Thanksgiving!

I'm incredibly excited about Thanksgiving tomorrow!

We have spent the holidays overseas, away from family, since our marriage began. Richard's first base was England, and now our second is Turkey. We lack the money and ability to make it home to see our family and the ones we love during the holiday season. Instead, we make a small family locally to share our holiday season with. Thanksgiving is my tradition (Christmas too, but that's a later post!)

Every year we have had others over to our home for a "family" style dinner. I still remember my first year as a spouse, cooking a giant feast for 10plus people (half of whom I didn't even know!) and it turned out amazingly! Since then, I conquer Thanksgiving with vigor and joy. I enjoy having people around me, and have always enjoyed cooking. Thanksgiving Thursday is my time to get together with a military family, whom would otherwise not have the joy of a "family" meal.

This year will be our biggest party yet! I find this kind of funny since we've only been at this base for a little over a month and a half...

Thanks to Richard's work schedule he has to work Thanksgiving day. ALL day... (He also has to work Christmas day... but hey! That is this life.) Anyways, we created our normal Facebook event because everyone knows it isn't official until it is Facebook official, and invited all of the people we had met and liked here. Then we decided to invite Richard's crew, and the other guys who have to work Thanksgiving with him. Now we have at least 20 people coming over! Most of them are here unaccompanied (without their spouses and/or children) or don't have anyone else to spend the day with. Which, I guess, is kind of all of us over here! It feels good to be surrounded by others in the same position as us. These people become our family when our real ones are unable to join us.

I will most definitely be taking pictures and posting another post either tomorrow or Friday. It might just be pictures, as I'm hoping there are no huge disasters that happen that would require me to actually write!

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I hope that if you are reading this and you are military, you know that you have a family in all of us.

I hope that if you are reading this and you have the pleasure to spend Thanksgiving day with your family, surrounded by those who love you, you will think of and pray for all of us small families overseas, all of those military members deployed, and all of those spouses back home wishing they had their loved ones.

So What if I'm Supposed to be Cleaning...

I may be cleaning at the moment... I may be sitting at my computer... typing... Or maybe I have a really long extra arm and I'm doing both!

Yeah. Who am I kidding. I'm so not cleaning right now...

Instead I keep walking around, picking things up, sweeping a small area, then wandering back to my computer to change a song I don't like on Pandora, or thinking about what I want to blog about, or checking my Facebook (why is Facebook so distracting!) I then wander into my daughters room to see what she's up to, which currently consists of pulling all the clothes out of the drawers in her closet and then putting them back in a rather more unorganized state than they were previously at... yeah. I just organized that dang closet two days ago!!

We have our shipment of household goods (HHG) coming in tomorrow (can I get a WHOOT WHOOT!), hence the reason I should be cleaning. I even put on some fun radio to try and spur on the 'cleaning momma' mood. Not working. Not working at all.

So since my body, my mind, or my whatever you want to call it has decided it wants me to write I'm going to share a happy memory that makes me miss my friends and family back home.

If you are friends with me on Facebook you may have noticed my status about my last job in America before I moved to England.

I worked at this fantastic little shop called Tribal Grounds Coffee from the time I was 16 years old until I left the country at 19 to begin my journey into military life, overseas living, and adventure! To say I loved this job would be an understatement. I ADORED my job. I loved immersing myself into coffee culture. And we are talking real coffee. Not that crap Starbucks calls a latte. Leon, my boss extraordinaire, was one of the best bosses I have ever had. Not only was he incredibly knowledgeable, passionate, and fair, he was also willing to learn from his employees. His passion stemmed into everything he did with the shop. It was here I learned all about latte art, customer service, the origins of coffee, and how to properly steam milk by sound and touch. I perfected skills that I still remember today! One of the few constants in my life was Tribal Grounds and the people there. When I was moved out of my house senior year of high school, when I left for college, when I was trying to get my Visa to England, Tribal Grounds and Leon were always there for me! I get serious cases of nostalgia when I think back to the amazing cups of coffee I would make for the locals and tourists. It was a great experience to have someone who was an avid Starbucks (or other non-independent coffee shop) goer tell you how the latte I had just made them changed their entire opinion of how coffee should be served.

I used to hang out at the shop on my days off with my friends, we would go to open mic night, I would flirt with my boyfriend, I made friends, and lost one whose presence I will always feel when going to that building. My job as a Barista is my best memory of the time of my transition from moody teenager to adulthood.

Leon has moved onto a new business in the bustling city of Durham called Cocoa Cinnamon, and I get so envious of the barista's who get a chance to work in such an amazing place! Leon and Areli (pretty much the best people ever) are creating a magical place that I hope to one day visit! If you get the chance to stop by, please do, and let me know how simply amazing it was (I doubt it will be nothing short of fantasmical).

And that is it for today... Thanks for joining me on my brain craziness of the afternoon!

These are two pictures taken during my first forays into latte art... I don't have any of my later designs or some of my best stuff unfortunately... That's probably because I was working.....

Welcome to My Version of Life

Good Lawdy...

This was our first real PCS (permanent change of station for you non military speaking folk) and it has been quite hard. Not gonna lie.

When I moved to England I was a newly wed with nothing to my name but my book collection and clothing. Now I have a family. A household. Responsibilities.

Sure. Driving to Turkey was hard. But when all is said and done, that was the easy part.

Adjusting here is really hard.

Turkey is foreign. And I mean FOREIGN. I'm not sure you can really grasp how weird it is here... On base is even different from the other bases I've been on. Some people can't speak English, and I can't speak the local language. Even grasping how to say thank you in Turkish is hard for me! It's the the most unsettling and disconcerting thing not being able to communicate with those around you...

 There are so many things about my life now that I can't really tell family and friends because it would endanger our OPSEC (operational security). There are a lot of financial issues that have arisen since getting here that we never foresaw that we are now having to deal with...

I have to confess that I am really struggling right now. I'm fighting with my husband, short tempered with my child, things keep seeming to go 'wrong' in our day to day lives. I feel like I'm struggling to make friends (friendships have always been a bit weird for me..) I spend thirteen plus hours a day with a fussy, teething, grumpy baby and I don't have my things. It's funny how that affects a person. I don't have the spices I want to cook with. I don't have my bed! I don't have my lamps. My pots and pans aren't here. My clothes, my towels, my stuff that I like are just not here. I know I can live without my things. They aren't necessary. Nice, but not necessary. However, when you have uncomfortable furniture and a lack of cooking supplies it does something to a woman!

We did find out today that our household goods have arrived and we get to have our things next week, but this just raises all kinds of other stressers (did the movers break anything important? Is my antique dressing table in one piece? Did some of my things not even make it on the truck? Are they going to actually unpack us or just leave us with boxes to do on our own?) I know these stresses are part of military life, but that doesn't make them NOT stressful. I dislike  hate when people say things like "It's just part of this life," or, "It's just stuff." Yeah. I know that. But it's my stuff! Just because I don't like the stress of some of the moving process, doesn't mean that I dislike the service that my husband does. I love being in the military family. I love living in Turkey. I love moving. I hate stress.

I'm sorry if this post seems a little erratic (and sad). It's late. I've had a very long and stressful couple of days with some bad news to complement all the other things going on and I just had to write. Here's the outcome of me just writing...

Don't worry! It will all work out (so I don't like when people say it to me... I can say it to myself!) I really like Turkey so far. I can't wait to have our car driveable to go explore! We've got some really cool things planned like a Saturday BBQ at our gardeners house (a very nice Turkish man). This is but a season in our time here, and it will pass quickly... Hopefully really quickly...

Welcome to My Version of Life...

Day 6 and Our Arrival to Turkey

Day 6 of our adventurous, ridiculous, insane, wonderful, beautiful, chaotic, delicious, uncertain, surprising and long Journey to Turkey. 

Today held lots of surprises. Some bad, some good. 

Our morning was pretty great! We had a nice Greek breakfast provided by our hotel. Rhapsody got to run around and play with the two ladies again, and we made some Albanian friends while enjoying coffee on the front porch.  

We have met so many people on this trip from all different cultures and backgrounds! It is amazing to see how we can communicate without words, as well as how much joy children can being to people. 

We were on the road by 9 am. Today was the day that we crossed into Turkey. Tomorrow is our last day of driving!! 

The Turkish border came up quicker than we were expecting. Just two hours after hitting the road in Greece. The Greek side of the border wasn't too bad. We got a bit hung up because our cars title was located in our fire proof safe under the seat which had stuff packed in... After unpacking that side of the vat and digging the documents out it to about 20 more minutes before  we were through the Greek border and just had to drive to the Turkish side.

The drive was interesting... It was a mere 5 minute drive, but the whole way there were these little shacks with solders (holding large guns) watching us. 

I'm not prone to wild imaginations of harm and corruption when it comes to military placement, but I have to say that those guys were awful disconcerting.

We hit a Turkish passport control, he checked our passports, and sent us forward. We through another passport control line and were informed that we needed to buy a Turkish Visa. 

Richard parked the car and went to buy the visas. It was 15€ each, which wasn't horrible. After about 30 minutes we had passports with Visa stamps and were sent into the next line. 

This is where things got interesting.

At the same time that we pulled up to get our car inspected I got a phone call from Expedia (who we booked our hotels through). Richard got out to do the car inspection and I took the call. 

Ajay (so he said his name was) informed me that our hotel in Fanari had been refunded. During our conversation I asked him if he could please check with our hotel in Ankara to see if the dogs were in fact okay. This was another hotel that had "Pet Friendly" on their website. He said sure and hung up.

Richard got back in the car, looking a little concerned, and pulled forward to park out of the way. He told me that the customs people couldn't speak English and they were confused why half our paperwork was British, our car had British plates, but we had an American car (and title) as well as American passports. Richard got out of the car to handle the customs part.

After a couple minutes he came back and backed us into the customs area to get our car inspected. Once again the staff were confused by our paperwork as well why our car was full of stuff.

The customs agent stood at the back window staring at the dogs for a bit, so Richard opened the door. He just looked more confused and none of our paperwork made sense to him. Then he came around the sides to check the back seats. When he saw all the stuff piled in the car he got EVEN more confused. He seemed to ask where we were going. This is when Richard pulled out his military ID and said "Incirlik". We should've done that way before because the customs agent got noticably happier. He started asking "Incirlik?" And Richard said yes. The customs agent had Richard close the doors with no further inspection, then brought everyone out from the office to look at the dogs before letting us head on our way with no more issues. This was better than we'd hoped! Everyone else going through had to empty their cars by we got sent onwards. Yeah! 

That was exactly when Ajay called me back to say our hotel in Turkey wouldn't allow dogs. 

Seriously. The "Pet Friendly" hotel doesn't allow two large dogs. Again. Someone should learn that "Pet Friendly" is not selective. 

To say I was angry would be much too light of a word....

I put on my stern mommy voice and insisted on a full refund, as well as he must find me a room in Ankara for the night because we were due to be on the road for at least 7 more hours and it was already well after noon. I would be completely unable to find us a room! 

He kept repeating "I understand that you are upset but there is nothing I can do." 

Seriously!? Nothing you can do!? And your supposed to be a travel agency service? 

I gave him quite a chewing out, maintaining a level of respect (Richard thought I should've been meaner since they had seriously messed up). Then the phone lost signal.

We were switching tower zones from Greece to Turkey. I received a text message from Vodafone saying that the cost of calls were now 138p per minute to receive. £1.38. Per. Minute. 

Ajay called me back a few minutes later and informed me that he had found a hotel for us that would take our two large dogs. He mentioned that it was a bit more expensive. 

"How much 'more' expensive?"

"One hundred seventy one pounds a night." 

WHAT!! 

Our original hotel is £56. That just got upped to £171!! 

Oh, but out of Expedia's "remorse" for our situation they would take 10% off. So a whole whopping £17. I told him that was still way too expensive and I didn't think we could afford that. 

He gave me a big lecture on how we wouldn't find anywhere cheaper willing to take the dogs because everywhere was booked full already. 

We were in the middle of Turkey. Paying nearly two dollars a minute to talk to this schmuck. With no possible way to find another hotel. Fan.tas.tic. 

I asked Ajay to call me back in a few minutes so I could talk it over with Richard. 

Unfortunately we had no choice. There was nothing we could do. We were going to have to pay $200 for a hotel we would be in for less than 8 hours. 

Ajay called us back and said he could take another £25 off the price of the hotel. We agreed. TEN minutes later he had us booked in. I don't think Ajay understood money very much... Ten minutes equals £13.80 on one phone call.

Thankfully the drive through Turkey was really pleasant. The landscape wasn't what we expected! There was a lot of farmland! That is until we hit Istanbul... Where traffic slowed to a stop.

It took more than 2 hours to get through the city. The traffic was crazy! Drivers didn't care about road laws or cutting in front of you when there really wasn't any space. I don't know how we didn't see more wrecks! We only saw one the whole time. Tolls through the city were horrible. The lanes would split to 12 lanes, and then back to 4 immediately. It caused for a lot of honking and angry faces. The coolest part of all the traffic was the guys walking down the middle of the highway selling fresh fruit, water, pretzels, and sweets. They didn't knock on your car windows, or bug you. You just rolled up, told them what you wanted (or in our case gestured) and paid through the window then moved on. Halfway through the traffic Rhaps started to get upset just as we drove up next to someone with bananas. Richard rolled the window down, handed over 4 Lira ($2) and we got two bananas and a bottle of water. Pretty awesome!! 

After Istanbul we had smooth sailing for all of 10 miles before it started down pouring. Really. Torrential downpour. Our time of arrival had already gotten pushed back to 10:30 and now, driving at 40 mph instead if 70 we watched as the eta got later and later. 

It hit about 7 pm when we decided we needed dinner and stopped at a Burger King. I know what your thinking. "Really? You ate Burger King in Turkey? Couldn't you have gotten something better?"

Turkish sounds nothing like anything English. We listened to podcasts and YouTube videos trying to learn some of the useful phrases but we found them terribly difficult. Since we didn't know anything about the area we were in we figured Burger King was the safest bet. Ordering was still difficult but in the end we figured it out. Back on the road our ETA was well after 11 pm now. 

I guess it was a food thing that we booked the way too expensive hotel because trying to find a hotel in the huge city of Ankara at near midnight would've been impossible. 

We got to the hotel eventually, checked in, used the "complimentary valet service" (I paid for that with the price if the dang room!) and were up in the room by 11:30. 

That's when I learned that our nearly $200 hotel room didn't come with a free breakfast OR free wifi. We had stayed in more accomadating, nicer, and cheaper hotels just days beforehand! The lobby of the ritzy place was flashy and extravagant, but the rooms were merely okay for the price. The carpets were old, the blankets and towels not soft, the bed was hard. What the heck were we paying for? Absolutely disappointing.   I'll take a cheap, friendly place over a ritzy one any day! 

We can take heart in the fact that we gave a room, even if it is ridiculously expensive, and we don't have to leave the dogs cooped up in the car all night. 

Tomorrow is the final day of our journey. I cannot wait to be done. 

This has been amazing. I wouldn't have done it any other way. But I'm ready to start our new life in Incirlik. 

Now enjoy pictures from our ridiculiously  expensive hotel...

Because who doesn't conduct business on the phone whilst pooping...

Day Five With a Whole Lot of "No"

Day 5 of our adventurous, ridiculous, insane, wonderful, beautiful, chaotic, delicious, uncertain and long Journey to Turkey. 

One of the most disconcerting things is not being able to communicate with people. We have met a lot of locals who could speak English, but today we ended up in a small town where not many people could speak our language. And our Greek is nonexistent. We can ask a couple questions, however, today we needed to properly communicate and that was nearly impossible...

The morning started out really nice. We woke to our alarm going off, readied, packed the car, grabbed a quick chocolate croissant breakfast from the bakery down the street, and were on the road by 8 am. 

The drive through Greece was beautiful. Richard and I were both in awe of the countryside. There were mountains everywhere, ocean views, and beautiful farmland. It was supposed to be cloudy and stormy all day, but we were lucky and caught sun the whole way down. Greece's toll roads are MUCH cheaper than France and Italy's. Where France and Italy were about 20-40€ a toll, Greece was a mere 2.60€. 

We made really good time on our drive again today! We were pulling into Fanari at about 2:30. The sun was shining, the ocean inviting, and I was excited!! I couldn't wait to get to the beach to do a bit of swimming before the storm hit that we could see forming over the mountains behind us. After getting a bit lost in Fanari, we finally found our hotel at about 3pm. The hotel looked really nice! We were majorly excited. We unloaded ourselves and the baby and went inside to check in. 

There was a group of people sitting off to our right having a conversation. I saw a few of them look over at us and heard the word Agglika, I assume because they could hear us speaking English. I don't think they were too happy about our arrival time since it was the Greeks siesta between 2 and 5pm... 

A gentleman came towards us saying "Hello, can I help you?"

Yes! Someone who spoke English! Win! 

"Yeah we need to check in." 

We handed over our paperwork. At this point Richard says, "We have two dogs with us, is that okay?"

Let me cut in here to say, I booked this hotel through Expedia. I called them and asked if having my two big dogs would be okay. The told me, quote, "That will be okay." 

Okay. Back to the hotel. 

The gentleman checking us in looked up at us with what could only be described as disgust.

"No. We only allow one dog 5 kilos or less." 

My stomach sank at that. I have two huskies. At 27 kilos each they were way too big. 

We tried persuading the guy. Explaining that our dogs are well behaved, won't ever be left alone in the room, and will not make a mess inside. He asked us what kind of dogs we had and he said, "Oh, I know the type. No. They are not allowed." 

You know the type? What the hell does that mean! Seriously. You have got to be kidding me. 

I had personally looked at the website for this hotel and all it said was "Pet Friendly." Yeah. Pet friendly my butt!! Chihuahua friendly maybe. 

We tried negotiating a bit more at which point the guy got a bit rude. I was getting more and more upset. 

For once my adorable daughters crazy cuteness didn't work on the guy. 

He told us if we called Expedia and cancelled through them he would refund us fully. We told him we were moving and had no way to call anyone. He scoffed (yeah. Scoffed.) and asked us why we didn't have anything. BECAUSE WE ARE MOVING. 

We asked if he knew of any hotel in the area that would allow dogs to which he replied. 

"No."

Great, we were in the middle of Greece. Without a hotel. No way to call anyone. No way to find a hotel. And unable to speak the language

My dreams of beach bumdom were shot. 

That's when the tears started. 

I fancy myself a strong women. We've handled a lot of crud on this trip, and handled it well. 

Potentially not having a place to sleep? That's something I couldn't handle.

I really felt like such a failure. It was my responsibility to find dog friendly hotels and I had failed. 

No, it wasn't really my fault, but it didn't help me feel better about the fact that we didn't have a hotel... 

Who doesn't take a bribe, too? We tried to offer extra money! And if the dogs damaged anything, they have our card on file to charge it more... 

We left the hotel with our stomachs in knots. We drove into town, where we had seen a lot of hotels, and Richard began going to every single one to see if they would allow us to stay. 

Everyone said no. Not only was it the off season, but we were also interrupting their siesta to ask questions in a language they didn't know. We tried the next town over, but still no luck.

I started getting more angry. Angry at the hotel and Expedia and myself. After some more searching we decided it was worth calling Expedia to make THEM fix it.

I called, opted for the call back option because it costs less to receive calls than to send them. Waited ten minutes. No call back. Five more minutes.... We decided to call again. This time I stayed on the line and got someone. Of course this someone was your stereotypical call center operator. You know the ones I'm talking about.... Anyways, I explained our situation to him. Nicely explained. (No crazy lady calls for this guy!) He said he would have to call the hotel in Fanari because his system says they are pet friendly with no stipulations. I told him we needed to find another hotel in the area to stay at, but that we can't speak the local language. At which point he says "Well, you should probably keep looking..." 

Right. What a grand idea. I'm really surprised we didn't think of that! 

I insisted that when he called back with the Fanari's answer on our refund that he help us find a hotel. 

After talking to Expedia we decided to head to the bigger town we had passed on the way in and see if maybe a hotel could be found there. 

On our way out of town I noticed a sign for a pretty nice looking hotel down by the beach. 

Hey! Let's take a chance here. We went to check it out. 

We decided it was a good idea to send me in. Who wouldn't take pity on a stranded woman? 

Turned out it was a good idea sending me in! There was a lady at the counter, I asked "Signomi, Milate Agglika?" 

"Rosski (Ruissin?), Deutch (German?)"

"Uh... No..." 

Damn. Now what do I do? We began talking to each other in our own languages accompanied with extravagant gestures. 

"I need one room," 1 finger up. 

"For two people and baby," point to myself and next to me, and cradle my arms...

"And two dogs."

"Dogs..." 

I hold my hand at my hip to show their height...

She looks mildly confused, when another woman walked in. She turned and started asking the other lady questions. I assume she's the boss. She took one look at me (I'm sure I had a frantic and lost look on my face) and walked right up to pinch my cheeks in a loving gesture. It made me smile. 

She said yes to the dogs and wrote down 35€ on a piece of paper. 

YES! I'll take it! 

We got a bit confused from there with each of us trying to communicate so she turns around, picks up the phone and dials someone. She talks quickly into the line and then hands the phone to me. 

There was a gentleman on the phone who speaks English!!! I quickly explained to him what I needed and he says all is fine. We could get the room for 35€. 

Perfect! Absolutely perfect! 

The lady talked to him for a minute longer, grabbed a key and motioned for me to follow. I walked out of the hotel with the biggest smile on my face! I give Richard a big thumbs up where he was sitting in the car. She takes me across the courtyard, upstairs, and into the biggest room we've had yet! It was nice. Clean. And the bed was big! It had its own little porch and sitting area. It was more than perfect for a cheaper price than the one we were staying at originally! And the people were so friendly! 

I gave the little old lady a hug and she in turn squeezed my butt.

Yes. Squeezed. One hand squished. My. Butt. 

Eh, if that's the only extra thing I had to do to get the room I'll take it!!

All I can say about all this is that God provides! We just had a feeling we should check the hotel. I had seen the sign for it on the way to Fanari and had thought we should've stayed there! And on the way back I had the feeling we should check again. I totally chock it up to divine intervention. It looked much too nice to allow dogs from the advertisement, but the women were so friendly and dogs weren't a problem!!! 

We got the baby and dogs out of the car. Everyone instantly fell in love with Rhaps. There was two old women (the ones who checked us in) and three men sitting outside on the porch enjoying coffee and cigarettes. The two ladies were fretting over her. She walked up and stole one of the old men's prayer beads! They all laughed and played with her. This hotel was definitely a good choice! We couldn't actually have a conversation but we were able to communicate nonetheless! 

After getting settled in our room we headed out to get some dinner. It was only 6, and like I said yesterday, most Greeks don't eat until 8, but we decided to take our chances. 

We drove back to Fanari since that was the only place nearby with food, despite the inherent hate we now had for the town. On the way there we were caught up in a huge rainstorm. When we parked at the village there only appeared to be one restaurant even open. Richard braved the weather, at his stomachs insistence, to see if they were serving food. He came back to me to say the place was only serving pizza. He was starving so I gave in. 

When I stepped out of the car, the rain was falling so hard and so fast that the street had turned into a river. The water instantly flowed up and over my shoes. My favourite pair of teal moccasins!!! I quickly removed my shoes and ran to the other side of the car to get Rhapsody. The umbrella I had pulled out did little to protect us as we got Rhaps out of the car and ran to the restaurant. 

By the time, a meer few seconds, we got to the door of the hotel my jeans we soaked clear up to my knees. Richard and I stopped, looked at each other, and just busted out laughing! Today had been the worst, best, stormiest, uncertain day of the trip so far. There were a few men smoking in the restaurant, waiting out the rain, who joined us in our laughter. We looked a mess. Richards clothes and shoes were soaked. My jeans were dripping water everywhere. At least there would be pizza and wine! 

A friend of mine posted a story on Facebook today with some great advice that I think Richard and I are fully coming to believe in. It's all about when the waves of life come towards you, you can run away, but the waves will catch you; you can stand still and let them knock you over; or you can dive deep, ride the wave, and come out a more experienced and better person. 

There are so many reasons we decided to get to Turkey the way we are. We knew it would be hard. We knew it would test us. We didn't forsee all the problems we were going to have, neither did we realise how much we would grow and change. How much we would gain. 

Today was a test. It was difficult. But it was fantastic! We got to watch an amazing storm rage over the sea while we enjoyed dinner with some really nice people. We got to meet some amazing women (Bulgarians by the way! Not even Greek!). And we learned to lean on each other and God for one more day. 

Tomorrow we cross into Turkey. We have two more days of travelling! We will be in Adana on Thursday! I'm excited to start our new life in Turkey. 

Thank you for reading our continuing journey. Now enjoy some pictures!! 

Morning sunrise over the mountains in Greece

This is right outside Fanari, the original town we were supposed to stay in. 

Rhapsody asking for the prayer beads.

He gave them over!!

Our room, half of it anyways! 

This is the front of the hotel, you can't tell but the beach is RIGHT there.

This is the but grabbing, sweet old lady! 

Welcome to My Version of Life

Day 4 and New Friends

Day 4 of our adventurous, ridiculous, insane, wonderful, beautiful, chaotic, delicious (food wise!) and long Journey to Turkey. 

After the whole Brindisi and ferry debacle we were really happy to have a restful day in Igoumenitsa. 

We took a nice long nap then had lunch at our hotel. They even brought the food to the room for us! We had some fantastic spiced chicken, chips, and salad. It was delicious!! 

After lunch we decided to explore around the area for a nice beach to relax on. We drove around the outlying villages, enjoying the beautiful views. After some sightseeing, we decided to watch the waves in a little cove away from anyone. It was nice and relaxing. Just what we needed! 

We returned to our hotel to find our previous parking spot filled. It was street side parking, unfortunately,  and the only spot open was between a little car and a whole row of scooters and motorbikes.... 

Richard and I attempted to parallel park the jeep, nearly hitting several scooters in the process, all in front of the locals because it was right after everyone's Siesta! At one point Richard and I got in an argument that ended with me walking away saying "Then park your car by yourself!" We made up pretty quickly. We're not ones to hold grudges. And eventually we got it parked... We didn't really get the car in the space but since this was Greece, and parking rules don't apply, we just left it where it was... 

We went upstairs to get ready for dinner, which Greeks eat at 8 pm. We decided to just eat at the hotel since lunch was so amazing. 

The owner of the hotel took us to the kitchen and let us sample some of the food. He then prepared our plates and brought them outside. A bunch of locals were outside talking and drinking. A couple of them spoke English so we were able to join conversation!

Once again Rhapsody charmed everyone! She was running around, having a grand time! She has gotten really good about going to other people since we started the trip. She'll just walk right up to someone and start gabbing away. The locals loved her! 

We hung around outside for a while, asking questions and just enjoying conversation. Rhaps went really fussy about 9ish, Richard took her to the room (directly above where we were sitting outside), put her to bed, and she didn't make a sound. She was out! 

Richard rejoined us downstairs and we got learn a lot about Greek culture. We leaned some new words, ("Yamas" for good health in place of cheers), ate some freshly grilled fish caught that day, and had a glass of local made grape liquor called Tipar . We made new friends and had a fantastic time. We promised that if we were ever in Greece again we would stay at the Stavodri again! It was quite easily the best night of the trip so far.

We called it a night early since we wanted to get out of the hotel and on the road earlier than normal tomorrow.

***I'm not taking pictures of everything I talk about because we've just had so much fun experiencing everything that I forget about pictures!***

Playing in the rocks!

Look at that crazy hair! 

Took the jeep off-roading a bit. It was pretty fun!!

Love! 

Where we hung out for our relaxing waves! The surf was a bit rough so we couldn't swim...

The front of our hotel at night. It was really nice! 

Dinner!! Yummy!!

I missed Rhaps and the owner (man in blue) cuddling, this was what I captured instead! 

Reeeeally good fish! 

Welcome to My Version of Life

Day 3 and Pandora's Ship

Day 3 of our adventurous, ridiculous, insane, wonderful, beautiful, chaotic and long Journey to Turkey. 

And here I was thinking today's post was going to be boring.... Oh how wrong I was!

I'm currently currently writing this while Rhapsody takes her afternoon nap in our hotel in Igoumenitsa, Greece. Even though it is now Monday, I'll be writing all about yesterday and this morning until we got into our hotel.

Yesterday started amazingly! We woke up in a rush, nearly an hour and a half after our alarm.... We had a lot of driving to do and wanted to be out of the hotel early. That failed. We got ourselves ready quickly, walked the dogs, and went to breakfast. 

Breakfast was AMAZING. I'm going to put a quick plug here for the hotel we stayed at... The Hotel Stressa in Rimini, Italy is simply amazing. The rooms are huge, the breakfast delicious, and the staff are some of the nicest people we have met on this journey. The lady who checked us in yesterday even took Rhaps on a stroll down the street while we were letting the dogs stretch their legs! 

Anyways, breakfast was delicious. They had breakfast food from all different cultures. I also met a machine that could produce a latte nearly as good as a live barista! I never thought I would see the day. Once we'd finished breakfast, packed the cars, paid for the hotel, and chatted with the locals and travellers for a bit, we were on our way. 

We had a deadline. We had to drive from the top of Italy all the way down to the heel of Italy for our ferry. We had to check in for the ferry at 6 pm. We left at 9 am for the 6 and a half hour drive. 

The drive down the coast was amazing. The views were breathtaking. And except for the biker gang that pissed Richard off with their erratic driving, really uneventful. We just cruised, taking in the sights, while getting our Sunday fill of our Christian playlist. 

We made it to Brindisi by about 4 pm. The problems began here. There was no address to be found for the location we needed to get the Ferry. After one failed stop, we utilised the data usage to find an address. Too bad it was the wrong one. Again. 

Looking across the bay we could see the ferries for Grimauldi Lines (the one we needed) but we had no idea how to get there. We found the tourist information point. Thank God the woman could speak English. While we were getting directions we met a really nice Australian couple who suggested a restaurant down the street for dinner. 

Bella Bar made the BEST pizza we have ever had. Oh. My. Goodness. We enjoyed a nice, calm dinner. Richard made the waiter VERY happy when he said "Molto Bene!" I swear the guy jumped around in joy! 

After dinner we let Rhaps walk back the car chasing birds, and her blocks. Little did we know this was just the calm before the storm...

We got lost trying to find the ferry and had to turn around. It was 5:39 and we had to check in by 6:00. 

I'd been pretty chill this whole trip, but give me a deadline and I turn into a crazy woman. Not the good kind of crazy that makes people happy, nooo... I'm the crazy that makes other people want to lock you in the trunk until you fall asleep from exhaustion... Unfortunately our dogs were in the back so Richard was stuck with me...   

Through some overly craziness on my part, and some awesome calmness on Richards part, we found the port and the check in desk. It all looks a bit run down and shady, but that's just the way it is here... 

We walked into the ferry terminal to a large mass of men all vying for the attention of the ticket agent. I don't do big masses of smelly people... Truck drivers from the looks of them... 

There was another smaller bunch of people at a different window. Through deduction we figured the second, smaller line must be for personal vehicles. We went to stand there. While waiting I notice that neither of the attendants seem to be working... There are three men at the window in front of us, but they're just standing there... Then one of the men pulls out his wallet and hands over 20€. The attendant began typing away. 

Did he just bribe the guy? I think that was a bribe... I can't bribe people... I'm not cut out for this. I don't even know HOW to bribe someone... 

I continued standing in line, feeling very uncomfortable... 

Something else I noticed was that men of this culture have no problem openly staring at you. I am by no means a strikingly beautiful woman. I rarely get ogled. It freaked me out how much smelly truck drivers therr were just blatently checking me out. I sucked it up and put on my "I'm a big girl" face... One of the attendants looked up and notices me. He called me forward (good plan putting me up front to handle the tickets instead of Richard). I get up to the counter. Standing next to a particularly rancid smelling fellow. In my stage fright I ask tentatively "English?"

"Yes, I speak English."

"Thank You!"

"Why are you thanking me..."

"Emm..."

I handed the guy our booking confirmation and he cut us some tickets. Then he said we needed to be in line 2 for the ferry. 

Cool. Line 2. Sounds easy enough. 

Psh!!

It is complete anarchy at the loading area. There are no signs (not even signs in Italian!) to tell you where to go, how to get there, or what to do. There aren't even lines in the road... Competely chaotic. Unorganized. I can't HANDLE this! I'm really good at going with the flow. However this wasn't so much of a flow, more like a gushing waterfall of chaotic TERROR. 

After much blundering about and deciding to follow other people, we get to lane 2. Thank God it's a line. They check our tickets a couple times (didn't give a hoot about our passports or dogs documents...) and then it was just the waiting game. We sat in line for about an hour before they start loading us.

ANARCHY! There are no directions. Just people pointing and shouting to load and hurry. We follow the cars in front of us onto the boat while being extravagantly gestured at to hurry it up. We drive through the ferry and are told we have to back into the spaces. Except they aren't spaces. And people are parked very crooked.... There are attendants who LET the people park crooked.... 

It was stifling hot in the parking area and smelled like exhaust so we shuffled out of there as quickly as we could. Just grabbing our back pack for the baby, making the snap decision to simply sleep in our clothes. 

We went to the stairway to get to the upper decks. Unfortunately Nali refused to walk up the stairs... Richard stooped down, picked our 50lb wolf dog up and carried him up a flight of stairs. We had everyone laughing, including Rhapsody! At that point Nali decided he could walk again. We climbed the remaining five flights of stairs, following the signs for  the kennel to the top deck. After some looking around and asking questions, we found the worst kennels we had ever seen. 

There wasn't an attendant. The kennels consisted of 8 wire cages in a tiny room that looked like it hadn't been cleanein... Ever. There weren't even latches or locks on the doors to the cages. We were seriously disappointed and apprehensive about leaving our dogs there. We had no choice. We put Nali and Athena in one cage , and used the carabiner from their leads to lock the door. I felt horrible leaving them behind.

We took a minute to find our room, discovering that our room key wasn't working to get in. 

We decided to give the room key issue a bit of time, hoping it would fix itself, while we went out to the deck to enjoy some drinks and let the baby play. 

We picked our table near an open area, and Rhaps ran circles around the pillars on the deck. Once again entertaining everyone who was nearby or walking past. A group of Italians behind us got a huge kick out of her. They would laugh every time she'd try to wheedle her way past daddy to get up the stairs, or when she went running joyously in the opposite direction of us. At one point one of the gentlemen leaned down and motioned for her to come to him. She went right to him, causing everyone to laugh. The man exclaimed, "She's chosen a new daddy!" He set Rhaps down and she immediately went back to Richard and gave him a big hug. Causing more laughter. I wonder if this kid knows how adorable she is and uses it to her own evil advantage... 

Rhaps started to get really fussy after a while, so we figured it was a good time to find a room. Inside the ship looked really nice as we made our way to the room. Once there, the key still wasn't working. We went to the reception desk, stood in line for an hour, and they cut us some new keys. Back at the room again... The key still didn't work... 

When we got back to the front desk there was no one in line. YES! We tried explaining what was going on and everyone got a little confused thanks to language barriers and thick accents... In the end they gave us an actual key to get in the room, knowing that it would work. 

Once in the room the first thing we noticed was it was HOT. And muggy. And hot. The fan didn't work. The air conditioning didn't work. Seriously. It was really hot! No one else was sharing the room with us so we stripped down and tried putting the fussy baby to sleep. Then ourselves. The boat was swaying back and forth pretty heavily, making me feel a bit quesy. After a while we fell asleep. 

Richard and I both woke up at about 2:30 am. He decided to go check on the dogs. They were not very happy. At about 3:30 am, a voice started coming over the speaker in several different languages saying that we would be docking soon. We got up, got the baby up and headed for the kennels. 

After springing the dogs from doggie jail, we waited on the top deck. After a little over an hour everyone seemed to have disappeared. We hadn't heard a voice telling us to go back to the cars, but we'd figured out, at this point, that no one really followed the rules... 

We went down to the car, noticing that not everyone was there yet, so we hadn't missed any announcements, some people just loaded early. Just as we finished getting the dogs and ourselves in the car we heard the call for everyone to go to their vehicles. 

About 30 minutes later we started disembarking. 

In England we love a queue. We follow the rules of a queue. I am a big fan of lines and following them. In Greece they say "Screw the queue, jump the line!!"

Everything went crazy! People were just cutting in as soon as they could.

"Go go go go go!"

We got out of the boat, and once again there were no signs. No directions. We went right. Other cars were flying past us. Somehow we managed to find the exit, loaded the GPS for our hotel 2 miles down the road, and drove on. 

We found a gas station, since our gas light had turned on before we'd even loaded the ferry. There was an attendant who filled the tank for us. We were lucky to find the station open since it was just after 5:30 local time.

We drove through Igoumenitsa to the hotel. When we got to the hotel, there was no one there to check us in early so we decided to drive to the nearest beach on our GPS. It was nearing sunrise so we figured we could kill time by just driving around. We found an amazing little beach, hidden off the road, that we plan to go to this afternoon. It took a bit of of reading on our part to get there but the water was warm, and the beach secluded. 

The scenery was beautiful, the sunrise magnificent for the rest of our drive.

We returned to the hotel about 8 am, but no one was there yet so we just hung out in the car until the owner arrived. He let us check in early so now we are just hanging out in the room until we decide to check out the beach and sights. 

Today is our rest day after all the excitement yesterday, and tomorrow we will be headed for Komotini. 

We are halfway done with our journey at this point, and are soooo looking forward to getting Turkey to settle into our new life there. 

I'll probably have a short blog post for tomorrow about the amazing food and sights that we will hopefully see today. 

She's gotten as good at escaping as the dogs...

The Hotel Stressa

Making friends! We didn't even speak the same language... Who cares! 

Checking out! 

Just us. 

I didn't get a very good picture, but there were these beautiful villages sitting on top of the hills.

Breathtaking views

Lots of tunnels again! 

Just a portion of the bikers we dealt with. At one point we were completely surrounded by motorcycles.

I think I'm melting....

Even Rhapsody loved the pizza!!

Palm trees! 

The crazy parking! 

Rhaps running around the ship.

Out ittu bitty room! 

The only decent picture I caught it our drive. Every time we stopped I forgot to get a picture!!

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