Wednesday. GT2 Day Four. Athens, Greece.
It is another super hot day here in the city. Way too warm for me. Dominica woke me up around eight thirty with the plan being that we should get the girls up and get moving to go do things. We were not sure which things, but things. But the girls did not get up and we let them sleep for a while (for a long while.)
Dominica wanted baked goods so sent me out to Oliver’s Boulangerie to get croissants for everyone. I got myself a lemon and vanilla filled little one, two regular chocolate filled for Madeline & Emily, and a large plain one for Dominica because she had wanted an almond one and they did not have one. But Dominica wanted the lemon one so I gave her that. Then she wanted the plain one, so she had two. No big deal, as I don’t like to eat in the morning. But the bakery goods are so good.
Dominica made the coffee and did laundry this morning. I did some more media uploading and shot a couple of videos outside.
The day heated up quickly and we decided that allowing the girls to sleep was probably the best thing as we can’t let them run out of sleep. And tomorrow we fly to Santorini, which means that we have to be up and moving before three in the morning! Our flight is an hour away, and flies out at six. Tomorrow is going to be rough, but it is our main day to see Santorini so we have to be on our game for it.
The first of the girls woke up at ten minutes to noon! That was Emily. Who was dressed and ready for action around noon. Madeline finally emerged at twelve thirty, also dressed, but upset that she had to get up and immediately went back to bed. Dominica decided to go hide in her room to get away from grumpy teenagers.
It took nearly another hour, but we finally got everyone out of the door. Dominica made the decision that we were renting a cab to take us to Syntagma square to speed things up and so that we would not be so exhausted when we arrived.
First up, she had the girls watch the changing of the guards at the palace. That took about twenty minutes. I found some shade off to the side and hung out there as I was going to expire if I just stood in the sun all day.
From there we walked along the National Gardens and Emily and I went hat shopping and each bought a new hat. She went very Audrey Hepburn, which was funny since she was also wearing a very apropos black dress today. And Emily picked out a woven paper fedora for me.
Then we walked the National Gardens and did some pictures there. And then it was into The Plaka that we went to see old Athens. It’s a neat area, but so ridiculously touristy as to be completed wasted. Worth seeing for five minutes, tops. If it were up to me, I would totally avoid it.
We did some shopping for souvenirs, jewelry, and then lunch. The barkers are ridiculous there and make it completely uncomfortable to try to do anything. And it never feels safe. There are visibly gypsies about, but the barkers are just as bad.
It took us a good hour to find a place to eat. Long enough that half of the places were closing by the time that we tried to eat there. It is tough to find anything but traditional Greek food in The Plaka as everyone is trying to do the touristy thing so they want to do what people picture as Greek food.
We found a cafe that was open and that offered sandwiches and things that the girls would eat. I was crazy hot from the humidity, sun, and lack of air movement in the tight streets of The Plaka. So we sat outside with the fans and it felt good. Dominica and I got salmon sandwiches, the girls both got turkey sandwiches.
After we ate, we got coffee and sat for a bit. It was so nice to just sit and relax. Dominica and Madeline got some iced coffee that they loved. I got a double cappuccino.
Next up was a little shopping. Then the gelato place for an iced strawberry drink for Emily. I managed to resist getting gelato even though it looked wonderful.
We stopped at a jewelry store that we had seen earlier in the afternoon and the girls bought some Pandora stuff that they had been thinking about.
We walked out of The Plaka and along the Roman Forum. Then to the old Agora. And all of the way back to our apartment. It was a good day of walking, about seven thousand steps during our sight seeing.
Today has to be a short day. We were back to the apartment by a quarter to six. I have an eight o’clock meeting that I need to attend. Then we have to pack and get the apartment ready to turn over and schedule our early morning ride to the airport. Then get to sleep as early as we can muster. We need to be in the taxi around three in the morning to get to the airport in time to make our flight to Santorini. We should arrive in Santorini before seven. We are able to drop our bags at our AirBnB there, but can’t check in until the afternoon. So it is looking like a morning at the beach is the plan, the probably going into Thera once we get settled in to the apartment.
Dominica and Madeline napped as soon as we were back. Emily took a shower. I worked on uploading what I could from the day, and clearing the camera of whatever I could to our hard drive. Fingers crossed that we will have more Internet speeds on Santorini, but that is just about impossible. Crete is our best hope, and that isn’t very good. The speeds here have been terrible, but that’s expected so we aren’t complaining.
I got a shower in around seven. I felt much better after that. Then I had about half an hour to prepare for a meeting that I had scheduled at eight.
My eight o’clock meeting went well. And while I was on it I got summoned to a work emergency where I spent another two hours! A very busy night.
While I was working, Dominica and Emily went back to the pizza place for dinner. They brought home a huge burger (for Emily, of course), and an egg salad club for Dominica, and a chocolate banana crepe. The meals were huge and amazingly good. I didn’t want anything and just eating the left over club and fries filled me up completely.
I worked for a bit longer while Dominica was packing. Then at eleven fifteen our Los Angeles data center. When it rains it pours. Of course this would happen this evening. That was fixed a little before midnight. I was racing to finish things up so that I could head to bed. I’ll be lucky to get two hours of sleep.