Once upon a Time in Greece!

WELL!

I'm using this beautiful blue ink to remind me why I love it here! Let me 'splain!

This morning (Tuesday 12 May 2009), Glen and I left our little hotel in the peaceful village of Kato Achaia to drive to Athens. We THOUGHT we were going to check into a hotel, buy our bedroom and office things at IKEA and meet Clyde and Cheryl and Ellie at the airport.

We drove along the coast - mountains to the right, beautiful sea to the left - oohing and aahing over the brilliant red of the poppies growing all over the hillside. Reminds us Texans of the beautiful bluebonnets sprinkled all over our hills and grass along the road.

The "national road" is sometimes 3 lanes - sometimes more - sometimes divided - most times not. But passing is not only allowed, it's encouraged! HUGE trucks going both ways and weensy cars trying to pass in both directions - a breathtaking drive!

Little Greek roadside church altars are all over the sides of the road. I'm still not positively sure what they are for - in the US, people place crosses and flowers where family and loved ones have died - I don't know if that's it or not. Marianthi, you will have to educate me!

We phoned Ellie at about 11:30 (less than 2 hours since we left Patras) to tell her we were on the edge of Athens. We had directions - come in on E94, take the Kisifias exit, hotel on the right. Easy, right? ALL OF A SUDDEN, the road split in two pieces and we couldn't read the signs fast enough to know which was ours.

After sitting for over 2 hours, mostly driving in FIRST GEAR (our VW Passat has SIX gears), we had been going around and around Athens and never EVER finding anything familiar. At about 3:30, we drove in the front of the hotel - SIX HOURS after leaving - it's only a 2 hour drive from Patras to Athens!

The hotel lady said "go straight and follow the signs to the airport" (IKEA is located there). We drove up at FIVE O CLOCK! Oh there are signs, yes. But there are also 3-4 lanes and cars jammed in each one. We'd be in the right lane and Glen would say "It says airport going to the left" or the other way around. We finally got on a turnpike deal and stopped to pay - the guy said "the airport is in the other direction"- I mean DUH - we knew that!

How do we get there? Exit #12, U turn, PAY AGAIN and stay straight!

We went to IKEA, totally zonked! Had lunch at 5ish. We selected two beds, 2 mattresses, 3 night stands, slats and side rails for the beds, 2 dressers. Then we were told we had to GET all this stuff and drag it to the check-out, pay for it and THEN take it over to the delivery window where they would give us a price for delivery based on weight!

I've bought stuff from IKEA in Hong Kong, Thessaloniki, Fort Worth and Abu Dhabi - never seen ANYTHING like this! We just walked out and got in the car! Met up with Ellie and Clyde and Cheryl and had coffee. Then we started back to the hotel!

We arrived (yup - got lost again - it's even harder to read the signs in the dark) about 10 p.m. - ordered room service and paid about $65 for a salad, fries, dakos and four gallons of wine! (I'm kidding about one of those things!!!)

Now I'm going to bed - because tomorrow we have to try to find Ellie to go mattress shopping! And you thought YOU had a fun life!