On the 27th we transferred once again flying from Kiev to Athens, Greece then having a car take us three hours back to Kalamata, Greece where we visited last year. We had spent Friday just recuperating after four high energy expending days in Kiev. The purpose of our coming back to Kalamata has been to bring together a large chunk of the family. So the #2's were joining us on this with the #3's from Amsterdam to rendez-vous with us.
Alas, fate had other things in store for us. When we got to the airport, the #2's as they were ready to board the plane, were denied boarding. It turns out there is a quirk in the visa laws that requires those with diplomatic passports (the #2's) to have a physical visa even though normal passport holders can come in visa free (I truly don't understand this though I suppose there is some logic). To make matters worse, this is a long holiday week in Kiev so there was no way that #2 could go to the Greek Embassy to get the visa. So they were basically screwed.
They were devastated as were all of the rest of us. It is so hard for us to get together as a family. We know logically in a world of all things that can go wrong, this is pretty minor. But we're all pretty bummed nonetheless.
Well we are still happy to be with the #3's and at least we did get time with #2 in Istanbul and with the #2 family in Kiev.
And before we go on to pleasant stuff, a brief rant against the shitty behavior of yet another discount airline. This new member of our International Hall of Shame (which includes the defunct Monarch Airlines, JetStar Asia, and China Eastern Airlines) is Ukrainian International Airlines. Like a lot of discount airlines, they have extremely strict rules on luggage. I understand that. We didn't read the conditions carefully enough. I understand that. What I don't understand is purposely manipulating your system to put your customers in a position where they are forced to maximize the fees they pay.
It went like this - We checked in. The counter people see we have two carry on items. They tag both of them as okay to bring onboard. We go to the gate. As we are to board the plane, we are told we can only bring one of the carry on items on the plane pointing vigorously to our boarding pass information...unless we pay $75 additional per carry-on bag. Now if we had been told this at the check-in, we could have rearranged some of our stuff as we weight available in our checked luggage. But no, we were allowed to go down where we had no other options.
Today is Easter for the Greek Orthodox. This is actually
the third Easter we've had on our trip because of the differences in how things are calculated among different Christian Churches. I cooked up a nice pork stew (sadly the lamb, traditional for Greek Easter, was all sold out when the #3's went shopping) with classic Greek flavorings of lemon, garlic and olives. We went for a walk on the water front, found a bakery open and bought a bunch of cake and pastry for dessert later, had drinks at a cafe, ate our nice big Easter dinner, took naps, took the grandchildren to a free outdoor museum about trains, came home for our dessert and called it a day.
Pictures
We are in...
Familiar Street Scenes
Our Rental House
Not really. Actually an abandoned mansion
Obligatory Family Pictures
A message from 3.1
3A
Man of Mystery
#3
Considerably less mystery
3.1 and 3.2 at the cafe
Wife at the cafe
The grandchildren study diligently the Zen of Wife the Photographer
On to the Train Museum
"This be a train Grandpa"
Man of Mystery purloining the Train!
After Him!
More Trains
"Alas Poor Yorick. I knew him well"
Noooooo
Not Yorick!
Street Art
SIGNS OF THE WORLD
"No pulling of Humans in the Park"
