Chris and Courtney, two tough nuts
Our final bike-adventure days came to a close, and we loaded our crazy bike boxes on top of a taxi, heading to the airport. By this time, the airport was empty, traffic halted inbound and many airlines (Delta included) stopped their services entirely. I booked a new flight to Athens with Chris, where I would continue on to America and he would board a bus to Albania.
Loading up the airport-bound taxi
We managed to check our first set of luggage on our (almost empty) OlympicAir flight to Greece without additional surcharges! I think they took pity on us, considering our extremely ragged attire and obvious desperate desire to get on the plane without any problems. We stayed overnight in the Athen's airport, which is surprisingly comfortable compared to others we have "slept" in (and more comfortable than many places we camped during this journey), using the bleak 2-4 am hours to remove Chris' belongings from my box and repack the bikes.
Overnight in Athen's airport, with our crazy luggage
Chris reboxes my bike during low-traffic hours
Getting creative with wheel packing!
Keeping busy in the lounge, ReUsing my bike seat cover to make frankinscence bags!
In the morning I was able to recheck my boxes (with outrageous fees, unfortunately, darn those hikes!) and then help get Chris settled on a taxi to the bus station. Here is where we said goodbye, our first separation in three and a half years.
We made it! 6 months and 8 countries later, what an adventure!
Team Jassler regrets not getting into Libya and Tunisia, however at the same time, I think we are both looking forward to new adventures (Chris' shop in Gjirokaster, my return to my family and America). On the plus side, we will be more prepared for another bike journey back in this region, when the violence of the Arab Spring settles down. Until then....
