Old city charm and an odd Obelisk

The previous post in this series on our travel in Buenos Aires is here..

For some reason, I decided to use iPhone photos for the most part, that too without any processing and my FIL promptly told me that my photos are usually a visual treat and my standards are going down.

Given few people still read this blog, decided to use nicely cropped, edited photos for this post. It is still mostly iPhone photos. Hope it gets the bar back up again..even if slightly..

After the cemetery visit, we drove to La Boca, which is not an upscale neighborhood but is one of the oldest places in Buenos Aires that was populated, mainly by waves of immigrants. There is an old world charm in this place that is very unique! Parts of it, the walls, the doors and windows reminded me of walking around old neighborhoods in Mylapore. In fact one of the steets brougt back memories of TSV Kovil street. My brain does a number on me when in new places and connects random things. So walked around in a daze absorbing the sights, sounds and smells.

one of my favorite shots on this trip!

Caminito was interesting.. with the center piece being an ice cream shop. There was a long line so we skipped the ice cream. We were also on the clock for the private tour. 

this photo courtesy of our tour guide who was trying to direct folks to be out of the shot.. he did a great job!

Then we moved on to San Telmo area and the market. The entire place was full of antique shops. Old books, LP's, cameras that went extinct, Simpson's bobble head dolls, crazy stuff that used to be in the last bottom row in Navarathri golus when I was a small boy.. it was amazing!

we went into a lane that had these umbrellas.. it had more of a French vibe to it than the Spanish vibe we expected.. the place started getting crowded, given there were offices there.. we managed to take a few photos 

Once the crowd saw what I was doing with the next shot, everyone was trying to copy it.. was telling the family that I take it as a compliment and am not the least bit offended.

After the family decided to eat some empanadas at one of San Telmo's hottest places, we made a move to see the Obelisk and what is dubbed the Times Square of Buenos Aires.

There was no parking, so our guide stopped the car on the road side and said "10 minutes is all I can wait if you want to run across and take pictures".. and we did manage to do that and get back, jump in the car and go back to our hotel area. 

this whole obelisk thing was weird. It was in the middle of the busiest part of the city and the barricades and barriers around it made it less appealing. There were too many walking signals around and the pedestrian and car traffic was a disaster waiting to happen. Also there is no way to get a decent shot of us and the Obelisk given the short distance in front of it. The locals seemed to be very happy with the monument.. we were all wondering how it fit with the rest of the area.. it stuck out like a sore obelisk!

the kids never share their pics with me.. and I am definitely not allowed in their social media circle.. but I do have these type of memories.. watching them grow into confident young women!

we stopped at a few more places to take photos of monuments (our time was up and I made a request.. so it was nice of our guide to do this!) 

we even stopped by the area where all the big hotels are.. the lobby decorations in Buenos Aires are interesting..

We thanked our guide who was a really nice person and ate leftovers from what we had packed for lunch at the hotel. Had to finish the food anyways as we were to check out. We had two hours to spend before our ride to the airport. San and the little one stayed in the hotel restaurant after checking out.  Jr. and myself decided to go back to the waterfront to get a taste of the famous Luciano's ice cream. It was a 40 minute walk one way but we made it, had ice cream and got back in time to catch our ride to the airport... only after coming back to the US did we realize that this ice cream is from California but has become very popular in Buenos Aires!! 

the dulce de leche here is apparently a hit.. so we had to get a taste of it. It was yummmmmmmmmyyy!

we walked past the boats (which were museums .. didn't realize it the previous evening!)

We made it in time for our flight.. but it was late. So we ended up in the crowded airport for an extra two painful hours before finally boarding for Porto Iguazu..

A video for the last part of the city tour. We covered a lot of places in 4 and a half hours! 

Would definitely recommend this private guided tour of Buenos Aires through Viator. Our guide was Martin and he was a really sincere guide! Not sure if you can ask for him through Viator tours. . . 

We said bye to Buenos Aires as there was not going to be any more walking around the city.. we had no idea.. 

The whole trip was all about Iguazu falls. Have way too many photos and videos to process from the next day of the trip. The next post on this series will have to wait..

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..

Santorini bus tour in parts - Pyrgos monastery, a kitten and Kamari beach

The previous post on this series is here..

After our lunch, ocean fun and ice cream at Perissa, we were back in the bus climbing to the top of the hill on this side of Santorini to go to the Monastery.. a few hundred years old, this place had reclusive monks who did not want to contact outside world for some time. They even buried their dead inside is what our guide told us.

 They did open up and have a store near the outside chapel eventually. The whole place was interesting and quiet. Then it got pretty windy and we were told not to have high hopes for later in the evening, given rain clouds were rolling in. 

We saw everyone go kiss the same objects and pictures.. couldn't have been good during COVID times! The small chapel was really beautiful. 

While we were being told that, a kitten walked out of nowhere and decided to sit on my lap. I love animals. They seem to love me too.. however god has played a cruel trick. I am almost allergic to all cats. Initially the family panicked. They did not want me sick before the last stop. A few people tried to lure it away, but no! The kitten just sat on my lap for a good 10 minutes. Finally the little one grabbed it and placed it on the floor and we had to leave. Apparently six kittens were just born a few weeks back in the Monastery. This was one of those six. Did have watery eyes for a few minutes later in the night, but didn't get sick as everyone expected. 

We got amazing views of the Perissa beach from the Monastery.

The little one was still mesmerized by the cat...

Then we drove down to Kamari beach area. Guess this tour has a tie up with some wine makers in Santorini. So we stopped at a rest area near the black beach, and were offered three wines or Cherry juice. Skipped it and ate the crackers. For some strange reason we were hungry. We walked to the beach across the street and took pictures. This beach was full of pebbles but there were no people on this side as far as the eye could see! There were pistachio trees here other than olive trees in this area.. that was a change!

Caught the little one in one of her moments..

We did get to see a real donkey on the way to this place..Apparently there was a time when every house had a donkey to haul things up and down the hillsides of this island !!

A video clip of this leg of the bus tour! 

After this short break, we were off to to go up and around all the way to Oia.. the last stop and grand finale for the tour!