From Rome to Thessaloniki

I guess I have been a slacker this past week. We have been working on trying to acclimate to the intense Rome heat that it just distracted me from trying to keep a journal of our European adventures.

Our Rome visit only lasted for 10 days. Hopefully I can eventually get the tourist pictures uploaded along with their stories soon.

On early Monday morning, we did a final check through our apartment rental to see if we left any of our belongings scattered and unpacked.

 This apartment was great because it had 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. This is probably the most space we have lived in for two years!

Unfortunately, it didn't have air conditioning like most apartments in Rome. I emailed the owner after two days of temperatures above 80 degrees inside to see if we could get some fans. He was so nice and brought us one for each bedroom the next day. Even with the windows opened at night, we weren't able to cool the house down any and all that did was welcome in many mosquitoes to join us on our adventure. 

 The kitchen was great, but the oven didn't work. It didn't work in our last apartment either and so our meal rotations aren't very exciting and nutritious lately. The fridge was nice and large. We used the freezer a lot because we would freeze water bottles and small towels to use when we'd get home from being tourists to try to help us cool down a bit.

 Our room was nice because it had a great view of the street. At night I loved watching the people walk around and the men waiting for the traffic lights to turn red and so while the cars were stopped, they could wash the windows to try and earn some money. One night there was a juggler who would put on a show at each red light trying to earn some cash. It was great entertainment!

 This was Scott's room. He usually would put the two beds together to try for a king size bed. He also had a great balcony where we would hang our clothes out to dry after washing them in the sink.

 We had to leave before 7 am and so it was fun to see the magical energy they all had to travel somewhere new. They were great about getting everything ready to go!

 Our apartment was on the second floor in the building. The owner's mother actually lived in the apartment below us.

 My family has taken after me and are not early birds, but Kathryn was in a great mood this morning! Yay!

 Here's a picture of our building. I loved that we were in a true residential area and not a tourist area so we were able to see the authentic Rome and not just what is reserved for the movies and the travel books.

 In most of Europe the pedestrian has the right-of -way while crossing the street and generally the drivers are very polite and cautious at crosswalks. In Italy, that is not the case. After Kathryn and I were almost hit in Ventimagilia, we are extra cautious while crossing the streets in Italy.

 We had purchased 7 day transportation passes during our visit and so we became very familiar with the buses, trains, trams, etc. in Rome. We came to find that Bus 105 was very reliable, but always packed full of people!!!

 We took the bus to the Rome Termini train station.

 From there we hopped on a bus shuttle to the airport.

 There was so much traffic on the way there. It was about a 45 minute drive. Kiley has been on Psych kick lately and so she had downloaded a few episodes to watch while traveling. Andrew joined in and it was cute to watch them laughing sporadically on the way there.

 We arrived and checked in with about 90 minutes to spare until boarding.

 It has been five months almost to the date from the last time we flew. Andrew prefers flying over traveling by train and so he was pretty excited about boarding the flight.

 The flight was under 2 hours and so it wasn't too bad for my anxiety. I love to travel, but I really hate flying!

Below are some pictures from Jeff's phone. He couldn't find the one of me kissing the ground after walking off the plane. (jk) All the Italians did clap when we landed.

 Welcome to Thessaloniki, Greece! We are excited because this is our first time visiting Greece.

We usually just take public transportation after arriving to a new city, but since there wasn't much of difference in price, we hired some taxi drivers the day before online to pick us up at the airport. It was fun to walk outside to see some guys holding a sign that read Cannegieter on it, although I think it would've been cooler if they'd wrote it with Greek letters. So thankful to have had an uneventful travel day. It was much more calm than our trip to Rome.