A Day Of Airline Lounges and Ottoman Castles

"This is what happens when you fly an American carrier," I thought as we entered Gate C20 of O'Hare Airport. 

The din was palpable. There was a fifty-something-year-old blonde woman wearing a Santorini sweatshirt that was something between a souvenir and a team jersey talking loudly to a group that seemed to be her friends. As we found out later because their leader was seated next to Michelle and me, it turned out it was a group of 40 travel agents and their families heading to Greece for a multi-island Celebrity Cruise.

However, that 40 wasn't the only boisterous group. for whatever reason Gate C22 was abuzz with some of the most social and American energy I've ever seen heading onto a flight. I haven't flown out of Chicago in 22 years. Was it the Chicago crowd? Was it that Americans heading to Greece are just a really positive group? Was it the particular combination of people of today's flight? I'll probably never know. All I can say is nothing like it happens on Lufthansa, Singapore, Thai, Swiss, Air Canada, Air France, Cathay Pacific, Qantas and several other airlines I could name. 

Perhaps more than any flight I've ever taken, it was clear this was a vacationer airlift – sort of the airline equivalent of the booze cruise. While I tend to prefer the more dignified vibe of Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways, the positive energy was, well….positive. The United flight attendants did a great job of helping ground the crowd without being buzzkills or wet blankets and overall, 10.5 hours passed smoothly on the way to Athens.

Today was definitely one shaped heavily by my United Gold status. Lounge access at both LAX and O'Hare helped us stay comfortable, fed and accomplished during some significant flight delays. Though our flight made it to Athens five hours later than scheduled and spent almost a half hour on the tarmac waiting for a gate, we had an almost ideal two hours to make our final of three flights from Athens to Kos on Aegean. Because I needed a larger baggage weight allowance than the typical Greek domestic ticket allows, I bought an incredibly affordable business class seat (as did Michelle) which gave us fast lane access through security and use of the Aegean lounge where we got some good quality Greek food for the first time this trip before hitting a very tame flight of about 80 percent Greeks who mostly didn't seem to be heading out to party.

In cases of travel, no news is often the best news and today has thus far been remarkably non-dramatic.

Perhaps the highlight has been Kos itself. For one thing, it's the first time we've left an airport for roughly 24 hours. Even better, it was a first for us both. I've never been to Kos and it's always nice to see a new island. Our entire reason for being here is to catch the Blue Star ferry we couldn't take today from Athens because it doesn't run that direction on Fridays. Instead we needed a Blue Star headed from Rhodes back to Athens which makes stops at the islands of the Dodecanese if we wanted to make to Patmos before Sunday. Kos was the closest island with an airport and a Blue Star ferry stop.

While any straight male Farsi speaker might find Kos the most desirable of all islands, it seems – in a very cursory way – to be pretty and not dissimilar to many other Greek islands of the Dodecanese. Thank God for that too because I was banking on the area near the port having a row of cafes and restaurants that would allow us to sit, work, catch up and eat without hurrying us or caring about us walking in with numerous large bags. Sure enough, Kos did not disappoint.

In fact, I'm writing while the sun sets over the Aegean and the ferry dock. Not a bad first evening.

As for Michelle, getting out of the taxi by the water on Kos seemed to be a real positive. It's fun to point out to someone that we're standing in front of an Ottoman castle, the ferry dock is there, and to follow me for a block to go find a cafe at which we can work only to realize that this isn't so normal for everyone. We'll give it a week, she'll get there.

In the meantime, we have one last leg of the journey – a three hour ferry to Patmos. From the Skala ferry dock it's a five minute walk home and there we stop. This will be a big moment for the newly renovated bathroom – a lot is riding on the new shower working well. I'm looking forward to being done with my travel-wear – the only pair of long-pants or sweatshirt I wear when in Greece. I'll let my friends at the laundry deal with those… From here out, it's all summer and everything's coming up fig trees.