Greetings from Canada to all my Mistral friends,

Well, as I had promised some of you, here is the long, long awaited tale of
my lengthy and problematic trip getting back home to Canada.  I should have
sent it sooner, but I had been seriously jet-lagged, and I had a ton of
mail/e-mail/stuff/work to go through when I got home.  Not to mention
spending major, major catchup snuggling time with a certain
lady.  Ahem.  Priorities, man, priorities.

Anyway, here goes;
Most of you were probably aware that I was originally scheduled to leave on
the Wednesday morning, not Tuesday like the rest of you.  Such was not to
be, however.  The first hint of trouble came as I was sunning by the pool
on Tuesday afternoon.  Kim called my name, I had a phone call.  From
Olympic Airways.  My morning flight to Athens had been cancelled.  There is
a strike scheduled for tomorrow, on Wednesday.  I was given a choice: wait
until Wednesday night (which would probably mean missing my Lufthansa
connections), or take one of the flights this very evening instead (which
would mean spending the night in Athens, instead of the Mistral as
planned).  I chose the latter, taking the 8:30 PM flight, figuring I should
get at least one leg of my journey done before the strike hits.  I told Kim
and Jo, and rushed up to my room to pack.  So in the end, I left the
Mistral on Tuesday, just like the rest of you.  By the way, I turned down
the Mistral's gift of olive oil and olives, Canadian Customs is notorious
for not allowing agricultural products into the country.  Pity.  Anyway,
Adonis drove Anne, Jez, and myself to the airport that evening.  It was a
quiet drive, we were all sad to be leaving (Tears?  What tears?  My
eyeballs were sweating.  Yeah, that's it.  My eyeballs were sweating).  At
the airport, Adonis was parking the van and then said something about
having coffee inside.  But by the time I finished checking in, it was time
to board.  Olympic Airways was actually on time.  Gosh.  So I missed out on
having coffee with Anne, Jez, & Adonis.  Sorry Adonis.  Next time.

I got to the Athens airport, and went to the Olympic Airways counter, the
one with a sign saying "Hotel Desk".  I turned on my nice guy polite
Canadian charm, explained my situation, and that I needed a hotel room for
the night.  The OA lady would not agree to pay for a hotel room, but she
offered to send me to the hotel they use (75 Euros/night), and provide
transport there and back to the airport in the morning.  Okay fine,
whatever, I'm too tired to argue.  Waited along with other OA customers for
transport to show up, OA lady explained that driver very busy.  OA bus
showed up, looking like an old Edmonton Transit bus in OA livery.  Ugh.  It
was a half hour ride to a hotel called the Golden Sun, somewhere in Athens,
a suburb called Glyfada, I believe.  Turned out the rate was 55
Euros/night, special rate for OA customers.  Okey dokey.  At this point, I
still hadn't had any supper yet, and it was closing in on midnight.  The
hotel's barmaid took pity on me and made me a ham and cheese sandwich, even
though the bar was closing.  I wolfed it down, went to my room (not a great
room, but clean), and crashed.

Next morning, the OA bus showed up a half an hour later than I'd asked.  No
problem, I had kind of anticipated that, and booked a time earlier than I'd
needed.  I'm the only passenger on the bus, too.  Got to the Athens
airport, and presented myself at the Lufthansa customer service counter,
turning on the nice guy polite Canadian charm.  I was informed that my
afternoon flight was cancelled, and I was now re-scheduled to leave at
6:15.  Tomorrow morning.  Sigh.  Another night in Athens.  However, at
least this time the airline was paying for my hotel and meals.  Put me up
at a hotel right at the airport.  No transport needed this time.  Posh
place too, the Sofitel.  Got vouchers for free lunch and dinner in the
hotel's restaurant.  Very good food too.  And Kim and Jo, before you ask,
no, I didn't go exploring the sights in Athens.  All the public transit was
on strike, so no buses or trains, only taxis were available.  And I was
running low on cash at that point (well, in Euros anyway), so I didn't want
to chance a taxi.  I would have liked to have seen the Acropolis
too.  Bummer.  Oh well, next time.  So I crashed in the hotel room and
watched TV.  Really nice soft bed too.

Woke up to my second morning in Athens at 3 am to catch the 6 am
flight.  Had a really tough time dragging myself out of that nice soft bed
at that ungodly hour.  Did I mention that the bed was soft?  Anyway, at the
Lufthansa check-in counter, the lady would only give me the one boarding
pass for the flight to Frankfurt.  I would have to get the next two
boarding passes when I got to Frankfurt.  Okay fine, whatever.  Got to
Frankfurt, the Lufthansa lady told me I needed to go to the gate for my
next flight and get my boarding passes there, since it was actually an Air
Canada flight.  One of those co-coded flights.  Nearly got myself lost
trying to find my next gate in this BHA (big honking airport).  Found the
Air Canada flight's gate, and nobody was there yet (well, no staff yet
anyway), so I bummed around a duty-free shop for a bit, didn't buy
anything.  Come back to the gate, the staff are there now, and a biiiig
lineup was forming.  Well, the line of people who have boarding passes
anyway.  I join the smaller line leading to the desk, for people who don't
have boarding passes, don't have seats assigned, need to change seating
assignments, other problems, yada yada.  This line's smaller but moving
slowly.  The big line is clipping along, but more people keep joining
it.  It's going to be a full plane.  Oh boy.  I get to the front of the
line and turn on the nice guy polite Canadian charm.  I explain my
situation to the lady, and she looks me up in her computer.  I'm not in
there.  Turns out the Lufthansa people in Athens hadn't bothered booking me
in on my next two legs.  Fortunately, I had all my paperwork with me, the
original itinerary, the revised itinerary that'd been printed in Athens, my
luggage tag, etc.  The luggage tag showed that my bag was tagged to go to
Edmonton via Frankfurt & Toronto.  I joked to the lady that my luggage was
tagged to go to Edmonton, but apparently I myself wasn't.  She didn't show
it, but I think she got a kick out of that.  So she booked me in, and gave
me a boarding pass for the Toronto to Edmonton flight, but couldn't give me
one for this flight yet.  The computers are little slow or something, so
she couldn't get me a seat assignment yet.  I had to stand over on the side
and wait for her to call my name when she had a seat for me.  After about
ten minutes (which seemed like an eternity while watching all these other
people board), she calls my name, she has a seat for me, asks if I want a
window or aisle seat.  I really don't care at this point, I'll take what I
can get, I just want to get home.  No, no, she says she'll get me a better
seat.  So I wait over on the side for another minute or so until she calls
my name again.  She's got me a seat and gives me my boarding
pass.  Finally.  I get on the plane, and find that the seat she gave me
really is a decent one.  She had gotten me an aisle seat close to the front
of the economy section, just three rows back from first class.  This means
I'll be among the first to get off the plane when it lands.  And this is a
huge plane too, an Airbus 330, eight seats to each row and gawd only knows
how many rows.  The people in the back will take ages to get off.  A long
flight, almost nine hours, and they showed two movies, Electra (not that
good, don't waste your money renting that one) and Chariots of Fire (a
classic that I hadn't seen before, very good).  Got to Toronto, I'm now
finally in my home country.  Only a measly 3800 km to go.

Went through Canadian Customs, now that was interesting.  We got to a
conveyor in the Customs area and retrieved our checked luggage, I suppose
so they could search my entire luggage if they wanted.  Then we went
through Customs and dropped our checked bags back onto another conveyor,
where hopefully it would end up on the right plane.  Funny thing is, I
never once saw them search anyone's luggage.  Maybe I should have chanced
smuggling in Vassilis's olive oil and olives after all.  Although if I had,
that would have meant I would have been searched for sure.  Murphy's law,
you know.  (Hey Vas, any chance I could talk you into mailing me a supply
of olive oil and olives?)  Anyway, I walk through Toronto's BHA (big
honking airport) and manage to find my next gate for my final leg to
Edmonton.  Had a couple of hours to kill, and I was hungry, so I had a
burger at this restaurant there by my gate.  I'm getting pretty tired at
this point, it's been a long, long day, and it's not over yet.  I board the
plane to Edmonton, and found out just what kind of seat the lady in
Frankfurt had given me.  It's a window seat, in the emergency exit
row.  Score!!  Leg room, baby, leg room.  Sometimes that nice guy polite
Canadian charm pays off.  Anyway, at that point I figured out I had been
awake for 21 hours straight.  I tried to keep awake, but couldn't.  I
crashed, slept for the whole four hour flight to Edmonton.

I woke up as we're landing in Edmonton.  End of story, right?  Nope, not
quite.  I collected my luggage from the carousel (Yay! It didn't get lost),
and hail a taxi.  If I had gotten home when I was originally scheduled to,
the plan had been for my brother to pick me up at the airport.  Since I'm a
day late, he was now at work (he works 24 hour shifts), and couldn't pick
me up.  Hence the taxi.  This driver must have been new on the job or
something, I had to coach him on how to get to my brother's place.  Which
is normally not that hard a place to find.  Yeesh.  We're almost there, and
then, with a sheepish look on his face, he informs me he forgot to turn on
the meter.  Oh boy.  Anyway, we settle on $35.00 for the trip.  When I left
for Crete, the taxi from my brother's to the airport had cost me $40.00,
including a small tip.  Needless to say, this guy wasn't getting a
tip.  Anyway, I crashed on my brother's sofabed that night.

Late the next morning, I started up my Subie that I had left parked at my
brother's place.  Started up on the first crank too, good old reliable
Subie (pronounced Sue-bee, for you Brits.  It's short for Subaru,
natch).  Drove the five hour drive back to Grande Prairie, uneventful
drive, nice and sunny day too.  So I made it back home to Grande Prairie
late Friday afternoon, a day later than originally planned.  Had dinner
that night with the girlfriend, but called it an early night though.  I was
seriously jet-lagged.  She's a very understanding lady.  I've heard it said
that jet lag is worse when you go west than when you go east.  Having
experienced it, I believe it.

Thus ends the long and convoluted tale of the Canuckman's voyage home.

You're probably wondering whether I would ever dare the perils of
international air travel again, to return to Crete and the Mistral.  Was it
worth it?  Short answer - you bet.  Given the time and money, I'd do it
again in a heartbeat.  Now I'll just have to talk my girlfriend into coming
too.

Anyway, now I'm off again on another trip, much shorter this time.  I leave
Wednesday and come back Sunday, for a pharmacy convention in Jasper.  Only
a four hour drive through beautiful mountainous country.  I'm being put up
in the poshest place in Jasper, the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, one of the
perks of being on the council for the Alberta College of Pharmacists.  The
scenery is going to be spectacular too, I've been in Jasper in the spring
before.  You Brits seriously don't know what you're missing.  Heh.  So when
are you coming to visit Canada, eh?


Yamas,

Ian