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
