Greece - like we were there yesterday, but really were a year ago.

Chios.
Back in the European Union. We can once again pay in euros, which we don't have, so we have to take many trips to the ATM, because everyone shakes their heads as soon as they see a credit card. We walk along a beach promenade and can't decide were to go to eat. Every restaurant is tempting. From that day onwards we partook in a real culinary feeding fest that lasted a week. The tables were plentiful in Russia, Georgia and Turkey and everything was delicious, but the amount of food offered in Greek restaurants is immensely huge and it seemed to us that no one can possibly eat it all. Fortunately we had prepared ourselves and didn't go on to order 3 starters and 3 mains, although everything seemed interesting. But even the amount we did order was too much. The one thing we remember most from that meal was Taramasalata,  a pink mush, which you eat with bread and it is truly delicious and the liquour they bring out in the end – Mastika or Mastiha.

B&B Topakas house  during the day and in the evening

Our bed and breakfast that costs us about 26€ a night and has gotten only good or very good reviews on booking, is a bit further away from the centre. Therefore we decide on taking a taxi. The house is truly lovely, the rooms maybe a bit tired in their appearance and the wi-fi selective, but the atmosphere is warm and comfy, the hostess is very lovely and helpful (she quickly washed our two huge mountains of dirty laundry with no talk of an additional cost) and the breakfast, which wasn’t included in the original price (well, the price was already such a miniscule amount) was exactly as good or even better as it was said to be in the reviews. Therefore the breakfast takes up a larger portion of the morning as usual, as we sith in the quaint little garden. When we head off towards the center, the sun is already high in the sky. We decide to walk. 

First we see a lovely flower shop, which seemed to have dogs for owner and then encounter many obsticles on our way: Silvia’s new shoes, which hurt her feet (a trip to the pharmacy), a pet shop (we must go and have a look) and a sign pointing towards a veterinary clinic (we have to go see where the clinic is situated). It was in quite an odd place, the sign showed us a way through a narrow space between two buildings. We pressed through, but there was no sign of a clinic anywhere. There was a recently operated dog though, who was tied to the door. But we never found out why he was left there and what he was waiting for. We saw that forutnately he was in the shade and we nudged his bowl of water a little closer, then went to ask the pet shop next to the alleyway if they new anything more. The kind members of staff at the pet shop shook their heads, showed us the way to the clinic itself, but said the doctor wasn’t in today. The dog weighed heavily on our minds though. So, if you are reading this, veterinarian from Chios, please be so kind to let us know what happened to that dog who was sitting behind your door on 11.10.14.

There's a narrow way between the pink and green buildings that leads to the clinic.

Probably a very recently operated dog.

Through a window we glance a glimpse of the veterinary clinic.

Veterinay clinic in Chios.

When it is time to have our first drinks of the day,.... 

......the city’s most important cat obviously appears. We see those in every town. This one was ginger.

As we walk on, we see enchanting old buildings and...

....dogs,dogs,dogs. On the picture above a back alley pack of dogs look on as their friend is being taken for a drive.

We decided to rent a car for the day after and hop on a ferry to Lesbos in two days time. I would have wanted to go to Athens and onwards to Montenegro a bit quicker, because I had just received a phone call from my dear friend and colleague dr. Sergei Sereda, who was vacationing in Kotor with his family and was leaving the town on the 18th of October. It would have been lovely to „unexpectedly“ meet Sergei and Tatjana in Kotor and besides I haven’t seen tiny Marusja in a long time. But the girls wouldn’t back down from going to Lesbos and I was considering the alternative of skipping Lesbos and going to Athens a day early (on Monday) and the girls would follow on a Tuesday, arriving on Wednesday. But fate usually has different plans for you, and Maari will now tell you what happened to us on Chios:

Nagos beach became fateful, I will never forget it. I had barely stepped out of the car, taken off my sunglasses for a second to put on my bathing suit, when a fly started attacking my left eye. I never seen such a thing before – a fly flying straight into my eye. It was only for just a second, but still – what business has it got there?It was uncomfotable for a second and it seemed that it left behind some debris. We flushed and cleansed the eye, but there was something still in there. The beach itself was empty but beautiful, Tiina even went swimming. After we’d sunbathed for a while on someone’s terrace, we headed back home through the mountains. Throughout the day I felt something foreign in my eye, and I was wondering how is that rubbish moving quickly around, you couldn’t even see anything in there with a mirror. When we get back, Tiina decides to take me to the pharmacy, but after a whole lot of adventuring, it turns out the pharmacies are all on siesta and will open only in a few hours. After I’ve looked at my eye in the mirror for at least an hour, and seen someone in there, we head towards the hospital. In the waiting room, Tiina grabs the nearest doctor and tells him that her daughter has something in her eye, it feels awful, please help. My doctor turned to be a local hairy beefcake, who lays me down next to an injured footballer and then inspects my eye. He says that everything is fine, the pain and discomfort is due to irritation. When I asked him if it is theoratically possible that someone laid eggs in my eye, he laughs and sends us on our way. At the hotel, I stare at my eye for another hour and tell the others that someone is truly living there. Honestly! I don’t want to believe it, but my (good) eye doesn’t deceive me. I found out later, that Silvia and Tiina were talking amongst each ohter and were on the verge of putting me in a mental institution, but they gave in to my nagging and came to see for a second time. At one point I just started yelling: „Come, come! Come here and see for yourself! There is someone in here and it won’t come out!“ and my worst fear realized, as Tiina and Silvia removed a tiny worm from my eye. Think about it for a second. What is the weirdest and most disgusting that could happen? A bug laying eggs in your eye? Yes, exactly that.

The beach where flies fly into your eye.

A lonely cat at the beach

Looking at the pictures above, we can only guess that the beach where flies attack you is a desolated place. 

But it is still beautiful. 

After the operation I was quite relieved – yes there was a worm in my eye, but we got the bastard! Until the moment we had to repeat the operation and removed a second, third, fourth and tenth one. Imagine this – a human wreck, whose life is literally squirming past her eyes is sitting on a toilet in an hotel bathroom, whilst a veterinarian and her opthalmological heir are rushing around her with homemade cotton buds and using the flash on a phone as a light source. This prompts reminding oneself that wishes do come true and if you wish for great travelling experiences, you must be extremely specific.

A worried and perplexed Tiina phones a colleague in Athens, who has never heard of such a thing and also becomes worried. Fortunately she sent us a text message containing the numbers of two local ophtalmologists. One of them doesn’t pick up. We are reminded that the day is already in the dark hours. The other one answers and starts calming and consoling us. It turns out to be a very local problem, not rare at all, the worms aren’t poisonous and won’t climb into your brain, they just like the wet and warm environment of the eye! She proposes two solutions: either I wait for the worms to die in my eye and fall out or I come and visit her in her office in the middle of the night. At that moment it’s as clear as crystal to me that I’d rather drown myself than spend another minute feeling them racing in my eye. So we go to see the doctor. She is a lovely and active lady – she offers to pick us up from the hotel with her car and take us straight to her practice. From then on everything runs smoothly. The doctor removes the last three remaining worms – the doctors Toomet have done an excellent job, taking out ten! I feel like I want to kiss and hug the doctor because it feels as though a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders and worms have been lifted from my eyes. This horrible tale has finally turned into something you can speak of and write about. The moral of this story: wear ski glasses!

A special room to remove worms. 

I also got a moral from this story: one must have veterinary friends everywhere. They will never leave you stranded. Even if there is no private practice, hospital, embassy or consulate in sight, there is always a local veterinary practice, where you can turn to if you’re in trouble. United Vets!

When midnight rolls around, Maari is parasite-free and we can board a ship in the morning. Our night was quite short, sure, but we compensate with coffee, pastries and naps on the ship.

We dock at Lesbos. 

The girls have booked us a lovely hotel.

It’s a stunning 19th century house with two stair leading up to the entrance, chandeliers in the ceiling and antique furniture in the rooms. The receptionist  tells us that the house used to belong to a rich Greek banker and the property stretched all the way to the sea. Now the land has been divided up, houses have been built on and the mansion turned into a hotel. Good, we like it here. They even manage to get me a bed. After yesterday’s great adventure I am certainly not leaving the girls on their own.

We walk and walk and then walk some more. We reach 10 000 steps quite quickly. At least that’s what my FitBit bracelet tells me. The girls want back to the hotel and quickly take up their sunbathing positions on the roof. At first they giggle and sing, but soon become silent – they fell asleep. Good thing they didn’t roll off the roof.

Pictures from Lesbos : dogs, graffiti and sunrise as seen from our balcony.

On our second day on Lesbos I find a small veterinary clinic right next to our hotel.

I bust in and meet dr. Mania Prodromou. Her beekeeper brother comes and helps out, but otherwise she works alone. She bought the clinic a few months ago.

It looks very new and it’s freshly furbished. Once again I meet familiar machinery: the hematology analyser and development machine are just like in my clinic. 

The waiting room has no furniture yet, but otherwise it’s lovely and quaint. Dr. Prodromou lets me take pictures but doesn’t want to be in one herself. 

However I do get a picture of the clinic’s cat, who was left behind the door of the clinic a few weeks ago. 

A patient comes into the clinic .....

.

...and I go back to the hotel, where Silvia and Maari are busy making me a new Facebook page „United Vets“. Who would’ve thought? I, who has declared that I don’t need Facebook am now about to fidget with another page. But it seems that it’s necessary on this trip. Besides I immediately want to tell everyone about my visit to the clinic.

We have some time to wander around Lesbos some more. It’s a great time to be on this island. There are few tourists and the weather is just right. During warmer times you probably have enough energy to just lie on a beach with your toes in the sea.

A huge ship takes us on board in the evening and takes us to the Port of Piraeus. We ere expecting some sort of entertainment on board like they have on Tallinn-Helsinki-Stockholm cruise lines. But we are so spoiled in Estonia, that we feel like wi-fi is a human right. There was nothing on this ship. That’s exactly what the girls said: „There’s nothing on this ship.“ To be honest, it could have at least had internet. 

Our morning at Piraeus takes us first to a coffee shop to calmly make sure, how exactly we can find the hotel dr. Katerina Loukaki has reserved for us. It’s not any old hotel in Athens, but Divani Palace Acropolis, which is the official partner of  Small Animal Veterinary Branch Hellenic Veterinary Medical Society (HVMS) and where my lovely Greek colleague has bargained a very reasonable price for us.

We get there and we’re very happy. On top everything there’s a welcoming basket of fruits in our room.

Silvia’s blog:

I can honestly say that we are bad travellers. Maybe „lazy“ is an even better word. „Indifferent“ is also a word that might do or „without a plan“. We knew that there was a ship going to Athens and it will get there in the moning but how to get from the port to the hotel, or what even is the name of the hotel, was unknown to us. We get to Piraeus port and very conviently there seems to be a bus waiting for us there. Where the bus is heading we don’t know, but it seems to be heading outside the port area and as we can’t be bothered to think much beyond from that, we get on.

We leave the port and go into a cofee shop. Firstly we are hungry and secondly, we still need to figure out where to go and how. 

We find out that there’s a metroo stop right next to the port and it will take us easily to the vicinity of our hotel. From then on everything ran smoothly and next thing we find ourselves in a hotel on the foot of the Acropolis. It turns out that mum has booked us a room in a five star hotel for a very low price through connections in the veterinary circles of Europe.

We had previously decided that we would immediately climb the Acropolis, so that the weather would be cool, but as ever, life corrects itself (or room was just so comfortable) and we leave it when the sun is already high in the sky and the heat is suffocating (30°C in the shade). Still we carry on up the Acropolis. 

Our first sight is a very fat and incredibly lazy dog in the middle of the street. Later on, we find out that all of the dogs hanging around Acropolis are overweight, because tourists just constantly keep feeding them. It almost feels like a welfare issue and maybe Royal-Canin could put some dog food vending machines on the streets, which despense only Obesity or Satiety dog food ). I just saw a video on Facebook of a similar idea in Georgia. A person put a bottle or a jar in the machine and in exchange for that a little dog food come out into a food bowl. A passing dog (there’s a lot of them there) can get its belly full. The streets are cleaner and the dogs are feed. A good idea.

 Three above: pictures from the Acropolis

Someone has carved an Estonian greeting into the ancient stone.  "Tere" - "Hello"

Despite the heat and the mass of people we are in luck. We can vividly imagine what sort of chaos is going on here during the season and how hot it all can be. We don’t need a guide. We listen to what the tour guides around us tell in English and Maari listens to French, Silvia German and I Russian speaking tour guides. You can hear something interesting everywhere around you. 

But I feel the one with the most stories would be the black dog of Acropolis, who saunters inbetween people and is probably in every single photograph. A few days later I’m looking at a Siberian colleagues Akrpolis pictures on Facebook and behold – the same dog. When my Estonian colleague Janne Orro-Taruste climbs the Acropolis a few days later, she also sees the same dog, but unfortunately doesn’t take a picture. Does anyone else have a Picture of the black dog of Acropolis? Please share them on the United Vets Facebook page.

Unexpectedly we meet mr. Philippines, who meet in Georgia when seeing the Davida Gareja monestery. 

Another one of Acropolis' sights: a wandering turtle.

Silvia’s blog:

In the end we come to the desicion that we will go to the Acropolis first thing very early in the morning because it’s no tas hot and less jam packed with tourists. Still we get there around 11 o’clock, because as mentioned beofre we are lazy and without a plan, although the Acropolis is only a few hundred metress away from us.

Fortunately the queue was short, I stayed there whilst mum and Maari went to get some cash. They get back just in the nick of time, when I get to the register. Me and mum have to pay €12, but student Maari gets in for free. The day is hot, nicely around 25 degrees, but we must climb to the top and suck in the culture. There is not much to say about Acropolis itself, I’ll tell you more about it, when we get to the museum. Because actually the archeological site, the Acropolis, and the museum, that exhibits the statues and reliefs found lying around the summit (because Acropolis has been hit by a bomb and has peen pillaged quite a few times) are separate. Some of the statues of the Acropolis are at the British Museum in London.

Maari:

I have always dreamt of going to the Acropolis in the deepest corners of my mind. When the momentous day arrives, I haven’t got a lot of time to prepare myself and everything I’ve learnt about it before doesn’t spring to mind. You sort of get that those are the same stones, that you’ve studied and examined and gushed over in Estonia far far away, but that they are right before you in this moment – it’s hard to get it into your head. Of course the process was slowed down by massive hords of tourists, of whom there was more of on the mountain than old stones. But what do you do? There was more than enough gushing, I can tell you that.

Silvia:

Anyway, we are walking there and looking around and wondering at all the marvel, because it truly is an awe inspiring place. Maari the art historian next to me is obviously gasping at the sight of each stone, but I try to be understaning and listen to her gasping. I personally liked the museum much more than the house (Parthenon) itself, but more on that later.

As the weather is lovely and our hotel comes with a pool (aaaa wohoooo!), then we hurry back and lie by the pool. For some reason it is forbidden to swim there from two o’clock until half past four (some weird Greek siesta rule), but we don’t care, we want to get a tan. As it turns out, there is only a certain amount of sun there, because the pool is built in the courtyard in the middle of the tall buildings (not on the roof, where there’s 360° of sunshine) and we have to keep on moving from one deck chair to the next so that we can catch the sun that’s slipping behind the buildings.

After five o’clock we head towards the Plaka, which is a small and lovely neighbourhood right on the foot of the Acropolis – a lot of shops, restoraunts, coffee shops and so on. We walk around, our bellies grumbling and decide toe at a little something. A little snack, let’s say, because in the evening we have agreed on having dinner with mum’s colleague.

We go to a restaurant called „Estia“, because the name is cool and it’s had good reviews. We eat well and unfortunately quite a lot. 

We have once again forgotten the portion sizes of Greece and we become quite full.

Next we walk to the main shopping street because mum’s shoes are giving her pain and she needs to buy new ones. For some reason I have calculated that Athens must be warm even without the sun shining and therefore am without a jumper, which is turning my arms blue – therfore I also need something pretty and new to put on. Mum got her shoes, but I – being picky – didn’t find a warm thing to wear and was freezing all the way back to the hotel.

Nine o’clock we meet dr. Katerina Loukaki on the rooftop terrace. We are also greeted by the hotel director and he inquires about our wellbeing. Of course we are very content. It’s quite impossible to be dissatisfied here. They have even ordered good weather for us, because supposedly it was chilly a few days ago and they say it’s supposed to be cold again after we have already left.

Katerina’s colleague Theodore Chiotakis arrives and dinner is served. As aforementioned, Greek dinners and courses extend far beyond the reaches of human imagination. Therefore we first had a course of spaghetti with salmon, then salad in a basket, but the basket was no ordinary one, but a large basket you can take to the forest for gathering mushrooms. We were already stuffed, but then maincourse was served – chicken – and in the end wonderful cheese cake and a plate of fresh fruits. Those fruits lasted us for another two days. Oh, what delight – warm night, wine and food, lovely colleagues and relatively well-behaved children and on top of all that a beautiful view of the Acropolis all lit up in the night. What more could you possible want? Maybe only that man has four stomachs like cows do.

A picture with the beautiful Acropolis as background: dr. Chiotakis, dr. Toomet and dr.Loukaki.

Next morning the girls had some mandatory sunbathing to do, which I also took part of and then off to the Acropolis museum. It was truly stunning. I will rather let Silvia tell you about it, who spent much more time there than I did because I rushed off to dr. Katerina Loukaki’s clinic.

Silvia:

Later on we head off to the Acropolis museum. It was only recently opened, in 2007 if my memory serves me right. It really is a tremendously stunning museum. It is modern and roomy, full of light and air. 

The museum itself is built on big columns, so not to disturb the ruins of an ancient city found under the museum. We got to see them, but in the future it is also possible to walk around among them. The first floor of the museum contained old pots and pans and other stuff like that, the second floor held the statues of the Acropolis and so on. I was wearing a little black dress and small black shoes. I was standing next to an elderly American couple and looking at some statue, when I head the man saying: „Archeologists available for answering questions.“ He was reading a sign on the wall of the museum. They let their eyes wonder, looking for one and they found me next to them and asked: „Excuse me, are you an archeologist?“, to which I turned red and said no-no-no. The man then said: „Well, you look very smart.“ Why thank you, lovely American man! You made my day, honestly.

The third floor held restauraunts and the fourth floor was the most exciting one. Firstly they showed a great compendious movie about the Acropolis, which was very interesting and secondly, the entire floor was made from glass to be the exact size, shape and direction of the Parthenon, the biggest structure of the Acropolis. That was because they had brought large blocks of rock that had fallen off the roof of the Acropolis because of the bomb and laid in place exactly as it would have been on the Parthenon. It was an incredible experience, walking along with a big stone relief on one side and comparing it to the Parthenon that was behind the glass on top of the mountain.

 I definitely recommend visiting the museum beofre sunset, which painted the sky and experience an even more incredible shade of lovely. More so there are fewer people in the evening and it great to wander around a completely quiet and empty room with thousand year old statues all around you.

I take a cab to Ilioupolis to visit dr. Loukaki’s Veterinary Clinic, which is beautiful and brightly coloured. 

Who says that a clinic can only be white or in extreme cases pastel? Katerina’s clinic was boldly coloured and tastefully done, her husband is an achitect after all. I remember that Gizem’s clinic was also decorated with the help of her family, probably mostly by her craftsman mother with great sense of style.

Katerina still had a few patients and inbetween them she has time to show me around.

 I see with glee that someone besides me is also still using an age-old Spotchem machine. The one in my clinic is 30 year old and came to me from the laboratory in Helsinki university over ten years ago. It is still working it has been broken only once and is still very fast. We have also bought a new Vetscan to spare it (one must take care of oldies. Hopefully my staff think of me the same way?), but when we need solitary samples, our old Spotchem still does a good job. Katerina says that she is also very pleased with her biochemistry analyzer.  Oh, how they could make machines in the old days. I am reminded of the refridgerator in my summer house, that was bought in 1955, the year my brother was born and which served us extremely well (never broke down) and would still do, if my mother hadn’t insisted on getting a new one ten years ago, only because it rumbled like a steamboat and needed tons of electricity. I think everyone has now understood that I don’t like throwing away things that actually still work and buying new ones to replace them. Think back on the story of my old phone from St. Petersburg.

Katerina sees her patients and I’m entertained by Moussa (meaning „beard“) -  a miniature schnautzer, who accompanies her owner to work. It would be interesting to make a statistic of the most popular dog breeds that veterinarians own. Dr. Juola and dr. Sittnikow have an Australian terrier, dr. Gerhard a golden labrador. Christoph, I still don’t know what happened to Tobias! Dr. Sereda and dr. Taktak have muts and dr. Ermakov and dr. Loukaki have miniature schnautzers.

Katerina is a woman with incredible energy. She has been running her own clinc for 34 years (28 years at the current location) and at the moment she is helped by a young colleague Georgia Maltezou. I can’t imagine how it is possible to also do AA therapy and all of the things that require being a director of FECAVA. I do believe that Katerina is the most active representative. You can only imagine what FECAVA would be like if everyone worked so hard. Katerina continuously gives out FECAVA information to the members of her association and at the same time informs us of what is going on in Greece. In additon to the sharing and liking everything else sent by other memebers.

Katerina with her colleagues and Moussaga: From the left nurse Natali and vet.surgeon Georgia.

Once or twice a week an ortopaedic surgeon works at the clinic and twice a week an ultrasound specialist comes in. The opthalmologist is called upon when necessary.

The patient was brought in in this nice little bag, which was strapped to the owner's stomach.

It’s the end of the work day and we go to eat. I beg Katerina to save my poor stomach. Katerina and her husband laugh at me and promise to order a little of everything. Oh god – all of it was truly delicious. If things progress the same way I might have to start buying new clothes or borrowing a lab coat from a veterinary clinic. Katerina takes me to the hotel, saying good bye isn’t sad because we know that we’ll see each other in a only a few weeks time.

 The girls are in an open air cinema and get home after I do.

It’s our last day in Athens. Already. There are so many things that we still want to do/see.

    

We have lunch with dr. Ben Albalas, who was FECAVA president when Estonia joined  and go around in a sightseeing bus and then it’s time to get on the train to Thessaloniki.

Last pictures of animals in Athens, as well as a Mr.Zoo petshop seen from a bus window.

Sweet flavours and...

....exciting and contradicting architecture.

I must confess to the readers of my blog that Greece was the last post I managed to write on time, but as you can see it took me a year to post it. The parts to come will all be written with a delay.