinky dink" flights made it to the island from other islands or mostly Athens because of the storm. 

There was no updates at all on when and if at all we would take off. Given this small 40 minute flight was on Agean Air, if we missed our flight at Athens, we would lose money on all four tickets for those two legs and would be stranded here or in Athens. Had to be at work, right after coming back. Fired up my work phone and sent a message that we might not make it back as planned. Then we just sat there for 6 hours. Finally a flight showed up and we left to Athens. It was the four of us, a family of three from Chicago who had come to attend a wedding on the island and two Greek folks from Athens. That was it on the plane. 

We landed in Athens to see waht our fate would be and saw that our outgoing flight also was delayed by an hour. Ran to the other gate and made it. It was 4AM and we were exhausted and we had long ways to go. 

Slept through most of the remaining flights to the best of our ability and made it back. Literally dropped the bags at home and drove to work. It was a never ending day!

The lesson we learned (not well enough) was to not book the last flight or one of the last flights out of small places with small planes. Another lesson was to always have accomodation covered for the entire day when we leave, so we don't have to be homeless between check out time and flight time. Third and not least, after three days in any international place, find a desi restaurant or make sure you can have rice and yoghurt ready!

These lessons after the most recent trip have been codified into our family law. 

Now that the whole Greece trip blog series is complete, will try to close out the other few things that happened between September and December.. so I can start writing about our trip to Iguazu falls, while my memory is still fresh!

Until then..