flat travellers on the loose again

well, for those of you that are closely following our blog...i know, i know...that's all of you...there is no need to introduce our flat nieces and nephew. but just in case we have some newbie followers i'll tell you a bit about each of them. our real live nieces jane, hannah, ellie & sasha and nephew owen drew pictures of themselves for us to take with us around the world.

the real live jane is an avid reader, she loves to sing and play piano and we love her impromptu performances at family get togethers. the real live owen is jane's little brother who isn't so little anymore...he's 5! he's rambunctious, his laugh is infectious and he can charm anyone. the youngest of the family, the real live yohan, was only a month old when we left so we don't have a flat version of him with us but we still think of him often. we hope to make a stop in vancouver on our way home to see him.

jane and owen just before we left in july 2009

the real live hannah is also an avid reader (is this a result of both being the eldest?), plays piano and loves to dance. we've had a few chances to see hannah's ballet performances and can't wait to see her progress. the real live ellie loves to be silly! she's squishy, goofy and fun...the life of the party :) the real live sasha is sweet and shy...but only until she feels comfortable with you and then watch out! the stuff she comes up with...innocently enough i'm sure...hilarous!

hannah, ellie & sasha (l to r) at our goodbye party in july 2009

who knew we all came from families of chess players. not sure who won this round in geneva, switzerland.

the famous jet d'eau in geneva shoots water 140 meters into the air. both flat penners and petroff were so impressed they insisted on having their photos taken with it.

this is the photo we got in trouble for taking in front of the parthenon in athens. who knew that flat people were symbols and not allowed to be photographed with the ancient ruin. luckily the guards didn't see us take it and the bossy greek lady didn't turn us in. phew!

after the fiasco with the flat penners, the flat petroffs decided to play it safe and had their photo taken in front of the theatre of the acropolis instead. uncle jay wanted to be in the photo too but i wouldn't let him...somehow he still managed to get his arm in the picture.

all of us were disappointed when we got to delphi and the main attraction was closed due to technical difficulties. we had questions for the oracle but we were turned away. the only decent ruin to have in the background was this athena pronea temple. kinda cool...it looks like camouflage.

this is flat owen on the train to turkey. the real live owen likes trains and has always wanted to go to turkey. this is in our 2 bunk berth before we put the beds down for the night time train ride from thessaloniki to istanbul.

we are in the blue mosque in istanbul. we didn't have head coverings for the flat girls but that's ok because you don't need to wear one until you are a teenager. they only let tourists in when there are no prayers in session. the call to prayers can be heard throughout the city five times a day...before sunrise, midday, afternoon, sunset, and late evening.

flat owen and flat jane are pretty brave...they are standing on a tomb in the ancient necropolis near pamukkale, turkey.

flat hannah, flat ellie and flat sasha loved playing in the theatre. this photo is taken after they ran down to the bottom and back again. whew! they sure were sweaty after all those stairs...

hope you are glad to see that the flat people are still alive and kicking ;p we'll keep you posted as they break out of the camera bag on more adventures...around the world. next stops are in asia.

güle güle,

corina on behalf of the flats

chocolate & brussel sprouts

our inital plan was to go from croatia to greece...but apparently its not as easy as it would seem. we assumed that both being coastal countries it would be logical that a ferry would run from some croatian port to a greek port. if there is such a ferry...jay didn't find it. he didn't find an affordable direct flight either. we could have taken a bus or 2 and a train or 2 but it seemed like such an ordeal. i was not in the mood for a 30 hour train ride through serbia like our friends alison and ron had to endure. so we put financial and emotional stability over our desire to be nice to the environment. in the end jay found flights that would allow a stop over in geneva and budapest on our way to athens.

switzerland is known for its quality chocolate and corina (that's me) is known for eating quality chocolate. we arrived in geneva fairly late in the evening and caught a train our to our couchsurfer hosts' near satnigy. unfortunately we missed out on a poker game with gus & corinne and their friends. i was really looking forward to gleening some tips from them so i could test out my skills against our avid gaming friends, em & j.r. back home. our hosts also let us borrow their electric bikes for an afternoon of exploring the hills and villages. we took the opportunity to break out the toblerone bar, our travel towel and our lastest paperback to enjoy the perfect lazy afternoon.

the weather held out for another couple of days as we explored geneva and the surrounding areas. there is an extensive boardwalk along the shores of the lake geneva (with free wifi...yay!). the jet d'eau fountain shoots water 140m into the air and proved to be a great way finder for us. we would be wandering around the city getting lost and then we would see the tip of the fountain and know exactly which way to turn.

our next hosts, dajana & greg, suggested that we go to le saleve which is a small mountain just over the border into france. from the top you can see all of geneva spread out below you. we took 'le telepherique du saleve' up to the top. jason thought it was pretty funny that i was willing to get into another gondolier after my last experience in barcelona. le saleve was actually steeper and a longer climb than barcelona's montjuic but the sturdiness and size of the carriage made it seem safer to me.

we spent the afternoon getting lost in the forest, hiking the trails and once again laying out under the sunny skies with our lunch and paperbacks. as a side note, jason has become quite the reader in the last little while. i guess he's gotten tired of staring into space while i am fully engrossed in a book.

our last day in geneva was cold and rainy so we took in a museum, had lunch at dajana's office and then headed to the airport. we were checked through to our gate and waited and waited. we were there hours too early because of the rain, then there was a 20 minute delay and finally the announcement that our flight had been cancelled due to technical difficulties. everyone swarmed the boarding desk and a flight attendant yelled over their heads that we were to make our way to the transfer desk and pointed in its direction. jay and i just looked at each other, shrugged and followed a pack of business men out of the boarding area. behind us people were clamouring to get the attention of the flight attendants..."what about those of us with connections to greece?" we were smug in our decision to stay in budapest for a few days.

we stumbled upon the transfer desk after i went through the 'wrong' doors. i thought we were still following the business men but two doors led to one area and the two doors we went through led to another. and behold the transfer desk! whoo hoo! we were 3rd in line, got our tickets for the next afternoon via munich, got our hotel room and hopped onto the shuttle to our home for the night. we stayed at the crowne plaza, ate our free dinner, slept in our free king size bed, ate our free delish buffet breakfast and jumped on our free shuttle back to the airport. we were finally on our way to budapest.

we had an apartment to ourselves for the first couple of days in budapest. our cs host, margit, was gracious to let us use her place while she was out of town. we only had one day of good weather in budapest which had we known it would be the only one we would have spent it more wisely. we did manage to walk down the waterfront on the buda side and through a bit of the pest side one afternoon.

we attempted to climb castle hill on a blustery, rainy day but we got lost on top of the wrong hill so we decided to call it a day and head home to make dinner. we arrived home to margit already in the kitchen chopping up some brussel sprouts for a soup. a combined effort between jay and margit produced our thanksgiving dinner of curried lentils and brussel sprout soup. it was tasty but i couldn't help thinking about the spread i knew would be on the tables at our parents' homes in winnipeg.

au revoir & szia,

corina