Lost in Greece and the Last Week

IKEA is 4 hours away in Greece. 

We drove there and back on Thursday. It was a VERY full day but so fun. Really, IKEA is almost as fun as Disneyland. And the food is way cheaper. We are very close to moving into our home and we can’t wait!

It almost felt like we were in America, but not quite. Because, you don’t hear any English. The employees speak only some. This can make it difficult to ask questions for obvious reasons. 

Also, apparently Greeks LOVE babies. They looked at Shiloh like they had never seen a baby before. At one point Cory was in line getting food and cashier started talking to Shiloh in Greek. Shiloh started smiling and babbling and then the cashier called the other employees over. Lots of Greek faces talking at Shiloh. The whole line got involved. Instead of being upset at the hold up, they all just smiled and talked at her. 

On the way back we got VERY lost. The GPS took us in an extremely round about way. 

I think I accidentally pushed that we DID NOT want to take the toll road. So instead, we found ourselves on all these random back roads in the middle of tiny Greek villages. 

Our GPS went out. 

No one spoke English. 

We attempted to ask for directions and the conversation went something like this…

Us-“Do you speak English?” Very hopeful. 

Them-“A little.” With a nod and a shrug. 

Us-“Where is the freeway?” 

Them-Eyebrows raise. 

Us-“The HIGHway? The FREEWAY?” Extreme enunciation. 

Them-Eyebrows raised higher. 

Us-“We need to get to ALBANIA. Do you know how we get there?” Our volume begins to rise. 

Them-“Albanya??? Ahhhhh….” They begin speaking Greek. 

Us-“Where? We NEED TO GET TO THE MOTOR WAY?” Is that what they call it? Now we are yelling. Unintentionally. 

Cory-Very loudly…”ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM,” ask he makes a hand motion of what he thinks looks like cars going very fast.

Them-Smile. Laugh. “I don't understand.” 

Us-Drive away. Get chased by one eyed barking dogs. 

The GPS kicks back in. 

“Turn left in 500 meters.” GPS man with a British accent. 

Miss left turn. Meters and kilometers come up WAY faster than feet and miles. 

Reverse. 

Turn left. Go up a hill. It dead ends. 

We see the freeway. The high way. The toll road. The motor way. Whatever its called.

There is a very high wall blocking the free way. 

Yes we are at the free way. But we are not at an on ramp. 

Go back. Ask for directions again.  

Them-“No English.” 

Us-“Albania?” 

Them-“Bulgaria?” 

No but thanks. 

We FINALLY found the free way and made it to the border. 

We were nervous about the border. There's all these papers, stamps, forms ect. that you need.  It's like when you leave the hospital with your new baby. You feel like, "Am I allowed to do this by myself???" Crossing the border is like that. Who let us do this by ourselves? 

Apparently, sometimes they tax you when you get a lot of stuff because they think you are going to sell it. It is a very high tax and we were concerned that we were going to have to pay. It’s difficult to explain yourself as well, because they speak little English. 

You can also get stuck at the border for HOURS. The lines can be long, or there can be a problem holding it up. 

We made it through the Greek side (You have to go through two checkpoints. One on the country you are coming from, and one on the country you are going to). And braced ourselves for the Albanian border. 

Here is Shiloh Belle hanging in between the borders "No mans land" 

First they stamp your passports, then they check your car (make sure it wasn’t stolen) and look in your trunk. 

Fortunately, right as they were about to check our car Shiloh decided that 8 hours in the car was ENOUGH and she began to SCREAM. Like you could probably hear her a mile away. 

I had barely opened the trunk when the the police motioned for me to shut it and nodded his head,”Ok, ok.” 

He didn’t want Shiloh to burst his ear drums. 

We drove off. And that was it. We made it through with no problems, thanks to Shiloh! 

Also from the last week...

* SHENDOSH-means healthy. Or fat. It is the same word. Therefore...healthy=fat. 

**There are MEN ONLY coffee shops. I just found this out. No wonder I was being stared at. 

***Ramadan is going on right now. I thought that was a Jewish holiday? Apparently its Muslim. They are banging drums VERY loudly outside periodically through the day and night. 

This is blurry, but here are some donkeys outside of our bank house

****Shiloh is in some kind of cranky, teething, sick funk. She's crazy. But she always calms down when we read to her. Hopefully this phase is almost over. 

*****We are very thankful and feel so blessed. Thank you for your constant words of encouragement and prayers.