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Yes I know.
I've been silent for too long.
The shame of it all is that I've been travelling. Unfortunately work has taken its toll and I haven't had much time to write. Something I'm taking care of now, while I can't get sleep, somewhere.
Last month I was invited to a conference in Athens, Greece. A country I'd never been to before.
As usual, The Yeti® decided to cheat and combine a short holiday in the Cyclades before getting down to work. This is a short blog on those few days.
I hope you enjoy it.
Sam
Sweet! Was just wondering when another Yeti-log would come up! Excited :D
We're going to Athens!
I've often dreamed of going to Greece and yet there is little I know of Greece as it is today. Of course like any good son I've grown up listening to stories of Aristotle and Plato and Homer (no not Simpson) from my Father.
There's no 2 ways about it, I'm excited.
Jenny is busy working so I make all the plans. The plan so far...
- We're going to Greece for a few days before my conference.
- We need to find a nice holiday spot, an island.
- On our way back we can stop at my sasural in Germany.
Easy-peasy, right?
Not so.
It makes no sense to fly Emirates, even though the flight to Athens is the cheapest. The easiest way to fly (taking into consideration all combinations) is to somehow plan an itinerary that goes through Athens and Frankfurt.
My adventure begins at Cleartrip.
Great to see you active again :)
Popcorn : check
Charger for itouch : check
Been waiting for some blogging from ur end for a while.
It's like so.
I need to get to Athens. Using my experience I search for "mixed flights" on Cleartrip and land myself a good deal with a mixed flight from Austrian Airways + Lufthansa.
The catch? Even if I fly via Lufthansa, Cleartrip booking has no way for me to "break" my journey at Frankfurt. I phone them and they ask me to try the multi-city option.
The result is atrociously expensive.
The travel agent won't get me a good deal.
Surprisingly, the best and most convenient option occurs at Lufthansa's Indian website. Their multi-city option works perfectly and I am soon armed with the tickets.
We will fly to Frankfurt, change a flight to Athens and then...
What happens next is soon decided.
Santorini?
Santorini.
Why Santorini?
Because I've heard good things about Santorini.
What have you heard?
It's a great island in the Cyclades.
So is Mykonos.
Yes, well.
Well?
Well, someone told me it is fantastic for gay couples. And we're not a gay couple. Santorini is quiet and beautiful.
It seems strange that Mykonos would be a gay party destination. I would have assumed it would be the island of Lesbos. Also close by I think.
I'm thinking of the island of Lesbos and it somehow seems wrong to grin and day-dream.
Santorini. I grin.
Fine then. Where will we stay.
I've got it all sorted. We're going to stay at the "Above Blue Suites" - and it probably will be the most beautiful hotel we have ever stayed at.
I book a flight from Athens to Santorini, the airport of Thira. A small airline called Olympic Airways. Of course.
And our journey begins!!
In this day and age? Really?
My wife thinks I have a natural dislike for Lufthansa. She's right and it is well-justified.
In this day and age, when airlines are falling over themselves to make you comfortable and pulling out larger and brighter and even more interactive screens and the latest movies and on board live TV and...
Lufthansa German Airlines flies to Frankfurt without TVs. I'm not kidding. The seat in front of you has upholstery and that's that. You can count the grains on the incredibly boring grey leather.
Me. I watch 2 or 3 movies on long flights. I play video games (do they even call them video games anymore?) - for God's sake you can't charge people more than other airlines and give them no TV.
Oh but there IS a TV. Hanging on the roof is a decrepit old mammoth tube TV. If I crane my neck just about enough to dislocate my spine, I can see something. Fantastic.
The screens are off all night, until at about 5 in the morning they start playing Dabbbannng. Really? Really Lufthansa?
I'm annoyed.
The plane gets to Frankfurt on time. Of course. There's no denying that they're efficient. Perhaps a personal TV screen isn't efficient. Soon we're onboard another flight to Athens.
A couple of hours later (And I must add Athens is a pleasantly surprising Airport, big, airy and lots of shopping and brilliant time-pass) we on a little little plane to Santorini.
With this post I open my account for posting photos.
God this is a small plane. As soon as it takes off, the very (pretty) Greek looking stewardess starts to take her Jacket off.
It isn't so much as the fact that we're sitting in the first row, or that the plane is small and has no galley.
It the slight wiggle and the way she undoes a button, striptease style that evokes a giggle from me and I turn to Jenny who is laughing too.
I'm beginning to like this place, lol.
About 30 minutes after we've taken off it comes.
Ladies and Gentlemen, in a few minutes we will land on the island of Santorini. 
We're here!!
(To be continued tomorrow)
Wow ! This just did not happen.
I was getting bored with nothing to do while eating Maggi and clicked on 'Find all threads started by Sam Kapasi' and read a thread or two. Then somehow the search results tab closed, and when I opened it again, voila! There's a thread in bold.
Wait, there must be some mistake.
Turns out, it's not ! The Yeti is literally creating fresh content while I'm eating Maggi. What more could you ask ?
The One writes again. Nice start of G(r)eek account of Santorini.
@Yeti, Ever read "Gerald Durrelll"? Esp : My Family and Other Animals?
Brings back those times.
Guess what I heard your cousin's name on the radio (some event promotion where he is DJing) and thought to myself- what a pity that Sam doesn't do Yeti blogs anymore. Then this morning, click on New Topics and there you are!
Can't imagine the look on your *and Jenny's) face when the air hostess did her wiggling act. Priceless!
Yeah it really sucks when airlines don't offer personal ICE (it's called ICE too, "in cabin entertainment"). Emirates and Jet have spoiled us! I was on a United flight from Chicago to Hong Kong (19 hours!!!) and there was no movie to watch. Worst day of my life!
Good to see you back! Already subscribed to this thread. I am sure this will be handy when I plan a trip to Greece :)
It is really nice that Sam you are back after a long time. Cheers and great start by you. Everybody on the forum was missing you. Great you are back.
@Sam - This was a great sneak peek of the things to come in the next posts. The snaps from the plane look awesome. Blue waters, Sun and Sand what more could one ask for. Maybe a cool drink in hand to counter the heat.
Waiting for more.
1) Wow! A yetiBlog! I am eager to read more and more. Will be following this thread closely. Somehow, all Yeti threads teach me more on how to write.
2) Greece. Greece is the only civilization in the entire world that can be considered as old as Indian.
Without doubt, the culture and ancient civilization of India is the oldest ( this remains a fact despite various claims ). Up next is Greece. This is what I like about Greece. The rich history does teach us a lot of things. Many English words like Rumor ( Rumor is considered to be someone who gave a wrong/false information to somebody ) are taken from Greece.
Next in line are Egypt and China. Yes, they are not as old as Indian and Greece.
The Indian civilization extended to more than Afghanistan of today ( IIRC, Kandhar was under Shakuni ). Rich heritage is what one can expect from Greece.
China, Egypt and Greece were more violent as compared to India. China is home to various destructive inventions like Gun powder. Many inventions are rooted to China, yet we, even in the past were more advanced. Greece is known for defensive ability. Despite their small size ( of the nation ), the way they defended and feared earns them more respect.
It is said that a few Punjabi people who are well built ( some wear turbans ) are actually related to Greece. To be more precise, they are the soldiers who remained back in India after Alexander ( the great ) went away.
More and more eager to know about Greece and looking forward to various images that "The Yeti" is capable of taking.
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