Because of a call for a general strike in Greece on May 20, Pam and I make the decision to return home 1 day early.

But in order to do this we had to leave Paros two days earlier - the reason being that we were suppose to fly from Paros to Athens and then the same day onto Dubai and home. Checking the flight schedules to Athens we found that there were no seats available from the 17th to the 27th on Olympic airlines the only carrier to fly that route.

So the only thing to do was catch a ferry but that would not get us into Athens with enough time to connect to our Emirates flight.

So the decision was to catch the ferry to Athens on the 18th to fly out on the 19th.

We phoned Emirates to see if we could change our flights and told them about the strike - that cost us $300

We booked a room in Athens for the night that was 90 euro

I was pick pocketed when we arrived in Athens - I should have been more careful.

I lost my wallet with credit cards, cash, drivers license etc

We went to the hotel we booked for the night and tried to use the computer to make some phone calls but I could not connect to work so we ended up using the hotel phone to call and cancel the credit cards. This cost 80 euro for 3 phone calls totalling about 20 minutes.

I got bitten by mozzies in the hotel room which made my single night there horrible even though the room was nice.

At breakfast a hotel lady asked how our stay was and I told her about the mozzies and said she would get me some cream.

She did that and it was a good gel product. On checkout they wanted it back - I refused to give it back and said I would not be paying for the gel either - I won that problem.

Next we go to the airport and while waiting to checkin we get a call from Olympic airlines to ask if we knew our flight from Paros to Athens tomorrow was cancelled? We did not but had assumed this would happen.

So good thinking by us to leave a day early!

The food on the Emirates flight to Dubai was pretty bad!

Upon landing in Dubai we wanted to do two things;

1) Get our hotel in Dubai updated for the day change.
2) Try to use our air points to upgrade the flight to Sydney.

We looked around for someone to help and found someone who said we had to go back upstairs. We did that and got told to go up to skywards up again. We were told to go back in the direction that we had come from but there was no way to go up.

So we went down again and I made a stand to get someone to help us who were trying to tell us to go back from where we had just been.

I managed to get someone to escort us back and we ended up going back to the same man as previously who this time amended the hotel booking form.

Next try to upgrade, while in Athens I tried to upgrade online but it required that I use my points for all passengers but I did not have enough points for both of us it was wanting 90,000 points and Pam and I have 46,000 each.

In Athens we asked at the check in counter but they said it had to be done in Dubai.

So back to Dubai - no one seems to know much and we had to walk what felt like miles from one terminal to another.

In order to do that we had to go through security - no problem except they do not like my bag and flag me over to have it checked.

I had no idea what was wrong, the checker had no idea what was wrong and asked the screening person and in the end looked all through it and passed it to another person and in the end said "go" all ok

During this the checking person who was a snarly bitch told Pam to go and get checked in a separate room even though she triggered nothing.

I was getting quite pissed off about all this.

So we walk for ages and get to what we assume is the correct place and it was shut.

So we head back now towards the original terminal which is where you need to go for transfers to the hotel and notice a business class lounge and go there to ask about the upgrade.

They were a pack of pricks saying that we had to upgrade 24 hours before our flight and tough luck. If I was a silver member they could do it now but not since I am a blue member. When we get home we will be silver!

So I get pissed off and tell them I hate the country and airline (they did not take it very well) and storm off.

We walk for ages to get to a place to leave the hotel going back past the snarly security checking woman and another security check, finally we get outside to our transfer van.

It was 32 Celsius when we arrived at 10pm but now it was 11:45pm

We get to the hotel in about 6 minutes and check in and get given our room key which is another long walk.

Guess what? It didn't work!

So back to reception and I request a new room.

I am lying in bed and it is 5:30am writing this on my blackberry.

we go back to the airport in 2 hours.

Maripissa is only about 1km from Pisso Livado and has more churches than you could imagine for a small  town. Here are some of them.

A great day at the beach today – we spent some time in the Pisso Livadi beach (where the boats are) and then we went around to Logaros Beach in the afternoon after lunch.

I can now feel the effects of the swimming and the sunning as my back is rather warm and tender. Maybe not a good night ahead!

The little church in Pisso Livadi and the fast ferry

Greece is apparently having a 24 Hour General Strike on May 20th, 2010 – this is the day we fly from Paros to Athens and then Athens to Dubai.

“The walkout is expected to ground flights to and from Greece, disrupt transport and shut down ministries and public services across the country. The unions will convene after the strike to decide on future action”
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64B1SH20100512

Well I assume that Pam & I travelling on the 20th is not going to happen.

We are going to look at an option of flying out of Athens on the 19th but we will need to get a hold of Emirates and see if we can do that. If we can we will have to leave Paros 2 days early and either go to Santorini or Athens.

If we go to Athens it will need to be by Ferry since there are no flights, if we go to Santorini we will need to ferry there and then fly to Athens the next day. Either way we will need another night somewhere.

It has been quite windy today in Paros and when we were looking at other flight options from Paros we noticed that the two flights today were cancelled – we assume by the winds. Also there are no bookable flights from Paros to Athens until the 27th.

On the positive – it has topped 30° Celsius every day since we have been here.

We had a lovely sunny day in Pisso Livadi and ate some lovely seafood and enjoyed some time on the beach.

We left Athens yesterday on the Blue Star Paros ship – the trip took 4.5 hours to get from Piraeus in Athens to Paros – a total of 95 Nautical Miles.

The view from our balcony

Last night there was a festival in our town of Pisso Livadi where there was music and dancing and a free ouzo and octopus with bread and cheese and cucumber.

There was also boats in the harbour with red flares and some fireworks.

We are leaving athens today - an early start to catch the train to the port for the 7:25am ferry to Paros.

We have just pulled out of the port and the trip will take about 4 hours.

We have a rental car waiting at the port for us so that will be interesting driving in the little Island

When we arrived in athens and caught the train into town from the airport either we did not think about it, did not see or just forgot to validate our 5 euro ticket.

We were on the train and along came the ticket validators - they wanted to see our ticket so we showed them and they said that they have not been validated and that is a fine!

A man on the seat opposite also did not validate his ticket.

For some reason instead of fining up they said we had to get off the train and validate the ticket and catch the next train.

So we were very very lucky as the fine is 60 times the fare price.

60 x 5 euro = 300 euro each

The view from the hotel roof top bar – the area is not flash, the hotel rooms are basic, the view is great.

We packed up early, checked out and went to have breakfast in the breakfast room.

A quick roll with salami and a couple of espresso and we were ready to walk to the bus station - about 10 minutes.

We got outside and it started to rain - and then it got real heavy so out with the umbrella and jackets.

We got a bit damp and found a #51 bus but it was a local bus not the airport bus which is also #51.

So we went into the station and bought a couple of tickets - 3.60 euro each

We are now sitting in the bus on the way to the airport