The next day in Athens was spent hiking across town to The National Archaeological Museum, one of the most famous in the world. The collections are representative of all the cultures that flourished in Greece from around 4500 B.C. to around 500 A.D. B.C., People! B.C.!! The items range from sculpture, pottery, jewelry, tools, etc made from such materials as clay, stone, marble, gold, and bronze.
After the museum, we walked to Kontokali, a fancy area of town planning to continue northeast on a famous street with some architecture of interest, but got pooped out and just headed back for siesta. That night, we celebrated having all our units rented at the rent house in Houston by going to Jackson Hall, a nice upscale restaurant specializing in.....HUGE BURGERS! This massive stack of bread & beef was $15 and worth every penny- and so was the huge salad. We truly thought we were back in Texas for a moment.
The next day we finished up some shopping loose ends and said goodbye to Athens- but not hello to Morocco just yet. Upon arriving to the airport, we found that the Iberian Airlines flight to Barcelona was delayed 2hrs, and we would miss our Barc-Casablanca flight. Bummer. So we were given a voucher for free dinner at Sbarro pizza. Needless to say, it's not like Sbarro in the US. Plus, Sbarro in the US kind of stinks, so you can imagine the quality. Plus it was in an airport for Buddha's sake! No es bueno. We tried several times to use the free internet at the airport to email our friends Adil & Kate (A&K) and warn them we'd be a day late. Fingers crossed they get it!! But the computers wouldn't allow us to SEND emails. So back to the customer service desk at Iberian- for the third time. We told the nice gent the problem, and he asked what he could do in a puzzled way. We said, "You can get us into the Executive Club and use the REAL internet maybe?!" He made a quick official-sounding phone call (probably to the lady behind him through a large window) and then gave us a hall pass to the big house. We wrote our email and crossed fingers again, and had a quick beverage on Iberian for our troubles.
Free bad dinner #2- Iberian Airlines flight meal- rubber chicken, rubber veggies, etc. Upon arriving in Barcelona, we immediately went to the customer service desk to get our free hotel room voucher- with about 50 other passengers.
<<<Travel lesson #??- Aside from the US, Britain, Scandinavia, Canada, Aus, & New Zealand, there is probably no other place in the world where there is actually a logically formed line, or "que". Notice that Spain wasn't mentioned above. Even when you think being pushed against- and touching- the person in front of you while breathing down their shirt is enough, IT IS NOT. Little old ladies will step on your flip flopped toes and squeeze in without even acknowledging you.>>>
Back to the hotel voucher line...So JJ has become quite the pushy que person after 2 months in Greece (also not mentioned in the "que-savvy countires" list above). So she was doing her wifely duties by blocking the crowd for Jason (QB) to fly in and get the voucher. However, there was one tough outside linebacker that just wouldn't give up. She was literally angling her way past JJ after being told 10 minutes earlier by the agent to get to the back of the line. So Jason snapped and yelled "EXCUSE ME." <<lady turns to him, along with everyone within 15 feet>> "WE ARE NEXT". Good thing for her she knew English, cause J wasn't about to repeat it....at least in a verbal manner. She mumbled something like "You let those other people in", referring to a couple that were waiting longer than us and were not pushy, therefore were not exactly up front. Jason said "They were in front of us." (Novel idea) Jason felt like saying "I let them in because they are not a pushy little *&^%$ like somebody I just met!" But he didn't say that.
Voucher in hand, we headed with other passengers- including 'Miss Pushy Outside LB' to the hotel. It is now around 12.30am. We arrive and Jason ends up getting grief from the kid at the front desk (Rahim) when he couldn't understand his Spanish. He basically told Jason in gestures that he didn't need to speak English. Jason almost said "Y no necessito hablar Espanol si no puede hacer nada mas que ch!*% mi v$%!, like some pushy little somebody I just met", But he didn't say it...
Free bad dinner #3- Hotel food.....mmmmmmmm.....Guess this great establishment gets most of it's business in overflow from the airport, since the dining area was set up with buffet style food, and water, place settings, and wine on the tables, ready for use. Hence Rahim as the sole rep when you walk in the door. Well, J3 know how to make something out of less than nothing. So we took the rest of the wine upstairs and headed for bed. We knew Barcelona is an "all-night" city, but regretfully, we had to be full of energy for Morocco!
The next morn, had a quick brekky (surprisingly good, although we only had 5 minutes) and headed on the bus to the airport. Upon landing in Morocco, we quickly started looking for our larger rolling backpack, which was checked in in Athens, to Marocco via Barcelona. Sounds shaky, huh? After 20 minutes, the belt stopped and no J3 big backpack. JJ went to tell our driver why we were still not ready to go (assuming he's still there, and assuming A&K even got our email and he's even there at all!). She didn't find him. So we walked 6 belts away to the end of baggage claim to the 'lost baggage' desk to make a claim. One second before inquiring, we look to the right and notice our big boy rolling along on the very last belt, all by his lonesome. The sign above the belt said some place like Burundi or something... We take a second to think outloud about the what if's (like filling out miles of paperwork in only French & Arabic, possibly never finding big boy, etc) and move on.
As we're walking out of baggage claim, we sweep the huge room for our man (with our name on a piece of paper) hoping he's still here and JJ just missed him. We don't see it and move towards the door, contemplating our next move with no Morocco A&K contact info. Again, one last glance to the right by Jason, noticing a very tired looking man sitting next to a column with a piece of white paper on his lap, face down. Jason and the man catch glances, and- as they say- the rest is history. Yep, the "can I see your paper" look by Jason, acknowledged by our man, and voila! it said "JJ and Jason"! The man's name is Abdul-Rahim, or Rahim for short. We will never associate him with that "pushy little Spanish somebody" we met earlier! This was our driver for the next 10 days, and a nice fellow he is.
Off to Adil's mom's house for the start of another adventure!
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