first trip

My first trip to Athens was made easier by my friend Katy joining me for the first of my two weeks. Except for a long forgotten business trip to Santo Domingo (yes, Santo Domingo, yes business) I’d never been off the continent of North America. Canada, a northern-most town in Mexico had been the stretching of my boundaries. Katy was living in Germany at the time and I’d suggested that we meet in Greece for a working vacation. I needed her European expertise – how to manage in a place where one is unfamiliar with the language. She needed a vacation. It was perfect.

I did have one contact in Greece who wasn’t associated with my quest. Shelly, the sister of a friend had married a Greek man and been living in Greece for over two decades. She would help me understand how to get around. In our very first discussion about the trip she’d made it clear that she was a limited resource. “You can’t stay with me” was the first thing she said as she began listing the ways she could and couldn’t be helpful. But she was a font of helpful information. And when I finally visited her home in Marathon I understood perfectly why I couldn’t stay with her.

But I needed her help to figure out a spot to meet my friend Katy since the two of us were arriving at the Athens airport less than an hour apart. When I’d asked Shelly for a spot where Katy and I could meet at the airport she’d said “Oh, just meet her at the newsstand.” I kept sending her emails asking her to describe specifically which newsstand, specifically where it was, where it was located on the concourse, which concourse. Each question was frustrated with the same reply, “the airport is small, you’ll find each other.”

I could not believe that any international airport was so small I could just tell someone to meet me at the newsstand, but getting absolutely no satisfaction from Shelly beyond “meet her at the newsstand” I reluctantly told Katy that’s where we’d meet. She had the same questions and was similarly disbelieving when I conveyed the reply. But since that was all the information we had, I approached the day thinking I could page her if it came to that.