arriving in greece

[memelaina]

We got up Saturday at 3:30am - which gives oh dark thirty even new meaning - and by 4:10
when ted showed up to ferry us to the denver airport, we were showered and ready to go. i
had already carried my suitcase out to the driveway which kent said was a very bad idea as
someone might steal it. i took that risk. we loaded ted's car and headed for denver.

check in was easy, security was easy, and we boarded on time and were able to trade for
aisle and window seats with an empty seat between. i'm sure it must have been a nice flight
to philadelphia, but i slept nearly the whole way. in philadelphia we wandered from one end of the airport to the A gates at the other and had lunch at Cristie and Pete's seafood.
the clam chowder was very tangy and less creamy than usual - exceptionally good. the
mussels were gorgeous, but so covered with red pepper flakes that kent only at two and i
managed only a few more than that. at which point it was time to go sit in the gate and
wait for them to call our plane to athens.

we had booked two seats on the far side (F&G) on side and when we got there found them way
tiny for the two of us. but the plane was not full and the passenger across from us in the
center traded us our set of two seats for his row of three so again we had an empty seat
between us and were very comfortable. food on USAir was not bad but more minimal than
anything i've been served on an international trip in my whole life. a tiny portion of
chicken bits with a little bbq sauce on top, five pieces of fried potato, a roll with no
butter, a tiny dab of salad and a 2" square bit of cake. breakfast in tne morning was an
apple pastry (about the size of a McDonals's apple pie) and a choice of juice, tea, or
coffee.

but before breakfast we had to stop in milan. why milan? what on earth did we do in milan?
we flushed the toilets. which had been building up overnight and were about to run over.
our onboard flushers apparently were not working. so we came down on the milan airstrip.
someone came out and flushed the toilets from outside the plane, and we took off again.
this caused a two hour delay which in turn made us miss our connection to Mykonos.

Terry, who was supposed to have arrived an hour after us but had actually arrived nearly two
hours before, met us at international arrivals. We got our bags ( about a 20 minute wait )
went through the non existant customs and up to check in for the next flight to mykonos.
but no! they could not just put us on the next flight, we must go stand in line at the
service desk to "rebook".

Rebooking involved almost an hour in line and with the representative who finally and with
great difficulty managed to get us on the 6pm flight. at a cost of about $100 each for a
change fee, a difference in the price of flights, and, wait for it... a no show fee for our
original flight.

poorer but with seats assigned we met up with the last two members of our party - sandra and
my sister juanita - and headed off for lunch. since we had 4 hours to kill we went to the
spiff restaurant upstairs. it had true Greek service. we were greeted pleasantly and asked
to take a seat in the waiting area while someone cleared our table, half an hour later the
table was cleared and we sat down. Half and hour later someone came to see if we would like
something to drink. about 20 minutes later someone came to ask if we would like anything to
eat. half an hour later they brought us some food. a great way to sit in comfy seats and
spend three hours on lunch.

of course, i managed to leave my green plastic folder with ALL of my reservations and
vouchers and paperwork on the table when i left. and when i came up to get it (it was
propped behind the phone at the end of the bar, i proceeded to trip down the one little step
from the bar to the hallway and fell flat on my face, folder skuttling across the walkway.
no less that five gentlemen (may their mothers' be praised) jumped to my assistance, lifted
me off the floor, and picked up my papers. everyone asked if i were hurt, i wasn't, and an
elderly lady made me promise to drink a glass of water, a glass of water was needed after a
fall. i agreed, thanked them all, and went to meet the rest of the group in the waiting
area for our plane to mykonos.

the seats on this plane were tinier, if that is possible, than on the other planes. seeing
the largeness of myself and my sweetie the fligth attendant kindly moved the young japanese
man in the aisle seat to the one empty seat on the plane and left kent and i the whole row.
aren't people nice?

our driver was waiting for us at the door in mykonos after we picked up our luggage and
tucked us into his minivan for the ten minute ride to the Petinos Beach Hotel where the
slightly nervous young receptionist explained to us that there had been a "difficulty" or
even a "mistake" with the reservations and that she must accomodate us at a different hotel.

the family owns three hotels, the two star Pelican, the three start Petinos Beach, and the
four star Nissaki. she was devastated to tell us that the Petinos Beach was full and we
would be given rooms at the Nissaki. we relieved her mind by smiling and telling her it was
no problem. At that point in our travels a shack on the beach with a canvas cot would have
been happily accepted.

Instead we got huge, gorgeously appointed rooms with marble floors, marble bathrooms with
hot tubs, and hand held showers, and a private terrace with lovely padded sun beds with a
vie out onto the bay. they even opened the restaurant for us - we were the only people
there - and we ate lamb chops and fettuncini and drank mavrodaphne sweet red wine. i went
to bed at ten hoping to sleep through the 2am jet-lag-willies and didn't wake up until ten
the next morning.

Comments

[ericavdg.livejournal.com]

Ooooooo! Greece! Lucky you! (Although not about the falling on face and missing planes stuff. Hope you're OK.) Greece is on my must-go-to list, but Karl and Lydia aren't so enthused. But I'll go sometime in my lifetime, even if it has to be alone. Have a grand vacation!