From YYZ to SKG

Those that live in Toronto or have traveled to Toronto will know that the airport code for Pearson International Airport is YYZ. Toronto’s Airport was named after Canada’s Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. Pearson was Prime Minister just prior to the Trudeau years and he also won a Nobel Peace Prize. Toronto finally has a world-class airport with the majority of airlines using the new Terminal 1 and the remainder flying in/out of not-as-new Terminal 3.

This year’s trip to Greece saw me traveling with laptop in tow and I was also lucky to benefit from the newly offered free Wi-Fi at Pearson Airport. By now I assumed that all airports offered this but apparently not all airports provide free internet access. This year, I traveled to Greece on Air Canada’s first ever direct service from Toronto (Montreal as well) to Athens. Air Canada’s equipment (airplane) was an airbus. The plane is still relatively new, the service on board is courteous and the flight took-off and arrived on schedule. My one complaint to Air Canada is that the TV/movie service is very 1990 (no choice of programming or music) and for those that like following the plane’s progress on screen (like me), the plane’s monitors barely showed this info.

The key to Air Canada’s success in its route to Athens is partnering with a domestic Greek carrier. In the late Spring, Greece’s Aegean Airlines joined the Star Alliance – thus allowing for the smooth handling and transfer of luggage and a better coordination of connecting flights. Unfortunately, Greece is still a very centralized country with Athens being the main transport hub (regardless of logic). It is true, half of Greece’s population lives in and around Athens but there is another 5-6 million who live in the rest of Greece.

My family’s summer home is located in the northern Greek resort area known as Halkidiki and the nearest airport is located in Greece’s 2nd largest city, Thessaloniki. This is where I end up when I travel to Greece and when I check my luggage, I always make sure the tags say SKG – the airport code for Thessaloniki. In previous years, I traveled to Greece via Athens with Olympics Airlines Toronto-Montreal-Athens route. Frequent delays and poor onboard service forced me to seek other ways to travel to Thessaloniki. On many occasions I traveled to Greece via a connecting flight through a hub city somewhere in continental Europe.

This year, I traveled through Athens again but my connecting flight to Thessaloniki would be with Aegean Airlines. Aegean is a relatively new operator and despite all the good things I’ve heard about them – I was worried about possible Greek-style delays and bad memories of gruff service from Olympic Airlines. Athens Airport also has free Wi-Fi (for an hour) and my 2 hour layover passed quickly. I entered Aegean’s connecting flight to SKG and I entered a cool airplane, young and beautiful flight attendants at the door and eagerly (and smiling) welcoming me (and other passengers) onto the flight. Aegean crews let you know immediately that they thank you for your patronage and they put me at ease. Here I was, on board a Greek carrier that delivered on customer service.

I flew four times on Aegean this year: From Athens to Thessaloniki, a round trip from Thessaloniki to Athens and back and finally, Thessaloniki to Munich (Munich’s airport does not provide free Wi-Fi)on my home back home to Toronto. Each flight left on time, arrived on schedule and check-in and collection of luggage were timely. The on board crew were all women (apparently there are some stewards at Aegean) and they youthful beauty of these Greek women surely made an impression on me.

After landing in Thessaloniki and gathering my luggage, my uncle was waiting for me at the airport and he drove me to our family’s summer home, in Nea Kallikratia, Halkdiki – about 30 minutes south of the airport. I unpacked, chatted with my parents, caught-up with my uncle and we set off for an afternoon swim. I’m 6’3 and sleeping on an airplane doesn’t come easy for me. I’m pooched on my first day in Greece and a dive in the sea wakes me up, gives me the energy to push through the first evening.

After my swim, I wash up in the home’s outdoor shower and have an afternoon coffee. After that, I walked around the perimeter of our summer home and took a look at what my parents planted in the family garden.

We have eggplants and zucchini.

My family loves peppers.

Hot ones too!

Nothing beats tomatoes from the garden – no chemicals, just water, soil and manure.

With cucumbers, now we can make a Greek salad with produce from our garden!

The garden needs herbs. Here we have the Genoa basil.

Lots of parsley.

There is also mint.

I planted some tarragon last year and it’s grown back!

Our family just loves lemon verbena!

The Greek garden always has Greek basil present.

Here’s our pear tree.

We have “Nerantzia”,  bitter orange.

Here’s our pomegranate tree up close.

The ‘glystrida’ or pig-weed grows all on its own.

Fig trees are everywhere and in the area of Greece where we live – they are ready around Aug.15th.

The next day, I thoroughly enjoyed relaxing on the beach.

See this Greek flag? It will return in an upcoming post – involving the making of hand-made phyllo! Stay tuned.

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© 2007-2010 Peter Minakis