Lily and I spent most of the day blogging. We were delighted to be invited to Lorilee and Jeff’s Halloween party. We trick-or-treated in their neighborhood after a delicious chili dinner, and it really made us feel like we got to celebrate Halloween. Isn’t their yard beautiful with the fall colors!
Saturday we didn’t have to leave the hotel until 8:15 for our 9:50 flight because our hotel was literally in the airport. We walked across the street and were there. I loved how easy that was and am now going to keep that in mind whenever we have a major travel day before us.
The first 10 hour flight was a total breeze because our kids were glued to their devices for 10 hours straight. Other than using the bathroom, they barely moved. I finished my sixth book of the trip, The Lincoln Highway. It was my favorite book I have ever read. Honestly. I was floored, wowed, awed–every descriptor possible for “I-Stand-In-Amazement-At-Your-Talent,-Compassion-And-Wisdom-Dear-Author.” I have loved every book I’ve read or listened to on this trip, but this one had to take the cake. It was just beautiful. I now have a new favorite author to read down. Hooray!
I also watched Together, the James Macavoy and Sharon Hogan film that is really more like a brilliant theatrical production caught on film. It made me cry and Abe watched it right after. He also loved it.
After the easy-breezy 10 hour flight where everyone was addicted to screens, we arrived in Chicago. O’Hare is ridiculous and our almost three hour layover was completely taken over by waiting in lines. We waited in the customs line (where we met a lovely older couple from Crystal Lake and the U.K. and spent the whole line chatting with them). Then we waited for our bags. Then we had to recheck our bags. Then we had to wait in a very long line for the shuttle bus because the airport train has been broken for three years. Come on, Chicago!
Then we waited on the shuttle bus for the last terminal, and then we waited in a line at the terminal to get through security AGAIN. By the time we were waiting in the line to board our second flight, the littler kids were crazed and red-eyed, and I was nearing the end of my patience. (To be honest, my shallow well-spring of that precious resource dried up halfway through the first excessively long line.) Chicago, I love you…but you can do better. Really, you can.
On the second flight Clarissa fell asleep so the Dallas layover was a little tricky with Abe and I both loaded down with five bags and Abe carrying Clarissa on top of that. In Dallas all of the kids fell asleep except for Lydia, so coaxing them onto the flight to Salt Lake was a trick. Ammon sleep-walked and sobbed his way to his seat while Mary quietly griped about his crying–which only made Ammon wail louder. But once on the flight every single person passed out instantly, and we had a very easy flight home.
Tom and Suzanne were amazing and came to the airport to bring us our car–and candy! The kids were very cheered up at the sight of them and then immediately fell back asleep on the way home.
When Abe and I went to the basement we discovered that most of it is finished beautifully!!!
I have jet lag so have been able to back blog (and also pop generous amounts of gummy melatonin into the mouths of every child who has awoken before the dawn). Abe appears to have instantly adjusted because he went to bed right on time and slept through the night. I’m glad one of us will be functional tomorrow!
On Friday we woke up surrounded by olive and orange orchards on the outskirts of Nafplion. After getting everyone ready for the day we stopped at the first pharmacy we saw to see if they did rapid antigen tests. We needed to take the rapid tests to return home. Because we weren’t Greek citizens the pharmacy could not help us, but they did find a lab in Nafplion that could do our tests. We drove to the port, parked, and set about finding the lab. I was delighted to discover the signs were not in English so that I had to use Greek to find it. That was really fun for me!
After the very kind lab technician swabbed all of our noses (half of which were forebodingly congested) we took the kids to the park. Ammon, of course, made a pack of Greek friends. Lydia also greeted some children, and Clarissa and Mary mostly played with each other and with Lydia.
Abe looked at this playground piece of equipment and thought about how fun it would be to be 12 and put a bunch of friends on it, spin it, and have everyone fly off. And then he realized it would probably be illegal in the U.S. and took a picture.
After we finished at the playground we strolled down the nearby avenue and found a taverna for lunch. The owners appeared to be a septuagenarian couple who also were the cooks. The food was fine, but what was really nice is that the table was next to the pedestrian avenue so the kids could continue blowing off steam playing “Mother May I” while we waited for food. We have heavily relied on devices to keep Ammon and Clarissa quiet while waiting for food in restaurants, and it was wonderful to have a place for them to play.
After that we bought the kids some ice cream and then headed back to our car so we could drive to Sounion and see Poseidon’s temple. On the way out of town we were driving down another country road in the orange groves and Abe turned a corner and almost ran over a gypsy woman wirecutting her way out of the orchard with a bag of oranges in her hand. She was very short and was tumbling into the road exactly in Abe’s blind spot. I screamed and Abe slammed on the brakes, only after seeing her hurry in front of the car. That was a close call and we were so, so happy something worse did not happen.
Shortly after that we passed a lot of fruit stands selling citrus and we bought a lot of oranges and mandarins. After our experience with the Nafplion oranges at our hotel, we learned our lesson and gobbled them down. Mary, who normally eats very little at all times, has always had one outstanding weakness for mandarin oranges. As a toddler she would go through something like a bag a day.
This day, upon finding herself confronted with an enormous bag of the freshest, most tasty mandarins of her life, Mary turned into Pooh Bear in front of a honey pot. She steadily ate the mandarins long after everyone else couldn’t eat another bite. Occasionally we’d call back to see if she wanted us to take the bag away, and in a soft, contented tone she’d answer, “No, I’m still eating.” It was very cute and endearing.
Then we drove to Poseidon’s Temple at Sounion. Having finished both Mythos and Troy, we listened to Elvis on the way there. He reminded us of our time in Tennessee earlier in the month.
Our favorite part of the temple was looking out at the sea from the cliffs. We were shocked to see the wind blowing so hard that the waves rolled backwards. We also stared open-mouthed at the ships traversing the area where Poseidon appeared to be blowing back the sea. One bounced so hard its prow appeared to go under the sea several times!
After we had had enough of the wind, we headed back to the car to drive back to Athens, return the car, check into the Sofitel at the airport, and then head back into Athens on the Metro. The youngest two had spent a lot of time sitting in the car at this point and were completely out of control at all of the stops. Lydia took the picture below as she and Abe concocted games to try to keep them quiet while I checked into the hotel.
By the time we got to the restaurant it was 8:30pm. The view from A is for Athens is maybe the best city view I’ve seen in my life. There are three walls of floor to ceiling glass and everywhere you turn your head there are even more lit up ruins of Athens. Above them all stands the Parthenon. When you looked down from the windows you could see all of the people in Monastiraki Square. At one point a group of people had a dance party in the middle of the square! Throughout it all men were tossing lighted blue toys high in the air. The sight of it all of this excitement and beauty especially dazzled Ammon and Clarissa, who spent the first part of our wait just staring out the window with their faces pressed to the glass.
Abe thought Athens was very alive and took multiple videos
They also enjoyed blowing their breath on the glass and tracing patterns, much to my chagrin. Abe countered that they are kids and the temptation was just too much for any kid to resist. So thanks to him they had a great time!
By the end of a truly delicious dinner Mary was face down on her plate and Clarissa was face back on hers.
After dinner we made it back to the hotel around 11:45pm and all of the kids just collapsed in their beds. I loved the hotel bathroom and, knowing the enormous travel day ahead, took a long, long bath while Abe responsibly uploaded all of our Covid testing data to the American Airlines app.
Goodbye, Athens and Greece! We had the best time and can’t wait to come back soon.
In the morning we woke up in our ancient castle rooms pictured from inside and outside above. The older girls had their own room around the corner with a view of the sea. Then we went down to the cafe below for breakfast, and then headed up to the top of the city to see the church and views up there.
This is Clarissa and Mary attempting to shoot Abe and Ammon with the cannon. Abe, Ammon and Clarissa were the most entertained by this game. As you can see, in this photo they have made their mark and Abe has fallen dramatically while Ammon attempts to defend him from the cannonball.
The upper castle in Monemvasia, which housed the royalty and aristocracy, is all in ruins. The lower castle, which was reserved for the workers, is the part we stayed in. The way to the top involved climbing a lot of picturesque (if very slick and cobbled) stairs. I probably re-tweaked my ankle half a dozen times, but it was worth it.
The entrance to Mystras, an ancient Byzantine city and now UNESCO World Heritage site, is pictured above.
We visited Mystras by happy, happy accident. I thought Mystras was the ancient city of Sparta, but it turns out that is buried underneath the new city of Sparta on the plains below Mystras. Mystras is a Byzantine city and perhaps the largest and best city ruins I have ever seen. You could easily spend a half or whole day just wandering the ruins, which span underneath the palace ruins on the cliffs even higher up.
In the morning we awoke completely enamored with our adorable hotel. We loved how cozy and clean it was and how beautiful the views from the window were.
When we went downstairs we had the most beautiful, delicious breakfast of the trip waiting for us. Portaria was a total steal. The breakfast was included even though the hotel was the cheapest of the trip. Next time we are going to plan more days in the Pelion peninsula, which is where our hotel was. We wished we could have gone to the restaurant farm and taken a cooking class and explored the area more. But the food we explored thoroughly and it was soooooo good.
I’ll be honest. This was the only stop on our trip that we did because it would have been embarrassing to go to Greece and not see Delphi. But even though we were all very thoroughly brushed up on our Greek myths and Delphi seems to pop up in every other one, I just don’t care about Delphi that much. But we dutifully spent a day driving there, touring the sites, and the driving the almost three more hours to Nafplion.
Because Delphi is out of the way we spent the rest of the day driving to our hotel in Nafplion.
We arrived extremely late because right as we were about to cross the isthmus to the Peloponnese peninsula the toll booths shut completely down. Apparently there was a clash up ahead between the gypsies and the police and they would not let anyone through for an hour. Luckily we had Troy to listen to. We hoped everyone was all right but at the same time felt ever so slightly appreciative of the fact that we were experiencing something that everyone around us seemed to accept as a fact of life in Greece but felt foreign to us. That feeling was probably morally unacceptable, considering the investment and risk going on in both sides of the confrontation. But, to be honest, it was there.
Early in our trip to Greece, Lily asked me if I was feeling something special inside being in my ancestral homeland. I was disappointed to report that I wasn’t feeling anything. That all changed today with our trip to Kolindros, the town where my great grandfather and great grandmother, Basil and Krisoula Darais, lived before leaving to the United States early in their marriage (Krisoula joined him a few years after he left because she was taking care of his mother, I think).
The day started when we left our farmhouse that we loved so much and took a drive to Kolindros.
Ammon threw up on the way, and I even took a picture of it because it was quite spectacular how much he vomited. I’ll spare you the photo. That also felt like a God moment because there was a huge rest area with a gas station, supplies and a restaurant within minutes of when Ammon threw up. This allowed us to have what we needed to clean everything up, and get lunch for everyone at Goody’s (which seems to be the burger chain of choice in Greece).
When we approached Kolindros, Lily and I were blown away by how tidy and bucolic their countryside is. It’s all organized into well maintained picturesque sections of farmland. We couldn’t get enough of it. Lily commented it was the most beautiful farmland she has ever seen. I too was completely taken by it. It also gave me a flashback to the Naxos farmland near Demeter’s temple that had such tidy and ancient plots of olive orchards.
When we arrived inside Kolindros, we drove around a bit and then went to their main square. I stopped into a shop which is the blue building below.
They were so friendly there, and one man spoke a little English and was able to tell me that there were a few Darais’ in town and he also told me my face looks like a Darais (so cool!). We really struggled so he found a nearby teenager to talk with me. The boys name was Stereos and he’s friends with a Darais (Nico?). His friend is the son of Konstantinos, son of Antonios (more on him later). I tried connecting with Konstantinos prior to my trip and received word he would not be able to meet with me. But it was so fun talking to someone who knows my Greek family! I think that Antonios was a cousin of my grandfather, Alexander.
Then we all needed to use a bathroom, and that was a perfect excuse to buy lots of sweets so we felt good about descending on someone’s toilet with so many of us. And I’m so glad we did! They were my favorite treats of the whole trip. I’m sure some of it was the magic of being in Kolindros, but the syrup filled balls of dough, baklava and chocolate creme cookie sandwiches were so good. The dough balls especially were so unique and addictive. I could get enough of them! The main behind the counter was also super sweet. It was confusing buying treats. He and the lady who helped me barely spoke any English. There was a sign for 6 Euros next to the chocolate cream cookie sandwiches. That seemed like a ton to me for one treat, but I bought it anyway. That must have been per kilogram or something because I didn’t have to pay near that much for them. Which is great because I asked for 5 and I got a giant box. Lol, it’s hard with the language barrier!
Then we all went to the cemetery to look for Darais names. Thank goodness we have Lily who knows how to read Greek. I never would have known that said Darais! This is the grave of Antonios Darais who I mentioned earlier.
I thought the graveyard and gravestones were so beautiful. I took a lot of pictures. It was also so amazing to spend time with my relative from across the world.
Then we headed out of Kolindros, all the while continuing to admire the countryside.
We made our way to Portaria, except first we paid a quick visit to super-crazy-land. I actually don’t remember the name of the little town in the cliffs our GPS mistakenly took us to (right next to Portaria), but it was the one time on the trip that driving felt scary. It was night time, and the city was built into a steep mountain-side (dare we say cliff?) and the roads were incredibly narrow. We had to drive up narrow switch backs to climb the cliff. On the turn of each switchback, it was so steep that my large passenger van (seats 9 and has tons of luggage space) would completely pause mid-turn, so it could downshift and actually make it up the crazy steep incline. At one point we went down (and then back up when we realized we needed to turn around) a narrow brick passage-way that was so steep and narrow that I felt all of my adrenaline pumping as I tried to focus. Right after that (thank Goodness), we met two gentleman (who run a hotel and are starting a honey and olive oil business) give us the directions we needed. Roads were also crazy in Portaria, but NOTHING like the other town we were in.
Portaria was amazing, maybe my favorite place I’ve ever stayed. It’s also way up in the steep mountains, but roads are decent and the hotel gastronomy we stayed in was charming beyond words.
They serve food from their local farm that is remarkably inexpensive for how delicious it is. It was definitely one of our favorite meals from the entire Greece trip.
People went crazy for the baked apples. I think they were local, possibly even from their family farm.
We were all very tired and very full after such an incredible dinner. But I wasn’t too full for more of those crazy amazing syrup filled dough-balls!
Also, here is a video my mom sent about Basil eating a Pupachino. She has been so super sweet to keep sending us videos and pictures of Basil to further light up our days.
Also, I just want to effuse about Lily for a little bit. Today I got to be in my ancestral hometown, and for all of October, the whole family is getting the most incredibly rich cultural experiences and it’s all because of Lily. She had the vision for this trip and planned everything. Lily thinks day and night about how to provide her family with everything she can, and cultural experiences are at the top of her list. We are so blessed to have Lily in our lives who is always planning such meaningful, awe-inspiring and educational experiences. I love you so much!
We drove to Meteora early in the morning so we would get there before any busses or crowds. When we arrived, everything was still, quiet, and profoundly peaceful.
Here is a video Abe made from the Varlaam monastery:
After Meteora we headed to Mt. Olympus. We wanted to see it mainly because of its role in Greek myths; we had no idea that the mountain would be anything special. But we were so wrong. I fear our pictures could never do this mountain justice! It was the most beautiful mountain Abe and I had ever seen. The whole road up and down the mountain we all kept essentially screaming in surprise at all of the vistas and colors. We also so five foxes (at five different times!). The fifth fox was being fed by people in their car so that is probably why so many were by the side of the road, but still it was fun to see them!
After Mt. Olympus we all rode down to the town at the base of the mountain and ate pasta, pizza, Greek salad, and ice cream. Then we got back into the car and I put “Sarakina” into the GPS. Our farm house was in a little village called “Sarakina,” so I imagined that would be sufficient.
That is why at 10pm at night we found ourselves driving on unlit roads in the middle of country nowhere. We still thought we were close to our village because it was also in the middle of nowhere, but when the road got so narrow and steep that we had to back up and turn around, I double checked the GPS.
Imagine the shock when I realized we were 45 minutes from the Bulgaria border and honestly not that much farther to Turkey. Our Sarakina (or Sarakinas, as it turned out) was three and a half hours southwest. Oops. Poor Abe had to drive almost until 2am that night. Luckily we had great audiobooks (Michael Pollan’s Second Nature and Stephen Fry’s Troy) and good music to keep him going. It turned out to be a really fun night in at least one other respect because we got to talk a lot to each other without interruption. That is always a treat.
Also (Abe interjecting here), there is one anecdote that I want to make sure we share. I’m not sure if it was today or another day after Naxos, but the kids have been using their devices a ton while we drive. It keeps them completely quiet, and they love it and we love it (the quiet, so we can listen to our Stephen Fry audiobook on Troy). One day we were driving, and Clarissa spontaneously (or so we thought) burst into tears. Her sobs were desperate like her dog just died or something. We asked Clarissa what was wrong and in a completely distraught voice she wailed, “My ipad died!”. She really does love that ipad. I’ve even heard her call it her “Ipaddy”.
Also, here are a bunch of other videos from the day:
Here is what Mary captured in her travel journal about today:
In the morning we had arranged for the previous day’s taxi driver and his nephew to taxi us to the car rental place. I am almost positive they ran the meter up by a very significant amount, but then again Clarissa got chocolate all over one of their 90,000 Euro taxis, so maybe it was okay.
It took a long time to rent a car even though we had reserved one in advance. As we were waiting we met the nicest men from Turkey who were there to compete in the triathlon the next day. We exchanged info with one of them in the hopes that they will come to Utah to bike or compete someday. After all the paperwork and everything was signed, we finally loaded the car and took off.
I had been very, very worried about driving in Greece. So worried, in fact, that I refused to do it, in spite of having an international driver’s license. I was just as worried about Abe driving in Greece, but it turns out he was a total natural. And the roads were much, much better than expected. It was a huge relief!
As we drove to our Airbnb in Sarakinas, we took the slightest detour to see Thermopylae, the site of the last stand of the 300 fighters from Sparta. I had read that there was not much there, but it turns out the visitor center had a short, 3D video that was excellent for children. It explained the differences in armor, weaponry, and training between the Greeks and the Persions, and it broke the three day battle down into graphics that were very easy to follow. By the end of the movie we all understood how brave, fierce, and ultimately self-sacrificing these Greek warriors were. We were excited to cross the road and stand on the hill where the warriors last stood.
After Thermopylae we drove to our Airbnb, which was in a small country village.
Here is what Mary captured about today in her travel journal:
After arriving in Athens we took two taxis to our Airbnb in the Plaka. It was a modest apartment but the location was incredible. It was literally around the corner from the Acropolis metro station–and the best pita place I’d tried yet on the trip.
After we dropped our bags off we headed out to see the Parthenon.
Abe and I enjoyed cuddling and watching the Parthenon glow in the evening light before we were kicked out at closing. The kids had a lot of fun playing in front of the Parthenon.
After strolling down the Plaka for a bit we settled down for some yummy gyros and the only real gelato I’ve had in over a decade. It was so incredible. I can taste it just remembering it. Mmmmmmmm….
Here is what Mary captured about today:
