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Published: April 6th 2023
Light your lamp before night overtakes you… ~ Greek Proverb
HE SAID... Today we were travelling back to Australia from Santorini – via Athens, Dubai, Melbourne and Hobart.
We woke early, despite feeling exhausted from Ren’s birthday celebrations the day before. We had a basic (and fairly disappointing) breakfast in the crowded dining area of Hotel Albatros. The hotel was full, and there were only three black tea bags left. A first world problem I know, but a problem all the same (for me, anyway). I had one cup of tea, yoghurt with muesli, and a few glasses of fruit juice.
We made the most of the hotel’s 11am checkout. We organised our packs and hydrated as much as we could in preparation for the long-haul flight home. We then settled in the hotel’s reception area and made use of the fast Wi-Fi to select photos for a few Facebook posts. We had booked an airport transfer the night before, and while our driver was a little late arriving, it didn’t matter in the least. The airport was very close to the hotel, and we got there in the mid-afternoon with hours to spare.
Our flight from Santorini to Athens was delayed, but we had allowed
enough time between flights to avoid the worry and hassle of trying to meet tight timeframes. We left Santorini in the early evening, and we could just make out a few islands in the Aegean Sea far below us. It was a very quick flight. We touched down at Athens International Airport within 45 minutes.
We grabbed a toasted sandwich (tomato and feta) and a
freddo cappuccino (a cappuccino served over ice) from one of the airport cafes, then made our way to the gate lounge and waited to board our flight. The gate lounge was surprisingly basic, but luckily we didn’t spend much time there. We boarded our flight around 11pm, and despite a slight hiccup with our boarding passes (the ones we had been issued in Santorini had to be re-printed), we were seated in no time and lifting off the tarmac of Athens International Airport. We had left Greece.
This second leg of our homeward journey – Athens to Dubai – was only five hours in duration. When we touched down at Dubai International Airport in the early morning hours, we were exhausted. We had a five-hour wait for our flight to Melbourne, which is
never appealing (even when you’re feeling upbeat and sprightly). There was little else to do, so we simply waited, and waited…
Dubai International Airport was disappointing. Firstly, the departure area was under renovation, which meant the amount of space available to transiting passengers was significantly reduced (albeit temporarily). With the number of people coursing through the terminal, this made it very difficult to move around. Secondly, the airport only publishes gate lounge numbers two hours before a flight, so we had to set up camp in the middle of the heavily congested terminal and wait for three hours until our gate lounge was allocated.
When our gate lounge finally appeared on one of the few departure screens in the heaving terminal, we trudged to the lounge, moved into a holding area and boarded the plane around 10am. This third leg of our homeward journey – Dubai to Melbourne – was always going to be the most tiresome. It is difficult to prepare yourself physically and mentally for a thirteen-hour flight.
I took the chance to listen to Porcupine Tree’s recent album
Closure / Continuation, and it was fantastic. I listened to it three times from start to
finish, and promised myself a copy on our return to Tasmania. After a few hours flying, I ordered a cognac and settled with my laptop. It was the perfect time to catch up on my travel notes. Despite its lengthy duration, the 13-hour flight was bearable. By filling time with travel writing and music, the discomfort of sitting in one place (and in one position) for half a day wasn’t too difficult. It was one of the easiest long-haul flights we’ve experienced.
We arrived in Melbourne on time and breezed through customs, with our packs in tow. Having heard countless horror stories about luggage being lost in the post-COVID world of travel, we were worried something untoward may happen on this trip. In one particularly pessimistic article, a travel writer offered the following ‘Zen-like’ advice to all post-COVID travellers:
> If you arrive at your destination on time, treat it like a
surprise.
> If your luggage arrives with you, treat it like a
bonus.
Either we had been very lucky, or the travel writer in question was a catastrophiser!
The fourth (and final) leg of our homeward journey – Melbourne to Hobart – was very short,
clocking in at just over one hour. To refute the gloomy premonitions of travel writers, I secretly hoped that our luggage would arrive with us in Hobart, and that all our fragile gifts would still be intact.
We refreshed with a coffee (me) and hot chocolate (Ren) in the very familiar Qantas departure area in Melbourne, then settled at our gate lounge and waited for our flight to Hobart. We started feeling very tired and exhausted. The impact of the long-haul flight from Santorini was really kicking in now. The flight to Hobart was delayed by 30 minutes, and it was only the second delay we’d experienced on our flight home – both of which were minor.
When we boarded the plane, we were very happy to be on the final leg of our homeward journey. We touched down at Hobart Airport, breezed through security and waited at the baggage carousel. When our packs came out intact, I wasn’t
surprised, and I didn’t accept their safe arrival as a
bonus. For all the doomsayers, there are an equal number of optimists. This is my hope. 😄
It had been a great flight home. We grabbed our packs
from the carousel and walked to the airport’s pick-up / drop-off area, where our transfer to the long-term parking facility was patiently waiting for us. We always leave our car at this facility, which is located just outside the airport. It’s an incredible service, and only a fraction of the cost of parking at the airport itself.
After loading our packs in the car, we drove to Kingston (a sprawling suburb south of Hobart) to pick up Mia (the cat), who had been boarding at a cattery. On the way, we dropped into a supermarket to pick up some fresh provisions – enough to keep us going until the weekend. When we arrived at the cattery, we were confronted with an extraordinary image. Mia had put on a serious amount of weight. It was time for a diet! 😊
It was time to head home. The one-hour drive from Kingston was unexpectedly difficult, as I was incredibly tired. It took so much effort to stay focused! After dropping Mia and our packs at home, we drove to the nearby boarding kennels to pick up Oliver (the dog). We discovered he had met a friend at the kennels, and
that he loved playing with her. We’d discussed the option of getting another dog before we left for Greece, and this had made the decision a little more imperative. Oliver was clearly missing Jasper, his big bossy sister. She was our gorgeous old kelpie, and her beautiful heart stopped beating a few months before our Greek adventure.
It was great to have everyone home. However, this homecoming was tinged with sadness, because it was the first time we had arrived home from an overseas holiday and not had Jasper to greet us. She would have supervised the unpacking process, which involved sniffing everything that emerged from our packs. She always loved having us home, and we always loved being home with her.
We started the wood heater to warm the house, then waited patiently for the hot water cylinder to heat sufficiently for a much-needed shower. It had been a long door-to-door journey from Santorini to Tasmania, but it had been worth every minute. Our Greek adventure had been a fantastic holiday, and it had been a memorable 50th birthday celebration for Ren.
SHE SAID... It was our last morning in Santorini. And in Greece!
Cue sad face. 😞
It was going to be a full-on travel day of four flights (two domestic and two international) for us, so we’d both agreed to have a lazy day. We had wanted to explore the village of Karterados (where our hotel was based), but with no possibility of a late check-out, we didn’t want to walk in the hot sun and then have no way of showering before our flights.
We still woke early, because we wanted to have a leisurely breakfast while avoiding the massive group staying at our hotel. We were partially successful. We had the freedom to check out Hotel Albatros’ buffet without people breathing down our necks, but about midway through our relaxed meal, they all descended on the buffet.
The breakfast was nothing special, but we dragged it out… and amused ourselves by watching the big group interact, or more to the point, not interact. We assumed very few people knew each other, because there were no pleasantries shared. Not even a passing smile or ‘good morning’. We found this very strange. I know different cultures have very different attitudes to communication, but these people were travelling together!
I was especially amused at their lack of ability to queue for the buffet. And the irony of people who had pushed in… then getting annoyed at someone else pushing in on them further along the line. As amusing as this study in human nature was, we felt bad occupying a table when the place became more and more crowded. So we returned to our room, did some final packing and relaxed until check out at 11am.
The longer we stayed at Hotel Albatros, the less we liked the staff. Well one staff member in particular. We were literally walking out of our room at 11am, when the room phone rang. Andrew bet me that it was Ms Grumpypants on reception. And it was! She was the rudest and most dismissive hotel staff member we’ve come across in a very long time.
While waiting for our late afternoon flight, we lounged in the hotel reception for many hours. While it was good to catch up on Facebook posts and travel writing, this waiting around reminded us why we hate evening flights. We also had the ‘pleasure’ of watching our least favourite hotel receptionist at work.
Another Intrepid
Travel group checked in that afternoon, and it was very coincidently guided by Georgia (who had led us on the Peloponnese trip and the mainland trip). After we’d said our hellos and the group checked in, one of the group members returned to reception to complain. Apparently, he was supposed to be in a twin share room with another bloke, but the room only had a double bed. Well, Ms Grumpypants excelled herself. She started with the very helpful phrase – ‘this is not my fault!’. Then literally threw her arms in the air, said ‘the hotel is full’, and walked away from him! We couldn’t believe our eyes or our ears. I’m hoping Georgia was able to help him… otherwise the poor guy would have been cuddling up to a relative stranger that night. 😊
Our airport transfer was supposed to arrive at 3:45pm, but it was 30 minutes late. It didn’t really matter, because we always have time contingencies in place. When the driver did arrive, he apologised and explained that the roads were extremely busy. We smiled to ourselves because we knew he had totally forgotten about us until Nasos (our group leader who’d booked this
transfer) had called to check. Oh well. These things happen.
About 15 minutes later we were in the carpark of the small Santorini (Thira) International Airport. It was extremely busy, and I was a bit shocked to see massive lines. However, when we entered the check-in area, we realised all the lines were just for a British Airways flight; the other airlines had normal levels of passengers.
We checked into our Aegean Air flight to Athens without much hassle, but we always worry that our packs have to make so many connections before we see them again. This time we were transiting through Athens, then Dubai and finally Melbourne, before we flew home to Hobart.
The gate lounge areas were tiny and distinctly lacking in enough toilets, given the crowds that seemed to be moving through the airport. We managed to get some seats and gratefully sank into them. The waiting around all day, plus the previous day’s hike and late night, plus a month of travel was starting to take a toll on us both. We were already fading, and we hadn’t even caught the first of our four flights! I couldn’t bring myself to think
how tired we’d be when we landed in Hobart. 😒
Our 6:30pm Aegean Air flight was slightly delayed by 20 minutes, but it didn’t have any effect on our connection in Athens (we had over three hours in Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport). The 45-minute Aegean Air flight was painless, and we landed in Athens and cleared immigration and security very quickly. We found a cafe to settle in, but realised they were going to be closing soon… so we had to rush our order of a toasted carob bread sandwich with olives, tomatoes, feta and capers. They had already turned off their coffee machine, so Andrew had to go elsewhere to get a
freddo cappuccino (a cappuccino served over ice).
I don’t remember much about boarding the Emirates flight from Athens to Dubai, or the flight itself… apart from there seeming to be a medical emergency on board. The flight crew started rushing around, and I heard a woman yelling in what sounded like an angry tone at them. I saw a blood pressure monitor being carried over, but after about 20 minutes the crew slowly dissipated. I assumed it had been sorted. The couple in question
were an older Australian sounding couple, and I later heard her apologising to one of the crew for ‘losing it’. 😲
I must have slept for the majority of the nearly 5-hour flight, but I was still absolutely shattered when we landed in Dubai International Airport. We had five hours until our Emirates flight to Melbourne, and our boarding gate wasn’t even on the monitor yet. We found some recliners that were extremely uncomfortable, yet quite incredibly, we both managed some sleep. Andrew doesn’t nap in airports, so this was absolute proof of how tired we were.
The Dubai airport seemed to be full of Muslim pilgrims. The men were dressed in very minimal white cotton clothing, and I wondered how they weren’t cold in the air-conditioned environment. We were in the ‘A’ Gates area of the airport, which wasn’t a very nice terminal. It was a lot smaller and cramped than the swish parts of the airport we’d seen when we’d arrived in Dubai a month ago.
We finally boarded, and while settling into our seats, I noticed that the couple with the medical emergency on our previous flight were boarding too. They seemed to be
having a very public domestic while doing so. Oh dear. No wonder one of them had an emergency blood pressure issue!
I scored that most prized of all flight gifts – an empty seat next to me! On a long-haul flight! I felt very lucky, especially because it seemed to be one of the only spare seats I saw. The young girl on the other side of the empty seat and I wordlessly came to an agreement that we would share the seat for our excess stuff.
When lunch was served, I was surprised that the grilled chicken meal with black peppercorn sauce, roast potatoes and steamed green peas was quite good. Our food on other Emirates flights hadn’t been great, so I had low expectations. The dessert of vanilla and caramel profiteroles was equally good, and for once I was eager to get Andrew’s share too (he never eats desserts on planes). Even ignoring the spare seat situation, this was a very good and comfortable long-haul flight, and in complete contrast to the Melbourne-Dubai flight a month ago.
Not surprisingly, I had no trouble sleeping most of the way from Dubai to Melbourne. As I do
on most long flights, I found a new album that was interesting enough to listen to on repeat (this time it was the chillout album Moon Safari by French electronic music duo Air), and then shrouded myself in my hoody and scarf… and I was out for the count. The only slight weirdness on this flight was that at one point I was woken by a flight attendant. He was indicating that we needed to clear the spare seat, as a bloke standing with him was going to sit in it. The young girl and I were groggy with sleep and neither of us were very impressed.
It was extremely bizarre, and the poor bloke looked very upset. It was at this point that I recognised him – he was the bloke from the medical emergency on our previous flight. No sooner had he sat down that I was asleep again and when I woke up a couple of hours later, he had disappeared. Andrew and I speculated that his partner had blown up again and kicked him off the seat next to her! Or possibly had been sick on his seat and he needed somewhere to sit while
they sorted it out. I looked out for them when we landed in Melbourne, but never saw them again.
Despite saying it was a great flight, the breakfast offerings were gross. In fairness, the cheese omelette wasn’t as gross as most airline breakfasts tend to be, but was still bad. Luckily, I’d stockpiled our small pizza snacks during the night, so I munched on them as my breakfast. 😊
We arrived in Melbourne 30 minutes later than scheduled, but that wasn’t going to impact our domestic flight. The queues for the Australian residents’ smart entry gates were longer than normal, but quick enough. But then we had to wait ages for my pack at the luggage carousel. Or maybe it just felt long, because Andrew’s pack had come out very quickly. We were amazed and grateful that both packs had made all three connections from Santorini to Athens to Dubai to Melbourne!
Our domestic Qantas flight to Hobart was non eventful, but it was also delayed 30 minutes… a consistent theme on three of our four flights. We were so glad to walk to the shuttle bus that would take us to our parked car. Before long
we were in our car and off to pick up Mia from her country cattery on the other side of Hobart. Mia had stacked on a pile of weight (as she always tends to do when we are away), and was carried into the car with much talk of all of us going on a diet. 😄
When we picked Oliver up from our local kennels, his carer told us he had made friends with an old black Labrador, and been paired with her at playtime. This was Oliver’s first time at the kennels without our other dog Jasper, and we had been worried. We suspected he was taking her death quite badly. We will have to give serious thought to getting him a companion if he doesn’t recover and get back to his happy relaxed self soon. We all missed Jasper very much, and it was sad not seeing her bright face at the kennels, alongside Oliver’s.
It was such a relief to finally discard our sweaty face masks when we got home. I mused on how one month could change my attitude to these things… when we flew out of Australia, I had my N95 face
mask firmly in place, but the damn thing was so uncomfortable that I moved to blue surgical masks for the rest of the trip. I suppose I also had the confidence that it was only two months since I had COVID… so I was fairly safe.
Our trip around Greece had been pretty fabulous, but it was so lovely to see Oliver and Mia… and be back in our beloved home. It was only mid-afternoon, but I was so tired that I couldn’t even begin to consider staying up until bed time. But between cleaning the house, unpacking, putting on a load of laundry, and dealing with a small pile of letters and a massive pile of 430 emails; we managed to do it.
Australia is a long way from most of the world, and we like to prove it by sadistically documenting our travel times! This trip back from Greece took us 37 hours door-to-door, of which about 20 were flying hours. The overall time included picking up our furry ones and doing a quick grocery shop. No wonder we were tired! But not so tired that we couldn’t appreciate the beautiful things we’d brought back from Greece that will be physical reminders of our time there.
Our month in Greece had flown by in a whirlwind of countless ‘Wow!’ moments and incredible highlights. We were so happy to have been able to travel after such a long time. We are also very grateful that neither of us got sick, and that we were now safely back home.
Thank you for following our travel musings. As always, we will gather our thoughts on the trip and post an epilogue shortly. I will end this post with the unsurprising news that I’ve already got itchy feet for our next trip in 2023! 😊
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Cindy
non-member comment
What a wonderful experience and memorable way to celebrate a milestone!
Hey Ren and Andrew, I've loved reading your travel adventures from this trip and always enjoy your ability to capture your experiences with an excellent eye for history, the right amount of humour and discourse on human nature and of course, the best descriptions of all that wonderful food and drink! You are the best buddies to travel vicariously through/with and I can't wait to see what you have planned for this year ;)