Today was our final drive in Greece. We needed to make the 2.5 hour trip from Mystras to Athens where we were scheduled to drop off our car at the airport. We had arranged a ride from the airport to our apartment for the night, and the drop off went off without a hitch.
The problems started when the young guy who was our driver informed us that he was not available to take us back to the airport as we had previously arranged. We weren't happy to hear that news but we decided that we could figure it out when we got to our apartment.
We had scheduled an apartment in Athens through airBnB and I had been in communication with the apartment owner the night before we were to arrive back in Athens. He informed me that due to some repairs on the apartment we were supposed to be in he needed to switch us to a different apartment that he owned. I agreed that the change would be fine as long as the apartment was up to the same standard as the one we had already paid for.
Upon arrival at our apartment we glanced around and it seemed fine except we found out that it did not have Wi-Fi as we had been promised. We were dismayed by that news because we already knew that we needed to arrange a ride back to the airport in the middle of the night, along with last minute tasks like checking in for our flight.
We decided to do a load of laundry so that we could pack clean clothes in our backpacks. The washing machine immediately caused a flood in the bathroom where it was located. That is when we started to look around and began discovering the problems not evident at first glance. When we went to hang laundry outside one of the outside doors was broken, and when we went outside through the functional door we found there was no clothesline available. When we went to leave the apartment to run our last minute souvenir errands the handle on the front door was broken and we were afraid we might not be able to get back in again. When we returned to the apartment it was evening and we discovered that there was only one light in the entire apartment. It was dinner time so we went to the kitchen to make some dinner and discovered that our "fully furnished apartment " had no plates, glasses or utensils. There was also not a pot or pan in sight. We had suffered the mother of all bait and switches.
The good news was that during the repacking of my backpack I rummaged through every pocket until I found the business card of the taxi driver who had given us a ride when Deiann and I were together in Athens the first time. He was the taxi driver that had given Deiann, Kim, Danielle and I a ride 1.5 weeks before. As we got out of his taxi that day he offered me his business card and said "just in case you need another ride while you're in Athens". In that moment that I found the business card, I was very grateful to be a "keeper of things".
As we descended the apartment stairs in the middle of the night we could see that the taxi driver was waiting outside the glass front door for us. Our relief knew no bounds. I had texted back-and-forth with the taxi driver to arrange our ride but we were relieved and happy to see him there in person, as promised. We weren't certain he would be there due to all of the mishaps of the prior 12 hours.
As my five week Greek odyssey came to a close, I was as always when I'm at the end of my travels, sad to have it all be over but grateful that it had happened.
I have a new grandbaby on the way, due in just over two weeks and a baby shower planned within that time. Days after the grandbaby arrives Tom and I have a two week vacation in Lake Tahoe, California planned so I have all of that to look forward to which softens the blow.
I have no idea where my next holiday will be but it's time to get started planning!
No comments:
Post a Comment