My name is Thira.. and when in Thira.. don't be a D!^# !

The previous post in this series is here..

This is the last post on our Greece trip. 

After that all day bus tour and the last minute dinner plan change, the hangry family went to bed safe in the knowledge that we had a rest day of sorts. We had three back to back flights.. from Santorini to Athens on Agean Air with a 3 hour break then from Athens to Instanbul with a ~3 hour break and Instanbul to SFO! Almost a whole day of travel! So the plan was to stay in our Airbnb till 11:30 AM, leave our luggage with our host, then wander around the shops, have lunch, wander around some more, have dinner and be back at the Airbnb for the ride to the airport. 

We learned a lot of lessons that morning. The little one woke up with a migraine and didn't even want to get out of bed. I also got hit with a migraine and light sensitivity although at a much lower level. The clouds had moved in the previous night and the outside temperature and pressure had changed. Our sinuses were struggling. It had rained but the rain had stopped and the sun was in and out. We frantically called our host and told her the situation. She told us to go out and leave the little one in the Airbnb and come back at 11:30 and she will see what she can do. 

So the three of us wandered off through the one street and took some pictures.

The two donkeys!

We walked to the top of the hill past the shops and walked through a few art galleries. The art was fantastic. So was the price tag. One piece of art that could have funded 4 such trips for the four of us. The lady asked are you American and once we said yes, she said "we can ship to you, no problem".. the shipping cost made me smile, relative to the cost of the artwork. We admired the art and walked around some more and also saw a nice Church!

One interesting thing we observed was the hanging dicks and a blue eye looking stone in every store. We did not understand why and the meaning behind that.. one lady in broken English said "it is a good luck charm to hang outside your door!".. We figured hanging that eye would be a good idea instead of the dick and went with that!

When we came back to the Airbnb, our host said "it is okay, take a few more hours and leave the room as is" 

So we checked on the little one and then had lunch at what seemed to be a hookah place called "Bohemia, the Journey". They had Cheese pizza that was decent and some other vegetarian dishes. We all ate a decent meal there . There was a cannabis shop right close to it, so we went and sat inside. It was nice and breezy. 

Having seen dicks hanging everywhere all morning, it took me a second look at the pasties in our new favorite pastry shop( Svornos Bakery).. we got some for an early afternoon snack.

When we came back, all of us decided to sleep. Our host said we are good till 7PM as her other clients had not showed up yet. Apparently there were flight issues because of the storm in the Agean sea. That should have warned us, but nope! Given our situation, we were just happy that there were beds to sleep in. 

After a nap, it was decided that the best thing for the stomach before a long day of flying was desi food.. Rice and yoghurt had to get involved. We were told that the best Desi food in the island was almost a 2 mile walk away called the Jaipur Palace. 

We started walking there (thanks to Google Maps for once) and were not disappointed. A guy who had come there to study in Greece, decided to open an Indian place on this island instead with his wife five years ago. The food was good. The service was good. There were only three sets of customers as we were early. 

We ate to our hearts content and walked back and waited for the car. Said bye to our host, who will always be fondly remembered. Good people come in your life in tough moments. Fotini is "good people!".

Was saying bye on the way to the airport and it all clicked.. Whenever you call the island "Santorini" the locals give you a look. Santorini is the name the Italian occupiers of the island gave it. Thira is what the Greeks call it. Apparently the blue and white for all buildings was started as a way to show solidarity to Greece instead of the Italians a long time back and eventually the island got back its Greekness and now it is mandatory to paint in blue and white. 

Everytime you call it Santorini, you hurt a local's feelings! So here is a tip. When on the island, call it Thira !!!

A short video of our bye to Thira..

We made it to the airport and were in for a rude shock. There were 600 people waiting in the gate area. Apparently none of the incoming "rinky dink" flights made it to the island from other islands or mostly Athens because of the storm. 

There was no updates at all on when and if at all we would take off. Given this small 40 minute flight was on Agean Air, if we missed our flight at Athens, we would lose money on all four tickets for those two legs and would be stranded here or in Athens. Had to be at work, right after coming back. Fired up my work phone and sent a message that we might not make it back as planned. Then we just sat there for 6 hours. Finally a flight showed up and we left to Athens. It was the four of us, a family of three from Chicago who had come to attend a wedding on the island and two Greek folks from Athens. That was it on the plane. 

We landed in Athens to see waht our fate would be and saw that our outgoing flight also was delayed by an hour. Ran to the other gate and made it. It was 4AM and we were exhausted and we had long ways to go. 

Slept through most of the remaining flights to the best of our ability and made it back. Literally dropped the bags at home and drove to work. It was a never ending day!

The lesson we learned (not well enough) was to not book the last flight or one of the last flights out of small places with small planes. Another lesson was to always have accomodation covered for the entire day when we leave, so we don't have to be homeless between check out time and flight time. Third and not least, after three days in any international place, find a desi restaurant or make sure you can have rice and yoghurt ready!

These lessons after the most recent trip have been codified into our family law. 

Now that the whole Greece trip blog series is complete, will try to close out the other few things that happened between September and December.. so I can start writing about our trip to Iguazu falls, while my memory is still fresh!

Until then..

An evening in Athens

The previous post in this series is here..

After that Viator tour of the Acropolis followed by a late lunch and a nap, the family informed me that we were going to a very nice place for dinner.. it was a 30 minute walk from our Airbnb towards the old city square. They were all nicely dressed too. I had not recevied the memo! My options in that place were going to be limited. So I coaxed San to go with me to Babaji, the Desi place that had been closed earlier at lunch time.. by saying "you will get good Chai there!". Once in the place, I decided to order a Tandoori roti, dal, rice and yogurt.. and gobbled it up as fast as I could.. the rest of the family was not pleased..but a man with allergies has to take care of himself in such situations! Definitely recommend this place.. Everything I ate was just mouth watering!

We walked to the place (Taverna Klimataria), only to find that it was fully booked for a party. There was live music going on inside as well.

The kids were really disappointed. We decided to quickly find an alternate place to eat. Vegetarian food was not easy to find. However as we walked past the old square there were a few middle eastern guys waving us into a restaurant saying "you vegetarian? we have vegetarian!". Guess we were not the first desis with that hangry look walking past the place!

The food options were limited but we made the most of it! Once something is in the tummy, the family spirits were higher. The food was actually good and we walked around, had some Gelato (Buffalo milk ice cream!) with other snacks, visited an old small Church in the middle of the square and finally walked back to the Airbnb.

A very short video clip! The market and restaurants and walkways are lit beautifully and the old buildings give this a very nice vibe!

Then there was the bitter realization for the kids.. (had saved the screen to remind myself of their protest and yelling)

Promises were made that this would be the last time ever that an alarm was being set for such ungodly hours (their words, not ours). At the time of writing this blog, that promise is already known to be broken on our most recent trip as we had to catch yet another first flight out.. 

We were on the first flight out to Santorini the next morning.. it was goodbye to Athens!

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

A nice Indian festival to celebrate Ganesha falls on a working day.. a Monday!

Between jugging a car that has to be serviced and work and doing a pooja, Ganesha, the lord of removing obstacles, removed them all one after another. 

San made limited edition (read limited quantity) of Kozhukkattai samples and vadai and they were (it is already in the past tense) amazing. 

Usually I send selfies to my mom after any Indian festival. This time, posting it in the blog.. because as you can all tell, there is not much hair left.

Between last year and this year, hair loss has been exponential. Folks who have not seen me post anything in months should not be surprised...

Both photos clicked by San.. last year I looked up.. this year didn't even know she was taking a picture. Was just trying to finish the pooja in time so the kids are not hungry. It was good to have both kids home this time to eat dumplings! 

Wishing you all a wonderful {Ganesh, Vinayakar, Pillaiyaar} Chaturthi from all of us here! 

The northernmost Indian restaurant - Hari Om

The previous post in this travel series is here..

While drinking the hot cocoa provided by Frozen Tony and waiting for the one taxi guy who was actually willing to take us back to Fairbanks, San and me both said this at the same time "Wish we could have some hot tea and samosas right now!"

We had already checked out Indian restaurants in the area earlier in the day.. Hari Om was the one with the best rating. So we asked our taxi to drive us to the restaurant. Given it was closer to the hotel we were hoping to get a taxi after dinner to take us to the hotel.. we were going to cross that bridge.. after some chai and dinner.

This restaurant was small, cozy, and the ambience, service and food were just amazing! I was naive enough to ask the owner "how do you get fresh corriander leaves in this weather ?" and his response was "this is America man. I can get anything here! not an issue". Then he went on to talk about how he gets to see the Northern lights from his bedroom window all the time and how the cold is something you get used to etc.. 

My mind was still elsewhere.. reliving my snowmobile experience. The food was just mouth watering. If you ever go to Fairbanks, don't miss this place. The dal tadka here was better than any I have had in a bay area restaurant. San thinks I rate desi restaurants better when the outside weather is too cold..like when we went to Banff! Maybe desi food tastes better when you walk into a restaurant after freezing your ass off. Maybe..

Do check it out if you hit Fairbanks. We did manage to get a taxi after dinner and Chai!

Pretty much covered everything we did in Alaska. There were not many things to do over a weekend and we did as much as we could given the time. Best part was we made it back to bay area and did not fall sick with a cold or flu or covid! After that Banff experience we were worried about that! Got lucky this time!

We have successfully seen the Northern lights, snowmobiled towards a gorgeous sunset and have had a nice dinner in a desi restaurant, no matter where we go!

Now for more regular bay area happenings..

Food to spice up your memories!

The previous post in this series is here..

If you are in Banff and feel like having great food, just hit Indian Curry house. I am not saying it because it is a desi place. It is just great food, period!

We were lucky to try this place out on day 1. It is not on the ground floor with a view of the restaurant from teh street. This is on the top floor of the main storefront with shops. We did not know what to make of the staircase we had to climb between two souvenir shops to get there at first.

Ok, the bear is a distraction for this post.. but it happened to be right at the entrance.. Banff seems to have these bears for kids to take pictures with at every popular spot. Every visitor center has one of these.

We were welcomed with a smile even though there were lots of groups waiting. We were lucky it was only the two of us. So "Table for two" was easy. We took a corner spot.

The view from the windows with the snow covered peaks was something! We had literally just reached Baff from Calgary and we were still getting used to the fact that all places in Banff have amazing views! 

The service was nice. We asked for some hot masala Chai asap as we did not know how long it would take for the food to show up. The guy asked us if we want extra ginger in it. Our first thought was "are you guys for real? please.. thanks for asking!". The Chai did not disappoint after that long flight and drive!

The food came reasonably fast.. the best part was the taste. I think this is the happiest photo of me in the trip.. 

The butter naan and paneer butter masala are the best I have tasted in the last 5 years. Truly mouth watering. They got the smoky flavor in the butter paneer just right!  Given this is a favorite dish by which I measure places by, this restaurant is somewhere up there in my ranking!

We loved this place. San usually wants to try out different cuisines in new places.. if the food was not this great, we would have switched to Italian, Mexican, Thai, Chinese, etc. over next few days..probably in that very order.. But given she loved the chaat, on day 2 after we came back from a long journey, we just stopped right here. This time we tried daal and butter rotis and rice and a lot more chai. We even took some parathas to go for the next mornings hike as we had a 4:30 AM start. That was amazing as well.

We wanted to ask about the owner after we had the food and he came and talked to us. He has been doing this for 12 years. Turns out the owner is a south Indian guy by the name of Vivek. We had a nice chat with this guy and he gave us some tips on other places to see on the last day out on the way out of Banff and his entire staff was very nice! 

We never thought we would find a place like this in Banff with amazing desi food. San thinks I was pampered on this trip in every way, and she is right!

The best thing I have to thank her for on this trip is finding this place! I am still drooling thinking of that paneer butter masala..

Next time we visit Banff, know where I am headed, right after checking into the hotel!

Strongly recommend this place! 

ps. If you are a group of 8+, don't extrapolate the time based on our experience. Larger groups were waiting outside to be seated for 30 mins. If you are group of 4 or less, you can get in and out pretty fast!

pps. if you have food allergies, you can tell the folks here and they accomodate. Another big plus, at least for me!