Day 16 -- A Lazy Day

Woke up at 5:40 to the sounds of chirping birds, cockadoodledooing roosters, bleating goats, and barking dogs or more accurately, woke at 5:40 because of the sounds of chirping birds, cockaddoodledooing roosters, bleating goats, and barking dogs. Ari woke up about 10 minutes later to the sound of... I told him he might as well come into the bedroom and go back to sleep on a real bed. I even offered to wake up with him for the day if he wanted me to. He climbed into the top bunk as I put in earplugs. The next thing I knew it was 7:50. Ari was in the living room playing with his tablet. We got dressed quickly and had a nice breakfast of eggs for me and a grilled ham and cheese for Ari.

The veranda where we ate breakfast

After breakfast we headed for the beach where Ari had a great time jumping in the waves until about one o'clock when we headed back for lunch with everyone, including the other guest family staying here (A children's book illustrator staying with her son).

At lunch I noticed something that I won't mention lest my wife take away my parenting license. As I sat talking to the adults after lunch Ari came running in because we had a Skype call from Andrea, Joshua, and Zachary. It was really nice to see their faces, even if the kids were too rambunctious to allow for a real conversation.

Ari with a view of Kalymnos in front of the house.

I forgot to mention one of the most interesting things from yesterday. Apparently, on Kalymnos it is customary, even though it's illegal, to celebrate with dynamite. Yesterday, we heard explosions echoing of the mountains. Yannis told us there that there had been the deaths and uncounted fingers lost over the last twenty years. Ari has suggested that we rent motorcycles. There are no helmet laws here. There's a reason I chose to put those seeming nonsequitors in a single paragraph.

Day 25 -- Off to London

After last night's festivities Ari and I both slept in until 9:00. Breakfast included yogurt with home made fog spoon fruit.

I packed while Ari played video games. When I was mostly finished Ari and I went to a local taverna so that I could keep my promise of one more Greek meal. We choose one that was close by and almost always empty. Wasn't the best tsatsiki and salad we'd had but it sufficed.

So once again told me how much he was going to miss Greece. I wonder if he will continue to learn Greek and really apply himself. I fear his desire to continue and matter it will soon be forgotten because children forget that which is not immediate.

We returned home, finished packing, printed boarding passes, and said goodbye to Sasha and Elina.  The family gifted Ari with a book of Aesop's fables in Greek that they think he will be able to read and understand in a year. Eleni gave me gifts for Andrea and a "dad of the year" certificate that she and Giannis signed to hang on my wall. Eleni and Ari talked about learning more Greek via Skype.

Eleni, Vasilis, and Irini drove us to the airport. They waited in the terminal with us until we boarded. We talked about Greek and English and the vacation. I once again invited Vasilis and Irini to visit us in Michigan to learn some English, though with what they have heard about Michigan mosquitoes they probably fear death by blood loss. Facebook posts from my wife about grey clouds of mosquitoes don't help much. Given the size of Kalymnos spiders I'm not sure who has it worse, us or them.

Giannis wanted to make it home from work early to see us off. He didn't make it in time but got to the airport on his motorcycle in time to join the family outside the fence around the runway  and wave to us as we boarded the plane. We could see them following the plane down the runway, on the road that runs parallel, from the airplane window as we took off.

We ate our third meal of the day in the Athens airport where we had three hours to kill. Sushi for Ari and curry chicken noodles for me. It was airport food. We ambled to the gate and sat in the deserted lounge. There were no lines anywhere which was both unexpected and incredibly pleasant. When the empty lounge failed to fill I looked at the screen and found guest they had changed our gate. We hustled over to the new gate and waited. At boarding time they announced a delay die to mechanical issues. More news in an hour they said. After the first hour, they announced more news in another hour. I kept running out to try to message Will, who was expecting us at his London flat because the internet at the airport was horrible and at the gate nonexistent.

Finally, when the second hour was over they announced that they were boarding immediately. We had our fourth meal of the day on the plane; it made me nostalgic for the airport food, though perhaps that was because I was less hungry.

We had an uneventful flight thereafter, followed by baggage claim and immigration. The officer was skeptical of my two night stay and asked a few questions. He snorted when I  told him we'd been in Greece foot a month. Repeated "A month?" in a gone dropping with disapproval and stamped our passports. I didn't stay to argue about whatever  assumptions her made about us.

By the time we arrived at Will's it was 12:30. Ari fell asleep on the floor.