Friday, July 4, 2008

John...Real or A Figment of the Imagination?

We get to Frankfurt airport where our next flight was departing from. It was slightly confusing, our crumpled piece of transfer paper said we were flying on Aegean at 9:15 and the ticket counter didn't open until 10:00 to give us boarding passes. After a little confusion, and some strong coffee we figured out it had changed to a Luftansa flight and everything was fine. Easy flight, nothing to write home (or on the blog) about.
So we get to Athens, you know what customs was? A door. That's it. Nothing more than some doors. So we go to get our luggage. Let me tell you Marc had been a little negative about the luggage. He kept saying, "That was a quick change, i don't know if our bags will make it." I kept saying, "Of course they will. Why would you even think that?" Guess who's bag came out like first? Mine. Uh oh, guess whose bag didn't make it out of Philly yet? Um hm, Marc Schramms. He has been wearing some Tommy Bahama shorts and a t-shirt that says South Beach for a looooonnnnng time now......
Then, we go to get our car. This is true (I'm sorry Marc) I say, "Do you think this is a good idea? Maybe we should just take a cab." "No, no, this is all part of what we're doing," says Marc. Now the rental guy didn't even give us good directions as to where to pick up the rental car so I'm feeling a little nervous about finding our hotel in a foreign city that uses a different alphabet than us. One that we are only familiar with from 6 weeks of pledging about 20 years ago. But ok. I'm easy. Go get'm Tiger. Our hotel is out here somewhere....

Totally lost. Lost. Lost. Lost. Went way to far in the wrong direction. Turned around. Made it into Athens, which by the way is not called Athens here. It's called Athina. We had this map this the most useless waste of a tree ever.The one direction the dumb ass from the rental place had given us was a road name. We drive and drive and Marc somehow, I don't know how, spots the road. It takes us to.....um, I don't know. Part of the city we don't need to go to. No sign of the hotel. No one is really appreciating Marc calling out the window saying, "English?" "Do you speak English?" They're basically just blowing us off. So we're at the point of not saying anything to each other. Sometimes it's just better that way. Marc pulls over. He says, "I'm going to find someone who speaks English." I just stare straight ahead and make no eye contact. I've been here before, I know how to play this game. Then, I swear this is true, he comes to the car with this stranger and says, "He's going to come with us." Huh? "All right." I say. Then I hop in the back seat, I mean, being car jacked and losing all of our worldly possesions or driving through Athina with Marc for the next week looking the hotel? Um, I'll take car jacked for $400 Alec. So the guy gets in, his name is John. John seriously drives with us for like 25 minutes. He's on the phone speaking Greek and the only word I can make out is Americanos. I'm just glad I didn't hear the word stupid in there. Although I only know two greek words and that's not one of them. Let me tell you, John from Cincinatti totally got us to our hotel. Drove all the way with us. Wouldn't take a dime. Just got out when we pulled up front and said, "Enjoy your stay in Athens."
Later as we decompressed by the rooftop pool we wondered, was there really a John?

8 comments:

Lisa Samuel said...

I'd like to believe that John was a figment of your imagination. It's more romantic, maybe he was the god of directions, you are in greece!! Have a great time, enjoy all of the museums and churches and all of the sights!!!!

Anonymous said...

I can imagine how irritated you must have been. I almost have to physically hold myself from jumping out of the car at times like that. The link on that post was supposed to take you to a purse on Anthropologie.com. I just tried it again and it worked. I don't know. I'm not getting it. It was a want, not a need and I'm trying to work on restraint. Have a blast today! Can't wait to see pictures.

Simple Answer said...

Have you ever seen the Amazing Race? Wish you could've been filmed! I bet it would've been a hoot. (glad you are safe)

Meredith said...

OMG a STRANGER in a STRANGE country in your CAR! I would have had a panic attack but it sounds like you handled it well.

Thanks for the comment on my Ouch blog...it's very 'ouch' at the moment but having been down this road before I know it will pass. You are right - I'm no idiot:) Just having a pity party after a sleepless night and should know better than to blog under these conditions!

Meredith said...

OMG I'm such a ding dong...again with the no sleep lol...confused another blogging stranger with you:) "Jen W" and Amy look so much alike on two hrs of napping!

Sarah said...

Great post... I literally saw the whole scence play out as I was reading...
Hysterical!

MarkNYC said...

At least Marc isn't the kind of guy who refuses to ask for directions, but why didn't you guys just stop a cab driver and ask for directions? Not a good idea to invite stranger John into the vacation, but I'm glad everything worked out. Sorry, it's my job as older brother to scold you when I am worried. On a lighter note, are you meeting other strangers who are improving your vacation?

Anonymous said...

Well written article.