Seriously? This is a road?!

Imagine this scene (and forgive me for all the typos you are about to ıncur as I attempt to blog on a Turkish keyboard -- I still cannot fıgure out the comma): The Watki are leavıng Kosovo. We are well-rested and happy. We know the roads will be a bit difficult as we cross Albania for Montenegro because we wıll be in the mountains so we plan for double the amount of time we thınk the trip should take and sit back for four hours of quality family road tıme. We exıt Kosovo and then reach the Albanian immigration point where ıt becomes clear that a little road constructıon ıs taking place. WOW! What an understatement that sign post was!!!! The next EIGHT hours were some our trio wıll not soon forget! I cannot adequately descrıbe to you the treacherousness of thıs sıtuatıon. Wade ıs a rock star for gettıng us out of there alıve! For our Texas family: ımagıne the road out to Clay and Sharlas as a luxurıous hıghway . . . .because that ıs what it is compared to these roads. I now understand why Lonely Planet descrıbed Albania as *a lıttle more İndıa than Europe* There were VERY few road sıgns. Often we would come to a fork ın the road where Wade would look up at the sun and roll hıs ımagınary dice before choosiıng a way to go. Only by the grace of God dıd we actually eventually come to the border of Montenegro! We laughed so very much that day -- no sense ın crying rıght? At one point Wade said *Diana you and Emma are going to have to get out and actually touch Albanian soil sometime today* A few hours later we did -- in a secluded group of trees where we relıeved ourselves. I realıze that may sound a bit primitave but I assure you thıs was a much more sanitary way to go than our roadside stop the day before where Em used her first squatter. For those of you who haven not had the pleasure thıs is a restroom wıth two places to put your feet and a hole ın the floor for you to put your excretions. After that experience goıng roadsıde dıdnit seem lıke such a bad idea to either of us!! We took several photos to share (though not one of the squatter) wıth you. Of our favorıtes there wıll be cattle -- they wander freely about the country --- and bunkers. The bunkers were absolutely everywhere throughout northern Albania. We never ate (beyond snacks we already had ın the car) or made offıcıal stops ın the country. Perhaps one day we wıll return and visit the capital and see another side of the country. Our last memory for now? The border town we crossed wıth MAJOR potholes. People had put tires ın them and at times 3 quarters of the tires fıt down insıde the potholes!!!

The World's Newest Country

We arrived in Skopje, Macedonia a couple of days after leaving Skopelos. Ask us about our "interesting" taxi ride after we return. The people here have been extremely nice. We met a man in an antique shop who works part of the time in Kosovo. His English was incredibe -- could be a result of serving as translator for the American journalists in Kosovo during the war -- so we picked his brain about places that would be save to visit during our travels. He was a wealth of information . . . a real Godsend for this mom who was, quite frankly, not brimming with excitement about that leg of our journey. Who'd have thought Kosovo would turn out to be a highlight? That's why God gave Emma two parents. I'd always play it safe, avoiding any areas of potential conflict. While Wade certainly isn't going to take unnecessary risks, he's a good deal more adventurous than I am.

Crossing the boarder from Macedonia, the guard looked at Wade's passport and then asked, "Are you working in Kosovo?" "No," Wade replied, "just here on holiday." The guard's eyebrows raised and his eyes widened before he said "Okay, sure. Why not?" Wade asked him if he sees lots of Americans come through who will be working there and his reply was "Too many." Still, all the Kosovars seemed genuinely happy to have us there and I swear I saw more American flags flying there than I see back home. The country is absolutely beautiful. So many mountains, rivers, etc. We ended up pulling off the road to have dinner at a small place in the mountains, and then ended up pulling off again a bit later to spend the night instead of going on into Prizren as planned. We stayed in a tiny cabin next to a running river. Our hosts were extremely kind. His daughter was out of town, so he went and got her small bed and brought it to the cabin for Emma to use. We watched the Croatia vs. Turkey football match in the hotel restaurant, where they served Emma a special hot chocolate drink with loads of whipped cream on top. If we weren't occasionally stopped by KFOR soldiers, or if I didn't know we were in the newest country in the world, and if I hadn't followed the horrific stories in the news a decade or so ago, I'd have never believed these people had seen such atrocities. Crossing the boarder with Serbia on the return is a different story . . . . one I'll have to share in another post as it's time to go return the rental car.

Father's Day

Whew! I know we're a bit behind, but getting decent internet connections has not been the name of the game this past week or so.

We had two Father's Day gifts for Wade. One, a small Indiana Jones action figure, we brought from home. The other was not going to the beach for the day! He's been a good sport about being on the beaches, but he's still not a fan. So, we had breakfast on the terrace followed by a game of Phase 10 before crawling into the jeep and going to explore some monastaries. This involved some driving up some seriously steep dirt roads, but our driver was fantastic. We went inside two of the monastaries. One of them now belongs to a family; the other still houses Greek orthodox monks.

In the one occupied by a family, we received a tour from the owner. She took us into their beautiful small church and showed many items to Emma. She seemed impressed that Em could look at the carvings and paintings and recognize the Bible stories. As we were leaving, Emma told her thank you in Greek. The woman's face lit up and she motioned for us to wait a moment. She went inside her house to retrieve some fresh apricots for us. They were fantastic. After she gave them to us she put her hand on my arm and said "You, man go back to US. Emma stays at Skopelos. I teach her speak and write Greek." Though it was a nice offer, and I think she might have been tempted to stay on the island, I'm happy to report that Em's still with us now!

Supper that night found us on the terrace once again, where Wade grilled chicken. Yes, I know he's not supposed to cook on Father's Day, but it was what he wanted to do! We played dominoes that night while watching the moon come up behind the mountains. Wade said it was his best Father's Day ever.

The Green Jeep

The three of us spent Friday, Saturday & part of Sunday tooling around in a Green Jeep we rented. In order to get to the "good" beaches one needs a car here. Fortunately we knew that before we came & included a rental in our budget. Friday we drove all around the island and saw some of the most amazing views of our lifetimes. We stopped to hike up to a church on the top of a rock. The church (click for a view) is dedicated to John the Baptist and one really has to want to see it as the climb is incredible. While we were panting and hanging on to the handrails, I tried to comfort Emma with the fact that John the Baptist had neither stairs nor handrails when he was climbing up the rocks to worship God. It's really amazing to think we could have been in the same general area as he once was. Just after we spent some time in the little church and signed the guest book, another English speaking couple arrived. They were from Canada & when they asked Emma where we were from, the husband began singing "Oklahoma where the wind comes" -- he finished the song and then went on to sing another from the musical. He'd been in the chorus in Canada. They are of the Greek Orthodox faith & he sang some beautiful Byzantine chants while he was in the little church. After the long walk down (man those were some steep steps) we drove to the town of Glossa, where the Canadian man was born, for lunch. While looking around we ran into a Swedish woman who was a bit bummed because she'd been unable to find a place to eat as many restaurants were closed for siestas. When Wade located one, she joined our trio for lunch. It was YUMMY! The restaurant was having it's opening day, so the menu was limited, but the service & cooking were fantastic. Emma had a pizza where the crust was made like hashbrowns. Rosti, I believe, is what the woman called it. I had a Greek salad, the likes of which my taste buds has never before experienced & Wade had a steak. Our next stop came at the beach, Milia (click for photo). It was a pebble beach with beautiful water. We'd actually stopped by there before the trip to the church & decided to return later. This time, Emma had a playmate, Shao Lin. They'd met the previous evening on the pier watching eels and sea urchins. They donned their goggles and swam around looking at fish before catching several (six, Emma says) in a net and letting them swim around in plastic cups for a bit before returning them to the sea. Shao Lin is from San Fransisco. Her dad owns a house here & grew up on the island. Her mom is from China, so they alternate summer trips each year. Wade and I enjoyed visiting with Shao Lin's parents, and their friends who'd come over from Paris for a long weekend. Our day ended with a wonderful pasta dinner on our terrace and a mean game of dominoes.

Ahhhhhh, Skopelos

Currently our family is staying in a wonderful house in Skopelos town, on the Greek island of Skopelos (click for more info). The island, though certainly busy, is not frequented by tourists, at least not American ones, although we did meet a family from Wichita Falls, TX on Thursday! This stop is truly a vacation stop for our family. Many of our stops include capital cities and major sightseeing involving lots of walking, but this one is about family time & RELAXING! It's not that we aren't exploring the island, but we're doing it at a nice leisurely pace. We arrived Thursday afternoon after a two-and-a-half hour bus ride followed by a two-and-a-half hour ferry ride. A man and his daughter met us at the pier and drove us to the neighborhood where we're staying. We couldn't exactly just get a taxi since our house has no address! To get mail here, people go to the post office & give their names & pick it up. The population is not much less than my home town, but the living areas are very compact. Our house is tall and skinny. It has three floors. The first contains a tiny kitchen, a bathroom, and a small dining room. The second houses two bedrooms and the third a small refridgerator, a bathroom (toilet and sink only) and two terraces. One terrace has an oven and range and the other a grill -- nice. Wade has cooked all our meals save one up there since our arrival. He doesn't mind doing it while he looks out at the ocean and the mountains! I still don't like washing dishes by hand, but I must admit it's nicer when I have this sort of view. We've slipped into a vacation schedule. Friday morning we had breakfast at the crack of 10:30am and had supper about 10:00pm.

It's all Greek to Me!

We spent only two days in the historic city of Athens, but we'll be returning in March with Wade's college students. This was our first stop in a while where we had to work a bit at getting around. Fortunately, many signs are also printed in English because of Athens hosting the Olympics four years ago, but still there are places where the signs (and menus!) are in Greek only. We managed to figure out the public transport from the airport into town and locate our hotel, The Attalos (click for website). After ditching our bags, we headed out to find lunch & explore the town a bit. We might have ordered too much food at lunch. It turns out that I should have ordered Emma a Kabob instead of a Gyro. She received a giant plate of meat, tomatoes, onions, fries, salad & pitas instead of the Gyro sandwich we're used to at the House of Greek in Stillwater. I tried a meat dish that was swarmming in yougurt & tomato sauce -- super yummy! Wade had a Gyro as well & we ordered some olives -- WOW! Of course, we also had bread, the obligatory basket comes at each meal and we pay for it grudgingly. After lunch we headed for the tomb of the unknown soldier & then tried the tram system. I must admit we were not as skilled here as we'd been with the metro. Fortunately, our long walk back to the hotel took us right by Zeus's Olympic Temple, so we got to wander through some ruins on the way. Dinner was ice cream on the rooftop. Be sure to check out that view on the hotel website! Day two found the Watki making the hike up to the Acropolis (click for more info). It was a long, hot trek, but sooooo worth it! Emma had been learning a lot of history in her Horrible Histories book, Groovy Greeks & Rotten Romans, so she was able to share her knowledge with us as we walked around the Parthenon -- very cool! After our visit there, we hit a museum (hooray for air conditioning!) that contained many Greek relics, including a child's potty chair -- be sure and ask to see that photo upon our return! We called it an early evening because we'd have to catch a 6:45 bus the next morning. We look forward to returning and doing more exploring in the spring.

"Three more stops, then ours"

Our Emma has become quite the Metro navigator! When we hopped on Saturday afternoon after we left the Louvre, she was looking up at the map posted on the top of the wall. After several stops, she leaned over and announced, "three more stops, then ours". And she was right. As you can imagine this elicited high praise from her adoring fans . . . oops I meant parents.

Paris was a wonderful stop for all of us. Day one found us entering immigration without incident -- hooray! After dropping our bags at our hotel (finding it was decidedly NOT without incident, but that's a rant for another day) we headed for Emma's favorite park near Le Tour Eiffel. Unfortunately, the carousel she loves was shut. No worries though, we hit it Sunday afternoon after we worshiped with an international and interdenominational bunch at the American Church. Emma enjoyed being around other kids and we thanked God for an Isabelle and another Emma who made sure our Emma's time in Children's Church was pleasant.

At the Louvre we garnered a special tour for Emma in the form of a wonderful guide book for families. It came with adventure cards -- two sets actually. One for ages 8-9 and one for ages 10-12 (yes, we'll return). Emma guided us through works including, but not limited to, The Victory of Samonthrace, the Mona Lisa, and our piece de resistance, an Egyptian mummy. She really took to being the guide and literally led us through the Denon, Richlieu, and Sully wings, giving us facts about the various works we encountered in each.

Our last day in Paris was actually spent a bit outside the city. A thirty-five minute ride on the RER to be exact. The signs above the stop read "Parc Disneyland." Yes, we're addicts. We'd pretty much decided not to go out there this time, but after a trip to the Disney store on the Champs Elysees, Wade surprised us with tickets. We managed to hit all our favorite rides with little to no waiting time and garnered FastPasses for Peter Pan's Flight and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Ride. Emma wants me to announce that, once again, she and her dad hit waaaaaay more targets than Mom did. We learned an important thing about our family late that afternoon at Disney Studios. It turns out we're not roller coaster people. Emma had been stoked about checking out "Crush's Coaster" one of the newest rides at Disneyland Paris. Since it's a coaster with a theme from Finding Nemo, I expected it to be a gentle introduction to the world of roller coasters. I WAS WRONG. None of us received any pleasure from that ride. In fact, Emma and Mom screamed most of the way through and Dad got jerked around so much he needed a rest after that one. Though Mom is not a big fan of the tilt-a-whirl, we agreed to let Emma do the Cars themed ride next so Crush wouldn't be her last memory of the park!

Our Itinerary

June:

5. Depart for Paris from TUL

6. Ar Paris (Holiday Inn Express – Canal de la Villette - Tel: 011.33-1-44650101)

7. Paris

8. Paris

9. Paris

10. Depart for Athens (Hotell Attalos – Tel: 011.30-210-3212801)

11. Athens

12. Depart for Skopelos, Northern Sporades, Greece – contact us on our cell ph.

13. Skopelos

14. Skopelos

15. Skopelos

16. Skopelos

17. Skopelos

18. Depart for Thessaloniki, Greece – reachable on our cell phone

19. Skopje, Macedonia – pick up car – following itinerary subject to change

20. Kosovo (Pirizen, Prishtina)

21. Montenegro (Sevti Stefan, Kotar)

22. Croatia (Dubrovnik)

23. Bosnia (Mostar, Sarajevo)

24. Serbia to Macedonia

25. To Sofia, Bulgaria – overnight train

26. Arrive Istanbul – Holiday Inn Istanbul City Tel: 011.90-212-5309900

27. Istanbul

28. Istanbul

29. Istanbul

30. Istanbul

July:

1. Istanbul

2. Istanbul to London – Holiday Inn-Mayfair Tel: 011.44-870-4009110

3. London

4. London

5. London

6. Diana/Emma fly to OK – Wade moves to Holiday Inn Express-Swiss Cottage

Tel: 011.44-20-74336666

7-11: Wade in London – fly to Lubbock July 11

11, 12, 13. Watki fam in Lubbock, TX for Dave & Cari's wedding

Emma, Chimp, and Jonah

What a delight it was for us to join forces with Tara, Jonah, and Jackson on our trips to the National Zoo and the Natural History Museum. Tara and Diana have been friends since even before church youth group days, and watching Emma and the boys together was an absolute delight. How blessed we are that they drove from Pennsylvania to join us.

We're Off!

So, tomorrow is the big day. We leave Stillwater around 10:00am for Tulsa. After a short flight to DFW, we'll crawl on a much longer one to Paris CDG. I should be doing something at least slightly more productive right now, but in an attempt to avoid doing more laundry from our Austin/DC excursions and packing for our European adventure, I headed to my email inbox where one of my beloved aunties pointed out that I've neglected to post anything from the domestic portion of our summer travels. Here are a few photos to highlight our time in Austin & Washington DC.

I love this first picture. It takes place not too long after Emma and I trekked eighteen city blocks for pizza. Now that might not sound like a big deal, but we were in Austin, TX and it was beyond hot outside! She was a champ. I kept offering to stop at other restaurants, but she wanted "The Best Pizza in Austin", so we kept going until we found Rounders. Our table was a video game table & I had some serious fun introducing her to Frogger, which she's playing in this photo.