I love Greece.
I know I’ve had this sort of up and down and all around kind of relationships with my little Ελλάδα. But now. I just love it. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that I actually slept 10 hours last night, on a real bed, in real air conditioning. It might also have something to do with the fact that I woke up and took both a shower and a bath this morning and I didn’t have to drain my own shower or shave my legs on a toilet.
But whatever.
I love Greece.
I woke up this morning feeling amazing and after spending a solid 2 hours on my own primping, I set out to find Alissa. Our husbands had left us already and had headed to the Athens (Αθήνα) airport to catch their early morning flights. We had agreed the previous night that we would meet in the lobby just after our noon check-out and we would walk to the airport together to try and get her on an earlier flight. I strolled down at 12:15 and Alissa was nowhere to be found. I sat around for about 20 minutes, then walked to every common area of the hotel looking for her with no success. She must have gone to the airport alone. So I stroll across the street and begin at one end of the terminal and walk all the way to the other. Still no Alissa.
I’m hoping, at this point, that she got news of an earlier flight and booked and was already past security. But I was a bit worried that if I left and went back to the hotel without finding her that she might need help. So I walked the length of the terminal again, absolutely exhausted and no one. So I turn around and head back to the hotel. As I’m walking out the sliding door, there she is, standing in line at a ticket booth. I run up, she embraces me almost in tears, she can’t figure out how to get back and is terrified she’s going to be stuck until the following day. And she was right, no amount of persuading could get her home any earlier. She was stuck with me.
I had purposely booked my flight for the following day, knowing that was the easier day for Andrew to pick me up from the airport. My flight left at 4 AM, so I knew I would only have to loiter for a bit before going through security and sleeping my way back to Spain. Alissa was bound to be stuck until about noon though, and unwillingly.
Fortunately, I had a plan. I had asked the hotel concierge if it would be possible to still use the hotels public amenities during the day explaining that my flight didn’t leave until very late and I had no intention of sitting in the airport lounger all day.
“Oh, of COURSE Mrs. Farr, you absolutely can still use everything.”
So use everything we did.
First up was the wi-fi and some lunch. I used aforementioned wi-fi to reinstate my credit card which was turned off after I charged it in 4 different countries in 4 days. I used aforementioned credit card to buy us lunch and then massages. We enjoyed our massages and then promptly ordered large to-go Mojito’s from the hotel bar and took poolside naps in the hotel pool on these gorgeous cushy lounge chairs. We then went back to the same lunchtime restaurant, ordered MORE mojitos and stole about 100 breadsticks before finally heading to the airport at about 11 PM. We found our little nap-spot near a railing, made our beds and napped.
At 2:45 AM, my alarm went off to wake me for my flight. I said bye to my new best friend and promised a reunion soon.
I boarded my flight to Madrid and passed out before we took off.
