Festivetraveller

It was an early start as the alarm went off at 0500hrs. We got ready in an hour's time and left the beautiful house of Ada as the dawn broke over the eastern skies. We had a 3 hour's drive from Githio to Athens airport. It was more or less the same route we took while coming to Githio. After a brief halt just before the airport to fuel up the car and the passengers, we were off to the most visited island in the world - Santorini. Santorini is a crescent shaped island, reformed after a 3000 year old volcano eruption giving it it's distinctive features namely the steep Cliff side called caldera, multicolored soils and rocks, different colored beaches, islands and it's rugged exterior. Also against popular belief back home, Santorini is a big ... read more

Today was going to be special since we had last minute made changes to our plans. According to the original plan we were to visit the Salamina island and stay in a cute Flintstone themed house. However the island didn't have much to do so we decided, just previous night, to check out the countryside of Greece province Peleponesse. The Peloponnese is the stuff of legends. Literally. It is here that Hercules fought the Nemean lion and gods walked the earth, meddling in mortal affairs; it's from here that Paris of Troy eloped with Helen and the Argonauts set sail in search of the Golden Fleece. Celestial and mythological charms aside, this region bears tangible traces of the many civilisations that once called it home, witnessed in its classical temples, Mycenaean palaces, Byzantine cities, and Ottoman, Frankish and ... read more

Day 02 - Pyramids! It was the much anticipated day today, as we had planned to visit the Pyramids of Giza! Aalah, our driver from yesterday, suggested a brilliant idea of converting our half day taxi from yesterday to full day, 24hrs, taxi by paying just the balance amount which would entitle is to keep the taxi till 1600 hrs in which he would take us to the Pyramids. This 'jugad' would save us quite a few pounds and also we had got comfortable with friendly Aalah. Aalah is from Cairo and has 5 kids, don't know from how many wives, and works as a security guard too so carries a gun along Everytime in the minivan. On his suggestion we decided to start early at 0800 hrs so as to beat the crowd and the ... read more

It was that time of the year again when Swati and I start making plans for our annual summer vacation. Actually it's more of a monsoon vacation as that is the time when our business slips into off season. However it coincides perfectly with the holiday season in Europe. Last year, our travels took us to Switzerland and France where we were accompanied by my childhood friends; the Chitnis's and the Mirajkar's. We had a blast and as is the norm made a pact to travel every summer together. By the time summer turned to winter and winter to spring, the pact was forgotten or buried under the debris of everyday grind and responsibilities. Unfortunately this year Mirajkar's would not be able to make it. So it was going to be Swati and me along with ... read more