Yellow and blue

Today, we went to IKEA. I had only ever been to IKEA once, and that was also to this Thessaloniki store, so I am still not overly familiar with IKEA-ing. We decided, finally, to buy a mattress, after a month of suffering on the so-called "orthopedic" mattress of yiayia's (my husband jokes that it is orthopedic because you have to see an orthopedist after sleeping on it). Since Beautyrest seemed to be out of the question here, and some other mattress places seemed really expensive (especially since this mattress will be a transition mattress for us, and probably go in the guest room when we move in a couple years), we decided IKEA was the way to go.

Today also marked the first time I actually drove around Thessaloniki. Yea, sure, we drove in from Litochoro now and then, but we always drove straight to my in-law's apartment and that was it. I had my first real Ring Road experience (for Tennesseans, think I-440, basically the same concept at work), as we had to drive towards the airport to get to IKEA. Ready for the rant? Here goes.

Obviously, the same morons who designed the Athens roads had their hands in the Thessaloniki mix, because good lord, you had no warning when a lane would end, or a lane would end in an exit. Exit signs were dubious, at best, and, for god's sake, I had to end up behind Farmer Dan on his tractor with too much traffic coming too fast on the left to get over (and this was our brief stint on the actual interstate, no less, not the Ring Road). And, excuse me, but what kind of road design is having to make a left hand turn of 120°? It was almost as if I was headed back the way I was coming! Sure, ok, I remember Nashville, with its expansive roads that traverse the entire city but change names every couple of miles, but at least the road layout makes sense, and signs are very clear and accurate and warn you with plenty of time for exits and ending lanes and what have you. You don't have roads in Nashville that, at one stop light, you have the option of going any of 5 or 6 different directions (And this isn't a one-time thing in Thessaloniki or Athens, all the major intersections seems to be like this). Luckily for us, we took the city road back straight to the city center, with little traffic and much ease.

As for IKEA, well, love the products, but hate the clusterfuck that is the Thessaloniki (and I'm sure Athens) IKEA. You have to realize, Greece does not have a smattering of Wal-Marts and Targets all over every city, so if you want a one stop place to get linens, towels, pillows, kitchen stuff, lamps, etc., this is it (well, there is also Praktiker, but it is more hardware-like in nature, although it does have these things). And this means everyone in Northern Greece, and possibly some of Greece's northern neighbors, come to IKEA on Saturday. And half these people don't have the common sense to leave their kids in the play area at the beginning of the store. And if you think Nashvillians at a busy Target are bad, you have no idea what Greeks at a busy IKEA are like. Pushing and bobbing and weaving and running around.

Anyway, I'm glad that shopping experience is over, and at least we got quite a few things we needed, including a nice new softer mattress, which will be arriving within the next 10 days, for the cheap delivery fee of 10 euros. A few hours inconvenience for a good night's sleep will be worth it.