Susan woke up early before her alarm went off so that meant that we both woke up early. We had an hour before we needed to leave for the airport so plenty of time to shower and eat. Our hostess had prepared a breakfast last night so that we would have something to eat before we left. She gave us yogurt, orange cake, cinnamon cake, cheese slices and tea. The hosts treated us like royalty. They were exceedingly helpful, cheerful and courteous and most of the food was raised and/or baked by them. Every morning on the common terrace we had available to us spinach pie, cheese pie, cold cereal, coffees, juices, three kinds of homemade jam, yogurt, three kinds of homemade bread, boiled eggs and other options.
Speaking of food, now might be a good time to mention some of my favorite foods on the trip. I hope to make some of these when we get home: saganaki (in essence a casserole- typically meats and veggies cooked together with different sauces); zucchini balls; orange cake; saganaki: fried or baked cheese; Greek salad; souvlaki; rice pudding (mostly for breakfast); baklava and graviera cheese if available. Of course the caveat is that the Greek food that you get in Greece will always be just that much better due to the abundance of fresh, ripe veggies. I’m not even a fan of red onion, cucumbers or olives but if they were mixed in to a Greek salad along with capers, fresh feta and green peppers, they tasted great. I also brought home two small bottles of Ouzo and a bottle of Kitron which are really good served cold with a little ice.
Today is Sunday. We couldn’t have planned a less stressful drive to the Athens airport from Napflio. There was nobody on the roads so we made great time, arriving more than three hours early. After returning the rental car, we burned a good hour just standing in line at check in where all kinds of human drama played out wheel we waited. Our flight had also been delayed by 15 minutes. With all of the holdups, we didn’t spend an inordinate amount of time waiting for our flight. In the meantime, you engage in random conversations with complete strangers who tell you how wonderful cruises are (I’ll never do it) or the price of heating a home in Greece (way too much).
Now we are flying. We are over the Adriatic Sea just about to cross the Alps. We have been fed and they have turned off all of the lights in the plane. It is only 2:30 pm Greece time. I think they all want us to sleep and quit bothering them. We have no internet. It is apparently out for today only. Somehow I have also lost the book I was reading so I guess it’s time to check out a movie.