Friday, July 16, 2021

Yay, here we go!

Well, Daniela experts know that I am very, very, very well prepared. Not just when it comes to traveling. Smile
And yet, I missed my originally planned train to Zurich Airport by 30 minutes. Because, just before I wanted to leave the house, I checked the weight of my luggage again.... Oops! Oh no!! The allowed weight is 23 kilograms and I have 24.5 kilograms in tow.... Darn it! So I had to open my suitcase again and transfer a few things to my carry-on. I probably shouldn't have bought chocolate at the last minute! lol. Hey! Not for me; but for the lovely Greeks that I will soon meet for sure. I ALWAYS bring chocolate when I travel abroad. This is also part of my packing list.

So, I took a later train via Lucerne to Zurich. It was raining a little bit when I left the apartment, but oh well. After that, it's pure sunshine ahead.

I arrived in Zurich at 12:30 PM and the expected chaos didn't happen. In my opinion, there were even fewer people than usual.... Many families, but I chose this myself, I mean I chose to go on vacation during school holidays! Smile. But more on that later....

Since I checked in my luggage online in advance, I just had to go to the counter to drop off my luggage. All the paperwork was already done. So it went quickly and I stood in the queue for only 10 minutes.
Then straight through security and suddenly I was already in the duty-free shop. Since I was now massively early, I made myself comfortable in a café 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 the notification of which terminal I have to go to, I slowly started walking.
Even the boarding was a sign of the hustle and bustle that would soon take place around me.....
262 passengers. Many of them with children and babies. Fate was kind to me; I had two children, about 8-9 years old, on my right and 1 baby with 4 little siblings from a Greek-Swiss family. Hoppa! That was something.
And there was a lot of up and down and back and forth. It made me really nervous. Plus, I was, once again, extremely sick. This lasted half of the flight and I couldn't even read my book.

The two children next to me were assigned to me twice. The crew said I was their mother. It was funny and the two kids found it funny. The parents were sitting a row further ahead and didn't pay much attention. Lars was sitting next to me. A nice boy with good manners. He spoke to me at the beginning of the flight and told me about their vacation. He was funny and had a ton of stuff with him. iPhone, MP3 player, Sennheiser headphones, a book, a huge case full of art supplies, and a sketchpad. His sister (sitting by the window), on the other hand, didn't have such a good day. She wasn't happy, she was bored, her brother only gave her a few colored pencils, and so a few secret tears flowed. I then waved to her and cheered her up with a smile.
At the airport, I had a sandwich and dessert. Fortunately, as it turned out. The tiny cheesecake, the miniature pretzels, and the beaver on the plane were not meant to fill the stomach.....

After 2 hours and 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 a thank you for having to get up twice because he needed to go to the toilet and also because I was so friendly. Wow! That's awesome. Of course, I gratefully accepted the drawing.

The baggage claim was a nightmare. Mixed with the flight from Berlin that landed at the same time. And a baggage hall that was way too small. On top of that, it was almost 30 degrees Celsius. After 30 minutes, I finally spotted my suitcase on the conveyor belt. Yayyy! Now the transfer just has to work and then my vacation can begin. There was no passport or COVID certificate check. Or better said: the gate was open! No one cared about the newcomers. So, off I went!

According to the voucher, I was supposed to go to counter 11 outside the hall. Hmm. This was the only one that was CLOSED. No way....! When I think back to my tour guide days, I know very well what can go wrong with transfers.
So I asked the counter next door and, oh wonder, I was actually listed there and I was directed to the parking lot to a minibus. After 45 minutes, all 10 passengers were ready for the long transfer to the hotels. It took 2.5 hours to get to my hostel! We set off and after over 1 hour, we suddenly stopped at a parking lot and I, along with 2 other travelers, were asked to get into a taxi. Okay, I don't really care. As long as I get to my destination safely.
So we set off again and after 20 minutes, the other two got out. Then it took another 40 minutes until I finally arrived at KUMBA. Phew! Exactly midnight.
I had requested the door login via SMS beforehand and everything worked perfectly. Key '13' for my 4-bed dorm was ready and so I went to the room. 2 roommates were sleeping and 1 was not there. I quickly settled in and then fell into bed. I was tired..... although I felt nauseous again because of hunger. But I just had to sleep.