I get woken up at about 8am yeah yeah yeah he woke up 5am, routine ( I'll be in therapy for years after this trip) get the day started at Tellie and Voulas House with 3 cups of coffee a feta omelet and a discussion on how the austerity measures we put in place 3 days ago didn't work (back to the cafenio to start again).Theo Nicholas
Our days itinerary starts off like this pick up Chrissy and Basil from there hotel up the road from Voulas house, we head down to the bank to try again this time with a real Greek document in hand, my fathers birth certificate (by the way George we have yours and you're born on the 5th and Chrissy on the 1st ,at last Terry you can have a birthday on your own). Basil was convinced that this was all we would need to withdraw our Millions ($3.50) he hadn't yet faced the wrath of Greek banking Bureaucracy ( i think i had a beer with him last night). Well we enter the bank with such Optimism ( I think he was at the bar with Bureaucracy) only to be chased out of the bank seconds later with no money or optimism (never like those two anyway). Well not to be beaten Dads heads across the road to drown his sorrows in a baklava with extra syrup. Time to move on to see Theo and Thea Voulas mum and dad again and.
We get there conveniently or shall I say strategically around lunch time ( can you see a theme of this trip if your a little slow on the up take its FOOD) more pita today, meat balls and Tzatziki and some of the amber liquid, lovely lunch. Lee Lee rings me as I am there and Nicholas and Olivia get to speak to Theo Nicholas ,well the tears welled up in his eyes, both people not knowing what the other was saying but didn't have to, lovely to watch. It was time to leave Dad was threatening to walk ( if you ever going to call a bluff now was the time to do it) he thought we we going to miss our flight, I tried to remind where we were, you don't get to the airport in Greece 2 hours before a trip they will think you were a terrorist. We say our good byes to Theo and Thea in hope we them again one day soon.
On the way back to the car you realise that Greece is one of those places in the world where they use a different thought process to educate themselves I'll give you and instance and follow up with proof. Parking in Greece, if you cant find a car parking space in Greece your either stupid or not thinking out side the box, look at the photo below, they are champions and for some reason it works .
The True Olympian
Off to the airport we go we get dropped off and look forward to seeing Tellie Voula Chris and Basil in Crete on Friday can't wait, but for now we heading off to one of those must see cities of the world Istanbul (or instabul if you come from Dad and Chrissy town, reminiscent of some of Dads classic pronunciations Darth De Varder ,Darth Vader from Stars Wars to me and you i could go on for hours) anyway we jump on our flight we had to push start it, had a few ks on the old girl, but she probably has one good flight in her.
We arrive in Istanbul, what a huge difference between a country that functions and one that doesn't at all , Istanbul glistens like their crown jewels that sit in the Topkapi Palace magnificent, Erol our Taxi driver drops us off at 1 block away from our hotel because he couldn't be bothered getting caught in traffic on the main st ( I think Erol is Greek) we walk down to the Hotel Sultanhan right in the middle of the old town ,top spot nice hotel, the concierge thought he was the funniest man on earth,I didn't, so i didn't tip him now we have this really bad smell coming out from the bathroom ( actually the old man used it a little while ago!!! ).
Our Hotel to the left
We get dressed and head out on the town for dinner and little bit of a look around, the place is absolutely jumping with people, the ,colours, sounds and the smells(or was that dad again) was sensational and fact that it was around 20 Deg topped it off. As we walking down the street on our way to the restaurant that was recommend by one of the staff at the hotel we pass the biggest baklava shop on earth and the old man had another Peter Costello moment, just around the corner we get to this great restaurant ,WOW ( that means wow to the old folk) what a great meal we had 10 different dips with this football shaped bread (we were going to play kick to kick with it ) then came out a platter with just meat as we all know my father doesn't eat fish ( wheres the snapper) so he did a backward pike with 3.9 degree of difficulty into this platter of charcoal grilled goodness, this man was in heaven (in fact I think I hear those Angles again...... no its a call to prayer over the PA system from the Mosque across the road). We drink the local brew Efes which is great and talk to a young couple form the UK beside us who also just got here, congratulated them personally on the great job they did in the Olympics and headed back to the hotel to call it a day. Stay tuned as we go on our crusades in search of the the holy grails of Baklava Good night speak to you soon.
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