'Cause not everything is always golden.
Hi again!
Well, as it is with roadtrips: excitement and definitely fun but they also entail a couple of unforeseen things that might come up and ruin your entire time management. So, it truly is not always and all the time easy, there are often also a plenty of fails happening - as for example the crack in the windowshield in the past weeks. So if you still think that everything always runs smoothly with us, well then let me tell you the opposite with a short #failsoftheweek Athens & Mykonos edition:
Fail One: Well-knowing that Greeks tend to have a crazy driving style, often chaotic and sometimes reckless (as a Greek I'm allowed to say this :D) - especially in the bigger cities like Athens or Thessaloniki, we parked the van safely in a parking garage near Syntagma Square (after being rejected by 8 other parking spaces because of the vehicle's height). However, the evening we arrived in Athens, 11pm - no garage accepted us which resulted in parking the van directly in front of the AirBnb, at least till the next morning, in an also really safe and broad, rather traffic-calmed street. But as it is, the other morning when we went to drive the car into the garage, we discovered some nice, big scratches and a dent on the driver's side - well, welcome to Athens, as if I had known before… and guess what, of course no one left a friendly note with an apologize, name or phone number on it, so we spent the following two afternoons with explaining to the Greek Police (in Greek language!) that a damage report was absolutely necessary for the German insurance… luckily after tons of arguments and some discussions, we were finally issued a report.
Fail Two: Ever been in an AirBnb and needed to call a locksmith service in order to get out of the apartment? Well, us neither - until last week, when we smoothly got up in the morning, wanted to leave the house towards Impact Hub for work and they key did not turn around. Well result: I got late to my physical meeting, locksmith came within the Greek 'will be there soon' 3 hours and the day started generally well ;-). Time management again: ruined.
Fail Three: Mykonos. Also a thing that might easily occur when on roadtrips and happened to us: AirBnb pictures differed significantly from reality and the apartment was unfortunately more than just dirty - result: Last minute Airbnb Hunting in Mykonos for instant rental and with the extra challenge: Long weekend including bank holiday in Greece. Which meant: Most apartments not available - at the end everything went well and we're not living on the streets. Otherwise: Sleeping in the van would also have been a considerable option.
However, all of these fails were not the biggest desaster but definitely occasions that costed a lot of nervs and time, but what we learn again out of this is those simple three things:
- be prepared for the unprepared
- stay flexible
- be calm and always keep smiling :).
As you see things don't always work perfectly - c'est la vie (and a guarantee it never gets boring :D).
Cheers from Mykonos,
Lisa & Vicky