We are leaving this little village of Gavalachori this evening with a late-flight from Chania to Athens.

One of our original return flights for July 6th had been canceled and we still have this new reservation for July 5th to confirm. We tried calling three different numbers (given to us by an Olympic Airlines employee), but nobody answers the phone. I’d suppose they are still on strike.

We will be spending a very short night in Athens as our flight is scheduled to leave at 22:55, which in Olympic Airlines’ terms means at least a 40-minute delay. If we are lucky, we get an announcement explaining the delay. If we are very lucky, we even get an apology.

Nevertheless, we might depart tonight by 23:30, arrive then about 0:10, stand in line once more for at least half an hour to get a hotel room from the Olympic Airlines hotel desk, and then wait for our transfer to the hotel – which probably includes another 30-minute bus ride. We expect to get to the hotel at 1:00 a.m. at the earliest. This means three hours of sleep as we have to get up at 4:00 to make our way back to the airport to catch our 7:00 flight to Frankfurt. And then we have to keep our fingers crossed for tomorrow morning’s flight Athens-Frankfurt to take off.

Well, three hours of sleep in an A/C room in an Athens hotel is better than hanging out at the Athens airport, where yesterday’s temperature was 41° C.