8/3: Milan to Athens

Our excitement at returning to Athens and nearing the end of our two-month sojourn was tempered by the day’s logistics. We had a noon checkout, which was relaxing, but pretty much everything from there went haywire.

We shouldered our heavy bags and walked to the metro, which we rode to Stazione Centrale. There, we had to figure out how to purchase bus tickets to the airport.

The 30-minute mildly air-conditioned bus shuttle to Milan Malpensa was uneventful, but we had to wait in long EasyJet lines in order to check our bags. We ate a mediocre lunch, then waited in our terminal for nearly two hours until our flight.

CLARIFICATION: There is NOTHING easy about EasyJet.

Let me illuminate this point right now: EasyJet sucks. We had an awful experience using their service from Athens to Rome, and on this day, they were equally terrible getting us from Milan to Athens. After being checked through the ticket counter, we were forced to wait in an August-hot jetway, presumably until the stewardesses remembered to open the plane door and let passengers embark. When we at last boarded the plane ourselves, we realized stewardesses were basically ineffectual. We were being ushered onboard and into seats like cattle, and we barely found seats next to one another.

In summary, DO NOT use EasyJet unless traveling alone, traveling light, or seeking masochism.

We touched down in Athens two and a half hours later (it was somewhere around 10pm local time), and rushed to board the metro into the city in hopes of finding a place open for dinner that late. That's not exaggeration: we had to sprint from the terminal to catch the last metro train into Athens, or risk trying to find a taxi at that late hour. We were angry and exhausted, but managed to--once more--haul our heavy luggage at a near-sprint across the concourses and down escalators to make the train.

With that bullet dodged, we thought we were in the clear, but had perhaps the worst near-mishap at a train exchange in the city. We switched trains beneath Syntagma Square (home of the early rioting and current protests against the Prime Minister), but I boarded the train immediately before the doors closed--leaving Annie standing shocked on the platform. I turned around to see her shut out...and we both panicked. Thank God someone elsewhere had tried boarding last-minute too, and the doors got jammed or malfunctioned because they opened up again briefly. I had just enough time to reach out for my still-stunned wife and yank her aboard, apologizing the entire time. We ignorantly had no "separation plan" for a case like this, so it could have been awful trying to rendezvous without any means of communicating a plan.

Debating whether to check in first on our arrival in downtown Athens, we decided instead to hike straight into Plaka--with our heavy bags still shouldered--to our favorite gyro place. Mercifully, they were still open for dinner at 11pm, and kindly let us store our bags in the back of the dining room while we feasted on meat, Greek salad, and cold beer.

NOT PICTURED: Delicious cold beer.

It was after midnight when we checked in at the Divani, but they had no qualms with our late arrival. We learned that the taxis were still striking, however, and that the strike probably would not conclude before we departed Athens--which meant we’d likely have to pay for a pricey private car.

Dismissing that as a worry for another day (albeit in the very immediate future), we retired to our room for much needed showers, then collapsed in bed, exhausted.