Monday, September 28, 2015

On to London, Homeward Bound

Time to go!  Well, almost time to go.  After breakfast, Steve mentions he is heading back out into the market area for one last Greek immersion...looking for a key chain.  I decide to follow, just to keep things on track for that 10:00 a.m. taxi to the airport!



Ah HA!  What had cost 54 euros on Hydra, can be bought for 15 euros in Athens along the flea market street.  Sold!  Perfect to hang aboard our boat, Kairos, upon our return.  But, no key chains.  At least not the right one.

We arrive back at the hotel to see the taxi waiting out front with the driver saying something about leaving early due to a parade?  Yikes.  What we thought were 15 extra minutes, now evaporate into thin air.

British Air from Athens to London is a lovely three hour plus flight, with full drink and meal service included in the "economy traveler" fare.  Also, one bag checked free.

It's easy to find our way back to the Sofitel Hotel Terminal 5 at the airport, and from there we contact our friend Julie, who is able to drive to the airport and have a visit with us.  It's been 11 years...and it seems like just a short time ago we visited her and husband Maurice, in London.

Steve, Julie, Nan
The hotel has an incredible lounge and we arrange to enjoy a light dinner there and dessert with Julie, then the next morning an incredible breakfast, before finding our way back on the Heathrow Express to Terminal 2 for our Iceland Air departure.  Things repeated, but in reverse, seem simple instead of daunting.  Ever notice that?


 This seems to be how espresso drinks roll at the hotels in Europe.  Not bad actually.




I said, an incredible breakfast array of foods.  Amazing!

The acorn and the oak leaf
Julie has left us two little gifts....an acorn for Steve's pocket and an oak leaf necklace for Nan.  Both are sympols of good fortune, abundance and safe travel.  We'll keep these close!~  Thank you Julie for such thoughtfulness.

Once again, Iceland Air treats us well.  We fly from London to Reykjavik in a quick 3 hours, wait two hours, and board our 7 and 1/2 hour flight for Seattle.  Flying into the light...much easier in the short term, than going the other way.


In Iceland, the main fare always seems to be...fish.  And delicious fish it is!


 Looking up before take off we notice...yes, the northern lights inside our airliner!?  The same, but...different.



 I am amazed to look out our window and see....Greenland!?  No, not green.  But, really, I've never even considered seeing Greenland...at all.  This trip continues to be full of interesting sights....things you can't really imagine before you travel, but are placed before you as you travel.


Greenland fijords, icebergs, mountains...and SNOW.  Lots and lots of snow!

And the continent seems to stretch out forever....

Somehow...we arrive home 23 hours after beginning the odyssey of westbound travel.  We have slept maybe two hours, maybe not.  But, again, somehow, our eyes are wide open.  Off the plane we begin a hopeful rushed walk toward passport control and baggage claim.  After all, there IS an 8:20 p.m. ferry to San Juan Island.....and it's only 5:25 p.m.

Coming around the corner, we gasp as what seems like hundreds of people all jamming into passport check lines.  The "people sorter guy" points one way for USA passports, one way for "other"...I say, "USA passport AND Nexus Card" to which he amazingly points way around the other side of all the people to an empty line and some machines???  OK then.  We're off.

Having never used "Global Entry" cards at an airport (used to be called Nexus border crossing cards for U.S. northern border entry)...we are impressed with the drill: put passport down on screen, snap, your photo is taken, answer on computer screen questions about travel, put four fingers down on next screen, zap!  You are done.  We breeze through, hand in our "receipts with photo" and off to the bags, which are just coming down the conveyor belt.  And.........we are OUT of the airport.  On to find the phone for the car pick up van...and ZIP, onto I-5 northbound, ZAP..not one red light, not one slow down, ZOOM...right into the ferry lane...with 12 minutes to spare!  Which puts us home at 10:00 p.m....all the way from London, England.

Our Big, Fat, Greek Ukulele Adventure 2015 is officially over.  O-V-E-R.  Seems impossible.  Over.

But the memories linger on.  I think there's a song like that.....


Saturday, September 26, 2015

Hello, Athens!

The thing about getting up early is, you are up early.  Yes, and that means...sunrise!  As we leave Poros Island, the pink sky greeting us for the day is awesome!  Goodbye Poros.



Our ride to Athens.



Such a little ferry...and off we go...toward a big city after a week on a small island.  A really, really BIG city: Athens.

A three hour bus ride and we arrive at the crowded front door of Hotel Attalos near the Acropolis.  Our bags have to go to the basement as it's too early to check in.  Then off to a tour of this part f the city with guide Rebecca. 

Would you believe this wonderful woman had enough courage to lead 22 women down a shopping street and hope they would not enter the stores..until later?  Ha ha ha!


Did I mention it's been a bit stormy this week?  Well, it appears it is not over yet!  Watching what is fast approaching we head for a cafe to wait it out with a Greek salad!


This is a long day, that is now a blur of sights and sounds...full of drama... in the weather, in the art, in the amount of effort required to keep going, keep looking, keep thinking about how OLD so many of the sites are.  My step measuring bracelet tops out at 17,852 steps for today....but oh SO many of them were, UP!





Seems ukes are everywhere!


These sesame bread rings are delicious! (about .60 cents)


No more room in the suitcase, Steve.


"Are we there yet???"

This amphitheater is used in the summer for concerts!  Now wouldn't that be special!  The black boxes are the stored seat cushions.



We're headed up to the Parthenon.....at least it's relatively cool from the rain storm.


Made it to the tippy top!  





Sitting on a sunny afternoon...sort of sunny.


Things are so old.


The city is SO big.


We spend time walking around this wonder that still exists today...and then we spend time walking back down.  That leads us right to the Acropolis Museum, which is amazing.  Even though I am SO tired, it is amazing.  

This night we have a great view if the Parthenon as it is illuminated in the dark night sky!  We enjoy it from the hotel roof top bar.  Then we venture out for gyros at a street side cafe. Too tired for photos of that!


This night, Friday Harbor and San Juan Islan seem very far away.  Oh wait, they are.  

Tomorrow the first part of the homeward journey...Athens to London.

Friday, September 25, 2015

Gear Up! Concert Tonight!

Friday finds us trying to wrap our minds around the fact that this week is almost over.  However, there is not winding down....only gearing up!  Tonight we have our Festival Concert in Poros Town...but before that...a music lesson with energetic Francesco, kayakying with energetic guide Brian, a tour and picnic at Katerina's family oilive farm (she's full of energy too)...and then, the evening concert in town!  Oh, and be sure to be packed up as the bus for Athens leaves at o'dark thrity tomorrow morning...and buses that go on ferries wait for NO ONE.  Right.


A great lesson this morning gets us each playing a little improvised tune to the back music of everyone else lightly strumming.  Who knew!?

You go girl: Maureen!

A quick lunch and a moment to jam things into our cases for homeward travel.  Then it's off in the kayaks.

It's windy as we paddle down to the canal, under the bridge and then suddenly out into a calm water.  We're headed for a swimming beach and the water is wonderfully warm!



On the way home, Brian has hooked up a tow to Freda to insure we get back in time for the boat to the olive farm, which is right before the boat to the concert in town, which... we are giving!


Nan and Patty put some muscle into it on the way back.  We are surprised to find some little standing waves here and there!  Push on!


It' so easy to stand in the water here as there is NO shivering possible.  It's just so WARM!  We wouldn't mind swimming again...but...the show must go on.


The water taxis await us, our ukes and our picnic boxes of food.  We have a nice ride over to the olive farm where we get a tour, a little view of sunset on the sea and then a great picnic.  Steve and Maureen treat us to the songs they wrote this week with a private preformance!


Katerina tells us about the different types of olives they grow on the family farm.  They also grow lemons and figs....which we are invited to taste, right off the trees!


 Francesco, Mike Hind, Lynette and Michael Adcock on the shore for a sunset photo op!

Steve and Nan too.

Then it's another boat ride, back over to the Poros town side of the shore, where we find the concert venue all set up in the town square.  Gulp.  Steve and Nan have signed up to preform...together...in front of ....well...in front of people!  More people than our little ukulele group, and we rarely do anything solo with them!  What were we thinking?

"Nan and Steve...LIVE...at the Ukulele Festival on Poros!"


It was a great experience.  For one, we got to go second and that made the rest of the concert really fun!  (bring on some ouzo!)  For two, we actually did an instrumental song together and didn't recognize mistakes!  (I'm sure there were some...but we just kept going and with a strong beginning and strong ending...no one remembers the mistakes in-between.  That's our story and we're sticking to it!)  For three, we had FUN!

The evening ended with yet another water taxi ride back to the Odyssey Suites....and this time the boat driver had Greek music with the volume UP....as in LOUD, LOUD, LOUD!

If you can't beat it....join it!






Oh Yeah...it is quite a ride back!  And now to figure out how to be up and at 'em at 05:15 in the morning.  Oh wait...that's only five hours from now.....

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Lesson Day! Music, Cooking, Dancing - Greek Style!

Today we are introduced to Francesco Albertazzi who joins us from Italy.  He has been studying to become a teacher using the James Hill Method of ukulele instruction and he can't wait to get started with this lively and diverse group!  He has energy!

Somehow an hour and a half flies by.  Tomorrow he says: "There will be improvisation from each of you!"  Hum......

This lovely afternoon, finally a break in the stormy weather and we find ourselves in the kitchen for a Greek cooking lesson.  Little did we know...we are helping to prepare a dinner for not only the 28 of us, but it seems Katerina has also invited another 25 local Poros people!  We are like mad kitchen elves, doing every job she gives us.  Here Steve, grate these 25 cucumbers!  Nan, it's the zucchini for you!  Ready, set....GO!

Sitting in the kitchen ready to be used...baskets of fresh organic produce.


 We get a great lesson on how to chop dill very very fine.  You take a big bunch, fold it up, fold it again, hold it down, and....chop away!



 There is a special way to do the onions too.  We notice: There are no food processors in this gourmet kitchen....just people!


 The list above is all the things our group of four students and our teacher Katerina are going to make in three hours!

Steve is hard at work on the cucumbers for one of my favoirite dips: tzatziki!  This is the yogurt, dill, onion, garlic sauce / dip that is in a gyro "sandwich"....and I love it!




Here's my zucchini assignment.  These are shredded and then mixed with yogurt, feta cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic, onion and then wrapped up in little triangle pockets of thin pastry dough.




 Here's some of our hard work....that was all before the "cooks break" where we sit down with a cucumber juice and vodka pick me up.  Not a bad rule!

 The dinner is a big success and then the dancing begins!  Katerina has a dance couple preform a few Greek dances for us, before everyone is dragged into the circle and now we are learning Greek dances!  The fun never stops!


Ahhh, this is not exactly a traditional Greek dance....but, I said, the fun NEVER stops! 

There is lots of music, dancing and I think I remember some ouzo being passed around.  Another night when I welcomed the "quiet hours"....as the clock strikes midnight.  Tomorrow is just around the corner.....and we have two more days of Big, Fat, Greek Ukulele (and other things) Adventure!