I have landed in Athens. Been here for a little less than a week. Still adjusting to the time change, have obtained wifi, figured out adapters and convertors that work with my electronics, and I’m slowly making my rounds to visit family.
Everything is fine and dandy now, but I can’t even tell you the hell I went through to get here. All I kept hearing from everyone was “Mercury must be in retrograde“. After I have arrived, I Googled it, and yes yes, Mercury is indeed in retrograde. I don’t know much about astrology, but whenever a situation occurs in which the alignments of the stars and planets affect my everyday day life, I do my research. I read that Mercury affects travel (along with other things), and my travel was affected for sure.
I was to be on a plane Tuesday night with a transfer in Zurich. I arrived at the airport in a timely manner, ran all over trying to find where to check in because I was in the wrong terminal. Sorted out my overweight (by only two pounds) suitcase, and went through security. I arrived at my gate an hour early and had enough time to just chill. My morning was a little wonky, but everything was going okay.
It was time to board the plane. I had a great window seat, and an empty seat next to me – I was lucky! There were tv screens behind every seat, so I was looking forward to all these movie options and games.
Twenty minutes passed, an announcement was made that we would be delayed twenty more minutes so maintenance can replace something. Forty minutes later we were asked to calmly exit the plane with our things. That’s when everything went to hell.
The replacement plane hadn’t arrived and the boarding time kept getting pushed later and later. For sure I would have missed my connection. I was on the phone with customer service while waiting in line for customer service so I can have all my bases covered. An hour later I heard the final boarding call and ran for the plane. We sat there for another thirty minutes before I asked a flight attendant what I should do as I didn’t want to get stranded in Zurich trying to find the next flight to Athens not knowing when that would be. I made the decision to get off the plane, which they understood (a lot of people were asking to get off), and they put in the request to get my luggage out. They said it was out and ready for pickup, so I killed some time by trying customer service again to reschedule. Thirty minutes later, customer service closed and they sent us all to another station in the airport, which was closed too. They then brought us to baggage claim, I went to get my luggage but was told baggage claim was closed for the night and to come back tomorrow. I searched high and low to find an available agent to rebook my trip. Finally found a station and she reassured me that my luggage will be on the flight with me the following day.
Called my dad to pick me up at midnight in which we slept at his job because it wasn’t worth it to go home.
Next day, went at a reasonable time to get my luggage, and alas, they sent it to Zurich anyway. My rebooked connection unfortunately was in Munich. No kind of yelling would bring my luggage back.
I flew to Munich (no empty seat next to me and a defective screen that wouldn’t let me watch movies without glitches throughout this 8 hour flight), transferred without a problem, and made it to Athens. My luggage was rerouted and arrived three days after I did.
So, lucky for me, I have obtained all my goods, my electronics are working, the weather has been nice (was a little startled by a minor earthquake this morning) but everything’s going smoothly. I will now forever keep an eye out for Mercury in retrograde because it was not a pleasant experience when all I wanted to do was arrive safely with no problems.
I suggest you keep an eye out for the retrogrades too, especially if you’re planning to travel during those periods. I would have loved to been mentally prepared if I knew Mercury would be such a trouble maker.
So that’s the mini summary of my flight. I have internet as I stated twice already. I’m ready to get back into posting now that I can!
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