Day 8 - Last day in Athens for a while

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August 18, 2006

Oh boy I am three days behind in my blog. There is a lot to write about. Let's begin with last Friday. My sister slept at my aunt's house last Thursday night because my uncle arrived with his Romanian guests at his condo. My mom took off to Mina's house earlier on Thursday. She came to pick her up and take her to a more northern part of Greece where she lives. On Thursday night ( I just realized now that I was supposed to talk about Friday and not Thursday - whatever, change of plans). My sister, my son, and I all slept in the same double bed. We basically did not have room to even turn. My son was in the middle and took turns cozying up with the rest of us. Surprisingly we all slept good. We woke up really late and naturally we were hungry. There was nothing to eat in the house so we decided to hunt for tiropites once again. Most of the bakery shops were closed, but somebody on the street suggested that we visit the bakery near the church of Agia Anastasia (Agia means Saint in Greek). It wasn't far so we hit the road with a fast pace. On the way we finally saw a toy store open and I had promised my son that I would buy him the boat in the display case. He was most happy. We walked on and made a short stop in the post office. Finally we reached the bakery and loaded up on tiropites, dried whole-wheat bread sticks covered with white sesames in the shape of pretzels, an ION milk chocolate, a Fanta orange with no bubbles, and some other items. We ate some stuff right away and then started to walk home. By this time it was early afternoon. My son was really tired and didn't fuss when I suggested he take his afternoon siesta. During the afternoon he woke up a few times to do some diarrhea. My sister and I were watching Greek programming and cracking a few jokes from time to time. When we all woke up I opened my laptop to see some pictures, then we blasted some music. My son and I did what others would say is not dancing and so not "gelling". When we were tired of being crazy we closed all the music and shortly afterwards my aunt arrived home from work with some chicken. We ate some and it was really good. My uncle Nick was supposed to pass by at 18:00, but never made it. Then my sister and I decided to check out the scene in Nea Ionia. So we took off with my son and saw some stores. We then stopped at a bookstore where I bought two books in Greek for my son - one easy that teaches the Greek letters and another for basic reading once he learns how to do that. My sister bought a novel, and so did I. I explained to the storekeeper what I was looking for after we had an animated conversation about books and Paris. He actually chose a very good Greek for me and I read almost sixty pages already - I am really enjoying it during the quiet afternoons. I also had the chance to call my wife on the phone at work - she was really surprised. We then hurried back home and my uncle was pretty upset because he was looking for us. I can see why he was mad because somehow three hours had gone by. There were pland to go out for souvlaki eating once again at "To Petrino tou Stamati" with our cousin Maria as well and my uncle Nick's Romanian friend Andrea, but they ordered a pick-up of yiro. We ate it at the terrace (roof) of my aunt's house and it was just awesome. Earlier in the day my sister was uncertain that she was going to go to Sifnos, and later on at night she informed my uncle and I that she was not going. After everyone left I prepared my luggage for Sifnos and that took me around 40 minutes. I then started watching some television at about 1:45 to cool off. My uncle was supposed to wake me up the next morning to pick me up and head for the island of Sifnos.

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