When I first started planning our trip my mini said she wanted to be in Greece for her birthday so I purchased tickets and found accommodations. I was making purchased based on prices and wasn’t really paying attention to flight details…lesson learned. Our departure from Germany included a midnight flight with a nine-hour layover in Istanbul. When we went through customs at Greece it was the first time I was questioned about my daughter and had to produce her birth certificate to prove she belonged to me. My mini was also questioned but had difficulty answering because I told her not to tell people too many details so we had to have a mini lesson after that ordeal. I told her when we’re at the airport, if the officials ask questions, we give them all the details they ask. Once we finally arrived, we dropped our things off, went to eat, and went back to the room to sleep.
The next day we decided to go exploring and found that we were a five-minute walk from Acropolis which was also one of the stops on the Hop On Hop Off City Tours. I was sold when I was told it was $20, my mini was free, and it was good for two days. We hopped on and hopped off for the next two days only to find out that every place we visited was actually within a 15-20 minute walk and the city center is one big circle. It was fun seeing all the sites I had learned about in school about Greek gods and goddesses. I remember staying up late to watch Hercules and Athena: Princess Warrior. Interestingly enough, I am currently reading, “Stolen Legacy,” by George G. M. James. Our first day on the tour I thought back to what I was taught in elementary and high school world history and compared it to the current curriculum that is being taught in schools. One of the books my mini bought on her birthday is all about Olympians and lately she’s been showing a lot interest in religion. Being able to homeschool/world school her is allowing me to cater to her interest and I get to learn right alongside her.
After figuring out where everything was on foot we decided to do some exploring on her birthday. We had planned to visit the Children’s Museum only to find that it was closed on Mondays. So we took a stroll through the market. She made sure she told everyone it was her birthday. We went back to the place that I bought her birthday dress and the woman thought she was so adorable that she gave her two headpieces, one of the Nigerian vendors selling bracelets gave her one as a gift, and the best part, when we went to our ”spot,” because we’ve been eating at the same two restaurants, was when the staff brought her out a special treat and sang to her.
Although I have gotten into the idea that long term stays are better, I think spacing long and short-term stays may be better. It also depends on the location and the accommodations. The location here is great but there is only one window, it’s below ground, and it faces a concrete wall. I feel like I’m staying in a dungeon. I don’t know if it’s day or night. Out of the three beds, only one is comfortable, the stove doesn’t work, I have to turn on the hot water 15 minutes before I use it BUT there are some pluses, I have a kitchen and there’s a washing machine. However, eighteen days is too long because I’m ready to go. I’ll have to start checking for windows when I’m choosing our rooms and asking for screenshots from speedtest because the wifi connection here is iffy.
I am getting better at being a people person. The owner at the restaurant we’ve been going to for breakfast told me about which days are free to visit the museums and the server at the restaurant we’ve been going to for lunch gave us passes to the Acropolis Museum. We also met Sanche and spent the day in the market with him. We were eating ice cream and my mini was feeding her waffle cone to the pigeons and he asked me where the market was. I told him there were two different ways to get there and he asked if we would come with him. Usually, I’m apprehensive about strangers being around my baby but he told me he had ditched his tour group because everyone in it was married, old, and slow and I didn’t get any bad vibes from him.
So far, Greece has been good. The people are beyond kind. We even got free cookies. Cookies!! I love cookies. I’ve killed my budget because we’ve been eating out every day but I haven’t had to spend any money on transportation so it kind of balances out.
Next week we’ll be headed to South Africa and I’ll work on planning out the next three months. Even though I said I was getting better at booking flights, when we leave Saturday we’ll have a layover in Italy and Ethiopia. I couldn’t pass up the flight deal and the layovers are during the day so we can sleep on the plane.
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