Our flight tomorrow got cancelled and we only found out when we tried to check in a bit ago. The flight to DC is on United, but Lufthansa cancelled our first leg from Athens to Frankfurt. The United rep we called for help (since we booked via United) was in Thailand and basically wasted our time and told us in various ways that nothing could be done on his end. We called Lufthansa and assumed they couldn't do a thing for us. Oddly enough, we got an American rep for Lufthansa, who said this is really United's job to fix (right!), but she was empathetic and spent a bunch of time finding a way to get us on a flight this Friday. (Thanks, Mary!). Otherwise we'd have been here until at least Sunday, which would have put us a couple of days past our 90 day visa limit.
So we'll spend an extra night in Greece before returning to a country where some drastic change is needed. Greece is the birthplace of democracy; America has been a test lab for it but only for a very brief time by Greek historical standards. We hope that the current struggles in the US will lead to positive change and a more civil, more just, more equal, and compassionate democracy.
We got to visit the Acropolis yesterday and had the whole place to ourselves aside from the restoration workers. A once in a lifetime experience to be practically alone in such an important site in human history. Nearby was where ancient Athenians gathered for speeches and voted, including for ostracism, i.e. to vote that a man gets kicked out of Athens (for ten years) for fear that he might become a tyrant. Hmm....
