Now that I’ve been back from Greece for almost two weeks now, I’m sinking into my regular routine. Adjusting to being seven hours ahead in Greece proved to be no problem. On the day of the flight Ricky and I woke up at 4:30am to start hacking our circadian rythms. Combined with the adrenaline and excitement of being in Athens we were ready to go when we landed. The opposite was true for returning home. I purposely stayed awake for most of the flight because we’d be landing around 8pm and I wanted to be able to sleep. I barely recall that first night at home from zonking out right away. After a few nights of getting to bed around 9pm I started to re-adjust to my normal schedule. I’m sure being back at work didn’t help!
Lets talk about getting from The Burné to Athens. Over at The Art of Nonconformity, Chris (the blog author) would probably call what I’m about to describe as “travel hacking”. From Glen Burnie Ricky and I took a short taxi ride to the airport (BWI), excited about finally starting this vacation that had been in the works for months. Once there it was simple enough to grab our boarding passes and make our way to the express flight to Philadelphia, one of US Airways hub airports with direct flights to Athens, Greece. That in itself is awesome. In the past century airplane technology has advanced from not being able to cross the Atlantic to being able to fly 5,000+ miles without stopping. The flight from Baltimore to Philadelphia (100 miles) was, not surprisingly, very quick — about 25 minutes. It’s in Philadelphia that our journey hit its first snag and things got interesting.
The flight from Philadelphia to Athens was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to be diverted to Munich, Germany with a connecting flight to Athens. By volunteering to give up your seat, you were also agreeing to landing about five hours later in Athens. I knew that our time in Athens was already limited and that most of our trip would be on the islands of Mykonos and Santorini. What is the worth of those five hours we began to think? The airline was offering $550 vouchers towards future flights to those who agreed to give up their seats. We didn’t have anything time-sensitive planned, so why not? We went up to the counter and asked if they would also upgrade us to first class for the flight to Munich. They agreed. We agreed. All of a sudden, this flight we had booked months earlier and had been dreaming about for just as long was suddenly changing! I’ll admit, I was a little nervous. Not about getting stuck in Germany and never reaching Greece, but just a general nervousness of everything suddenly changing. But I realized that being able to change plans like that was a beautiful thing. By not planning every minute of the trip, we had the flexibility to do something like divert to Munich, get $550 vouchers each, and fly across the Atlantic Ocean in style. Curiosity got to me and I found that our original economy ticket was $400 (one way to Athens) and that a first class ticket was around $1,600, making for a grand total of $1,200 in upgrades and $550 towards a future flight. I’d do it again in a heartbeat for five hours of my time.
All the while our excitement was rising from being about to board the flight to Athens. After giving up our seats, a noticeable calm came over me. I felt relaxed. We made our way up to US Airways Envoy lounge to relax for a few hours before the flight to Germany. The first thing that struck me when we arrived at the lounge was how quiet it was. It was on a second level of the airport away from the hustle and bustle below. A receptionist greeted us and checked our passports, saving us from waiting in line with the masses. We heard another receptionist calmly announce that some other flight was boarding. It was a zen-like experience.
The lounge is huge. It’s basically two halves that are mirror images of each other. We made our way to the right and plopped down in two comfortable chairs. A buffet of fresh fruits, pastries and salads was available along with coffee and teas. An open bar was nearby as well as self-serve bottles of wine and a refrigerator of beers. We just helped ourselves! A bit of food and a couple glasses of wine while watching planes take off and land through the lounge’s expansive windows made the hours pass quite comfortably. Eventually we heard that our flight to Munich was boarding and we made our way down to the boarding area, greeted by all of the noise and commotion of thousands of travelers rushing about. We were called first to board the plane and made our way to our seats in row 1.
Now seated in row 1, we were handed mimosas and a menu to order dinner off of. It was a new experiences for me! We were sipping our drinks as everyone else was boarding. No waiting for everyone to find room for their oversized carryon bags in the overhead storage. I forget all of the menu options, but we both ended up choosing rack of lamb with brussel sprouts and roasted potatoes, a spinach salad and a gin and tonic to drink. The flight took off on time and eventually our dinner was served on real plates with real silverware and our drink in a real glass. Cheers to not fumbling with plastic-ware! Lets not forget dessert, either — for me that was a delicious apple tart. After dinner we were given personal monitors and a fancy headset to watch either a movie or tv show or listen to music on. We also got a little goody bag filled with a face mask, toothbrush and toothpaste, some chapstick, a pair of earplugs and a pair of fresh socks. I struggled to stay awake watching a movie I chose, and finally drifted off to sleep, fully reclined in the seat. I woke up some time in the morning, about an hour before landing, and was instantly asked if I wanted breakfast and coffee. Sure I said! A nice little fruit platter, yogurt and granola and an apple danish were in front of me in quick order.
Eventually our first class experience came to an end as we landed in Munich and made our way to the connecting flight to Athens. The airport in Munich was absolutely beautiful. When we go to Germany we’ll have to go there again! Free coffee and tea stations were all over the place along with free newspapers. It was clean. And we were in Europe finally! Soon enough we were off to Athens, finally heading towards our original destination.