We’re planning to host a very small party at our place this Saturday night.  We want to spend some time with the Tojo’s.  They went to Italy in July, and we want to hear all about their trip.  Apparently they brought back a bottle of wine to share with us.

In return, Kuniko wants to make pinxtos and tapas for that night.  I can’t wait to see how it goes over – Japanese people aren’t really used to finger food, but the Tojos seem like they won’t mind.  Kuniko is looking through recipe books, checking the internet, and looking through the hundreds of pictures that we took during our trip.

I’m glad being a shutterbug is finally paying off.

As of last week, I finished up blogging our trip, organized all the photos, finished unpacking, delivering omiyage, getting over a cold, and cleaned up the house.  Now it is time to get back to what people call ‘reality’.

Luckily the summer weather pretty much wilted away when we returned from Europe, and I have been enjoying life without an air conditioner.  We have been sleeping soundly, and it reminds me how hard it is going to be getting out of bed once winter rolls around.

This month we have a few events on our social calendar, and Kuniko is excited to try making some tapas that we discovered during our trip.  Our first test will be this Saturday.  Hopefully she’ll have enough time to make some – she has returned to work with a vengeance.

As for my work, I’ll wrap up the term at the end of this month.  Normally I’d start a new group lesson with the new employees, but some recent events have called that plan into question.  It’s just a few weeks before the next term, and there is talk of changing up our process and system for teaching at the company.  I am only getting this info second-hand, however.  My guess is that I’ll get more information in the next week or so.  That’s cool – I’m flexible.

Well, we’re back from our trip and we had a great time!  I’m working as fast as I can to blog the experience and I’ll try to post one day at a time.  I’m also working through 1500 pictures, so it might take a while.  For now you can see the pictures from Turkey in the usual place.

Look for new posts below this space!

I woke up in the morning from perhaps the best sleep I have ever had.  The kind of deep, rich sleep that you experience only on holiday.  Where it is possible to get up, but you don’t really have to.  It was pretty hard to roll out of bed, but we managed to do it, and go downstairs have a light breakfast in the hotel dining room.  The hotel had an interesting feeling.  It was an older building but not old – maybe a popular destination in the 50s and 60s.  The decorations were a little dated, there were little cracks in the cement here and there, but it was absolutely clean and the service was top notch.  I couldn’t explain it – a little bit of a lonely feeling, but also comfortable.  We certainly couldn’t complain about the location – soon we were walking up to the entrance of the Acropolis area.  We were there right at opening time, and there were already some tour groups assembling.  A tour group went in first ahead of us – about 50 people, and then we went in next.  Other tours were still getting organized down the hill, so it was just us and the tour ahead of us.  They stopped soon after entering so the guide could explain something, so we jetted past them and we were officially the first (and only) people on the Acropolis.  Good morning, Parthenon!

I’ve always wanted to see the real deal, especially after working at Glen Ellen and Benziger wineries for so long.  At the top the sun was just coming up, and it illuminated the structures in a pretty dramatic way.  I went crazy with the camera, and I didn’t have to worry about waiting for tourists to move out of the way.  It was a good way to experience that area.  I finally stopped taking pictures and instead just kind of breathed it all in.  The hillside had a beautiful panoramic view of all of Athens – the Greeks who built the Parthenon had picked a great location.  Up there we also bumped into a lot of cats who had made homes among the ruins.  So cute!  As we left there was a flag-raising ceremony attended by some Greek soldiers.  I guess it is a daily event, but I think we were the only ones to observe it that day.

Our next stop was to journey across town to see the NationalArchaeologicalMuseum.  We decided again to walk it instead of taking the subway, and again it was a good idea.  The streets and neighborhoods were a little dirty, a little old, and full of flavor.  I stopped now and then in shoe stores but still, no luck.  We walked by huge street market filled with vendors who looked like they had never seen a tourist.  I took pictures of graffiti and we both stood outside bakeries and oohed and ahhed at all the delicious breads.  I bought a Fanta flavor that was apparently an Orangina rip off, but it was refreshing.

Finally, we made it to the museum, and after an initial wrong turn we found the entrance and went inside.  The museum was much more interesting than I expected.  There are way too many museums in Athens, and we decided to try to narrow it down to one visit. I’m glad we picked this one.  It was quite large.  We walked through several wings, each divided into different periods of Greek history.  We couldn’t cover all of it, but it was very entertaining, and really a beautiful collection.  It made me want to re-watch the movie ‘Clash of the Titans’.

After a quick toilet break (no seats!) we walked all the way back to our hotel, and had lunch at a small café nearby.  Fried cheese, souvlaki, meatballs, and some ice cold Mythos beer.  Again, sitting in the café spacing out was one of our primary activities.   We wrapped things up at the café, and went back to the hotel where Kuniko did an excellent job packing our suitcase for the last time.  Our secret was that our suitcase contained an empty duffel bag, so we put all our smelly dirty clothes in there, and used the suitcase to protect our souvenirs and other valuables.

We cleaned ourselves up, and then went downstairs to check out.  Our stay in Athens was over, and even though we had less time here than we had originally planned, I think we both felt like it was the right amount.

The taxi ride to the airport was pretty long, nearly 40 minutes.  It was a flat rate, since it was arranged by the hotel they probably got a kick-back for setting it up.  Once we left downtown Athens the scenery really changed – it was much cleaner, and I think we were traveling through the high rent district.  We passed the US embassy among others, and there was a dramatic drop-off in the amount of graffiti.  At the airport we had to kill about four hours, so we did that by patronizing a bar and drinking plenty of white wine.  Once you kill 12 hours doing nothing, 4 hours is a piece of cake.

When we finally checked in there were all kinds of problems in the line.  A guy in our line had eight or nine big heavy cardboard boxes that we wanted to ship as luggage, and that took forever to process. There was a big Chinese tour group checking in, and they were loud and pushy, and littering everywhere.  A little kid from the group apparently had to go to the bathroom, but his mother didn’t want to leave the line, so she sent him over to piss in the wastepaper basket near the desk.  American tourists – maybe I was being too rough on you earlier.

Finally we got through the security gates, did some final souvenir shopping at duty-free, and made it on our plane.  It was a short hop to Istanbul, but apparently there was some kind of problem at the Istanbul airport.  Our plane took forever to taxi in, and then we took a bus ride all the way to the terminal, went through security, and then took another bus ride to our connecting flight to Osaka.  We barely made it – and I was sure at that point that we’d never see our luggage again.  But remarkably, they made it through this leg just fine.

The flight was very smooth to Osaka, and we breezed through immigration and customs, caught a bus right away to Sannomiya, caught the next train to Nishi Akashi, and we were sipping sparkling wine and eating cheese and crackers right after we arrived.

This trip was definitely the longest and most ambitious yet.  Every day was fun, and we could only laugh at the few problems that we had run into.  At some points it felt like we took three separate trips back to back – it didn’t feel like one cohesive journey at all.  Maybe because we used airplanes so often.  It was a great trip for both of us, and the last long journey for a while.  I can’t wait to start planning the next one.

The shower was probably the second best shower I have ever taken in my life.  I stayed in there and really enjoyed the hot water and soap.  I’m sure it wouldn’t have been nearly as good an experience if this whole travel disaster hadn’t happened.  After we were both showered and changed into clean clothes, we decided to hit the town and see the immediate neighborhood.  We were tired from the overnighter, but more excited to be in a new city.

We knew from the beginning of the trip that Athens would probably be the hottest city that we would visit, but actually it wasn’t much different from everywhere else we were.  As usual, as long as we walked in the shade it was very comfortable.  We started off by walking around the Acropolis hill, which was just a block from our hotel.  Kuniko had selected well, and the location turned out to be perfect for sightseeing.  We figured that tomorrow we’d do some serious sightseeing, so today we’d just get the lay of the land.  There were already hordes of tour buses parked in the nearby parking lot, and tours were lined up to go up to the top of the hill and see the Parthenon.

One place that didn’t seem to be so busy was the Ancient Agora, the ruins of a some famous temples and public buildings.  We bought a ticket book there that allowed us entry into the other famous sightseeing places that was good for four days, so we were all set for the next day of adventures.  Ancient Agora was just what I had expected when visiting Athens – pillars, columns, statues of Greek gods, and temples.  It was nice to walk around, and there was this terrific sense of freedom without having to worry about our suitcase.

From there we walked back towards our hotel.  Along the way we frequently saw some tourist “trains” – small tourist trams full of tourists who didn’t want to walk.  The train was decorated like something out of Traintown USA, and I thought it would be a little hard on my dignity to end up on one of those.  But we saw them all over the place during our stay, and most of them were full.

We stopped at a small café for some cold beer and a snack (a vegetarian Greek sandwich) and also tried to find a supermarket to do some shopping for later.  Unfortunately we couldn’t find the supermarket, but we did get a good look at the streets outside of the main tourist areas.  The parts we saw looked a little depressed, and I was struck by how much graffiti there was.  On our taxi ride into town we noticed an unusually high ratio of sex shops, and I guess all of these things point to some economic problems.  We always felt safe when we walked around Athens, though.  Right now tourists are their most precious commodity.

Back at the hotel we took a two hour nap.  We could have slept a lot more, but we set the alarm and got ourselves out of bed.  The bed felt like the most comfortable bed ever, and it was a big challenge to get out of it.  We managed to escape its siren call, and headed back out to another shopping district to take a crack at finding me some business shoes.  My shoes back in Japan were about ready to die, and I have only one emergency pair left in reserve.  Unfortunately we couldn’t find any shoes that fit, and it seemed like the ones that they were selling would fall apart in a few days.  We also were finally able to find a supermarket (we asked two Greek policemen carrying assault rifles) and we could do a little shopping there.

For dinner we stopped at a restaurant that was advertised all over Athens, the “Smile Café”.  Despite the cheesy name they served some excellent gyros.  It was Kuniko’s first gyro in a restaurant, and I think she really enjoyed it.  We got so caught up in the meal that when we left we forgot our groceries, but the server chased us down and gave it back to us.  Maybe a bit of the exhaustion creeping in…

In the evening we did a lot of souvenir shopping, as our vacation was kind of drawing to a close.  There were plenty of tourist shops near our hotel, and we found everything we needed and more fairly quickly.

Lastly, around the corner from our hotel was a wine bar, and so we thought we’d drop in for a glass of wine before bed.  We found out that the place had just opened a few weeks ago, and they served only Greek wines.  Since we had been so impressed with the wines on Santorini, we decided to opt for their tasting.  We each paid 12 euros, and the staff served us a flight of six wines.  They poured heavy, and they also served a generous plate of meat, cheese and breads.  It was a really good deal.

We explained that we had just come from Santorini, and asked for a survey of some of the other regions of Greece, and the server did a great job of introducing some of Greece’s best offerings.  I had no idea that Greek wines had progressed so much.  Each wine we tried was very well made, and two wines (a red and a white) stood out as something I would want to cellar and drink in the future.

After six glasses of wine each, it was definitely time to wrap up the day.  We walked by the Acropolis hill on the way home and admired the Parthenon illuminated at night.  Around the area were street performers, students and tourists, and street vendors in kind of a festival-type mood.  The neighborhood was starting to wake up and come alive, but we were pretty much going the other direction.

Warning – this one is a very long (and possibly depressing) post.  Plan your reading accordingly!

On paper, it seemed like an easy enough day.  We’d sleep in until 9 am, catch a taxi from the hotel in time to catch our short domestic flight to Athens at 11:20.  The first sign of trouble occurred at about 8:30 am.  I was up a little earlier while Kuniko was still sleeping, and suddenly our power went out.  The sun was already out, so it didn’t really make much of a difference, and there was still plenty of hot water.  I thought it was curious, but since we were leaving soon I didn’t think much more about it.  We brought our suitcase upstairs to reception and I found out that our room was not the only place without power – apparently the whole island was blacked out.  But I figured that it was part of being on a tiny island in the Mediterranean Sea.

We handed over our credit card to pay for our room, and the hotel owner told us that since the power was out they couldn’t run our card.  Instead he brought out an old machine that made an impression of the credit card on carbon paper.  It was clear that he hadn’t used it for more than twenty years, and it was an absolute comedy of errors to watch the old guy trying every orientation of the card and the carbon paper.  My card info was always in the wrong place, or backwards, or upside down.  As he struggled I thought through the possible combinations – four different orientations of the card, four for the carbon paper, plus the front side and back side… how many more times, do you think?  Luckily the pressure of the arriving taxi sped things up, and when we left he at least had written down my credit card numbers and expiration date, so one way or another he’d get paid.

Our taxi driver made lots of stops on the way to the airport to pick up other people (and pad his income) so by the time we arrived it was just an hour to go until our flight.  Once we got out of the taxi, we realized that we were in big trouble.  It was clear that the power outage was happening here, too, and there were hundreds of people lined up in two or three big lines outside the tiny airport.  There were no staff outside directing traffic, and no signs explaining where to line up.  I peeked inside and could understand that at least we needed to be lined up on the left side, but it looked like we were in for a long wait.

Later I realized that this is where we made our big mistake.  At that point we should have walked past all those people, found a ticket sales agent (instead of a check-in clerk) and probably they would have let us cut through all the mess.  But we didn’t – we waited in line like good customers.  The flight screens did have power, and I guess the airport had power for some systems, but our flight was listed but showed no status.  As we got close to the front I realized that the check-in signs didn’t show our flight anymore, so I left Kuniko in line and made the trip up to the Aegean ticket agent to ask what was going on.  She looked at me with surprise and said that our flight had already left.

What?  I looked at the time, and sure enough, it was 11:10 am.  They had taken off without us.  The agent said that they had been walking up and down the airport making announcements and trying to find us, but we had been there and either we didn’t notice or she was telling stories.  Anyway, we had missed our flight, so the agent started looking into other options.  Unfortunately there were no good ones.

Later that evening Aegean had another flight, at around 8 pm, but it was sold out.  We could try to get on stand-by for the flight, but we’d have to wait at the airport all day and maybe not even get on the plane.  We could try another airline, Olympus Airlines, but it turned out that their flights were sold out as well.  The next day there was only one flight out, and that was sold out as well.  Ugh.

I told the agent that I would look into other options at Olympus, and went to give Kuniko the bad news.  She was as shocked as I was – angry at the agent, and frustrated at the airport.  I didn’t blame her.  So we got out of line, set up on a bench, and plotted our next move.  It looked like if we were flying out it wouldn’t be for another day at the earliest, which meant we’d have to find some lodging at a hotel during high season.  I also knew that there was a port on the island, and so we considered whether it would be worth it to find a ship leaving today instead of a plane.  We went back to the agent, and she called the port and said there was a high speed ship leaving in 30 minutes with some space available, and if we hurried we might make it.  We rushed outside to get a ride to the port, wherever that was, but there was no transportation available and a huge taxi line.  Only 38 taxis on Santorini, you know.  When we went back inside to ask the ticket agent about another ship, she had pulled down the shutters and gone on break.  Smart lady.

It was pretty clear we weren’t going to make the next ship departure, but we decided that the airport was not going to work for us, at least today.  We made a stop at the ATM for some cash (this turned out to be a life-saver) and then got in line for a cab to take us to the port.  After waiting for a while we made it to the front of the line, and the guy working the taxi line was grouping together passengers into areas of the island to use the available taxis more efficiently.  We were assigned a taxi with two young women from Italy who were going to their hotel.  Their luggage completely filled the trunk of the taxi, so our suitcase was tied to the roof.  As we raced up and down the hillsides above the ocean, I could only envision our black suitcase tumbling over and over through the air towards the beautiful blue sea.  Our day was going like that, and I figured it was only a matter of time until the next disaster.

We talked a little with the women from Italy, and they said that they had heard that the power outage was all over Greece.  Apparently sometimes Greece doesn’t pay for the energy it imports from other countries, so the countries cut their power to try to induce them to pay.  What a mess!

First we dropped off the Italians at their place, and they wished us good luck.  Then we took a long, curving road from the top of the eastern side of the island all the way down to the area with the port.  As we arrived there were two huge ships in the harbor, with loads of people streaming off.  It seemed like we might have a chance to catch a ride from here after all, but our visit to the ticket office quickly dashed our hopes.  The next available ship to Athens was leaving that night at 1:30 in the morning.  It was a six hour voyage arriving in Athens tomorrow at 8 am.  That was it – nothing else available that day.  We didn’t really have any better options, so we went ahead and bought the tickets (which were quite cheap) and then found a café with internet to see how to kill the next twelve hours.

The port area was actually more active and lively than the airport.  There seemed to be a lot more foot traffic with people coming off the boats, and plenty of open-air restaurants and tourist shops nearby to arrange expeditions and such on the island.  The café we chose had some customers but it wasn’t overly busy, and we ordered some beers and some snacks and set up shop.

Our mental state at the time was not so great.  The biggest issue was that we had mentally finished with Santorini last night, and now it looked like we were going to have to stick around.  There was nothing else that we wanted to do here – we just wanted to leave.  But leaving was something that we couldn’t hurry up, no matter how much money we threw at the problem.  It kind of felt like we had lost control of our holiday – which is a feeling that we weren’t really used to.  In addition we were weighed down by our suitcase.  Anywhere we went we’d have to take it along or worry about it, and there was nobody around that we trusted to watch it for us.  The longer we stayed at the café, the more I worried that they’d be pressuring us to keep ordering or leave.  We sat and thought about our options, and while we watched the ships came and left port with passengers who had bought tickets before us, and soon the port was pretty empty.  It got lonely quickly, but the café staff didn’t seem to mind us sitting around nursing beers and staring at the ocean.

So with nothing to do but wait, we started waiting.  Twelve hours is a long time to sit around.  Kuniko played Sudoku.  I read books or surfed the web.  We both stared out at the ocean and watched ships sail by in the distance.  We ate and drank now and then.  Sometimes one of us would walk up and down the port side, while the other watched the luggage and held our seats.  The walk from one side of the port to the other took about two minutes, so it was a very short break.  We watched other customers and staff in the restaurant.  I gave each one a name in my head and tried to imagine their history.  How did they end up here?  How did we?  Being stranded on an island does wonders for your philosophical side.

After three hours or so of sitting around I was really worried that the staff would kick us out, but they seemed totally oblivious.  They were sitting around waiting for ships to come in, and if we ordered a beer once every couple of hours it was OK by them.  As long as nobody was sleeping we didn’t have any problems. The power seemed to be on here, but I wasn’t sure exactly when it had come back.  Small ships came in from the big cruise ship offshore, shuttling tourists who boarded a fleet of full size tour buses to take them off to the villages around the island.  We watched the tour guides eating a quick lunch before joining their groups onboard.

After five hours of sitting there the late afternoon sun started to slant across the front of the café, and the sunlight started to hit our table and legs.  It was surprisingly hot once the sun started shining on us, and we relocated to another table at the back of the restaurant, along with some other customers.  It was discouraging to hear that all the other customers were waiting for an 8 pm boat, and even after that boat arrived we’d still have to wait another five hours.  Often the boats arrived later than expected, so I was thinking that our departure could be even later than 1:30 am.  Ugh.

At seven hours I was officially sick of sitting around at this restaurant.  We decided to pay the bill and move on.  It was a good decision if only for the change in scenery.  We walked around a while to stretch our legs, and then found another restaurant very close to the departure area that was about half full.  I was thrilled that there were new faces to watch, new staff to name, and we celebrated by eating dinner there.  I had a cheeseburger, Kuniko had risotto that was actually just rice, and we had some water to try to balance all the beer from the afternoon.

Soon the 8 pm ship came in, the customers all disappeared, and we were the only people left.  It was a very lonely feeling.  All the shops were empty, and some of the shops were closing.  The guy running our restaurant said that he was staying open until our ship came in, so we were welcome to sit around, and he also said we didn’t need to order anything.  We thanked him by ordering some Greek frozen yogurt, but otherwise we just held the spot for the next four hours.  The sun went down.  Some stray dogs ran back and forth.  If there was tumbleweed on the island it would have blown by right then.

Kuniko and I tried to maintain our sanity by playing word games, doing quizzes, practicing using English and Japanese and English again.  At nearly midnight, we saw some people slowly start to appear.  From our position we could see every time a car’s headlights came down the long winding road.  Friends of the shop owner came by with a sleepy kid and they put him to sleep on a bench near us.  Still we sat and waited and waited.

Finally around 1 am we decided to move into the departure area.  The departure area was inside a long room that was air conditioned at full power, so before long we were pretty cold.  Kuniko and I hadn’t dressed for a cold evening – but I had a long sleeve dress shirt in our suitcase that I lent to Kuniko.  I made do with shorts and T-shirt.  It was still summer, after all.

At 1:30 am there were a lot more people walking around, and they started to crowd into the departure area.  Late at night people were tired, stressed, and not in a good mood.  Combine that with close quarters and the stress of trying to get a seat once we entered the boat – some bad situations were bound to occur.  There was a crazy lady that thought everyone was cutting in front of her, and kept pushing people ahead of her.  Some people had crying babies, some had barking dogs.  Some stray dogs were interested in the domesticated dogs, and it got a little dicey for a while.  Then the ship came in.

In front of the passengers was a big parking lot, and the lot was full of trucks and cars waiting to drive on to the ferry.  By now the passengers had made a huge crowd inside the freezing building, and they opened just one door at the end to let people through.  They weren’t checking tickets at all, just metering people in to make sure there wasn’t a mad rush.  Once we made it through the gate, passengers with luggage had to store it below decks, and others could go inside and find seats.  We split up here, and I brought the suitcase to an area where the crew directed.  I locked up the suitcase just in case, but there really wasn’t anything more exciting than dirty underwear.  Everyone was hurrying to get done as quickly as possible, because they wanted to get a comfortable place to sleep during the overnight trip.  Pressure, pressure!

When I went above to the passenger area, I was surprised at the interior.  They had designed the ferry to be much like a floating hotel.  Some private cabins (all reserved previously) were upstairs, and otherwise people tried to sit where they could.  I could tell right away that there weren’t many comfortable places.  Soon, I spotted my wife – Kuniko had grabbed two chairs in hallway leading to the main seating area.  People were starting to fight over the remaining chairs, and if I hadn’t arrived Kuniko might have had to beat some people up to keep my seat.  I’ll never forget the look on her face when I saw her holding those spots.  Worry, relief, determination.  This is the woman I love.

Once we settled into our chairs, we ventured out inside the ship to see if we were missing anything better.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything else.  In the main seating area many people had reserved empty seats for themselves so that they could stretch out later, and that had other customers mad enough to shout at the staff to do something.  For a while it seemed like we were on the edge of a riot, but cooler heads finally prevailed.  We were lucky to get our seats, and we set about trying to get as comfortable as possible.

The ferry was huge, and so there was absolutely no sense of motion.  We were in a hallway with no windows, and outside was pitch black anyway, so I think we might have departed soon afterwards, but I wasn’t sure.  There wasn’t anything to do here but continue waiting.  The chairs were better than the floor but certainly not comfortable enough to sleep in.  We took turns drifting off during the night, but I didn’t get much rest.  People walked back and forth through the hallway in front of us, so that kept me entertained for part of the trip.  There was a snack bar where we could buy coffee and a croissant, and that helped pass the time as well.

We drifted in and out of sleep for the next couple of hours, and eventually I figured I should see if I could get to the top of the ship and see what was going on.  I went upstairs, and was surprised to find that the sun was coming up outside.  The view from the ship was just water – I couldn’t see any land anywhere – but I was relieved to confirm that we had indeed been moving the entire time.

Downstairs we woke up with a couple of hot coffees, and after another hour or so the engine noise made a change, and we figured we were getting close.  By chance our position was quite good for disembarking from the ferry, but we still had to stand in line for another hour before they properly docked.  Our suitcase was undisturbed below decks (I had nightmares of it being soaking wet), and we joined everyone else in getting off at the port in Athens.  We made a beeline to the taxi stand, and caught a taxi right away before others could get there.

The taxi driver had no idea where our hotel was, so we gave him the address, and with shaking hands he pulled out an old map and figured things out.  I was a little concerned about the shaking hands, but he turned out to be a decent driver.  After 30 minutes or so we arrived at our hotel.  Back at the port on Santorini we had used the café’s WiFi to send an email to the hotel when we learned we wouldn’t make it that night.  We still had to pay for the night we missed, but the good news was the room was empty and waiting for us even at 9 am.  The clerk was professional and provided us with everything we needed.  Right then, mainly we needed a shower and a nap.

So we went upstairs, entered our hotel room and locked the door, and we could finally decompress.  It was an unexpected journey, but we had finally made it to Athens, and we had only lost a day in the process.  It was time to rest up a bit and then get back to enjoying our holiday.

We slept in again today, and took our time getting up and running.  We started with a walk through town ahead of the tourist crowds, and then eventually found a bar/restaurant with a nice view where we could enjoy a brunch with some cold Greek beers.  The morning sun was heating up quickly, but as long as we could find shade it was very comfortable.

Reading this you might think that there was a lot of open time where we weren’t really doing anything, and that is true.  The views of the ocean were so dramatic that sometimes we’d just sit and stare out over the blue for a long, long time.  Nobody was pushy about moving on or ordering more, so time just kind of slipped by.  We sat at our table for probably an hour or more, but just shared an appetizer and a couple of beers.  Sometimes we talked, sometimes we didn’t, but it was a very comfortable pace.

Our next adventure was to follow the steps down the western face of the mountain to a small fishing harbor.  The steps were long and steep, and it took a long time to get down to the water level.  As we walked down the steps we had to take care to avoid the donkey shit that was lying about.  Going down is no problem, but there are some donkeys that you can hire to climb back up the hill.  We weren’t really planning to ride the donkeys, but as we climbed down the steep steps in the sun I realized that somehow or another we were going to need to get back up them at some point.  I wasn’t really looking forward to climbing all that way in the heat of the afternoon.

When we finally reached the bottom of the steps we found ourselves at the edge of a small cove.  There was a boat landing, two or three restaurants with tables right on the water (you had to be careful), and a path that led around the hillside to the southern face of the island.  Initially we walked along the path, deliberately ignoring a falling rock warning that said nobody should proceed.  We walked a little ways enjoying the clear ocean water and we could see fishing boats tied up just offshore.  After a ways we started to see big boulders that had fallen right on the path, and the it started to look a little treacherous, so we walked back to the cove.  There we decided to sit at one of the tables on the edge of the pier and have a snack.  The staff turned out to be originally from Canada, so ordering was easy.  We had beers and some tomato fritters, which were apparently a local specialty.  I really liked the fritters, and that made us hungry for more.

We asked about fish, and she led us inside the restaurant where we could choose from today’s catch.  We settled on a fish called a ‘scorpion’, since we hadn’t seen that kind of fish before.  They cooked it in a little oil and garlic, and it tasted great.  A local cat came by to see if we were in the mood for sharing, and we did share a little bit.  At one point a restaurant worker threw out some old bread into the water, and after a few minutes the crystal clear water was jumping with tiny fish tearing into the pieces.  There were some very hungry fish in there.

As we wrapped up our lunch we asked the waitress if she could call a taxi for us so we didn’t have to climb up those hot steps.  She agreed, but she couldn’t seem to get through to any taxis by phone.  We waited for about a half hour and she still couldn’t find anyone to answer the phone, so I was starting to think about donkeys.  The waitress was pretty busy with customers on top of trying to get a cab for us, and I was starting to feel bad, so we said thanks anyway, and headed out to the nearest road to see if there were any taxis waiting around for customers.  As I said before, there aren’t many taxis on the island, so you either have to arrange or be very lucky.  There was no taxi waiting, so we asked a guy who worked at another restaurant to call, and he got right through.  After about ten minutes a taxi showed up, and took us up the hill for ten euros.  It was totally worth it – the donkey ride was five euros.

We spent the afternoon in and around the pool, taking naps, and avoiding the direct sun outside.  This was our last full day on Santorini so we wanted to get in the last of our relaxation time, and also to start to prepare for the next city, Athens.  We did some packing in the evening, and then went out in a different direction to a tavern that was a little off the beaten path.  It looked like they didn’t get much tourist business, and the staff were very shy speaking English, but were happy to speak Greek to us.  The table was too short, and I couldn’t fit my legs underneath it, which made it necessary to eat dinner facing 90 degrees away from Kuniko.  However, the food was excellent – the best in Greece so far.  Kuniko had a delicious moussaka, and I had a cheese stuffed hamburg kebab, both of which knocked our socks off.  We should have been eating here the whole time.

We bought a bottle of wine and a lot of olives on the way home, and enjoyed another mini-party on our terrace as the sun went down.  Our third bottle of Santorini wine was delicious, although I thought the bottle we bought from the wine shop the previous day was the best.  The little terrace in front of our villa got a lot of use while we were there, and it was one of my favorite parts of the trip to Santorini.

We slept well that night, although it was a little strange to sleep in a cave environment.  It was dead silent, too.  Surrounded by all that rock we couldn’t hear anything from our neighbors above us or on either side.  We kicked off our morning with some juice and fruit, and then tried out the shower.  There was no curtain, but luckily there was a drain on the floor.  I managed to get just about every surface wet.

Walking around Oia in the morning we noticed right away the lack of tourists.  It was completely empty, except for a one or two shopkeepers and a couple of stray dogs.  It was a nice way to look around town, although the rising sun was shining directly on the backs of our necks, which called for plenty of sunscreen. As for the lack of tourists, we later discovered that most of them come from cruise ships that dock down at the port, and then are bused to other parts of the island.  The Oia buses are very popular, and later we saw them disgorging hundreds of tourists into the narrow streets.

For now, we had the place to ourselves, and so we took advantage and found a secluded café tucked into the hillside with another beautiful view of the ocean.  The owner was a little grumpy at first, but she eventually warmed up to us.  Another mission I wanted to take care of was to find a restaurant that I had heard about in the area, but it proved to be hard to find.  So we decided to just wing it for dinner later on, and spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool, reading, writing, taking naps, and doing a little shopping.  The plan for Santorini was always to spend the time relaxing after rushing around Turkey and Spain, and I think we followed that plan perfectly.  No special activities for us.

We did end up buying a really nice white Santorini wine from a local wine shop.  The store owner recommended it and we were eager to wash away the bad experience from the previous evening.  The wine was a little pricey, but when we opened it later we were pleasantly surprised.  Rich, flavorful, and full-bodied, it was just what we needed to restore our faith in Greek wines.

While lounging at the pool we met a family of four Brits from London.  They gave us some advice on local restaurants and eating out.  They had been in Santorini for the past 9 days (!) and had plenty of opportunity to try many places to eat. They raved about how fresh all the seafood was, but coming from Japan we didn’t really place a high priority on eating fresh fish – we have pretty good access to fresh fish every day.

For dinner we ended up at a place just a few steps from our hotel called Petro’s.  It was a two story restaurant with open-air dining on the top floor, and that gave us a great view of the sunset.  We weren’t the only ones looking to watch the sunset – it seemed like the whole village was out on the narrow streets jockeying for position to watch.  The restaurant was pretty good – a little better than the meal we had the previous night, but nothing earthshaking.  We had four kinds of hummus, some fried cheese, and I had a lamb knuckle as a main dish, while Kuniko had the souvlaki.  Not bad, not bad.

We went back to our place and sat out on the terrace as the moon rose, finished off our bottle of wine and also fixed up a cheese and meat platter thanks to the local grocery store.  It was nice to just sit and talk and enjoy the peace of mind.  It was hard to believe at the time but this was Monday, and back home in Japan everyone we knew was going back to work.  We didn’t feel even a tinge of guilt as we stayed on vacation, however.  We even went out for a nightcap at the local bar to celebrate the feeling – I had a passionfruit cocktail and Kuniko had a strong pina colada.  It was yet another relaxing evening.

2:45 am is awfully early to get up, especially after an evening of tapas bar hopping.  I almost slept through my alarm, but luckily Kuniko woke me up.  We got ready quickly, packed our bags, and then checked out of the hotel at 3:30 am.  One of the hotel staff was covered in a blanket, so I’m guessing they stayed up late for our benefit.  Outside the taxi we had ordered was waiting for us, and he grabbed our suitcase and headed out to the airport.  As we pulled away from the hotel and started down the main street of La Rambla, I couldn’t believe how many people were running around.  This is the dead of night, and the nightclubs were open and doing a good business.  It was what I imagine Mardi Gras feels like – street party craziness.  After we left La Rambla things got back to normal (that is, quiet).  It was a bit of a drive to the airport, and it was a little expensive using the taxi, but at that time of night (morning?) our transportation options were limited.  On the way to the airport we were treated to the sight of the moon on the horizon.  It was huge and red, and probably the biggest I’ve ever seen the moon in my life.  Hopefully it was a good omen.

The airport was almost empty, but there was another flight leaving at the same time as ours, and the Air France counters were packed with people.  Turkish Air had a small line but only one employee checking people in.  Luckily more people came soon, and as we approached the front of the line the airport started turning on their lights.  It was time to start feeling human again.

As we checked in the employee asked suddenly if Kuniko spoke English, which made us both laugh.  I had been doing the talking during the check in, and it seemed at first like they were worried about my wife’s communication skills.  Of course they were asking about it for the emergency exit row, and luckily we received some seats with lots of leg room for this leg of the trip.  Before boarding we had time for some coffee and a bocadillo sandwich, and we departed for Istanbul about 20 minutes late.  Upon arrival at Istanbul we had a bit of a rush to find our connecting flight to Athens, but as it turned out we made it with plenty of time to spare.  That flight left 30 minutes late, but they made up about 20 minutes in the air and we arrived close to our scheduled time at Athens airport.

From Athens we went through immigration and customs (out of the EU, to Turkey, back to the EU) once again, and then had a little time to kill.  There are lots of flights from Athens to Santorini, but I didn’t know how the connections would work out so I picked a flight leaving in the early afternoon.  We killed the time quickly and then caught an Aegean flight to Santorini that was only 45 minutes long.

With all the delays and plane transfers we were sure that we would lose our suitcase, but somehow it made it through OK.  Lucky us!  We had arranged a driver and he was there to take us to our hotel.  As we found out later, there are only 38 taxis on the island of Santorini, so it is best to arrange a taxi in advance or have your own car.  The driver was making some money on the side by digging up other passengers for his minibus taxi, and so we shared the ride with another family that probably paid the same amount of money (25 euros) that we did, effectively doubling the driver’s income.  This seemed to be pretty common, but not what I had expected.

Finally we arrived at Oia, the village where we were staying.  Our hotel owner was waiting for us when we arrived, and he brought our suitcase over to the reception area, a small office on the top of the hillside overlooking the entire town and caldera of the volcano.  Absolutely beautiful view, and it really actually did take my breath away when I first saw it.

Our hotel room was very nice – a cave room that was down the steps of the hill.  We had a terrace with the same great view as everyone else, and there was a swimming pool and hot tub nearby to share with the other villa residents.  We were very satisfied with the accommodations.  The owner even gave us a fruit basket and a bottle of his homemade wine to welcome us.  What a nice guy!

We freshened up really quickly and then headed out into the village to explore a little bit.  The village is perched on the western side of the crescent shaped island of Santorini, and it was full of shops, restaurants, hotels and homes.  While we explored there was always a great place to take a picture, and I used up a lot of memory card space the first day.  There were also a ton of tourists (like us) walking around, and sometimes it was hard to pass through the little lanes between white houses when somebody stopped to look at a shop.  On the way back to the villa we stopped and bought some cold Greek beers (Alpha and Fix) to drink on our terrace and take in the unobstructed view.  It was nice – the tourists up above had to fight for elbow room to enjoy the view but nobody bothered us behind the gates of the hotel.

For dinner that night we had a simple meal at a nearby café called Mezzos.  The staff was kind enough to use English with us, and she had a cute voice that sounded like she learned English from a German.  The food was only so-so, but the local sparkling wine was very nice.  Once the sun started to go down we walked around town in the cool of the evening and took more pictures.  As a nightcap we decided to go back to our patio to enjoy the bottle of wine from the owner and watch the moon rise.  Ack!  The wine was totally oxidized and well past the dumping point.  Someone probably should tell the guy that this wine had reached the end of its life, but it wasn’t going to be me.  So we dumped it down the sink (easy come, easy go) and called it a night.  That turned out to be a very long travel day.

This was the day we had decided to leave Barcelona and go on a day trip to Montserrat.  Since we were planning on being in town for so long, I had come up with Montserrat as an ideal get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and a way to see other parts of Spain.  We kicked off the expedition by getting up early and heading to our closest subway station.  I was following some directions that I had downloaded from the internet, and there were some pretty vague descriptions.  We made a few wrong turns, and it took a while to find the correct train station – they could have posted some better signs.  We asked a few people and got pointed the right direction, and once we entered the correct station then we saw signs everywhere touting the railway as the easiest way to get to Montserrat.

Our train ride was a pretty shaky one.  This was the first time for us to ride the train on this trip.  Usually on our trips to Europe we spend a lot of time on rail, but this trip we were using mostly airplanes.  It felt good to be back on the rails, but the position of our train car and the terrain made the carriage shake and rock quite a bit, which upset Kuniko’s stomach a little.  We continued to travel northwest out of Barcelona for about 40 minutes until we reached the foot of Montserrat.  We got off at a tiny station with a few other tourists and sat down to rest a bit and gather our courage.

And we did need courage, because the next stage of the trip was a gondola ride from the base all the way up to the mountaintops.  Montserrat is the name of the mountain range, and perched on top is a monastery, some lodging, a couple of restaurants and a church.  There is also a wide network of hiking trails.  Originally I had considered that it might be good to hike around and burn calories from our trip, but as it turned out we had been doing quite a lot of walking on our own already.

We were early enough that there was no line to ride the gondola, and the ride was great.  It was about a 1000 meter climb up to the top, so it is a pretty steep angle.  The gondola operator looked bored but everyone else was oohing and aahing about the view as we went.  Luckily the weather was beautiful – it would have been a different story on the gondola if the wind was blowing hard.

The gondola let us off just a short walk below the terminal of a rack train line that also runs to the mountain.  We chose the gondola because of the views and the speed, but a lot of other people had chosen the train for comfort.  Once we passed the train station we decided to explore the immediate area.   The views from the top back down on the valley below were phenomenal, and I couldn’t stop taking pictures.  The grounds were more modern than I expected.  Everything was clean and well cared for – I guess the monks have a lot of time on their hands up there.  We managed to sneak into the church on a self-guided tour right before they closed the building for morning prayer.  This saved us a lot of time later on, although we didn’t realize it at the time.  In contrast to the other mosques, churches and cathedrals that we’d seen this trip the church on Montserrat was dark, with a gothic style that included lots of tile and metal work.  We waited in a short line to see some religious artifacts that didn’t really mean that much to us (the Black Madonna, for example), and finished with a short circuit around the church proper.  It was beautiful, especially considering how it was built so high in the mountains in the 1700s.

From the church and monastery we could choose two different funiculars to explore further.  One went down some ways to another valley, where there was apparently a weeping statue and some hand rails designed by Gaudi.  The other option was to go onward to the summit of the mountain and see some of the hiking trails and some abandoned churches.  We opted for continuing upward, and took the funicular of St. Joan to the top.  It was a very steep ride upwards – I’m glad I was hiking it – and after reaching the top we walked around the summit taking in the views.  For about 20 minutes we followed one hiking trail, trying to stay in shade when possible as the temperature was warming up quickly.  Kuniko hates to be out in the sun for too long, and I didn’t blame her in that heat, so we decided to walk only as far as the nearest church.

We found the tiny church pretty quickly, and it was right on the edge of the hill with a spectacular view overlooking villages and green fields below.  Nice spot!  We found some rocks under the trees nearby and sat for a while in the shade eating our picnic lunch (leftovers from our hotel room party the previous night).  Walking back Kuniko “prayed” to St. Joan that the sun would stay off us, and in a flash some clouds rolled in and blocked the sun.  I’ve never seen prayers answered quite so fast.

We caught the funicular back down to the main Montserrat area, and then stopped at a strange café/cafeteria to have a glass of white wine and some snacks.  It was a strange place to drink, but the monks surely appreciated the extra money they could bring in from visitors.

On our way back to the gondola we passed some local farmers selling produce and goods, and I bought a pear on impulse to snack on.  It was fresh but a little firm.  I like my pears to leave juice on your chin.  We caught the next gondola back down the mountain, but we missed the once-an-hour train by less than a minute.  That meant that we had to sit at the station for about an hour reading and drinking juice.  Finally, the train arrived, and we had an uneventful train ride back into town.  One interesting thing about the train car we used on the way back was that they had outlets built into the seats so everyone could recharge their wireless devices.  I wish I had thought to bring my charging cable.

Back in town we decided to go out for one last round of tapas and cava.  We found a nice place in a different neighborhood with excellent food and staff that kept our glasses full.  After a couple rounds we decided to try another tapas place, and then we went out for pinxtos, and ended up bar hopping through the dinner hour.  We really enjoyed the variation in all the tapas, the small sizes making it easy to keep on eating, and how cava purchased by the glass was so damn affordable.  In Japan they charge more than 1000 yen a glass for sparkling wine, and the glass is only a little over half full.  They fill to the brim in Spain.

We finally ended up at the hotel, arranged for a very early checkout and a taxi the next day, and then we set our alarms for 2:45 am the following morning (just a few hours away) and went to sleep.  It was an early departure from Barcelona airport the next day.

Today we got up quite early (for the holiday, at least) and headed out the door to go line up at Sagrada Familia.  We kept with the walking theme and hoofed it out there.  When we arrived there were only ten people in line (compared to nearly a thousand the day before).  Since it was still an hour before opening time we walked on to a nearby café to sit out front, drink coffee, and keep an eye on the line.  As we drank coffee I noticed a couple of nearly naked men sitting up on the balcony above us.  Not sure what the deal was, but I guess that if my apartment had a balcony facing the Sagrada Familia I might get up naked every morning and go take it in.  The coffee hit the spot, and we went back and still had only 20 or so people in front of us.  We had about 45 minutes to kill, but the line was the perfect place to watch people arrive and check out the situation, and then head to the tail end.  I was perfectly content to people watch the whole time until we could enter.

Once it opened and we got to the front to pay for our tickets, we found out that may credit card didn’t work for them.  Kuniko’s did, so we were in.  Credit cards overseas are seriously a crapshoot.  About 30% of the time my credit card doesn’t work, so we have to pull out another.  This happens to us so often it is now completely normal.

Kuniko was thrilled to finally get in to see the cathedral.  Inside was much more modern than I expected, and more colorful, too.  They had tours of the interior but we went out on our own and explored.  As usual I took lots of pictures, but the feeling of churches and cathedrals are especially hard to capture.  We spent a long time looking through, did a little shopping, and finally sat in the pews for a bit to take a rest.

I looked at a map, and we were actually pretty close to the beach.  Since it was still early and not unbearably hot, I suggested that we walk out there to dip our toes in the ocean.  As we left Sagrada Familia the line was getting extremely long, and the tour buses were showing up.  Good timing, today.

The walk to the beach turned out to be about an hour long.  We stayed on the shady side of the road where possible, and it was very cool.  Since the humidity was so low, the only time we got hot was when we were in the direct sunlight.  Again, it was nice to see some parts of Barcelona that the tours tend to miss.  We walked right by a bullfighting ring (closed) and through some parks that were related to the Olympics somehow.  We finally got near the beach and saw more and more people with towels and skimpy clothes.  There were a lot of buildings and businesses nearby to attract beach-goers, and we had to weave through them to reach the sand and waves.  The water was a very comfortable temperature, and I had to keep looking out over the water to avoid seeing the topless grandmothers who lounged all over the place.  No supermodels in sight.

After playing in the water a little bit we showered off our legs and then walked back into our “neighborhood”.  On the way we found a nice wine shop and bought a good bottle of wine for our hotel room party we were planning.  Lunch was pinxtos and cava, and then we scouted a department store to stock up on some omiyage, and supplies for dinner (Iberico ham, meatballs, black bread, and cheese).  The supermarket was well-supplied, and I’ve never seen so much ham in one place.  People take their ham very seriously in Barcelona.

I was feeling pretty dehydrated and overwhelmed with the crowds, so we stopped one more time for beer and water (in that order).  Then we wandered back to our hotel, and laid out our spread for dinner.  The wine turned out to be really nice (sorry that we drank it out of hotel water glasses), and we ate and drank to our heart’s content.  It was a nice, low pressure dinner that allowed us to write in our journal, organize all the photos that we had been taking, and decompress from the crowds.  Every trip we try to have a hotel room party.

The next day we were planning a day trip out of town, so we ended up hitting the sack a little earlier than usual.

Of all the cities that we were visiting on this trip, Barcelona is the one where we would be staying the longest.  So it was in that spirit that we slept in a little bit longer than usual, and instead of rushing off to do some sightseeing we walked down the street to a little café on the Rambla thoroughfare, ordered some bacon, eggs and toast, and two hot coffees with milk.  At our hotel in Barcelona we had skipped the breakfast option, and we were happy to go out and get something different each day.  The breakfast was just what we were craving, and the constant stream of people walking down the street towards the local subway station made for interesting people watching.

Kuniko was excited to finally get a chance to see the Sagrada Familia, so we decided to head that way and take a look.  It looked to be about 2 km away, so instead of taking the subway we decided to walk it and see the city as we went.  It was a bit of an indirect trip, but we crossed town on some not-so-busy streets and got a flavor of the city that tourists usually don’t see.  I liked the feel of Barcelona a lot, as long as we were away from the tourist hordes.  We arrived at Sagrada Familia, and it was definitely impressive.  Kuniko had been looking forward to this the whole trip, and I think it met her expectations.  The thing is so tall and the scale so large that pictures really didn’t do it justice.  We walked to the front entrance to get a better view, and were surprised to see a huge line of people (think Tokyo Disneyland) already waiting.  The line wasn’t really moving, either.  We made the decision to come back earlier on another day, and instead walked around town some more.

We visited the location of a historic hospital nearby, and then walked across town another direction to find a park that was designed by Gaudi as well.  We walked all over town, and thanks to my iPhone and a free application that has GPS maps, we could navigate our way easily.  All the walking was good for burning calories also – and that proved to be even more important later on once we discovered the local cuisine.

The park designed by Gaudi was pretty interesting.  There were works made of tile throughout the park, and especially dramatic was a tile lizard straddling a staircase as we entered.  I was interested in the use of color, and also the creativity in arranging the tiles in such a way as to bring order to chaos.  The park was packed with people.  There were countless vendors who set up a sheet on the ground, laid out their wares, and were ready to dash off when the security made their patrols.  They often put their souvenirs on the sheet in foot traffic – I’m sure many people are looking at everything and step on the products accidentally.  The vendors knew they’d have a sale if it happened, so they did what they could to encourage it.  Capitalism finds a way, I guess.

After the park we walked to the nearest train station (Lessup) and went back to an area closer to our hotel (Catalayun).  We were feeling a little hungry by then, so we walked into a pinxtos bar for a snack and some cold beer.  When I think of Spain I think of tapas.  Pinxtos are just like tapas, only with a local Catalan flair.  In the front of the bar were glass cases, and the paper menu in front of us identified the different pinxtos that we could order.  Everything was cheap, the pinxtos were designed to be beautiful as well as delicious, and the ordering system was simple.  As we drank our cold beer and got into the ordering system, we noticed that more and more of the customers coming in were Japanese.  In fact, at one point, I was the only non-Japanese sitting at the bar.  It was easy to listen in to their conversations, as opposed to the locals who spoke Catalan, which I couldn’t understand at all.  Everyone was enjoying the place, and I guess that it is probably in a Japanese guidebook somewhere.  We moved on to another pinxtos bar down the street and it was a repeat performance – we walk in to a mostly empty place, and soon afterwards the Japanese tourists started to show up.  The restaurant should be paying us to eat there!  After all the beer and cava we decided to head back to the hotel for a little siesta – we had done a lot of walking today.

The nap refreshed us quite a bit, and soon we were back out on the crowded streets, walking through some historic neighborhoods for sightseeing and shopping.  We walked by a restaurant that was recommended to me by one of my former students, La Peradeta, which is a seafood restaurant that is popular with locals and very reasonably priced.  We were there two hours before opening, though, so we thought we ought to find a way to kill some time.  Luckily, right nearby was the Picasso museum, so we could spend a lot of time looking through at so many works of Picasso.  They had a lot of his early sketches, as well as some very famous originals.   It wasn’t too crowded since we were there just an hour before closing time.  There was an American family with a teenage boy who was getting into all kinds of trouble.  He kept trying to touch the artwork (which made the staff angry) and tried to take pictures of them with his cellphone (which also pissed them off).  Nightmare tourists – and I’m sorry to report that they were American.  Ugh.

We still had about a half hour before the restaurant opened, but we went over there early to see what the situation was.  Surprisingly, there were four young people standing outside the shutters waiting for it to open.  We decided we might as well wait, too, so we kind of stood against the wall next to them.  The group ahead of us just smiled and kept talking.  The restaurant had two shutters, and it wasn’t clear if one was the entrance, one was a window, or if they were both entrances.  We were kind of lined up in front of one shutter and the initial group in front of the other.  As we got closer to opening time, more and more people started showing up.  Kuniko and I both felt surprise that nobody really tried to line up anywhere.  They just found a loose crowd outside.  At about ten minutes before opening a staff member raised the shutters and started to organize the line.  As it worked out, the shutter we were standing in front of was the front door, and we were first in line.  We backed up a bit to make sure that the four people before us could get in front, but just about everyone else in the crowd of maybe 70 people looked pissed that they had to line up behind us.  Lots of aggressive looks and they crowded right up behind us – which was kind of a personal space issue for Kuniko.  In the end they finally opened the door and we could go in, but the system was very unusual.

Luckily we weren’t first, so we could watch the other people order.  Upon entering the restaurant there was lots of fresh seafood on ice in the front, with signs saying what it was and how much it cost (of course, in Spanish).  The walls were lined with instructions and extras (again in Spanish), and then the lady looks at you expectantly and says, “What do you want?”  It’s a lot of pressure with 70 people behind you eager to get in and eat and you fumbling through a foreign language.  But luckily we could pick out some big shrimps, a couple of small lobsters, and big slab of tuna, and some oysters.  The staff put everything we chose into a bucket, and then passed it on to the kitchen.  We paid at the next station, and then sat down to await our dinner.  The kitchen staff cooked the fish however they liked, and then they called our number and we picked up our food as it became ready.  The oysters were served raw (yum), and the shellfish was served grilled with a spicy sauce.  The tuna was pan seared with a tangy citrus marinade, and it was my favorite of all the food we had.  The price was very good for all that fresh food and we left the place satisfied.  The line was about 100 people long by the time we left, so it pays to get there early.

On our way back to the Rambla we crossed town and found a lively bar and café that had a nice atmosphere.  We stopped for a glass of wine, but ended up staying for tapas and paella – kind of a second dinner.  At each restaurant or café that we visited in Spain I would teach Kuniko how to order and make comments in Spanish, and when she did each waiter or bartender would give her a big smile and take care of us the rest of the meal.  This place was like that – Kuniko ordered paella in Spanish, the guy smiled and started our order, and then laughed at Kuniko’s victorious reaction to her ordering success.  We are serious about trying to use the local language when traveling, and the good vibes we get from the locals when we try (or fail) make things go so much better.

We wrapped things up and walked home to the hotel, after a small wrong turn that almost had us at the beach.  Luckily the extra distance helped to digest all that delicious food in our stomachs.

Sleeping in on holiday is one of life’s greatest pleasures.  Nothing to worry about except for maybe the cleaning staff barging in.  Luckily, we had no problems and got up a little later than usual.  There was no sign of hangover from the previous evening, so that was a good sign.

We went down to breakfast and the same crowd was there eating, and we were eating the same food as well.  The breakfast was just as good, but I think if I was staying longer than a few days it would probably get old.  Kuniko and I were both craving some eggs.  Our flight that day was in the early evening, so we arranged with Julio, the manager, to hold on to our suitcase while we explored some other parts of Granada.  We explained that we had raided the beer cabinet, and he added it to our charges, and presented us with a bill.  Everything looked fine, but then he said something that caught our attention.  He said, “And we only take cash.”

To make a long story much shorter, Kuniko had handled most of the hotel reservations (including this one) and she was sure that she had already paid online via credit card.  The manager assured us that he hadn’t received any money – just the reservation via the internet, and in fact they have never taken credit cards.  So we had to schedule an ATM visit sometime during the day to pay for our hotel.  Kuniko was a little upset because she was sure she paid, and I trust my wife when she said that she had taken care of it, but I figured the guy isn’t going to lie to our faces, and anyway we’d need to pay to get our suitcase back.  So the day started off with some confusion (and a little stress).

To cut through any sense of suspense, later in the trip through a telephone call to Japan we found out that we had not in fact paid in advance for the hotel, and we had just been confused with some other charges to other hotels.  So Julio was all good, we paid him off at the end of our stay in his hotel, and everybody was OK.  But I will say that it took some wine and deep discussions before we reached an understanding and could enjoy the rest of our day. So luckily we were in the center of the local wine region and there were plenty of sangrias available.

So we left our suitcase (hostage) and headed into Granada.  This time we headed to the modern side of the city.  The city center was very different from the old Arabian district where we were staying, and it seemed like just about any other modern European city.  The streets were lined with tourists, the weather was beautiful, and it felt very busy and very safe.  We walked around in sort of a random pattern taking pictures, enjoying a park where we watched a group of older folks playing bocce ball, and walked through a semi-abandoned shopping mall looking for lip balm.  I finally found a pharmacy to sell lip balm, but I couldn’t remember how to say “lips” in Spanish, so I fumbled through the transaction.  Lips in Spanish is “labia” which reminded me of some of the antics we got into during our Spanish classes in high school.

As part of our research into our hotel miscommunication we stopped at a small café boasting free Wi-Fi and tried to do a little research over the internet with bocadillos and sangria.  For some reason the staff spoke to me in French – I look like an out-of-towner but not that far out of town, I guess.  We also went to a tapas bar that was listed on the internet as one of the best in the city.  It was so packed, but we bumbled into a corner to stand, and enjoyed a plate of spicy chorizo, bread, and a half bottle of a really nice Rioja (that I had been wanting to try for the last year).  The tapas bar was a lot like a pub in the UK – more of a community meeting place, but this had been taken over by tourists like us, and it was next to impossible to have a conversation with all the activity in there.  Still, the place had plenty of atmosphere and I’m glad we stopped by.

We slowly made our way back to the Arabian district, stopping at the ATM to pay off Julio on the way.  We made a final stop at one more tapas place, and unknowingly shut it down (lunch service ended at 4 pm).  This was almost our dinner, but they were just wrapping up lunch.  The food there was excellent – especially the veal in a rich, meaty sauce and some montadillos.  They had some good wines by the glass there as well, and I could try a local white wine that was recommended in a guide book – a sherry-like buttery white that I couldn’t imagine drinking for more than one glass.

Finally we went back to our hotel and paid Julio.  He was a little concerned that we might feel bad about the whole thing, and to his credit offered to let us go without paying and to pay him later if we liked.  We did insist on a receipt, but that turned out to be a difficult maneuver with his printer failing during the print.  That made for an awkward delay as we and the taxi driver that we had hired waited Julio to fix his printer and print the receipt.  But finally we were on our way, and the taxi to the airport was an easy and smooth trip.

Unfortunately, our next bump in the day happened when our flight was delayed.  They wouldn’t give us an ETA on when our plane would arrive, so nobody had any idea if it would be 90 minutes or 9 hours.  The staff seemed to sense the angst, and gave everyone vouchers for dinner at the airport.  The vouchers (strategically, I think) didn’t have any amount on them, but there was a secret cut-off point that the cashiers knew.  Passengers who overloaded had to give up some items, and that made people more cautious as they selected their dinner.  We got a beer, a soda, and a couple of sandwiches and had no problem at all.  We weren’t all that hungry, really, but it was a good way to kill time until the plane arrived.  When it did, everyone was very relieved.  The flight departed around 9:30 pm – about 90 minutes later than expected, and after 45 minutes we arrived in Barcelona.  We picked up our luggage, found a taxi stand, and from there we caught a taxi and got to our hotel just before midnight.

Our hotel was located in the lively (and maybe a little dicey) part of town called La Rambla – a big thoroughfare through the city lined with markets, shops and nightclubs that open in the evening.  The hotel itself was down a side street directly across from a building designed by Antoni Gaudi that brought a lot of traffic.  The hotel was a little old, the room was a little small, but it was very comfortable and clean.  We didn’t waste too much time before crashing out for the night.

We woke up well rested and ventured downstairs to the small kitchen for breakfast.  There Julio (the owner of the hotel) was putting together breakfast for the guests, along with some help from a young lady.  There looked to be about four other rooms in the place, so it was smaller than I had expected.  They made us fresh orange juice (yum!), nespresso coffee (just like at home) and then served us some toasted breads, fruits, and butter and jam. They gave us a small loaf of sweet bread that was spiced with anise, and then later some plain toast with some very simple salsa to spread over it.  Simple, easy, delicious.

The next step was to go check out the town.  Granada is a fairly large town, and we were staying in the historical Arabian district.  I couldn’t really notice the difference the previous evening when we came in, but walking around in the morning most buildings were very old, painted white with dark roofs.  We really enjoyed walking around the town and poking around the corners.  The streets were all cobblestone, and once in a while we’d meet someone walking the other way.  There was a family riding by on Segway scooters that caught us by surprise.  Just about everywhere we visited had some people trying to sell tours on a Segway.  Weird.  Eventually we found a church that overlooked the Alhambra palace.  The view was pretty spectacular, and since we were planning on visiting the Alhambra in the afternoon, it was a good way to see the whole thing from a distance.  There were a few people walking around and even a Japanese family of four taking pictures and enjoying the view.  We asked the dad to take our picture – and he did a great job.  You could tell he was very serious about photography.  In return I took the family’s picture, but I think I hashed up the first shot.  I was worried about getting everyone’s feet in the shot and I completely missed the Alhambra.  The second shot turned out much better.

We continued sightseeing in the Arabian district, and found ourselves walking down a street that was right out of a movie.  It was like exactly what you would see in a Hollywood movie if it called for a small town in Europe.  We walked down the stone streets, with little stands selling produce on the side of the road and locals walking around greeting each other and gossiping.  No tourists around really (except for us) and I wondered if they’d all return to doing something else after we passed.  Other than that area, the streets remained empty, and it seemed like the tourists might be sleeping in a little.  That was fine by us.

We stopped at our hotel for a quick toilet break, but caused a bit of havoc because they were cleaning our room at the time.  They maybe thought we wanted to spend time in our room, not just use the toilet, but in the end we got it all figured out and hopefully didn’t hurt any feelings.  Sometimes small places like where we were staying can be a little more delicate about their services.  I did notice that our cleaning lady was quite attractive, and later Kuniko agreed that Spanish people in general that we had met tended to be for the most part pretty good looking.  Our sample size was pretty small, though, so we figured we’d keep our eyes open.

So we were back on the street, walking towards the Alhambra.  The Alhambra sits on a giant hill overlooking the Arabic district, and to get there you can either take a drive up the hill or hike up (like we were doing).  The hike is up a back way, which means there weren’t many other people on the trail, and also that it was mostly shaded from the sun.  It was a fairly steep climb, but probably what we needed after all the calories we took in during our stay in Turkey.

I had pre-purchased entry tickets into the Alhambra palace, but they weren’t valid until after 1:30 pm.  They try to limit visitors into the buildings to try to reduce the overcrowding, and for that we were thankful.  At first we couldn’t find the place to pick up our tickets, but after asking a few questions we figured it out. There were signs set up for people coming from the road, but no indicators for people hiking up the back of the mountain.  Part of the experience of the Alhambra is to walk through the gardens that surround it.  The gardens are beautiful, lush and extensive.  All of the greenery gave us lots of shade to hide under as the temperature crept upward, and gardens, fountains, ponds, and waterfalls were everywhere.  We spent a long time wandering through and enjoying the views.  At one point we walked up some stairs to the upper level, and when I turned the corner and looked up the stairs I discovered that the short skirt wearing lady above us wasn’t wearing any underwear.  Welcome to Spain!

To kill the last thirty minutes before our entry time came up we left the gardens and walked over to a small café.  There we had a couple of glasses of wine outside and watched the tours come and go.  I managed to order everything in Spanish without too much embarrassment, and the wines were excellent.  Even just wine by the glass it was better than what we usually drink at home – and cheaper, too.

Finally we entered the palace after waiting in a short line.  Someone ahead of us passed out from the heat, so it wasn’t just us feeling the effects of the weather.  The interior of the Alhambra was absolutely beautiful.  The influence of both western and eastern combined to make for a very unusual decorating scheme.  I especially liked the tilework, and the fountains throughout the grounds were also beautifully designed.  Most rooms had some kind of archway leading to a unique ceiling, some unbelievably intricate.  One ceiling was star-shaped, letting light shine in different ways during the passing of the day.

We spent about an hour inside the palace going room to room and enjoying the architecture and beauty of it.  Finally we finished up, and headed back down the hill to our hotel to rest up a bit.  On the way back we stopped at a store to pick up some cold beer to drink, but the staff had just put their local beers in the fridge so they weren’t cold.  Instead we bought the beer that was cold – Coronas.  So it was that Kuniko and I drink cold Mexican beer on a terrace outside our hotel room in Spain.  Later we had a chance to try the local beer (called Alhambra beer) and it turned out to be quite good – much better than I had expected.  In our hotel room there was a card that said that they always had cold Cava in the fridge in the kitchen, and to help ourselves if we’d like.  I ran downstairs to get a bottle, but the cleaning lady told me in Spanish that they didn’t have any – just more beer.  I did my best to chat with her in Spanish, but I’m sure there was a lot of Japanese coming out of my mouth.  She didn’t seem to care, and hooked us up with a couple of bottles of beer.

We took a nap to sleep off the afternoon beer, and then decided that we needed to get some food in our system.  We ended up walking to a local town square that had tables set up outside of two small bars.  We ate outside and enjoyed a tomato salad, potato and pepper tapas, braised rabbit on the bone, and some glasses of red wine.  The place was still quiet since it was much too early for dinner, so we decided to head back to the church viewpoint that we had seen in the morning.  Our plan was to take in the night view of the Alhambra.  Unfortunately, everyone else had the same plan, and the place was starting to get crowded.  Not only tourists, but musicians and street vendors also were hanging out around the area.  Below the plaza there was a small restaurant with a nice view of the Alhambra, so we walked down there and got a table and a bottle of Cava.  There we ate some delicious olives and Monchego cheese and waited until it got dark.  It took a long time to get dark, though, and between talking, watching all the tourists lined up above us, and working on that bottle of Cava, I ended up drinking a little too much.  If you read this entry carefully you can see that we drank pretty much the whole day combined with lots of walking and hill climbing.  Luckily Kuniko steered us in the right direction to get home afterwards.  I got some nice pictures of the Alhambra lit up, though, so mission accomplished.

Originally when I planned this trip, this day was going to be only a travel day.  However, because of the post-Ramadan celebration it turned out that the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul would be closed until the absolute last day we were there.  That meant that we’d have to catch it just before we left for the airport.  It opened at 8:30 on Monday, so we got an early start and arrived there around eight.  I thought that the place would be huge and that they wouldn’t really care if the people entering were staff or not, but they had guards posted at each gate and they recognized the staff apparently.  There was nothing for us to do but go find a shady place to sit and to kill a half hour.  Once we got inside, things were just opening up.  I was hoping for something dramatic, but actually it was similar to other markets that we had already explored in Istanbul.  There seemed to be a certain pattern to it – each block had a few clothes shops, a lamp shop, a pottery and plate shop, a jewelry shop, and a spice/food shop.  The market was made up of hundreds of blocks like that, so there wasn’t that much variety if you kept walking.  The more you saw, the more you saw the pattern behind it.  Still, we had fun walking around, and seeing the shopkeepers setting up for the day and the camaraderie that they shared was worth the trip.

So we went on back to the hotel, grabbed our suitcase, ate a quick breakfast, and then had the hotel call us a cab to take us to the airport.  The trip to airport was smooth and very quick.  We took the train and had transferred once when we arrived, so it was our first time to see exactly where the airport was in relation to our hotel.  It was a little expensive (48 Turkish lira) but worth it to rest our legs a little after the big walking day yesterday.  Strangely, during the taxi ride our hotel called the cab and asked us for our credit card information again.  I’m still not sure why they would need it, and why they didn’t ask us while we were still there, but there it was – we were reading off our credit card number to the hotel clerk over the taxi cab driver’s cell phone.  I hope he doesn’t have a good memory.

At the airport the check-in was a piece of cake, and we had a little time to kill.  Our flight was at 1:30 pm to Madrid, and it went pretty smoothly.  From Madrid we changed to the domestic terminal using a bus to catch our next flight on Iberian Airlines.  The domestic terminal design looked almost exactly the same as the Kansai airport back in Osaka.  Maybe the same architect?  We had lots of time to kill here, as we were taking an evening flight to Granada.  Unfortunately there weren’t many restaurants, and the terminal seemed to be under construction so that limited our options even more.  We did manage to find a cafeteria, and we had a wonderful meal of tortilla Espana and quiche with a half bottle of red wine.  At the cafeteria cash register the cashier asked if we wanted them to open the bottle, and since I wasn’t carrying an opener of course we said yes.  They whipped out a corkscrew and popped the bottle for us, and gave us a couple of nice glasses too.  The wine was much better than I expected.  Welcome to Spain!

It was finally time to head for the gate, so we went through security on the way.  Kuniko put her hat through the x-ray machine per the staff request, and since it was so light it was brushed off and stayed inside the machine.  I tried to be helpful by telling the security staff in my best Spanish, but my Spanish was a little rough.  I ended up saying “My wife’s head is inside that machine.”  I’m lucky I wasn’t arrested right there.  But they could clearly see that my wife’s head was right there on her shoulders, and they put it together.  Belly laughs all around and I learned that it will take a while to get used to using Spanish again.

We reached the gate but apparently the flight was delayed another hour.  We had lots of time to walk around, read, and people watch.  Finally caught the flight, and arrived in Granada after only 45 minutes.  It was a very small plane, and a very small airport, so some of the luggage handlers started putting down luggage right out there on the runway after we landed.  Some passengers thought it was their chance to grab them early, but the staff freaked out and shouted at them to go to the terminal and wait.  So close, yet so far, I guess.

Once we got our bag we found our pre-arranged driver waiting for us.  It was a taxi driver, and he drove us into town at light speed.  We didn’t speak at all, and we finally arrived at our hotel around midnight.  Fortunately the owner of the hotel was waiting up for us, and he showed us to our room.  The place was in a very old neighborhood but decorated very nicely in kind of an Arabic style.  He gave us all the info we needed for the next day, and then left us to hit the sack.  It was another busy day of travel.