Not Portugal...yet 🤞

Little Naxos airport will be one we won't forget for quite a while. It's a tiny airport and not usually busy or crowded. However Greek Orthodox Easter long weekends is  probably one of the busiest air travel weekend of the year. The airport was packed when we arrived as the  flight prior to ours was delayed. The resident airport cat had better conditions than travellers with a nice little shaded verandah on the cat house  shelter and fresh  water.  Air traffic control in Athens they said. Things didn't look good. Tried to change our seats to the first delayed flight, no luck. The upshot was our 12.15pm flight to Athens left 2.5hrs late. As we boarded the flight, the hostie  offered us each an Easter candle which under normal circumstances would be lovely,  however I did have very bad thoughts about what could be done with said candle. We landed in Athens just as the gate closed for our Iberia flight to Madrid....and so therefore we also missed our Madrid to Porto connection. Ouch!  After landing in Athens we gave it a red hot crack and ran to the Iberia gate just hoping they too were running late but alas, alack all was locked and barred. So began the big rebook of flights and hotels.

After a long day we luckily found an hotel just 5 mins from Athens airport with a free shuttle - perfect! We sat on the terrace eating pizza and admired the view. Flights rebooked for next day direct Athens  to Porto and hotel rejigged. Insurance claim done (they want you to give your left leg along with all the detail needed - took a good couple of hours to complete on our phones - big fingers/small screens = moments of frustration). 

So after a good night's sleep back we went to Athens airport. We had hours to fill in and it being Orthodox Easter it was busy! We found a spot at the end of a long gate lounge and around 6pm were kept entertained by the Easter light arrival with all the pomp and ceremony. The flame landed via a Govt jet and various Orthodox and Coptic priests and VIPs were present.

The Greek Orthodox flag was flying high, the Airforce looked sharp, they even rolled out the red carpet for the flame bearer as the flame exited the aircraft. All the VIPs on the tarmac had lovely beeswax candles and little lanterns waiting for the Easter light. Later on we saw priests striding through the airport, their black robes flowing,  carrying their lanterns back to their churches - a unique little observation.

We had thought we would miss the  Easter celebrations  but every flight delay has a silver lining, we got to see a brief snippet of some  Orthodox Easter traditions. As we boarded our flight to Portugal, at the gate there was an Easter candle burning in the corner (it looked safe and no fire alarms were set off).

Look out Porto we're on our way.