The Honeymoon

Freedom and a fresh start were what awaited after my wedding. I was under the impression that graduating from college and moving off campus would set me onto a trajectory of success and joy for the next chapter of life. My brand new husband Jensen and I boarded a plane from Chicago to Athens Greece to celebrate a culmination of major life milestones, most notably our wedding not two days prior. After graduating from college, running a marathon, and getting married, our 10 day hiatus was well earned. Personally, I have never once done anything the easy way ever. So, why would my honeymoon be any different? It was planned perfectly: Air BnB in Piraeus Greece, forty-five minutes from Athens International Airport. Take the train to our lodgings, explore, see all of the history we just spent the past three years studying in college in-real-life, and have the best time ever. As the broke young adults that we were, getting an Air Bnb was of course the only reasonable option for us to consider. 

Unfortunately, I have never once been relaxed a day in my life, and traveling -believe it or not, actually makes that so much worse. We made it to the airport a solid six hours early and I waited anxiously with our bags while my sweet adventurous husband explored the airport. After an additional two hour delay, we were ready to depart. 

Weeks prior, I had concocted a plan to trick my body into getting some sleep on the airplane by taking a combination of Benadryl, Dramamine, and NyQuil. I was determined to sleep like a baby all the way to Greece and get off the plane ready to explore with no jet lag. It didn’t work. I slept for a combined total of 30 minutes on that 12 hour flight. That will do something to a person. Because now, not only was I exhausted from traveling and not sleeping, but I actually had what I have termed a “Benadryl hangover”. (I’ve never been hungover but I can imagine that that is what it must feel like). 

We finally arrived in Athens, and were both beyond ready to get settled into our apartment. At the baggage claim we waited, and waited, and waited when we realized that our luggage was not coming. Other than what he was currently wearing, all of my Jensen’s clothes were in his missing suitcase. My contact lenses, most of my clothes, and the rest of our belongings were also all lost. We were told by airport staff that if we gave them our name and address, they would mail our luggage to us. Simple. They proceeded to write the address of our accommodation on a piece of printer paper. I was highly skeptical, but we moved on and found a train to the town we were staying in. A forty-five minute train ride and a one mile walk later, we finally made it to the Air BnB. 

Upon arrival, our host greeted us at our apartment (this has never happened to me ever in any of the other Air Bnb situations that I have stayed in) and proceeded to ask us for our passports. (What?) This woman also spoke no English and was trying desperately to convince us that she was not trying to steal our identities. We conceded, and she left us with the keys and a good night. 

Our Air BnB was a quaint one bedroom one bathroom apartment. There was an exercise bicycle in the entryway, some bookshelves, a glass coffee table, and New York Empire curtains drawn over a small window in the living room. The kitchen was furnished with a small table that had a callous scraper on it, a refrigerator with stickers of Jesus, and a window over the sink that had curtains drawn. Across the way, the bedroom had an armoire that was taped shut, two nightstands framing a full-sized bed, and cold tile flooring. We were so exhausted that we found some “pajamas”, and went to bed. 

I found myself wide awake in the middle of the night, and as I was feeling around for my glasses to see what time it was, I knocked them off the nightstand onto the floor. The arm of my glasses snapped off. No big deal, I had my contact lenses… in my suitcase that was MIA. At a much more reasonable morning time, Jensen and I woke up not-too-deterred at all that had gone wrong already, just excited to be there and explore. We were both famished, so we decided to go for a walk and find somewhere to get breakfast. Something of note is that Jensen and I are highly routine individuals. Like eat-meals-at-the-exact-same-time-every-day type of routine people.

 To our surprise, people in Piraeus were not waking up at the crack of dawn for breakfast, in fact, nothing was open. At all. We finally found something to eat, and I was so tired still from travelling, and the general emotional fatigue from all of these major life events all suddenly being over, that I ended up sobbing in this cafe attempting to eat some foreign food. 

I went from taking 18 credit hours, working three jobs, 40 hours a week, training for a marathon, and planning our wedding, to being alone in a foreign country without any of my belongings, unable to see clearly, and feeling so small. Jensen and I decided to take the day to relax, so we headed back to our apartment to watch a movie. We were watching Legally Blonde 2 on my iPad when I set it on the edge of the couch. I turned around, accidentally bumping it off face down onto the ground. My iPad shattered so badly that every time I went to use it, shards of glass fell out of the screen. This just about sent me over the edge. 

To keep me from fully having a mental breakdown, Jensen decided that we should come up with a plan to get out of the house and do something fun. We decided that the next day, we would get three train tickets. One to get us from Piraeus to Athens so we could confront the airport about how 72 hours later, we still had no luggage. A second to get us from the Airport to the Acropolis so we could have a cute little tourist day exploring the country, and a third to get us from the Acropolis back to Piraeus. 

The next morning, we made our way to the train station with a plan. I told the woman at the counter we needed six tickets, two to the airport, two to the acropolis, and two back to Piraeus. After the fare was paid, we found our train and boarded. We were excited to finally get our belongings back, but we needed to go to the Acropolis first, otherwise we would have had to lug our bags around which would have been awkward and inconvenient. A man and his son were peddling on the train, playing the accordion and eventually we realized that we were not on the train to the Acropolis. In fact, it seemed like we were heading for Athens, towards the airport. We know how to choose our attitudes. 

We pivoted our plans, and decided that maybe it was for the best that we were getting our luggage back. I hadn’t been able to see clearly in days, and I was sick of the two pairs of gym shorts that I had been forced to rotate through. As we neared the airport, I started seeing signs about how if you board the train without a ticket and get caught, you’ll owe a fine of 60x the ticket price. I thought to myself , “Phew! Good thing we are law-abiding citizens who follow the rules.” The train finally stopped and we made our way up the steps to the airport. There was a man at the gate where you had to validate your tickets before entry. I scanned one ticket. Error. I scanned another ticket. Error. I scanned a third ticket. Error. I scanned all six of our tickets and not a single one was giving us entry into the airport. I gave the ticket man a wild panicked look and found myself blubbering “Sir, we bought six tickets and none of them are working. I have no glasses, I am legally blind without them, my husband has no clothes, and I need to get into that airport now!” He looked at us with a bewildered expression and said, “Come in, please!” 

As we made our way through the airport, we mustered the resolve to get either all of our luggage back, or a check so we could go get something to wear for the rest of the trip. We found the service desk to be confused and unaware that an entire flight had their luggage lost three days prior. Eventually, someone came by and the worker passed us off saying, “Please follow my colleague.” They scanned our passports and led us through a maze of doors. We came through one more set of doors when suddenly I saw hundreds of suitcases, duffels, and bags in rows, unclaimed. We scanned the room and quickly I located my neon orange XL duffel, and Jensen’s vintage fabric hand-me-down suitcase. Elated, we got out of the airport as fast as we could, and purchased two more train tickets back to our apartment. 

When we made it back with all of our belongings, I told Jensen that I had had enough of the adventures and that maybe this is why people go to resorts. We looked into getting the rest of our Air BnB stay refunded, and found a resort to stay at for the rest of our trip. With renewed vigor and a fresh outlook on life, we stayed one more day in Piraeus so we could avenge our trip to the Acropolis and pack up.

 The next day, we had a much easier time navigating the trains. It was a blast exploring the Acropolis and other historic sites in Athens. That night, as we were packing up preparing to leave bright and early the next morning to our new destination, we got a knock on our door. This was shocking because the apartment did not have outside access, so someone else inside the building was knocking on our door. It was also past nine o’clock at night, which felt late to be knocking on a neighbors door. I looked at Jensen with a finger to my lips and whispered, “Shh, maybe they’ll go away.” They knocked again, and Jensen and I just stared at each other. After the third knock, I told him to check the peep hole and see who it could be. He answered the door, and a woman started speaking Greek to us rapidly. We looked at her and said, “Hello.” She paused and in thickly accented English said, “You are American? I have been locked out of my apartment and need to get in through yours.” Now, we were highly confused because there is only one door in this apartment and she was currently standing at it. Perplexed, we ushered her into the apartment, and she made her way into the kitchen. She climbed onto the sink, opened the curtains, and launched herself across the way from our windowsill to her balcony. 

Jensen and I stared at each other in disbelief. Number one, oh my gosh that window has been open the entire time we’ve been here! Number two, there was at least a three foot gap between our window and her balcony and she just leaped as if it was the most normal thing to have ever happened. We immediately closed the window, had a good laugh and decided that we had had enough action for the day. It was time for bed. Not 30 minutes later, we heared another knock at the door. I rolled over towards my husband and whispered, “Shh, maybe they’ll go away.” There was another knock while we held each other’s stare. On the third knock, I urged him to go answer the door. A man was there this time. He said to us, “Hello, I am locksmith… I go same way as lady?” Jensen and I stared at one another trying not to laugh as we brought him into the kitchen, and showed him the window that she had jumped through. He did not even bat an eye as he climbed onto the windowsill, and made the jump across to her balcony.  

Surely that was enough adventure for the day. A couple minutes later, we heared another knock at the door. The man was back because he had forgotten his tools. We decided to finish cleaning up and packing quickly, so we could go to bed when we received a fourth knock at the door. The lady had come back. She looked at us frantically and said, “You will be here tomorrow? I bring you sweets!” We told her that we were leaving in the morning but that it was no trouble at all and we hoped her door was fixed. Tickled at the bizarre unfolding of events, we settled into bed ready to finally relax and have a vacation. 

The next morning, we boarded a ship to Ermioni Greece. It was a beautiful ride and we were elated to finally be on our way to rest and relaxation. The resort was everything we needed it to be. We hung out by the pool, swam in the Aegean Sea, and played mancala. We thought it could be fun to get a couple’s massage. Because, what else would you do on your honeymoon at a resort in Greece?

 We made our way down to our appointment and filled out paperwork when they suggested that we start with a sauna session. They directed us to changing rooms with lockers that contained only a towel. I began frantically googling “how many clothes are you supposed to wear in a sauna” and “what are you supposed to wear when getting a massage.” Panicking, I quickly realized the answer is nothing. We entered this group sauna, wearing just our towels, thankful that it was just the two of us. Eventually, we got hot and were directed to “rinse off”. What happened next, I can only describe as a human carwash of sorts. There was this massive tree trunk in a dark misty room, with lights leading in a circular path around the base of the tree. We stepped in, naked and afraid. Water started spraying from the ceiling. I dropped my towel, Jensen was hollering, using his towel to shield me. Not 10 seconds later and a few feet further around the tree, water started spraying sideways from the trunk. As we made our way around the tree, water sprayed from every angle imaginable with settings akin to that of a garden hose. Finally, we were deemed ready for our massage. The massage was wonderful, if not slightly awkward. Such is life.

The rest of our trip at the resort was truly fabulous. But, all good things must come to an end. It was time to head back to America and start our lives together, as for-real-grown-up adults. We spent one last beautiful day exploring Athens, going to the museum, the Olympic stadium, and soaking everything in. Twenty hours later, we made it to the Athens airport to begin the first of our legs back home. A short flight to Serbia left us with an eight hour layover before heading back to Chicago. 

In my adult life, I have experienced several international airports. None of them are as boring as the Serbian one. Stir crazy, exhausted, and starving, my sweet husband decided to find us something to eat. He sent me a text asking if a chicken sandwich sounded appetizing. In my head, that meant something like Chick-Fil-A or the likes. I was really struggling with “choosing my attitude”, and I was feeling particularly anxious and hungry which was not helping. Jensen returned with the “chicken sandwich” and I immediately burst into tears. Imagine that you have been awake for nearly thirty hours, having not eaten a real meal in fifteen of those hours, after the fact that almost everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong whilst on your trip. This “chicken sandwich” was a loaf of french bread the length of my forearm with four chicken nuggets, mustard, and pickles. Genuinely, my nightmare of a sandwich. I told him that I wasn’t hungry anymore (a lie) and he ate the sandwich himself. 

At this point, I was feeling like the worst wife in the whole world. In my first two weeks married, it seemed like all I had done was complain, feel anxious, and act controlling. It was my idea to get the cheapest flights possible, get the Air BnB, and have a crazy wild adventure in the first place. I was verging on having a full blown panic attack in the Serbian airport. As a kid, I had scripture memory lessons that were supposed to provide comfort and strength in times of need. Well, at that moment, the only thing that I could think of was a verse that goes, “A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainstorm; restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand.” (Proverbs 27:15-16) Sobbing on an airport bench, my sweet husband returned with some Nerd Gummy Clusters and a hug. Between that and a good pep talk, I had ardence for our journey home. Sixteen hours later, we landed in Chicago, forty-five minutes after our flight to Oklahoma City had departed. So, we called my mom, who came and picked us up. We drove back to my parent’s house, and I spent the night in my twin-sized childhood bed, while my husband of two weeks slept in the basement. 

We did manage to get a flight back to Oklahoma City the next day, luggage and all. And, While it may not have been the trip we anticipated, it taught us a lot of lessons: Pack a couple outfits in your carry-on, and make sure all vital travel items are in that pack. Honeymoons are resort trips, not Air BnB trips. Air Serbia simply will not be on time, so do not choose a connecting flight within three hours of their alleged arrival time. Jensen is one of the most patient people I have ever met, and his steadiness was a lifeline for me.

For every moment that I had attempted to control, create a plan, or organize, there was a lesson in surrender, wonder, and freedom. While none of those concepts are mutually exclusive, I do think that sometimes an equal opposite reaction to our innate wiring is vital to truly becoming free. Jensen in many ways is my equal opposite reaction. Every moment that I perceived as anxiety inducing or day ruining, he took with ease in stride. While on that trip, I perceived his easy carefree attitude as lacking urgency -as if he didn’t care about all of the crazy things that were happening to us. In reality, he held a sense of joy in all things that allowed him to enjoy the moments regardless of what it took to get there. Learning to appreciate his ability to be in the moment led me to also learn to embrace all of the moments, challenges and all.