Yia Sas, Ciao, and Au Revoir!

After 4 weeks of travelling both Lindsay and I feel like going home.

We have enjoyed our time away, but there is definitely something nice about sleeping in your own bed, not having to take public transportation, and being around friends and family.  So, with eager anticipation, we were up early, and out the door by 8am, catching metros and trains to Charles de Gaulle Airport, for our 11am flight back to Toronto.

It was all pretty smooth sailing, with a connecting flight in Toronto and Vancouver, as we were on Air Canada for all 3 legs of the flight, and there was only 2 hour waits at both Pearson and Vancouver Airports.   However, when we arrived in PG around 8:30pm we were ready for bed, even though we had been "resting" on the plane.

The only hiccup we faced is that somewhere along the way, during our return flight from Paris, we lost Lindsay's money belt which contained all her cards, minus her passport.  So, now that we're back in town we'll have to take care of that and hope she isn't a victim of identity fraud, but we'll do what we can and pray for the best.

Such a great trip, and until next time, yia sas, ciao, and au revoir.

On Top of the World

It seems as though we never get to sleep in with all that we have planned, but at least we are enjoying everything!

We woke up around 7 and went out for breakfast.  On our way, we stopped in at a tour company, www.VisitMeteora.travel, and booked a Sunset Tour for the night, running from 5-9pm.  For breakfast we stopped at a small bakery just down the road from our hotel, Rooms Totti Sisters, and grabbed a couple Greek pastries and iced coffees.  Funny enough, at the bakery we went to, the lady who owns it demonstrated really good English, and when she asked where we were from we said Canada, and she said she lived there for 15 years, in British Columbia.  We told her we lived there too, in a small town called Prince George, and she was quite excited because she actually lived in PG for the 15 years she was there!  She lived right near Alward and 10th, so it was fun to chat with her.

We then went back to the hotel, packed up, and took the car up to Meteora and the first monastery.  There are 6 monasteries now, (there used to be 24) and all of them are active and in use.  They are beautifully situated on cliffs, with long stairwells carved into the mountains, although those were only recently added; until about 90 years ago you had to be pulled up by a pulley system, which is still in use to bring up supplies.

The hike to these monasteries was often a lot of steps, some of them as many as 300 steps, going down a valley, and up the other side, and of course these were very steep walks, and very tiring.  Also, as they are functioning monasteries, woman have to wear long skirts, and men long pants, so both Lindsay and I were cooling off in the AC'd car after each one, trying to prepare ourselves for the next.

We actually only made it to 4 of the monasteries - 1 of the six was closed, and 1 we ran out of time for.  We started the day a little later than we wanted to, and as we wanted to rest and write our blog before our sunset tour, we didn't make it to the last one.  Each one was beautiful in their own right, and there was some amazing history on display.  Along the road connecting the monasteries, (it is about 16km to hit all 6 of them) we stopped to grab a couple photos, showing how it looks and feels like the top of the world.

We are just about to head out on our sunset tour, so hopefully we will have a few more great photos later!

...and GO!

So, this photo isn't great, but neither is sitting in the Prince George Airport at 4:45am, with an empty stomach because Tim Horton's wasn't open at 4:30...

Anyways, the reason we're sitting in the airport IS a great thing, which is that we are on our way to Greece for 4 weeks!  We had a hectic day yesterday trying to prepare for everything, but we did it...mind you I didn't get to bed until midnight, but that is OK...I have plenty of time over the next 18 hours of flying and layovers to catch up.

Bella has been dropped off at Stofer Dog Adventure Camp, which we know she is looking forward to.  She has a few friends out at the lake which will keep her pre-occupied and not focused on us being gone for 4 weeks, so we are thankful for that.  We highly recommend the service at Stofer's, so if you need someone to care for your pet for an extended periods of time give Mark and Carol a call and ask for the son-in-law special; it includes free pickup of your dog and complementary bathing in the event your pet rolls in something dead or smelly.