Santorini Greece

We left the United States and headed off for the Greek Island of Santorini for our end of the summer vacation.

Here is some background information about Santorini, one of the Greek Islands.  The island of Santorini was created from a volcanic explosion, which destroyed a single island and caused the land to collapse and be sucked under like a vacuum, creating a "caldera".  Today, it still has an active volcano with the last eruption in 1950.  With all these eruptions, geological structures and landforms, it is said that Santorini was the source for the legends of Atlantis.  WOW!!!   Got to love the idea that we are going to a mythical island.

Image obtained from online...   See the volcano in the middle

Originally, we heard about the Greek Islands from several people.  People told us that the islands were a great relaxing vacation.  Well, we were looking for an end of the summer vacation; so knowing that we were coming back from America with jet lag, the sun is supposed to help people with jet lag, and with it being a relaxing vacation....   WE'RE IN.....  Santorini here we come.

We decided to stay in the town Oia (pronounced eah).  This town is at the very upper left corner of the big island, shown above.  It is at the top of the island and is supposed to be a unique town with great food, unique stores, a wonderful view of the caldera, and a fabulous sunset.  We were not disappointed with our selection.  Oia was amazing!

This island is volcanic rock.   Everything has been built from the top descending down the cliff side, because of the view.  Pretty much everything you do includes walking up or down hills or steps.  Yep, steps.   Oh, but these are not just ordinary steps... these steps are usually steep steps that have uneven cobblestone and/or pavement.  So you really have to watch yourself.  And don't forget that this form of daily life walking includes your room accommodations.  Whew I'm sweating already.   (NOTE;  I do feel bad for the staff working at these resorts.  They have to constantly walk up and down those steps carrying supplies for the rooms and such.)  BUT being cliff side is the beauty of this town and its incredible view!

The hotel accommodations literally descended down the cliff

This was the view from inside our room to our balcony

Every morning we had coffee and breakfast on that balcony

The town of Oia during the beginning of the sunset

The town was great.  We really enjoyed staying there because of the location, the ease to get anywhere, and the view.  We had a few excursions during our stay, which will be described in the next blog, but our focus was to relax.  AND we did...   we got into a great routine after day one.  Our routine consisted of; morning breakfast on the balcony enjoying the view,  swimming in the pool one or two times a day, eating at our favorite restaurant, and a late afternoon stroll for ice cream at our favorite dessert shop.  We did not rush, we just took the days as they came and it was so relaxing and fun.

Another thing we loved about Oia was the Greek people.  They were such fabulously great hosts.  Realize - during their tourist season (about 8 months) the city is open everyday, 7 days a week.  Which means that the servers and shopkeepers work everyday from morning till close (according to several conversations with different shop owners and wait staff).  Yet with the long hours they are still so friendly and happy!  For example;  at our ice cream shop the elderly owner loved our family and recognized us after our first stop.  He would come out and greet us every time asking about our family and our stay.  He tried to teach me Greek words everyday.  And when I was butchering his language he would just laugh.  He was a real delight.  That is just one example.  Again,  the Greeks are just very kind and friendly people.

Hanging out at the pool

Walking through the small city of Oia

Our favorite restaurant -notice the view in the background

Reed and Connor chilling at our favorite restaurant

Santorini was a great island.  We had a great time meeting the Greek people, relaxing in the sun, and seeing a new world.  We are glad that we finished our summer with a vacation on that island.

Summer 2013 Vacation

Coming Home to America

We have been asked several times by family and friends what it is like coming back to America after being away for most of the year.  So in this blog, I will try to describe some of the little differences we see when coming home.

First, we'll start off with a description of the long trip home.  Imagine for yourself; three to four planes that you have to board with several layovers of varying time in each airport (usual trip takes us; Ankara - Munich - Chicago - Minnesota).  And then there is a the final 1-1/2 hour car ride, after getting the rental, in order to get to my gracious parents who are awaiting our arrival.  During the drive to my parents house, they usually try to help us by staying in phone contact to make sure no one is sleeping at the wheel.  By the time all is said and done it takes somewhere between 23 to 27 hours for us to get home with very little sleep.  Needless to say we are a little punch drunk when we arrive.  BUT thankful and happy to be back in America.

Nate and Connor on our first planes heading to Germany

When we arrive in America we literally live out of our suitcases.  And living out of suitcases for about five weeks is weird and sloppy.  As you know; we have no home when we are in America, so we just float from one home to the next while living out of our suitcases.  We are thankful that our family is so willing to take us in and put up with a chaotic family of five (four when Reed leaves) and our stuff.  But it can be confusing and a bit haphazard at times. 

Next is the language difference and how it plays tricks on your mind.  So, the first time coming home (Summer of 2012) we landed in Chicago and I could hear English being spoken by several individuals.  I turned to Nate (or Connor) and said, "Can you hear that?  Someone is speaking English."  My child looked up at me with this confused and odd facial expression as if he was saying....   Duh mom?!?!  We're in America and most Americans speak English.  I want to blame my confusion on being over tired from flying, but actually it is not that at all.  Imagine hearing very little English from other people in your surroundings throughout the whole year.  You hear mainly Turkish and some other languages (German, Spanish, Italian).  You get used to going out and hearing other people in the background speaking different languages.  Plain and simple, you just don't typically hear English being spoken in your background.  Then you set foot in America and it is as if those flood gates open and people are speaking English.  It is so weird and it is hard to explain.  None the less, it is funny how your senses pick up on those things.

Another adjustment is the contact between people.  Here, Turkey, their culture is not about smiling or talking with strangers (which is a very big part of their religion and their beliefs about spirits).  You usually keep to your friends and family and save your friendly behavior for them.  So you spend the year working not to look people in the eye, not to greet strangers with a hello, not to offer help and to be conservative.  BUT in America many people will greet you with a smile, ask if you need help, and are just friendly (yes; some people want to pick your pocket, but not usually so).  It feels so weird to see someone smile at you....   and then you realize you are home.

And of course, there is always the driving cultural difference.  I have posted in the past about the lack of law abiding driving in Turkey.  If there is a shoulder, then there is a lane.  If there is a sidewalk without people walking on it, then there is a lane for a small car.  I am not kidding.  Driving in Turkey is scary.  There are no California stops for a red light or a stop sign, because the Turks just drive right through without even slowing down.  So it really takes some getting use to when you first start driving in America.

Here are funny oddities about our America visits that have nothing to do with language or culture, but have to do with our daily life and outings;

After getting some sleep, the kids usually want to see Target.  Yep, Target.  The kids want to go through all the toys and electronics to see what is the latest and greatest.  Note; here in Turkey when products come out (movies, songs, gadgets and such) it is usually a month or so after America has seen and tested the product.  And other times it can be much longer.  So it is funny to watch the kids spend their time (hours) walking down the aisles to take it all in.  It should be noted that we also love to walk down the food aisles.  Here in Turkey we don't get a variety of American food products.  So it is cool to see all the choices in the freezer section and more!  Needless to say we are unable to ever go through Target in under an hour, because we just can't resist checking it all out!  Note: this can drive my family nuts ESPECIALLY when we are suppose to be running a quick errand to pick up milk..   Hahaha.

We usually spend quite a bit of time on;  doctor, dentist, orthodontist appointments and so forth.  That is really boring stuff- but it takes up a lot of time.  Again, we are thankful for the wonderful medical choices in America and would not pass up the chance to make sure we take care of our health.  

Then we want to check out all the children movies which are showing in theaters during our vacation.  In Turkey, most children movies (example; Despicable Me) are in Turkish.  They only play the English version late at night, if at all.  So, we never go to any of the children movies.  Adult movies are always in English with Turkish subtitles, but children movies are always in Turkish.  Thankfully, this year's summer movies were; Despicable Me 2 and Monster's University.  Therefore, we made sure to fit both movies into our schedule and had a blast eating too much popcorn, drinking slushies (something we can't get here) and hanging out with our cousins at the movies.

Sam posing behind the poster

AND we always have a list of restaurant and coffee shops that we must hit when home.  McDonalds and most fast food restaurants here don't taste the same.  The beef here just tastes very different, so we rarely go out to eat.  Once we hit American ground;  I have to have my Caribou Coffee, eat some good beef products and the kids want their McDonalds and Perkins.  As a matter of fact; I usually get teased when we go out to a restaurant, because I usually don't waste my time eating any of the sides or the bun to the hamburger, but stick with the juicy piece of meat that tastes so incredibly delicious.  Pretty funny if you think about it.

The boys and their cousins at Dave and Busters

FINALLY, and our most important must do is to see our family and friends.  We were used to living so close to family and friends when we lived in MN and the ease that we had to see them all at any time.  Now, we can see them on computers, but it is not the same.  Living this far away makes us appreciate our family and friends even more!  We also appreciate their support; the cards, letters, calls on Skype and the visits.  I know that we are not always able to see all our friends when we come home, but we try.  We miss family and friends very much living here and cherish all the time that we get with them when we come home for our summer vacation.  Thank you family and friends for supporting us while we are living abroad!!

Robin, Tyler, Andrea and I

Sam and his friends

My family having a picnic

My Siblings and Grandpa

Again, we want to thank our family and friends for supporting us.  We love you all.  See you same time next year.

 

Spring Break Bloopers

Spain Bloopers

As with any vacation, especially when you are a family of five, there are bound to be mishaps and bloopers on your vacations.  AND this vacation had some interesting bloopers.  But in the end, they all were resolved and did not significantly affect the overall vacation- LIKE spending a night in the hospital because you had surgery. 

So our first misfortune was Reed became sick.  We had so many places to visit and things to do in Madrid.  BUT Reed had traveled back from the United States and met us in Spain with a very nasty head cold.  That very long journey with no sleep and his severe head cold took him out of the equation for about a day and a half.  We did not want to see the sites without him, so the kids and I improvised.  We let Reed go to bed, with the room smelling of Vicks and NyQuil, and found a quaint little café where we played cards and drank coffee and hot chocolate.  This allowed Reed the ability to catch up on sleep and get the head cold under control.   Poor Reed.  Our joke was that if you were going to get sick at least it was in a warm weathered climate.

The boys teamed up against me to put me out of the game-  Not happy

The boys were very happy to beat me

Next, when Reed had looked through his bags to sort some things, he noticed that one of his laptops was missing.  He had taken an older laptop to the states to get fixed and packed it in his suitcase.  The arrival in Spain proved that someone during the custom's check point helped themselves to that computer.  What a hassle.

After that we went to Tenerife Island.  Now realize we are Americans and our beaches are pretty modest.  European beaches are pretty different.   In Europe, no matter your shape, size or age you wear a very small swim costume (we call them swim suits).  So many men were wearing tight shorts or speedos for their swim costumes and most women were wearing bikinis without a top.  This in the beginning it was quite the eye opener for the children.  BUT we had several discussions with the kids about the different cultural customs and the kids got use to the different attire at the beaches.  The one thing the kids could not understand were the children playing in the sand naked (now they were usually very young children).  They had many questions about how you would clean your body after hanging out at the beach all day.....   AND you can only image the types of questions.  We surely had a great laugh over their questions.

This island is a common place for British people to visit.  In the UK the weather is cool and rainy.   I have been told that the Brits will visit warmer climates for their holidays.  OK,  I get and understand why a person would visit a warmer climate for the holiday, BUT the one thing we all noticed was that they loved to lay out until they were very sunburned.  And this was not the first time we have seen the British people burnt to a crisp on their holiday.  So, I questioned some of my British friends about why they would get so sunburned on their vacation (holiday).  The Brits told me that they rarely see the sun and they love to show off that they have had a holiday in a warmer climate by having a tan.  BUT the sun is hard to judge and many times they get really sunburned not intending to get that sunburned.  She told me that it is very a common for the Brits to be very sunburned after their vacation.

Connor had met a British boy and they became swim friends at the resort.  One day the friend did not come out till very late in the afternoon.  When Connor saw him he was shocked to see that the boy was as red as a lobster.  The boy told Connor that he had forgot to put sunscreen on the prior day and got sunburned....   REALLY, cause it was not apparent that he was very sunburned!?!?!  The boy then shared that his parents were mad at him for forgetting to put any sunscreen on.  Reed and I were shocked that the boys parents hadn't seen that he was burning and put sunscreen on him.  But some people think differently.   Poor kid. 

Now is was time to go home.  We said our goodbyes and were off.  We had gone through the screening (TSA) security and were waiting for our flight.  I had noticed that I had not retrieved my belt out of one of the containers.  I worked with their airport police to go back to the screening point, but they were very busy and did not seem interested in my questions in locating the container with my belt.  SO I thought Oh well, it is just a belt and went back to where Reed and the kids were hanging out.

Now we were about to board the plane.  I asked the kids to give me the IPad so that I could hold onto it on the plane and they all looked at me with horrid looks.  We then frantically looked through every backpack and realized that the IPad was in the container with the belt and the Kindle.  WHAT?!?!   Now panic sets in.  We can't go back and miss the plane so what do we do?  We ask the boarding agents for the TSA phone information and decide that when we landed in Istanbul we would call the TSA office to see if the property was turned into their lost and found.  Yeah right?!?!

Please realize that the flight from Madrid to Istanbul was about 3 1/2 hours.  I spent my time figuring how much money we were out and wondering how we missed one container when we were going through the security check point.  I was so bummed and so were the kids.  We use that IPad so much.  It  has Skype and so many other features on it that we regularly use as a family of five that we have grown accustom to having it.   Reed stayed confident in our ability to find the property and told us to think positively.  When we landed Reed called the security office right away and guess what?  (Dramatic pause)  .... Yep they had it. 

We were very excited, but now we had to figure out how to retrieve the property from their office and get it to Turkey?  Hmmmm  (Another dramatic pause).  Bingo, Reed's dad was flying out one day behind our itinerary and he could get it.  Reed did all security verification to prove it was our property.  Reed then called Garold to work through the details.  Garold arrived the next day and had no problems in obtaining all our property.  Wow?!?!   Amazing?!?!  We were very lucky that everything played out like it did.  We were fortunate and got everything back...   Thanks for all your help Garold! 

And that is Spain's bloopers in a nutshell.  Not too dramatic and in the end everything worked out- we were blessed!