Lardos to Singapore – 13th May

Saturday 13th May was the day I would start my journey to be reunited with Captain Caveman, in Vietnam. We’d been counting down to this day ever since we booked the flight and we were both excited to see each other again. If this was a film, the next couple of days would more than likely have been very different – but I bet those that know me guessed that it wouldn’t quite work out as planned.
I was still pretty drunk when Michelle banged on my door and shouted that we were late. Neither mine nor Steve’s alarms had gone off when it was due but, luckily, Michelle had woken up. We were all in a bit of a panic as we rushed to get clothes on and get in the car. I don’t remember exactly what the time was but I think it was 5.15am when we set off. It could’ve been later, it didn’t really matter, Michelle was sure we would miss the flight from Rhodes to Athens. While Michelle drove, I checked when my check-in closed and Steve searched for the next flight. Shit, this was not good!! I was still clutching at straws that we would make it – there was no way I could miss my flights from Athens to Saigon via Singapore. My flight to Athens was at 6.30am which we would get to the airport in time for but the check-in opened at 5.30am, boarding was due to start at 5.50am. Steve had booked a ticket with luggage but check-in with hold luggage closed at 5.50am which I would definitely not make. There was a slim chance we would make the hand luggage only, last check-in at 6am – but it was beginning to look very unlikely. My flight from Athens to Singapore was at 1.45pm with a check-in from 10.45am.
We were making as much good progress as we could, the roads were empty but it was still looking like we may get there after the check-in counter had closed. All of a sudden, Michelle stopped the car and got out to be sick – something hadn’t agreed with her, maybe the takeaway. This made me feel rather queasy too and Steve had found another flight. At this point I didn’t care about the price I just needed to get to Athens. The other flight from Rhodes to Athens would just get me there on time, if I was able to change to that one in the case of missing my booked one.
We got to the airport and I didn’t even say bye to Michelle as Steve and I hurried to the desk. The place was empty and the man at the counter had already closed the check-in. I was gutted, super thirsty and a bit tearful.

Even though I had got there before the flight departure time, I had just missed the check-in closing and could not get on the 6.30am flight from Diagoras airport to Athens. There was another one with the same airline later that day, however, that would not give me enough time to check-in for my Scoot flight to Singapore.
Luckily, Steve was great in a crisis; there was a flight with another airline at 8.30am and, while I had gone off to be sick in the toilets (totally blaming last night’s food) he had booked it for me. My credit card wanted to send me an OTP code to my non-working phone so I couldn’t book it but luckily Steve had his card with him and booked it for me – it was not expensive considering the situation (£70) and included luggage. I said goodbye and thanked Steve for his help and a great week with him and Michelle. My first thing to do, as ironically I was too early to check-in for the next flight, was buy a bottle of water. I got 800ml for 1.3 Euro which is a lot cheaper than Dalaman airport. I felt like death and set 2 alarms so that I didn’t fall asleep and miss the check-in for this flight.
A nice lady from the airline came to tell me she was opening the check-in desk and I could go through. I checked in my wheelie case, as I may as well, and had just my lap top with me.
It took all my willpower not to use the sick bag on the flight and I was lucky to have an aisle seat. I made it to Athens looking like I’d been dug up and feeling so hungover that it was ridiculous. I could imagine my Mom saying ‘you are 50, you know’ to tell me off for being so stupid. Incidentally, it was the first flight I’d ever missed in my life!
At Athens airport, I just had enough time to check in for my flights to Vietnam but the Scoot queues were massively long. A man at the front was telling people to form a separate queue for hand luggage only so I got in that and hoped they didn’t weigh my 2 bags. While waiting in the queue, I found that I still had Steve’s sunglasses in my bag from last night. Once through security, I had enough time to change some Turkish Lira in to Euros and it’s a good job I did. There was no time for a lounge but that didn’t bother me.
The Scoot flight to Singapore left on time at 1.45pm, it was fairly full and I had a chatty Aussie fella next to me. I was not so chatty and fell asleep before we’d taken off.
When I woke up, I was hungry (which was a good sign) and the 2 seats in front of me were empty. As it was an 11 hour flight and I really needed to get some rest before meeting Captain Caveman, I moved seats for the extra space next to me. Scoot is a budget airline so you have to buy everything, including a drink of water. Due to the turbulence, card machines were not working and quite a few people didn’t have the correct currency of Euros or Singaporean Dollars. I was so lucky to have the Euros plus some Singaporean Dollars from the way here and I splashed out.
My first meal of the day was a teriyaki chicken and 2 bottles of water for 20SGD (£12 approx), not the perfect choice but they had ran out of my first two choices.
The seats on Scoot aren’t too comfy but my former neighbour said thanks to me for moving as he was now enjoying the extra room next to him too, I had another nap as there’s no entertainment system either.
By 7pm, I was hungry again and I had a Dahl curry with basmati rice, a bottle of water and an orange juice at a cost of 19SGD (£11).
I went back to sleep as we still had ages until we were due to land in Singapore at 5.45am. Singapore is 5 hours ahead of Greece and Turkey, 7 hours ahead of the UK. It had been a long and stressful day!!