Days 4 - 5: Santorini!

Our journey to Santorini began with a 40 min cab ride back to the airport, through dry skies of course, as we were leaving...haha. We grabbed two Meal Deals from the airport BK and paid only $35 for them. Gotta love American fast food abroad at airports...the prices are double the norm and it's pretty crazy folks are willing to pay that. We caught a 1-hr Turkish Air flight from Istanbul to Athens, then during our layover, quickly located the bag storage so we could leave all our Turkish gifts and not lug them to Santorini. We had a 3.5 hr wait until we neede to catch a shuttle bus to the runway to board our flight to Santorini (note: anytime you have to catch a shuttle bus to the runway, it's because you are likely flying a budget airline, or are at a very overcrowded airport). Our tiny little propellar flight was only about 2/3 full, which allowed us to spread out a bit for our short, scenic flight over a few Greek Isles (mostly brown, barren, dirt-covered). Pretty nevertheless, but I think the oft lush Hawaiian Isles might have them beat. ;-)

We landed at the tiniest airport ever (made the one in Kona seem like a massive international airport), and quickly made our way over to pick up our rental car.  I was a little nervous about our next hotel, as it was a bit more remote away from Fira/Oia (the main tourist hubs) in Megalachurri. 

The hotel was perched quite precariously on a steep hillside, overlooking the caldera and sea, and capitalized on the architecture style back in the day (carved out limestone cave dwellings to beat the summer heat). To get to each room involved little winding bridges and paths...which meant each room felt fairly private. 

This was the pathway to our room...

And this was the view from our balcony...

This was the pool view (too chilly for swimming for these Hawaiians), but very pretty

Our room went back deep! It was one of the larger rooms I've ever stayed in...with a full sitting area, a hot tub and the shower 

We were tired from a long day of travel, and opted to order in dinner crash early instead of a late afternoon visit to Thira/Fira. But the next AM, we were up bright and early to have breakfast overlooking the caldera, and the drive the 4-5 min over to Thira/Fira.

We eventually found the main walkway through the tiny village (smaller than expected, and much more zig zagging/confusing to navigate as nearly every small path led to a small little rental). Many of the businesses had closed for the season (which we expected and appreciated, as we hate crowds), so we had largely uncrowded strolls in every direction.

Although the meandering was not easy (hilly, stairs, unmarked, locked gates), you couldn't really get lost with the mountain and the sea to help you get your bearings.

We saw olive trees growing all over the place...pretty cool!

We eventually drove the winding 6-7 miles down to Oia, which was a smaller area to wander, but equally scenic.

I regret that we didn't wander down further to the pier area, but it wasn't very easy to navigate the winding pathways and we sometimes didn't veer much off the beaten path.

Days 1 - 3: Istanbul, Turkey Thunderstorms

[Warning: This was not the trip where things went terribly well. In fact, it felt like the trip where many things went terribly awry. So there will be more complaining/whining than normal, but it was STILL a good trip (rarely is a trip ALL bad).]

Two weeks prior to our departure, we faithfully stood in line to get our COVID and flu vaccinations, so that we'd be as protected as possible before hopping on long flights. Our journey to Istanbul was not short- Kona to LA, 5 hours (stayed overnight), LA to Istanbul (13 1/2 hours?), so we still masked up to avoid getting sick. Rich and I moreso than our teen, who wore a flimsy mask that would come back to bite us in the buns later in the trip.

The night in LA went well, but the flight to Istabul was brutal for SOME of us. Rich found himself in a bulkhead row, aisle seat...with extra leg room. Somehow, Ryan and I were sandwiched between a family of two toddlers, who made our flight hell. Both screamed/cried relentlessly, I was asked to stand up somewhere in the neighborhood of ten times to let them out to use the bathroom, yet they refused to switch seats. It was...bizarre. Instead, kids were handed over and across Ryan and I for 13 hours. It was maddening. :-(

We landed at the beautiful and massive Istanbul airport, in perfect fall/winter weather. However, on our cab ride to the hotel, we were informed that it would rain overnight, and it would not stop for 48 hours...the duration of our stay.

We stayed at the Hilton or the Hyatt, I honestly can't remember which...and it was lovely. Always unnerving when you have to go through security like an airport to get into the lobby, but we're not in Kansas anymore! We were offered umbrellas for the next day, but were told that we could only borrow three...even though we had a room booked for three adults. :-( For the prices they charged, it felt bizarre to be stingy in issuing out umbrellas...thankfully, we had cheap plastic ponchos that would help our third person...

The massive bathroom was the size of most Asian hotel rooms. 

After a typical 4-hr night sleep (you're never quite able to get good sleep on these trips to the other side of the world), we awoke to gray skies, high winds, and a torrential downpour. There were rivers of water running down the streets that we could not dodge, and ended up slogging right through them after awhile. Even with umbrellas, with the wind and rain blowing horizontally, we were drenched within minutes. We caught the subway into town/Sultanhamet, and set off in search of the two main attractions- the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia (another mosque, and a personal favorite of mine).

You can't walk 50 yards in Sultanhamet without seeing spices or lokum...which we LOVE. It looks sweet, but it's not, and it's delicious and difficult to pass by as everyone profers samples hoping you'll buy more.

We beelined for the Blue Mosque, and stood in a 45-60 min long line in high wind, and torrential freezing rain. 

But of course, the beauty within was mind blowing and stunning, and well worth any wait. 

Our next stop was the Hagia Sofia, and this line was even longer. By this point, I was SO cold I could barely feel my legs, and had to embarrasingly run in place to not freeze to death. We had Ryan sit under a building nearby while we waited in line so he wouldn't feel as miserable as we did...

But again, once inside, you sort of forget that your socks were completely drenched, and toes frozen...and you just take in the grandness of it all. So much of the paint seemed to have fallen off the ceiling/walls when we were last there just 15 years ago. In fact, I was last in the building while about 4 months pregnant with Ryan. So it was his second time there, but first time out of the womb. He says he didn't remember much.

Once we got the mosque visits completed (the top priorities of the day), we hightailed it up to the Grand Bazaar so Ryan could experience the tunnels of endless shops. I'm always fascinated by the carpets, teas, lamps, dishes, lokum...Ryan was much less enthralled. I forgot that kids are more into malls than teas, I guess...haha. But we samples and bought our weight in teas/lokum!

I did not bring back any dishes from Turkey this time. I already have a few, we were cold/wet, they aren't cheap...it wasn't really a day where we wanted to be out haggling.

Instead, we walked to find the theatre we'd bought tickets to see a whirling dervish performance at, as we were hoping they would change them...Rich had erroneously purchased the wrong date, and at $112 for 3 tickets, it would have been a terrible waste.

Luckily, they were willing to help us and Rich was relieved he didn't waste our money on a show we wouldn't have been in the country to see!

We took a cab that night to go back and see it, and it was very different than the show I'd seen 15 years prior. This one was touted as very authentic (no silly Hollywood lighting effects, loud blaring music), and focused on ceremony/tradition. No photos or video or applause were allowed. Let's just say it was a very somber hour-long affair...and one that had nearly three Hawaiians fall asleep at since they'd been up since 2am Turkish time. Still, Ryan got to see how long/intensely they twirled around with seemingly no imbalance/nausea. Fascinating.

The next day was a very exciting one for me, as we'd carefully researched a dozen Turkish hammams for a place that would offer both the scrub/soak followed by a full massage, in a traditional (non-Western focused spa) bathhouse.  It was a splurge, but it was to make up for the fact that I had tried and failed on numerous prior occasions to experience a Turkish spa/bathhouse.

 

We had the first reservation of the day, and got there right on time despite battling serious wind/rain (at one point, our umbrellas nearly broke and flipped inside out). We were escorted very unceremoniously into the historic building, which was definitely historic all right. It was pretty, but older, and a tad 'rough' around the edges. Still...very cool, I could see three floors of rooms (it looked a lot like a prison to be honest), and I was so excited as we waited to get called...even though we were the only ones in the room. 

We were served tea about 20 min after being seated, and were starting to get confused, as we had a reservation, and all the staff seemed to be there going about their day, but largely ignoring us.

Eventually, they made their way over to us, about 45 min AFTER our appointment time, and told us their credit card machine was broken...so we'd have to go find an ATM to get cash to pay. In the wind and rain. 45 min behind schedule. No apologies. No acknowledgement of the delay. 

I was pretty over it at this point, and said 'thanks but no thanks,' and called it a day. :-( I was so disappointed and upset about the situation, but it didn't feel right at that point, and I wanted to just cut my losses. Any business that keeps you waiting that long without acknowledgement, isn't going to provide a service that is amazing. Although the initial charm/appeal was that this was a place where mostly only locals frequented, we now know why. :-(

We tried to glumly rally with a nice warm Turkish meal...and headed back up to Sultanhamet in search of gifts.

Since the Grand Bazaar was closed that day, we tried to find a dry place to land and find gifts to bring home. It was just too miserable walking around in the wind/rain, but rather than abort and go back to our room early, we figured we'd try a mall. Ryan was thrilled to ditch the parentals for a few hours and go shopping while we got gifts. For country bumpkins like us, a mall is still an exciting place to be.

That night, we journaled about our mostly not-so-pleasant two days of visiting Istanbul during a winter storm...and went to bed early before our flight the next AM. It had been a rough start to the trip- the screaming terrible kids on the 13 1/2 hr flight, the nonstop freezing cold/wind/rain, the scare of the wrong whirling dervish ticket purchase, the cancelled hammam excursion...

So of course, when we awoke the next day at 2am (it was our routine for awhile), we should have not been surprised when Ryan said he felt feverish and achy. I felt his forehead and he was very warm. We COVID tested him, but it was negative, so assumed it was a virus/flu. 

He mostly passed out while waiting to catch out 8:30am flight to Athens, which was FULL. I enjoyed lokum while waiting, because when in Istanbul, right?