Shit!!!

I wasn’t going to post again before leaving since there are so many things I need to get accomplished. Best laid plans and all that…the trip to the centre of Athens isn’t happening. Instead I’m hobbling around on the foot below. Bad thing is that it hurts like the dickens, good thing is that I didn’t hurt my hip and it wasn’t the operated foot. Although I now have two feet that don’t work well for the long trip home…sigh.

In my defense, I had things on my mind and that curbs that just jumped up out of nowhere to trip me up…

Our Going Away Party

I suspect this will not be the last party...

Yours truly...

The younger Sophia...

The elder Sophia...

Steve having a ball...

This will be my last post from Greece. There are more pictures to be found on my Flickr page on the sidebar...

We're Going Home

Yes, Olympic has come through with tickets for our return. It will not be an easy trip for me but at least it will happen without any additional cost to us. We will have to fly the new Olympic Air to Paris, wait for a few hours for a connecting Air France flight to Toronto via Montreal. Total time is roughly 20 hours start to finish if there are no unexpected delays along the way. Air France would not have been my first choice since they’ve had a couple of crashes recently but we had no real option.

Life here in Athens/Glyfada has been quiet this time around with not a lot of traveling. We may go to Pylos this weekend but that’s dependent on whether legal stuff gets sorted out in time. The weather hasn’t been as good as in the past and there have been fewer beach days. Steve has also been super busy clearing out his mom’s apartment and the bureaucracy of settling an estate and buying property is unbelievable by North American standard.

The apartment has a little furniture most of it from my MIL’s house. It’s not my choice or style but I have very little input here. I think Steve keeps most of it for sentimental reasons and I get that, so I have a dining room suite that doesn’t really suit me but it works and various mismatched dishes. I did draw the line at the sofa and bedroom furniture. I won that battle but as a result we still don’t have a sofa or a bed. At this stage I think it will wait until next year. The airbed is still hanging in despite a slight mishap that found us flat on the floor at 5:30 one morning. It wasn’t funny at the time but now we joke about it.

I haven’t gone far from home on my own because truthfully, my foot is not working very well. I brought four pairs of reasonably comfortable shoes yet all of them hurt after a short while. It’s been almost four months since the operation and even though I was told full recovery would take 6 months I had hoped to be further ahead than I am. Maybe I’m just too impatient. I have wanted to make a trip into the centre of Athens to do some shopping but either I’m having a bad foot day or the shops are closed. Oh yes, the store hours! Shops close at 2:30 pm every afternoon and reopen at 5:30 pm for a few more hours, except Mondays and Wednesdays of course, and then they stay closed after 2:30. I guess coming from a country of 24/7 shopping I am spoiled if you call finding an open pharmacy after 2:30pm spoiled?

There are a couple of things that really grate and unnerve me here. The first is the noise, the truly unrelenting noise. It’s either motorcycles that roar with machismo down the street at all hours of the day and night, jackhammers with all the building going on around here the junk man/men who drive their trucks through neighbourhoods every hour or so with a big bullhorn, the dogs barking and what I call the “banshees” running around the streets after school every day screeching at the top of their lungs. I don’t think kids have homework here! I miss the peace and quiet of home and miss waking up to birds singing instead of jackhammers. I told Steve that if I thought I had to live her the rest of my life I would go to the roof and hurl myself over the balcony. He thought I was joking.

To say that I counting the days before we leave would be an understatement. A little more than two weeks and I’ll be home again. I may do a Pope John Paul and kiss the ground when I get there.

I miss having an internet connection without having to go out to a café, I miss reading my favourite blogs, I’m totally out of the loop with news of the world, darn it all, I even miss CNN. I guess I’m not ever going to be a good transnational. I have heard some expats say that Greece speaks to their soul. Greece doesn’t speak to me, it yells out loud and I don’t like being yelled at.

Most of all I miss craft shops and wool shops. I have yet to find even one…

Just for a little fun, meet a Greek weather girl...

Every Neighbourhood Has One

And this is ours…

A stray dog that just hangs around looking for handouts.

He’s a rather cute puppy probably less than a year and he just appeared out of nowhere a few weeks ago. At first I thought he belonged to someone but now I’m certain he’s been let go. That’s pretty common here in Greece by the way. People start out wanting a puppy but when they grow a bit or the realization hits that these are living, breathing beings some find it too much work and just put the dog out to fend for itself.

He’s started to take possession of the street and barks at cars as they go by. Mostly though, he just snoozes against the side of a house or wall on one of the four corners of this street. Unfortunately for us though, he’s picked our sidewalk to do his business and we end up cleaning it up every day.

Still no news from Olympic Air regarding our return trip, who promised me a return call within 24 hours…

Olympic Airlines - The Final Screw

So we all know I hate Olympic right? Nothing new there except why do we always fly with them. I suppose it’s because it’s one of the only non stop flights from
Toronto to Athens and because they allow us somewhat more luggage than other carriers. I’ve come to realize that it’s a low cost carrier and made allowances. I always bring my own blanket and earphones just in case and lots of snacks for when I get hungry in the middle of the night. I know from experience that the flight attendants are nowhere to be found; they are usually snoozing in first class.

This time though I was more hesitant to book with them knowing that they had been sold to a private investment group called Mafin. The deal was closing September 30th and our return trip is October 29th. I asked the most important question of our travel agent when booking, will anything change. The answer was a definite no, all flights would remain the same. NOT…

It came as a shock to find out about three weeks ago that many overseas routes were being abandoned by Marfin including Montreal, Toronto and New York. For three weeks there was no news other than what I was able to get from Greek bloggers. I received a text message from a friend who heard that Olympic would code share with another airline and honor all tickets so I didn’t worry too much. Two emails to our travel agent have remained unanswered thus far but I have received one email directly from Olympic. It states the following;

Dear sir/madam,

we kindly inform you that due to Olympic Airlines closure and change of ownership, for any information, bookings, change of reservation or refund you should either refer to the closest Olympic Airlines office or call directly the Athens reservation department at +30 210 966 66 66. The latter will be active by september 30th.

I have phoned this number a few times to no avail. It is not possible to speak to a person and I can’t stay on hold forever. I have a pay as you use phone card for a cell phone that is incredibly expensive so I could run through a 20 euro card very quickly and never get to talk to anyone.

So today Steve made the long trip into Athens to see about the tickets. He came back with bad news. The Olympic Airlines office in Athens is closed with no information as to where the new Olympic Air office can be found. There is no easy way to get this information either. Steve is going to make the trip to the airport on Monday and hope to find an Olympic Air representative who will have a solution for us. There are no easy resolutions for anything here… It is estimated that there are between 3000 and 5000 stranded passengers and I suppose we are just collateral damage.

Two Women Named Sophia

We have been officially adopted by them... They live in the apartment below us and have decided that we are in need of their help. They are grandmother and granddaughter and are probably the most unique personalities I have ever come across. They personify Greek hospitality in a way few can imagine.

From the very first day here they have brought us platters of food daily. The younger Sophia has helped Steve bring up the stove and install ceiling fixtures in our apartment. Steve isn’t crazy about doing electrical stuff at the best of times but the wiring here totally puzzled him.

We have been invited twice this week for dinner to their home where the elder Sophia sets a table that would put me to shame. The collection of guests has been eclectic and thus far we have met a captain for Royal Caribbean from Florida and his pretty young Belarus girlfriend who also works the ships. We have met an expat from Australia who I sensed regrets her decision to live here, various mothers’, grandmothers and aunts. It was an altogether amazing group of people.

We sit around on the patio eating, drinking and having great conversation. Most of the people speak excellent English and it’s been a lot of fun for me.

It is easy to understand why this country is seductive. The temperature as I sit here on the balcony today is a lovely 25c with a nice breeze. But it isn’t always this way. Yesterday the skies opened with a downpour the likes I haven’t seen in a long time. Because two of the mountains behind our house burned in the summer, there is nothing to hold back the water and as a result the streets turned into rivers with water up to the ankles. When it was over stones from the mountain was washed down to the streets. There is nothing to hold them back.

I have learned to be patient about getting things done. My brother in law would much rather be fishing than to help us get a refrigerator and it took two weeks to get the washing machine. There are little successes for me, yesterday I baked my first cake and because it is unlike Greek pastry I was hesitant to take it downstairs with me. I needn’t have worried; it was gobbled up in record time. My oatmeal chocolate chip cookies were also well received. Soon I will make a carrot cake and see how that goes over. I let them bring me food and I bring them cakes, fair trade…

Getting Sucked In - Slowly

Have you ever been newly in love and uttered the words “I’ll go anywhere you go”? Well I did many years ago, twenty five to be exact, and they are starting to come back to haunt me.

There is a lot of family pressure here in Greece for us to stay, to give up our live in Canada and a whole way of life that I have lived for almost 60 years. I’m a little surprised that Steve is even considering it truth be told but the fact that he has bought an apartment here tells me he is in fact considering it.

His brother is trying the soft sell on me just about daily. While picnicking on the beach for example, he throws out his arms and utters things like, you’ll never find this in Canada. Yeh so what, says I… you don’t have beautiful unburned forests and crystal clear lakes. We go back and forth this way with my limited Greek and his limited English. Yes, the Mediterranean is lovely and the sunset was gorgeous last night but there has to be more to keep me here.

His sister too is in on the act but since her English is pretty good I can tell her how I really feel. It’s a beautiful country in its own way, but it’s not my way. I remind her of the time her Mom was in hospital in April and how abysmally she was treated. I remind her of her stresses in daily life. I look at her face and see nothing but a difficult life lived. There is no joy in her face and yet she chooses to live here. She has a choice, she is a Canadian citizen.

I have a son in Canada, I have grandchildren and I have friends. Here I have one friend here, a very good one, but still only one. At my age and with language limitations, making new friends is difficult.

Of course there is the most important reason of all, my favourite yarn suppliers in America, don’t deliver to Greece, sigh…

Then again I may be stuck here for a while. It seems that Olympic Airlines which was sold will most probably not fly us home. The new owners have suspended all flights to Toronto and we will have to find another way back. Just another thing to deal with…

Never Say - Never Again

It usually comes back to bite me in the bum. Last year when we flew to Greece on Olympic Airlines I swore never to do so again. Well guess what, we're flying Olympic. What has changed? Not much really although Steve tells me his trip in April was more pleasant than normal and he was give a pillow a blanket and earphones. Those were the things missing on last year's flight. Since we're not talking short hop here but an almost twelve hour flight I consider these necessities. My biggest beef though was that between dinner at eight and breakfast at eight in the morning it was impossible to get juice. I was told that if I got some then other people would ask as well. Water was offered.

So why are we flying Olympic? It's a non stop (sort of) and they have a larger luggage allowance than any other airline. Including the carry on we have two hundred and eighteen pounds of stuff. I think it's actually a bit more but I'll let Steve sweet talk the check in people and maybe they will let it go.


I found this video last year on another blog (can't remember which one, sorry) and saved it for the appropriate time. This seems to be it. Watch it if you want a chuckle. Turn up the volume and listen closely, the Captain has a very strong accent but is really funny..



I don't know when I will next blog but I will make it to the local Internet joint to answer emails. I will also be in Germany for a week starting Saturday. I'm looking forward to seeing my friend and my elderly aunt and uncle.

Wish us a good trip...

It's That Time Again

The time to pack for the trip to Greece and trying to decide what I really can't live without is difficult. So I've pulled out just about everything I think I need and put it into 10 pound piles. We are allowed four suitcases of 50 pounds each plus carry on. Of course since Steve has his hands full taking care of me and the laptop, he considers me his "carry on".

The plan is to spread this stuff evenly amongst the four suitcases and try to maybe put a few clothes in as well. Again I need two separate wardrobes since I decided last week to go to Germany as well. My friend left a message saying that if I was coming she needed to make a trip to the winery. That did it for me, I picked up the phone and said yes, foot or no foot, I'm coming.

So what can't I live without? There are pecans, baking soda, maple syrup some for me some as gifts. There is coffee and kitchen gadgets. There is cutlery and scissors and really really sharp knives. There are sheets and duvet covers and of course my pillow. I never ever go anywhere without my pillow. Of course some of this stuff is available in Greece but here's the problem. We won't have a car immediately, there are no really good shops within walking distance, there is no mall close to us and the foot is still not good enough for long walks.

Speaking of the foot. This is the before...

This is the after...I went for a pedicure today. It's still not perfect and truly I had no idea that the recovery would be this long. I'm told the swelling could last another four months or so. But it does look better doesn't it? It was worth it, I hope. I just need to be able to walk pain free.

The Right To Die With Dignity - Not In Greece

At 3 Pm this afternoon Greek time my mother- in- law passed away. May she rest in peace.
Rositta


I keep writing this post in my mind and by the time I get to type it, it's gone. Is that a sign of dementia or just stress. Beats me. bemoan the fact that here I am sitting all alone in my house going into week two but forgetting that poor Steve is stuck in Greece trying to understand and navigate the Greek medical system.

No we won't operate, yes we will operate, no there's no hope, yes we want to do radiation, yes we will remove the breathing tube, no we don't do that here it's against he law and on and on it goes. The Hippocratic oath is frequently quoted to him and he no longer knows what to tell me. Will she die, won't she die, in pain, not in pain...get on the treadmill and hope that you can get off again.

The amount of intervention is beyond belief when you consider two things, 1. my mother in law is 83 years old and 2. the cancer has spread from her thyroid to her lungs and areas beyond.

Somehow the Orthodox Greeks do not believe in letting a person die peacefully, oh no, horrors..we have to intervene until the bitter end. When will it come, nobody knows. My MIL is being transferred out of the hospital now that they've cut her up and put her on life support to a rehab type facility where Steve has been told she could live for months like that. There has been talk of trying to wake her up and I can only imagine the horror when she discovers what's been done to her and that she can't even talk.

Right this very moment I am glad I am not there to witness this...