ATHENS to PERTH

 TUESDAY, 18th October.    

7.00a.m. - from our doorstep

       

an hour later - the sun broke through the clouds.

We all woke at various times throughout the night, disturbed by the howling wind so a good night's sleep was elusive.

Our apartment was a crazy, twenty minute uber drive to the airport - our driver Nicholai proclaimed that he was 'the best driver in Greece', a sentiment with which none of us agreed.  We sped down quiet lanes, weaved in and out of traffic on the freeway and were bounced around a bit but arrived safely so we could give him a point for that.  His car was grubby and as there was a problem of some sort with the front passenger seat, the three of us had to squash into the back of the car - most uncomfortable.  He gets no points for that!  Inside the airport terminal, we said our goodbyes and parted company with Marion, our flights were due to leave within 40 minutes of each other and the check-ins were miles apart.  We joined the queue at the Scoot Airline check in, taking 45 minutes to reach the counter.  Eventually achieving success in checking in, we once again walked the very, very, very long walk to the security section, joining yet another long queue. (We heard that October 2022 was the busiest October Greece has experienced and there was simply not enough staff or room in the airport to cope with the volume of traffic!)  Once we'd cleared security we proceeded to our gate and who should we see but Marion!  Her flight was to leave from the gate next door, 40 minutes after ours was due to depart, she'd done all the necessary business and had been sitting in the lounge waiting for half an hour while we'd been queueing & hiking!  We talked for a few minutes, said our farewells again and were finally admitted into the crowded holding bay, ready for boarding.  The whole process had taken almost 3 hours but it wasn't over yet.  Our flight was an hour late leaving, was long and tedious but we expected that, we arrived in Singapore half an hour early, spent half of our 8 hour stopover in the Plaza Lounge, recommended to us by a fellow queue-er in the Athens check in line, then waited the rest of the time near our departure gate before going through security, check-in etc., etc..  

Fast forward to SATURDAY, 22nd October.  On our arrival in Perth on Wednesday, we expected a speedy customs and immigration check, having e-passports and having filled in our customs declarations but after we'd stood in a queue for 15 or so minutes, some of the electronic machines decided to not work, and we were sent to the end of the queue to be manually checked through immigration, were asked if we had been to Indonesia in the last month, we said no, were allowed in and proceeded to the downstairs customs hall where there was a very, very long queue, consisting of not only our fellow passengers but Jetstar passengers who'd arrived from Bali at the same time.  Even though we had stated on our cards that we had nothing to declare, and we had not been to Indonesia where there is apparently an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, when we finally reached the head of the queue, we were told to join another queue while a sniffer dog went along the line.  It may have been the fact that it had been roughly 29 hours since leaving our accommodation in Greece on Tuesday until our arrival in our home country, were still suffering a little from falls, were extremely tired and a little bit grumpy, but we sort of felt like we were being treated like criminals, or at least suspects. 

We're home now having had a wonderful holiday & caught up with our friend Marion, met some lovely people, saw some stunning sights and enjoyed a few different cultures and the journey home will soon be a distant memory.  

                                                                      THE END.