I think it’s safe to say a lot of people reflect on their lives when a year comes to an end. At the end of 2016, I had a lot to be thankful for; the year started off with the worst heartbreak I had ever encountered, by June I was backpacking through southeast Asia by myself and loving every minute of my life, in November I had wrapped up an EP I had been recording / working on for YEARS (I’m a musician for those who don’t know!), and just felt I was thriving in a lot of aspects I had previously been treading water in. I decided to finally plan my dream trip. A summer in Greece, Italy, Croatia, and France. I found a flight into Athens and out of Paris for around $800 on Orbitz for a few weeks in July 2017. With little hesitation, I booked it.
I faced a few challenges leading up to the trip; my boss was less than pleased with me leaving for 3 weeks which is understandable; I work a lot of hours and three weeks is a pretty good chunk of time to take off. Luckily, she was supportive as my motto is always “Ask for forgiveness, not permission.”
My flight ended up being delayed by 4.5 hours. I had a 5 hour layover in Stockholm (and was pretty excited to see the airport as I have heard wonderful things!) and was starting to get nervous that I wasn’t going to catch the connecting flight (it could have been much worst, other people only had a two-hour connecting flight and were positive they had already missed their connection). I would like to point out that this wasn’t the airline’s fault; there was awful weather in NYC that night (tons of heavy rain) so every single flight leaving was delayed. There was a flight going to Istanbul right next to my gate and they were delayed by EIGHT hours!
After tons of airport wine and chatting with a girl who was about to move to Bosnia, we took off and landed in Sweden at 3:45PM (my flight to Athens left at 3:55PM). While slowly treading along the airport runway, a girl stood up on my plane and said “My flight leaves in 10 minutes!” and the crew just explained as soon as the plane stopped moving to let people who had connecting flights to get off of the plane first. About thirty of us sprinted to exit. I ran through security and customs in about five minutes, and ran to my gate strongly assuming I had missed the plane by this point. I was surprised to find out the flight was twenty minutes delayed, so as I got to my gate, they had only JUST started boarding. I immediately got on the flight to Athens and was on my way!
I landed in Athens and grabbed a frappe right away.
I walked over to baggage claim to learn that our bags had never arrived because of the rushed layover. This obviously caused stress as I was about to embark a 24-day journey and I have heard many horror stories of people losing luggage to never see it again. I had bought travel insurance so I knew I at least had that to fall back on in the future, but in the meantime, I felt like I had limited options. I had to wait in an overwhelmingly long line and surrounded by a ton of negative energy (no one was thrilled that their bag was missing). I left the airline my name, number, and hotel information. The issue for a lot of people was that Athens is a common “hub” spot but people seldom stay for more than a day or so. The same girl that actually came forward on the plane to say “Our flight leaves in ten minutes!” was leaving for Mykonos in the morning and Montenegro three days later! I still wonder to this day if she ever saw her luggage.
What can you do? Things happen. I was still grateful to be there and thought it would actually be funny to capture my twenty-four day experience wearing the same ugly airport clothes if worst came to worst.
I jumped in a taxi to go to my hotel, Piraeus Dream, and was too tired to fully process the fact that I may never get my bag. I just wanted to get some sleep. I checked in, got settled in and informed the hotel that they may be receiving a call at any point in regards to my bag. I discovered there was a cute hotel bar / restaurant on the top floor so decided to head up for a much needed glass of wine and some authentic Greek food.
I ordered shrimp saganaki, a traditional Greek dish named after the pan it was prepared in. Mine came with chunks of feta little toasties for scooping up all of the delicious sauce. They also gave me tzatziki which was by far the best I’ve EVER had (and I had it plenty of times in Greece, but this place had it spot on). After a few glasses of vino, I started to tell my waitress about my bag (thank you liquid truth serum), and she was so kind as to give me a free glass of wine (which I definitely did not need at that point).
I got a good night of sleep and caught the sunrise thanks to my dear friend jet lag.
The next day I headed to the Acropolis. I had planned a tour but got there about four hours ahead of time (also thanks to my dear friend jet lag), so I grabbed a frappe and some traditional Greek yogurt.
I ended up buying a hat since my hair brush was in my luggage which was still nowhere to be found. I went on the tour and the Acropolis is truly a stunning sight to see. The history is amazing and I learned so much about the Greek goddesses (and learned quickly that I am Dionysus, the goddess of wine). I, however, unfortunately found myself having anxiety over my bag. I am ashamed to admit that I felt ugly; I saw everyone in their cute outfits and here I was stuck in the same smelly airport clothes I had been wearing for almost forty hours at that point. Between the crowds, the heat, and the discomfort of not knowing where my stuff was, I ended up leaving a little earlier than planned.
Theatre of Dionysus
Same old clothes but new hat!
I was getting hungry and frustrated (or as we call that, hangry) so I left to get some food and have a beer.
Well if there’s one thing that can instantly put me in a better mood, it’s some delicious food with a lot of love in it. This lamb was pull apart tender and one of the best dishes I’ve ever had. The waiters were so friendly and laughed that I had a cupcake tattoo on my back. One of them grabbed a pen and drew a moussaka tattoo on my arm!
My anxiety quickly dissipated and I realized the best cure for any type of blues are just talking to the people around you, allowing yourself to be a little vulnerable sometimes and being friendly and open-minded. I had heard so many negative things about the “creepy Greek guys” and people trying to rip you off because of their current economic state, but after less than twenty-four hours in the country, I learned Greek people are some of the friendliest I had EVER met.
That night I still had no word on my luggage. I reached out to Norwegian Airlines and they were not very helpful. They explained I had to wait five days before officially filing a claim. I considered going to the H&M around the corner to buy a few essentials, but I didn’t budget buying extra clothes for a whole twenty-four days. I sat on the toilet and cried for a solid twenty minutes, questioning if it was worth feeling so upset over something so miniscule. After all, I was in GREECE, on my dream trip! Who cares about some stupid fancy clothes? It felt like the ultimate personal test.
I remembered my lesson from earlier on in the day that when my hopelessness kicked in at the Acropolis and how it was quickly turned around once I spoke to a few locals.
I decided to head back up to the hotel bar for a small bite and some more vino. I had the same waitress as the day before and she asked “Any luck on your baggage?” When I told her no, she quickly brought me some breadsticks and tzatziki. Already feeling better in the comfort of food and drink and good people, I realized putting myself out there was a lot better than sitting in my room sulking on a damn toilet.
Improperly holding a glass of wine^
I eventually worked up an appetite and ordered sea bream, a fish that was only found in the Mediterranean.
Clearly it was delicious.
I had plans to head to Santorini the next day and still had no luggage. I feared leaving Athens incase my bag was going to arrive so I talked to hotel about possibly staying an extra night. They knew of my situation and offered me a discounted rate if I decided to do so. Once again, showing the kind hospitable ways of the Greek people. I fell asleep and had a ferry booked to Santorini at 11am the next morning. I woke up at 3am with a phone call coming to my hotel room, and guess what?
Off to Santorini, with a bag full of clothes and necessities, with a whole lot of adventure over the next twenty-two days.