Friday, 16. July 2021

Juhui it starts!

So, Daniela connoisseurs know that I am very, very, very well prepared. Not only when it comes to traveling. Smile

And yet, I missed my originally planned train to Zurich airport by 30 minutes. Because, just before I was about to leave the house, I checked the weight of my luggage again.... Yikes!!! Allowed 23 kilos and I have 24.5 kilos in tow.... Crap! So I open my suitcase again and repack a few things into my hand luggage. Probably shouldn't have bought chocolate at the last minute! lol. Hey! Not for me; but for the lovely Greeks I'm sure to meet soon. I ALWAYS bring chocolate with me when I go abroad. This is also part of my packing list.

So, with the later train via Lucerne to Zurich. It rained just a bitzeli firmly when I left the apartment, but what the heck. Afterwards pure sun is announced.

In Zurich I arrived at 12:30 and the expected chaos had not occurred. For my feeling rather less people than already.... Many families, but that I have probably chosen myself, so I had put my vacation of all things in the school vacations! Smile. But soon more about this....Since I had already checked in my luggage online in advance, I only had to go to the counter to check in my luggage. All the paperwork was already done. Accordingly, it went very quickly and in total I have stood 10 minutes in the queue.After that, I went through the baggage check and was already in the duty free store. Since I was now but massively too early, I made myself comfortable in a cafe and read a book.On the airport app I could track my flight exactly and was informed as soon as the gate was assigned.After receiving notification of which terminal I needed to go to, I started walking slowly. Already boarding was a sign of the hustle and bustle that would soon be happening around me.....262 passengers. Quite a few of them with children and babies. The fate meant it well with me; I with two, approx. 8-9 years old children to my right and 1 baby with 4 small brothers and sisters of a Greek-Swiss family. Oops! That's where the action was.And also otherwise was an up and down and back and forth. It made me really nervous. In addition, I was, once again, extremely weak. This was half the flight so and I could not even read my book.

The two kids next to me were assigned to me 2 times right away. The crew thought I was the mother. Was funny and the two kids found it funny. The parents sat just one row further in front and did not care so much. Right next to me sat Lars. A nice boy with good manners. Right at the beginning of the flight he approached me and told me about your vacation. He was funny and had a ton of stuff with him. iphone, mp3 player, Sennheiser headphones, a book, a huge case full of coloring stuff and a drawing pad. His sister (sitting at the fesnter), on the other hand, probably didn't have such a good day. She was not happy, she was bored, the brother only gave out a few colored pencils and so a few secret tears flowed. I then winked at her and cheered her up again with a smile. At the airport, I had a sandwich and dessert. Luckily, as it turned out. The itty bitty cheesecake, miniature saltfishli and beaver on the plane weren't exactly meant to fill my belly......After 2 hours 20 minutes we landed in Heraklion at 8:25 pm.Lars, my neighbor asked me if I would like to have the graffiti drawing he made. As thanks for the fact that I had to get up 2 x because he had to go to the toilet and otherwise because I was so friendly. Yikes, that's great. Of course I accepted the drawing with thanks.The baggage claim was the horror. Mixed with the flight from Berlin landing at the same time. And a much too narrow baggage hall. In addition, there was the almost 30 degrees heat. After 30 minutes I could finally see my suitcase on the belt. JUHUIIII! Now only the transfer must work out and then my vacations can begin. There was neither a passport nor a Covid certificate check. Better said: the hole was open! Nobody cared about the new arrivals. So let's get out of here!
According to the voucher I should go to counter 11, outside the hall. Hmm. This was the only one, but it was CLOSED. No....! When I think of my tour guide days, I know all too well what can go wrong with transfers.So I asked the counter next door and, oh wonder, I was actually listed there and they directed me to the parking lot to a minibus. After 45 minutes all 10 passengers were ready for the long transfer to the hotels. To my hostel it was a 2.5 hour drive! We drove off and after over 1 hour we suddenly stopped in a parking lot and I, along with 2 other travelers, were told to change to a cab. Okay, I don't really care. The main thing is to get to my destination.So we drove off and after 20 minutes the other two got out. Then it went another 40 minutes until I finally arrived at KUMBA. Whew! Exactly midnight.I requested the login for the door via SMS and everything worked perfectly. Key '13' for my 4-bed room was ready and so I went into the room. 2 roommates were asleep and 1 was gone. I settled in very briefly and then fell into bed. Was I tired..... although I was sick with hunger again. But I just had to sleep now.