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Thursday, 25 April 2019

Santorini, Delphi, 4 Jan 2019

Wake up to this every morning was really a blessing. 
Of all the days we spent on the island, the weather was at it's best this day, but our flight back to Athens was at 11am...

Tess at our balcony upstairs with the morning sun.
Unlike the previous gloomy 2 days, it was bright and sunny! 
The sun was bright and shinny!

Our poolside terrace with such great view!
After breakfast, we walked out to look for the church, and was cursing the weather again and again. Why weren't we granted with the weather for the 2 days before?
It was a pity that we can't have our breakfast here at the balcony because it was simply too cold.

It was hard to leave this beautiful scene.

                                                            The cable car on the cliff. 

                                                                   I am going to miss this a lot a lot a lot.............

He was getting really restless!
    
                                              Fantastic color combination that our eyes love to see.


                                           It is always good to travel with him since he was a baby.
                                                          The journey and the time spent was more than anything.     
                                                                        He was so cheeky now......               

                                                    Arches so nice creating a wonderful ambience.


Inside the beautiful church,with the golden boy.
Then we had to rush to the airport.....


 Catwalk on Santorini island.
                                                          
Tiny Santorini airport.

                                          The end of the first part of our journey.


Goodbye Santorini, I will always remember our times spent here!

                                                     Hello again, the city of Athens.


Flight was blissful and we touched down Athens 45mins later. Had our lunch and collected our cars and headed to Meteora which is about 400km away as planned. 

                                                  Getting our cars at the airport.  


                                                                   Our Audi....
                                                               And theirs..............

Driving was easy with GPS which directed us to the highways after a short distance from the airport.

And we drove on, and suddenly unexpectedly, the landscape changed drastically...  


The world became WHITE! 
It was totally out of expectation, everyone was so excited not knowing what was waiting for us!

It was all covered in snow.
Our first experience driving in snow.
The snow was rushing to the windscreen.
The car actually skidded once and I went stiff when the car swayed to the side.
Then Lai decided to make a stop for some food at this small town called Lamia.

We parked the cars and walked in difficulties to the restaurant. It was freezing!
And we continued to drive on and when the snow was getting really heavy and the sky turned dark, I was very uncomfortable and uneasy.


My heart sank when the drive became this!
True enough, shortly after, when the visibility was so poor, we were asked to turn back by some officers on the road as the tyres were not chained!


Lai made a U-turn and we followed behind and we took a stop at a nearest town.

We got down from the cars to discuss in the super coldness we had ever experienced! 

The sight was actually magical!
It was unbearable!
 Bao called our host in Meteora, she too advised us not to go ahead. She said the weather was very unusual, even we made it to Meteora, we would have difficulties reaching the house as we have to walk in thick snow. Also, the whole area was covered in snow, we might be stranded there! She said she would give us the full refund.

I was really devastated, Meteora is considered the highlight of the trip to me!

Lai took out the map and check with GPS, and suggested to go to Delfi which was not that near actually. We agreed since there was no other alternative unless we  choose to put the night there and then.

So we drove and drove up and down a few mountains for almost 2 hours in very winding snowy road for about 2 hours!


When we finally reached Delfi after much anxiety and managed to check in a hotel, I was so relief!

Needless to say, everyone was super tired and worn out that we just took our showers and climbed into the bed!