{"id":3417,"date":"2012-06-11T06:38:24","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T06:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=3417"},"modified":"2012-10-13T19:31:22","modified_gmt":"2012-10-13T19:31:22","slug":"wow-unexpected-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=3417","title":{"rendered":"Wow! Unexpected Surprise!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Costas and I – moments before saying farewell<\/p><\/div>\n

My thoughts had been, not to bother writing a Blog about my journey back to New Zealand, unless there was something extraordinary to tell … and there is, so here goes.<\/p>\n

Tuesday, my last day in Spetses with Costas … aside from getting organised for my departure, we had lunch out together at Filippos and I arrived in Bar Spetsa before 2100 hours.\u00a0 As expected, Ray and Heather came in to see me, also Debbie –\u00a0after enjoying four 5 Star Metaxa’s with ginger ale, I was home before 0030 hours, supposedly for a\u00a0night of slumber.\u00a0 Unfortunately, sleep was not too forthcoming and Costas\u00a0late arrival\u00a0home at 0540 hours did nothing to help the situation, but … never mind.<\/p>\n

Wednesday morning out of bed at 0820 hours … made ready for my journey, said farewell to the cats, then Costas and I made\u00a0the short walk to Filippos for coffee – but first, freshly squeezed orange juice and a toasted sandwich.\u00a0 I had no idea when the next refreshments would\u00a0be as my schedule was a tight one.\u00a0 Joined by Ray and Heather …\u00a0 a sad but controlled departure on time at 1045 hours, arriving in Piraeus at 1330 hours.\u00a0 Anxious about whether or not the bus would get me to the airport on time, I had pretty much decided to take a taxi.\u00a0 Ready and waiting to be one of the first off\u00a0the hydrofoil, I was swamped by taxi drivers looking for business.\u00a0 Knowing the cost should be no more than 50 Euro, I went with Ioannis in his Mercedes Benz … he quoted 45-46 Euro, seemed honest and has been in the business 28 years.\u00a0 Ioannis had me to the airport in 45 minutes and I paid 46 Euro.\u00a0 Thank goodness I took a taxi.\u00a0 Had I not, I doubt that I would have been in time to take advantage of what was about\u00a0to be offered to me.<\/p>\n

Proceeded immediately to Emirates economy check-in desk.\u00a0 Was asked if I had booked and paid for my ticket myself … yes, strange I thought but I had for the first time booked myself online. \u00a0Anyway, after a 5 minute wait and an attempted telephone call, I was told to go to Desk 35 –\u00a0apparently there was a “message” for me.\u00a0 As I waited, Costas telephoned … told him to phone back as at that point,\u00a0I\u00a0did not\u00a0know what was going on.\u00a0 Others ahead of me were taking some time to process … after a long wait, my turn came and\u00a0very soon I was to realise the wait would\u00a0be worthwhile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Due to over sales, Emirates were asking me to accept re-routing with Aegean Airlines to Larnaca, Cyprus and then on to Dubai with Emirates, arriving just a couple of hours later than I would have done on the flight I had booked.\u00a0 In return, I was offered and of course, accepted an Options Voucher … valid for one year and\u00a0the reason for issue being Denied Boarding Compensation – A COMPLIMENTARY TICKET FOR A ROUND TRIP – Auckland\/Athens\/ Auckland!\u00a0 Thank you very much Emirates – I will certainly be able to use it come October.<\/p>\n

So it was a frenetic hour and a half at the airport … from Desk 35 to the Emirates ticketing and reservations – to\u00a0the far end of the terminal\u00a0to check-in my luggage with Aegean Airlines – Costas called again as I raced back to Emirates ticketing and reservations – quickly told him of my good fortune and felt guilty that I had not the time for a decent conversation – passport control – duty free purchases of Metaxa 5 Star x 2 for me and a Metaxa 7 Star for my son Dave – through security check , then on to Gate A13.\u00a0 Flight time to Larnaca 1 hour 10 minutes during which time we were served a Baguette with Turkey and Edam Cheese – also a Yogurt with Honey and I had a coffee.\u00a0 Waiting time\u00a0at Larnaca Airport\u00a0would be about three and a half hours during which time I would sit in a Bar with a pint of Amstel and write this Blog thus far.<\/p>\n

Eventually up and away on an A330-200 … it had come from Malta and would take us all on to Dubai.\u00a0 Before boarding I spoke with a lady from Perth who together with her husband, had been visiting family in Greece, as well as two guys from Sydney who were part of a television crew … they too had received complimentary round trips and were as ecstatic as I was.\u00a0 We were served dinner which I had with a red wine – all very nice and with a spare seat next to me, a little more room to spread out and relax.<\/p>\n

Arrived in Dubai 0100 hours local time (midnight Greek time) – made it to my hotel by 0230 hours and in bed by 0330 hours.\u00a0 Knowing my wake up call would be at 0700 hours, I didn’t sleep all that well, afraid I may not hear the call and miss my flight … I needed to catch the shuttle bus back to the airport by 0800 hours.\u00a0 Checked in luggage weighed 25.2kg … hand luggage – well, that would be any one’s guess and added to further with duty free shopping.\u00a0 Settled into window\u00a0seat 49K on the A380-800 with a spare seat between me and a very pleasant lady\u00a0travelling from London back to Sydney.\u00a0 Lunch went down well, then settled in for the long haul … as always I\u00a0enjoyed listening to music such as Sam Cooke and Eric Clapton to name but two and I watched some eight episodes of “Fawlty Towers”.\u00a0 Dozed a little, served pizza sometime during the night and breakfast closer to arriving in Sydney.\u00a0 At the airport brushed teeth, washed face and all that stuff which makes one feel\u00a0a whole lot better.\u00a0 As we\u00a0left Sydney, the views of the city were just stunning.\u00a0 Served another breakfast … smooth run all the way to Auckland – 1525 hours flight on to Wanganui – back now with family and friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My thoughts had been, not to bother writing a Blog about my journey back to New Zealand, unless there was something extraordinary to tell … and there is, so here goes. Tuesday, my last day in Spetses with Costas … aside from getting organised for my departure, we had lunch out together at Filippos and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3417"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3430,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417\/revisions\/3430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}