And A Good Time Was Had By All

So, our little Athens getaway was a roaring success.  We had a fantastic time!

We had an early start Saturday, and, by 9am, we had already woken up, packed our bag, managed not to run out of gas on our way to the airport despite the face that we probably should have, made it to the airport, flown to Athens, woken up the groom on his wedding day with an early morning call, taken a (rip-off) taxi to the hotel, checked in, and accidentally flashed a man on the pool deck below us with my unladylike while wearing a dress antics.  We were there before our room was even ready, so we had a coffee, relaxed, and enjoyed each other and the change of scenery....

....and the scenery was none-to-shabby.....

We stayed at a four star hotel in a little beachside community outside of Athens.  While Athens is a big, often dirty city of about 4 million, it is also surrounded by water, and it has some amazing beaches and beachside areas.  We had no idea what to expect (traditionally, hotel stays are compliments of the wedding party in Greece) and we were certainly not disappointed.  Our time there consisted of lots of fun in the sun and relaxation.  I swear it feels like we really went far away....and stayed a lot longer than a matter of hours.

One highlight of the trip was meeting and chatting with some new friends.  They were two Romanian women in their fifties.  They had met as schoolgirls in Romania.  One married a Greek and the other a German and both relocated to their husband's countries, but they get together yearly, sometimes just them, other times with their families.  They were really neat ladies, and I enjoyed talking to other women married to a man from a culture other than their own.  I approached them because I saw they had English books (after so many years away from Romania, they actually speak to each other in English, a language they each use more on a daily basis,) and I was craving some English reading material.  They had nothing at all in English anywhere in this small resort area.  I know because I looked everywhere (Christos cautioned me on the way out the door on my search not to take too many of my new "weird" (blog) pictures...he is a bit bumfuzzled by my new-found obsession with taking pictures of "nothing.")  Anyway, the ladies loaned me a stack of English magazines, which added to my poolside satisfaction factor.

The wedding itself was beautiful.  It was very different from ours and much more formal and elegant.  Christos kept saying it was like a celebrity wedding.  The venue was absolutely breathtaking; it was held outdoors at a wine museum.  It was not at all like the all-over-the-place-anything-goes celebrations we are used to here in Corfu, but we enjoyed it all.

Now, for the highlight of the trip.......We were in the hotel room getting ready for the wedding.  I was drying my hair and Christos was in the bathroom.  The second I turned off the hairdryer, Christos called out from the bathroom, "Lini, can you come in here and take a picture of me?"  Immediately, my brain went into overdrive trying to imagine what in the world he was doing in there.  Whatever it was, he had obviously been waiting for me to finish the ever-lasting task of drying my hair to call me in there, so he could not have been standing on his head or anything.  I half expected to walk in and see him wearing my dress, which was "steaming" in the bathroom.  (Not because he has a habit of wearing dresses, just because that is the only thing I could imagine him doing in the bathroom... well, not the only thing I could imagine, but the only thing that I could imagine he wanted me to see, much less take a picture of, in the bathroom.)  But, when I walked in, this is what I saw:

He was so proud of himself...literally grinning from ear to ear.  He was like an 8 year old boy, saying "I haven't had a bath in yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaars"  I am sure this is true, because I cannot think of any place he would have had a bath.  We do not have a bathtub.  The whole thing spawned from him bringing me a little complimentary bottle from the bathroom.  When he asked what it was I told him bubble bath.  In actuality it was bath gel.  That explained the strange sounds I heard from the bathroom before I started drying my hair.  He was flapping around in there trying to churn up the water and make the bubbles come....they never did.  He used the whole bottle though, and that accounts for the interesting film floating on top of the water.

As a side note, I am not one for sitting down in strange hotel bathtubs, but whatever floats your rubber duckie.

So, about the plane.  Let me start by saying that Christos, as much as he hates to fly, and I mean he really hates it, has done amazing on our trips together.  I have persuaded him onto more planes in the last 12 months than his whole prior life altogether.  And it has not always been smooth sailing, or, more appropriately, flying.

On our trip to the States in November (his first overseas flight) we flew, far and away, on the smallest plane I have ever flown on internationally.  And I have made that trip a lot.  In addition, it was the most turbulent trip I have ever had.  Thank goodness, Christos did not know the difference (not that it made him like it anymore).  I kept saying that "overseas flights are always bumpy; this is totally normal" all the while wondering what exactly was going on.  Later, we found out we were making our trip flying over the remnants of what had been Hurricane Ida as it made its way up the Atlantic.

He handled it all heroically, and arrived calm and collected...unlike me.  Some genius decided the in-flight entertainment line-up should consist of "My Sister's Keeper" immediately followed by "Marley and Me."  I was bawling so hard a flight attendant actually came to ask if I was okay.

So, this time, the flight there was fantastic.  The plane was about the same size as the one we flew across the Atlantic on last fall.  And he was calm and relaxed preparing for the flight Sunday (despite the fact that we had to run like crazy people to our gate and shove our way through security because we decided to have a leisurely lunch that finished up right about the time that they were flashing "final call" for our flight....whoops!)  Anyway, we took the little tarmac trolley out to meet our plane (ah, island life) and this is what we saw:

Somebody was not impressed.

If you know Christos at all, you can tell that this is not exactly his "bubbling over with enthusiasm face."

Once again, Christos came through like a champ.  He did, however, have quite a lot to say (audibly....and with a fair share of naughty words) to and about the plane and its small stature.  He kept being angry at and blaming it all on the actual plane, as if it could help the fact that it was small.  Poor plane!  Anyway, we made it safely, and he was a lot happier camper back on the ground.

The plane back was a minor glitch in an otherwise wonderful weekend (and, really, it was not all that bad for me...I have to say I may be caught laughing at times at Christos and his raging at the plane, the air pockets, the wheels (for not coming back down exactly when he thinks they should) and, this time, the "traffic" that delayed our landing about 10 minutes.....I told you before, I am not as good at empathizing on this as I should be as I casually flip through magazines, doze, poke at Christos, laugh, try to make Christos laugh, deliberately annoy him, and eat the amazing Olympic Airlines candies.)

Anyway, all in all, it was a fabulous 2 days!  We cannot wait to do it again!

Hope everybody had a happy Father's Day weekend!