re-route

"Miss. I'm not sure we'll be able to do this, but start packing. You might need to be at JFK in one hour."

Let's back track a second. I woke up on Long Island Friday morning around 7:30 am., planning on spending the day in the city before taking a midnight flight to Athens. Except I woke up that Friday morning to three missed calls and nine text messages from Nicole. Our flight had been canceled due to weather, and the next ones were filling up—fast. By the time I got up, we were set to leave Sunday or Monday, which would significantly cut into our vacation and mess up ferry and airbnb bookings. We were PISSED.

After each speaking to three different customer service reps, then came Edgar. Edgar heard me out as I (politely?) shouted that I needed to get to Athens. I'd go from any other airport. I'd take a bus to Philly. I just needed to get there and now. 

(And remember, I'm in my pajamas at my brothers on Long Island, and Nicole is in her apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn - not having packed herself.)

That's when my man Edgar asked: "can you get to JFK in an hour? There is a flight leaving soon that can take you." I responded without thinking "YES," gave him both our confirmation #'s, and told Nicole to throw clothes in her bag & order a Lyft to the airport. I think I texted her three separate times in two minutes, "just leave." 

I didn't even know what our new flight number was, or when it exactly was taking off. Or what the new travel route was. I just knew that Edgar promised we'd get to Athens by Saturday, which was all that mattered.

And we somehow made it on that plane.

so tired/stressed/ on a plane to Dubai?

I'm too jet lagged to tell this story decently well, but the short of it is we had to fly 12 hours to Dubai, to then backtrack five hours to Athens. (Our original flight was direct: Newark to Athens. How luxurious sounding.)

But we made it! We arrived at our Airbnb in Athens after trying to learn (for 45 minutes...) how to say "Thank You" in Greek from our cab driver. It is hard to pronounce. Our hosts greeted us with homemade baklava, a bottle of wine, more bath towels then I'll ever care to own, a fridge filled with eggs and olives, and homemade beaded bracelets that say G R E E C E on them (you know, those block letter things...).

Anyhow, this place is just what we need ($40 a night ... holla) on the outskirts of town. (Think: the Queens of New York City.) After settling and showering, we stumbled into a hole-in-the-wall restaurant for boiled feta, eggplant spread, dolmas, and mushrooms, and took mint tea home with us. It's 7:45 PM, and we're ready for bed.

Tomorrow is a day to take in all of Athens, and then we're getting on ferry for a week in Santorini.

Until then, a few takeaways:

1) we are so grateful we made it/ EDGAR IS THE MAN
2) I somehow have a curse where whenever I travel back to NYC the weather is awful
3) My flying is getting somehow, slightly better. Maybe it's because I watched The Big Sick??
4) I cannot wait for more boiled feta