It’s not just the destination, it’s the journey, right?? - part 1

It’s not just the destination........... or so they say, but the reality is that flying to Europe from Australia is a long proposition, no matter which way you cut it. I think next time we might choose to cut it slightly differently. It feels like we’ve been travelling for days. Long haul overnight flights might be a good way to get somewhere without realising it, but only if you manage to sleep for long stretches on the flight. I don’t. Still, for a 12 hour flight it actually felt like it went remarkably quickly, so maybe I did manage some longer naps than I thought. Anyway, the movies were good, the blankets were lovely and warm, the pillows were soft, and the flight was smooth. Win!

To say that international airports are a melting pot would be an understatement. And international terminals in the Middle East seem, to my (limited) experience, even more so. Admittedly, my only other transit stop in this region has been Dubai, but the similarities between there and Hamid International Airport in Doha, Qatar, are quite noticeable. Big, bright, super clean, even the fact that you can pay for purchases with a range of currencies (as long as it’s NOT Aussie $$, which it seems just don’t rate a mention), but you have to accept the local currency as change. I guess these airports, unlike Perth, see a lot of through traffic from all over the world, so it makes sense for them to be as accommodating as possible.

There were lots of teams of staff cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. And even the floors were exceptionally clean. We know this because I spilled a little water and thought I’d better wipe it up before someone slipped on it. The tissue I used became wet, but amazingly there was barely a smudge of grime on it. And this was the floor! I doubt the same could be said of most airports, let alone those that see so much traffic.

In the end we got to spend a few more hours in Doha than planned, due to a 4-hour flight delay. Already pretty wrecked from the overnight long haul from Perth, it was a case of “Oh well”, gratefully accept the free food voucher, go find a comfy booth and keep an eye on the departures board. Thank goodness for free airport WiFi, is all I can say. Especially because it allowed us to contact our AirBnB host in Athens to alert her to the delay and advise her NOT to send her housekeeper to pick us up at the previously agreed-upon time.

Our flight from Doha to Athens is worthy of a post all of its own, if only to share the spectacular visuals we managed to capture out the window. You can read the next post for that.

Finally we landed in Athens around 3.30pm - after a faster (and much more “wow factor”) flight than expected. Our host had rearranged the pickup plan, and had given us directions for where to find her housekeeper who would be waiting for us. Passport control and customs done, baggage claimed, Euros sourced from the ATM, through Exit 1, and there she was, standing right where we expected her to be.

By now pretty desperate for sleep, but also hungry, our hosts George and Fevronia kindly ferried us to a local restaurant where, in our sleep-deprived-but-excited-to-be-eating-fresh-local-food state, we totally over-ordered Greek food - calamari, fried zucchini, fried potatoes, olives, Greek salad - expecting the servings to be more like in Australia - as in teeny-weeny. They were NOT!! Ah well, we have another couple of weeks in Greece later on, to work out just how much food to order between two.

By the time we got to bed around 7.30pm - our VERY brief overnight in Athens - I think I’d been awake (aside from the odd cat-nap) for well over 40 hours. I’m thankful I’m married to a man who can sleep on planes, especially as he’s going to be the one driving on the wrong side of the road very shortly! So no, I’m not convinced that the journey always has as much to offer as the destination.