Off to Athens

About a year after we moved to New Orleans from Fredericksburg, my husband arranged for me to meet him in Athens, (Greece, not Georgia). He was to arrive there after a ten day business trip to the East. I had barely learned to maneuver my way around New Orleans and now how to fly from there to Athens! I had one suitcase, my overnight bag and my husband's suit. He had been traveling around the Orient wearing the same suit for ten days!
 I arrived at Newark airport on an American Airlines flight and was told I had to take a bus to Swissair. I had never been to a large airport and didn't know that each airline had their own terminal. As I have said before, "what do I know, I'm from Beeville". Anyway, after the bus driver had dropped off all the other passengers, he asked me where I was going and when I told him Swissair, he said I was on the wrong bus but he would take me to that terminal anyway. He did and I ran through the airport carrying my little bag and Louis's suit trying to find the gate. As I rushed through the crowds, I managed to snag the sari of another passenger with the clothes hanger hook and almost pulled the whole thing off of her. I apologized greatly, mumbled "namaste", and ran on, finally locating the gate.
 Huffing and puffing I found my seat and tried to settle down. The flight was fine and I met a lovely young lady from Montreux, Switzerland, who was returning there after being an au pair in San Francisco. She invited me to visit her in Montreux at some point.
The flight stopped first in Zurich where I had to submit to a body search by a customs woman who seemed to enjoy her job of a "touchy-feely" patdown a little more than I was comfortable with. I got through that okay and flew on to Athens.
When I arrived in Athens, Louis wasn't there and neither was luggage. I waited for at least thirty minutes or more and I guess I looked pretty pitiful because the young man who was helping me to find my luggage took me to the office of Swissair. There I met Vladimir Todorovic, a name I will never forget. Now, my husband was extremely handsome but so was this guy! He was the manager of Swissair in Athens and when I told him of my problem he set about helping me. To make an already long story shorter, he managed to find a person with the shipping company where Louis was to be and told them the situation. Then Vladimir invited me for a drink in their bar while we waited for Louis to arrive.
Needless to say, when he did get there he was greatly surprised to see me with that handsome man having a drink. I had already decided that if Louis didn't show up, I wasn't going to leave because I had a round-trip ticket, a few bucks in my purse and some jewelry in my overnight bag I could sell if need be. I sure as hell wasn't going to miss Athens!!

---------to be continued-----------

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