It seems forever ago I started planning this trip and then left it for ages milling around until it sort of sprung up on me to finish the details and here we are. A while ago when airfares first opened I did the tight arse Tuesday thing and booked a long, long haul of 35 hours when a 24 was available to me, which as I now contemplated the next 35 hours I sadly regret. What was I thinking?
It’s an 11 hour flight to Singapore, a 4 hours layover, a 13 hour flight to Frankfurt, a four hour layover and then a 3 hour flight to Athens. Add the get to Auckland airport and hotel in Athens and the extra 10 hours seemed like at least 9 too many. Although feeling like a bit of a spoilt brat as was telling, alright lecturing, my grandkids that sometimes you just have to be bored in order to get to where you want to be. It’s not all exciting all the time, It’s the end game that counts.
As I now sit here, the next day with it all behind us I shall admit it actually wasn’t that bad. It was long, boring and apart from getting lost in Frankfurt pretty uneventful. We flew Singapore airlines and they were good and Singapore airport does it well. You can wander the airport , look at the butterflies in the butterfly gardens, watch the fish in the Koi pond, and generally while away the time and best of all the transit is so easy.. By the time we reached Frankfurt the brain fog had definitely kicked in and we wandered off the plane and asked someone if we had to clear customs as we were just a transfer. An official pointer lady asked us if we were EU or non EU and we said non and followed her point. The passenger behind us asked the pointer lady if Australia was EU or not and I thought he has worse brain fog than me or I hope he has a good map.
We cleared customs out and then went in a circle and cleared customs back in but evidently at the wrong in place so then had to get on a bus, go somewhere else and then go through customs again to get back in. It’s here you finally realise that you are away from home as the pointy pointers and grumpy X-ray scanner men and the indifferent passport polizei don’t want to engage with your smile or hi or hello , they have heard it all before, just move along lady, on your bike. I am happy to oblige. As we wander the grey Frankfurt airport, with no butterfly gardens or koi ponds, in order to help stay awake and keep the blood circulating it is here in these final travel hours that I have to reign in my wandering thoughts of gloom with “but waits there’s more” as the toll of the journey is felt by everyone of my 61 years in my hips and butt and back and shoulders and neck and head. Take a Panadol, nearly there.
Rooftop bar the other hotel in the pic is across the road and the Acropolis in the distance.
We arrive. Yippeee. We get to our hotel and they cannot find our reservation. My heart sinks and my gloomy mind nearly has a panic attack but turns out we are at the sister hotel a block away. A smiley porter so likes our smile and hi and hello that he kindly jumps up to show the way. He takes my bag and we follow his chatter up the hill to our little hotel. The hotel is quaint and cute and we are given home made lemonade with ginger whilst we check in. All is well with the world.
It’s late afternoon and the plan is to stay awake until at least 8 pm. We wander back to the not sister hotel and go up to the pool bar where I have an Aperol spritz and WH has a beer and we eat nuts and olives and stare out to the view of the Acropolis.
With too many nuts and olives eaten to even contemplate dinner we simply go back to our quaint sister hotel and pretend to watch TV but promptly fall asleep.