Our Trip to Crete, PART ONE: Airport? More like Hellport

I thought it would be a good idea to post a sort of journal of our first full vacation of the four of us, sans grandparents. I'm not including our trip to Taba, Egypt in March, which was more of a necessity than an actual vacation. And, as it didn't involve any airports, it can hardly count as a real excursion. To have an adventure, you have to go through an airport. Preferably in a country that takes "security" to the level of an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Now, don't get me wrong. I know why the international airport in Israel is so difficult, and in a strange way, it actually makes me feel more secure than say, traveling through an airport in the US. Basically, I know that these guys (and girls) know what it's like to be on the constant brink of an attack, since there are so many countries on this side of the world that would be glad to take Israel down, so although I complain about the extra security that makes the TSA look like a joke, I don't mind TOO much. Fortunately, our issue (this time) was not security-related.

We actually passed through security fairly quickly (I should qualify, quickly for Israel. It still took a quite a while). Once we got to the ticket counter, however, our problems started. The agent for Olympic Airlines informed us that our daughter was not listed as a lap child, so we didn't have a ticket (and therefore, no boarding pass) for Culacha. Hubby was able to straighten things out after about 20 minutes (while I was busy chasing two young children who were in the crazy, super-sleepy phase). We eventually boarded our plane and got to Athens without any more mishaps. We checked our flight on the departure monitor to make sure all the information was still the same (it was), then proceeded to walk to our next terminal, where we could hopefully get he kiddos some food.

We found a Mickey D's that was close to the take-off strip (so the kids were able to watch the planes take off while we eat), and we ordered some food while we waited for our flight. After about an hour, we headed over to security (again) and went to our gate. The flight number was the same, the take-off time and destination were the same, but it was the wrong airline! So, we went BACK to OA's ticket counter, only to be told that our flight had been cancelled, and we were rescheduled for the next flight THREE HOURS later. No announcement over the PA, no warning when we entered the airport, nothing. I don't want to go into the boring details of waiting around in the Athens airport. Suffice to say, our children were tired, we were tired, and a lot of the other passengers were tired when we finally boarded the plane. You'd think the problems would stop there, wouldn't you?

When we boarded the airplane, several things caught our attention. First of all, the staff didn't LOOK Greek. And, they didn't speak Greek. Strange for a Greek airline, don't you think? Our son looks at the emergency instructions located in that little pocket in front of his seat, and we discover we're flying Bulgarian Air. Now, WE weren't too bothered by this; as long as the plane was flying to our intended destination, we really didn't care who was operating the flight. However, one of the other passengers felt it was HER duty to make a huge fuss about this problem, and instead of writing a letter to the airline, or, say, complaining to Olympic Air when she got to Crete, she proceeds to YELL AT THE AIRLINE STAFF FOR TWENTY MINUTES UNTIL SECURITY COMES TO ESCORT HER OFF THE PLANE. Everyone clapped as she left the airplane.

Fortunately, that was the end of our day, and everything proceeded as normal once we were up in the air. Luggage arrived in Crete, nothing missing, taxi took us to the hotel, we checked in, and plopped down on the couch after an exhausting day of travel. Stay tuned as I continue our saga over the next few days. Our vacation got better, I promise!