Wake in the morning to giant falling snowflakes. Very pretty with the oranges on the orange tree in the background. And, looking out the kitchen window, we see snow accumulating on the leaves of the lemon tree. Not a common scene in Greece, and captured by a Reuters photographer with a classic shot of the Parthenon amidst the snow covered trees.
The world not entirely silent beauty this morning, though. We waken also to news, increasingly appalling, of an earthquake in Turkey. At first a hundred and soon many hundreds of deaths reported in Turkey and northern Syria. Greece and Cyprus unaffected by the quakes but not by the cold, wet weather. We have nothing like the problems of those fleeing their homes barefoot in the snow or knowing there is little hope for family and friends buried in the rubble of collapsed apartment buildings, but we do have our own minor weather difficulty.
Check the email and find that our flight Tuesday morning has been cancelled due to weather disturbances. There is a link to cancel or change the flight(s). Which is fine except that what happens when one follows through is that the instruction is to telephone a call centre as the online process is not working. No phone number provided. One time glitch? No, unfortunately.
So repair to Google. And eventually settle on VOIP/VPN combo to call the North American 800 number, hoping for less congestion and better English. Much longer though unedifying story but eventually, almost accidentally, reach an extremely nice Turkish man with excellent English and a clear knowledge of Istanbul airports who says, calmly ‘I will fix it’ - and does. Not a quick process, for which he apologises, but he’s thorough. Connections not as good as the original - which had taken some time to establish - but he has done it for Wednesday. Replicating the original booking would have meant waiting a week.
Have asked landlady in upstairs flat if an extra day’s stay possible. Yes, happily. And she’s been busy making cabbage rolls for us as she considers it too cold for us to have to go out! So, fingers crossed on the new booking - and extremely pleased that we were so lucky in our choice of accommodation here.