Few of you who have taken time out from their busy schedule of internet surfing and read my previous blogs must have guessed by now and if not ,let me recapitulate. My wife is the most fun loving , adventurous and out-going person,one would come across.
With a less hectic schedule after recent change of jobs, she was not busy decorating the house,learning new recipes to please me but was painstakingly (for me) and joyously (for her ) charting out a plan to do Europe tour. Everyday she tried bouncing ideas with me and I, like the wall of the racket ball court, bounced it back to her.
In one of her previous births ,she might have been sister of Marco Polo or Christopher Columbus.Back then, they would not allow women to go on expeditions and she must have suffered from sibling rivalry .As a result for those previous birth longings she was on the path of going for world tour.
The other times she expects me to do all the booking and planning, but this time either she was too excited. She did all the arrangements, booking tickets , hotels,trips, ferries everything. The thought of leaving the comfort of my ergonomic chair and my mac book and that too for 10 days, made me turn to different tactics to stall the plan. I feigned my busy work schedule .’’there are some deadlines to meet this month’’,I said.To which she replied nonchalantly ,’’ we are going only for a few days , you can come back and work. It is not like you guys are saving lives’’.
I tried to make her feel guilty on the monetary loss we might incur,. ‘’Trip will cost some money’’,I said as I looked at my bank statement.
‘’Don't worry I will not buy anything and live frugally for a month after we come back,she said reassuringly by placing her hand over mine and then logged out of the Bank of America website. I used the last means at my disposal. I tired bribing her, with things we could do over the long weekend. All my covert operations were flushed down the drain and we were on our way to Greece and Germany.
After 15 hr long journey divided in two flights we reached Athens.’’Our first day of sightseeing will get started in precisely 15 min ,’’she said as we opened the door of the hotel room. ‘’You have 10 min to brush and get dressed ‘’she said looking at the clock on the night table. As the hot water poured on me the aches and pains from the journey were just starting to melt away when she bellowed ,’’It is eleven minutes since you went in , we are not here to spend time in the hotel. Come out soon,’’.
We walked out of the hotel towards the Acropolis which we were told is walking distance. On our way was Plaka,it is a famous pedestrian street, full of tourists. Shops on either side of the street,eateries,ethnic Greek jewellery,Greek plates ,and more such stuff which was all Greek and Latin to me. Forgetting me ,was not something which could never happen,but she also forget her schedule of sightseeing and the Parthenon and started going to every shop. When I say every shop, I mean every shop.Some how we reached the end of the street and were on our way .At the ticket counter for the Acropolis the lady pointed towards the top of a flat topped rock and told the way to reach there.It was a climb on the Acropolis to reach the top. Scorching sun,80 F,no cool winds, and a steep climb- not my ideal way of holidaying.I remembered my thousand dollar ticket to Greece and kept climbing up.I want to say reaching the top and seeing the Parthenon, was a sight for sore eyes ,but unfortunately I am not a connoisseur of history or architecture and all it felt to me was limestones kept over each other and some semblance to a building which was once there. All around tourist were going gaga over it and so was my wife.There was a rope all around the monument so no one could get close and touch it .It just occurred to me that on one of the by-lanes of Purani Dilli there is a old broken down ,long forgotten Haveli.I thought ,that was much more majestic looking then the one in front of me ,and it wouldn't have cost money to see it. The Haveli, most definitely would have had a interesting history to match up to the history of Parthenon which was built in honor of Goddess Athena.
Felt like Athens was New Delhi albeit much more cleaner and organized ,and the monuments Old Delhi. Once done with Athens, we were on our way to Santorini Island. The schedule was ready for the next visit. We would reach at 12 am in the night, will be getting up at 6am next morning to enjoy the hotel view and at 10 am sharp a bus will be ready to take us to the Port. From there we will be going to see a Volcano and hot springs and the later to see sunset at ‘’Oia’’.This was conveyed to me on the way to Santorini and also a leverage was given to me by her ,’’if you want you can sleep till 6.30a.m’’
.’’What about till 7,?’’ I tried to extract more.
‘’Don't you want to see the beauty of this place,we will go for a walk after breakfast.So 6.30 a.m seems fair’’,she said trying hard to discover the beauty even in the darkness as we landed at the port at 12 am.There was no other option except to forgo my beauty sleep.
Full of excitement of reaching Santorini, the place of her dreams I think she did not sleep at all that night and her tossing and turning and going out to the balcony of the hotel room and singing Hindi songs on seeing the full moon did not allow me to also get a wink. The place was amazing with the blue water and sky and the church domes painted blue too. Quaint and colorful town on the edge of mountains ,meandering street all made it a place to visit, but not something for my sleep to get so terribly ruined.
Bus and a wooden boat ride and we were dropped at the foot a mountain with black rocks. To see the mouth of the dormant volcano we had to climb again the cliff. I don't have enough words to describe the painful journey which was interspersed by the guides speech on the abundance of nature resources and how all of them were getting wasted.How the only source of income in the parts in tourism. My sympathies for him were hindered by his speech which was making the climb longer in the hot sun.
On top of the dormant volcano ,the guide dug a small hole in the mud and told us to put the hand in front of the mouth of the hole.’’You can feel the hot air coming from the volcano which is dormant and the sulphur gas will have a smell of eggs gone bad’’,he said as he asked all of us to touch the mud in his hand which was hot. Everyone started putting their hands to get the feel of the hot sulphur gas. ‘’Don't you want to feel it ‘’?she asked me as I showed no intentions of doing the same. It was not as if I was missing a lifetime opportunity of touching some precious stones.As far as I was concerned maybe someone was burning coal in a room below and the hot air was a remnant of that and not of the Volcano. Done with the present adventure and back to the wooden boat we were on our way to the Hot Springs. The water apparently was warmer than the rest of sea due to the Volcano. In between we did go to a small restaurant on the port which was serving grilled chicken, beef and octopus. The food was different and good in taste ,so far my only good experience.
Just as the boat was reaching the hot springs,the guide announced,’’we are forty feet away from the hot spring.As people are swimming there we cant go to the exact spot .From here one has to swim to the hot spring.’’ Darn,I was so looking forward to it and here too will have to do a laborious task of swimming to reach there.’’I thought as I started seeing all the co passengers ready to jump in the water. The first person to jump was a white teenager girl,maybe from US. As she jumped she shrieked’’ water is too cold’’.’’ Don't worry the hot springs will make you feel so much better’’, the other passengers comforted her.
There was a line next to the ladder to climb down to the cold,not so clean water and in that was my dear wife. Seeing her in the line made my heart skip a beat,’’she will make me also go in there’’,I thought.
‘’It’s OK if you don't want to go, I am going, will be back soon,’’she said eagerly as if she had read my mind. People of all sizes,ages, were jumping in with joy,and I was satisfied standing aside with a few hand full of people enjoying the screams.
With all the hard work,and energy drained journey back to Oia was quite.The picturesque town seemed such a relief from all the day’s work,but not for me. Mesmerized,she had to be in every nook, corner,street of the town,god forbid if she missed anything.At about eight a clock I pleaded to call it a day,which she did with the promise to come back again to Oia and soak herself with the beauty of the town
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