Corinne CrawfordWe had the same driver that picked us up at the airport in Heraklion on Crete pick us up at 8:30am in Rethymno to take us back to the airport. Because of the damage on Crete, some of the runways were closed so it caused a back up again and we were about 1 hour late leaving Crete. We had checked our bags as the small plane could not really handle carryons other than very small backpacks and we only had 1.5 hours layover in Athens, now 20 minutes before our flight to Paros left. We were not sure we were going to make it but we were pretty sure our bags were not going to make it. We got off the plane and asked the gate agent there to call down to our other gate to let them know we were on the way but she still told us we had to hurry. We made it just in the nick of time as the last people in line to get on the plane. The weather on Paros was predicted to be dry but enormously windy and the small plane rocked and rolled as we landed. We were not hopeful that we would see our bags on the baggage claim belt in the tiny airport there so I immediately went to the desk to file a claim for our bags. Sure enough, our bags were still in Athens- I knew this thanks to the AirTag I put in my luggage before I left the US. As we were giving the agent our information, she asked us what hotel we were staying out and assured us that the bags would arrive on the first plane the next morning at 9am. We told her that were were at an Airbnb and I just needed to look at my phone to get the address in Parikia. She smirked and we thought maybe we had picked a crappy town to stay in without knowing it. We asked her why the smirk and she just laughed and said… we don’t really have addresses here. You just tell people a close store or landmark in relation to where the house is. Oh. Well, I guess we will just meet whoever brings our bags at the port, which was just a short walk to our apartment. She said someone would call us when they were on the way so we could meet them the next morning. We then went outside but because all of the other passengers had found their drivers and cars, there were no more taxis waiting for passengers to take them to the various towns on the islands so we went back inside to ask how to get a taxi and she gave us the phone number to call. As we stood outside in the whipping wind, we called the number and Kostos answered and let us know he would be there in 15 minutes to get us. We were feeling a little down standing outside in the gale force winds, with no bags, waiting for our taxi. Kostos was a super nice guy and as we were on the way, I messaged our Airbnb host letting him know we were close and where should we meet him to find the apartment now that we knew there was not an actual address. He said he would meet us at the port and show us the way just a few minutes walk from there. Dimitrios was a young, super friendly guy that found us and as we walked to the apartment he gave us tons of tips and recommendations about the area. He said that it was near the end of the season and during the winter, the town was mostly just him, a few friends and a bunch of cats in the streets. He was not wrong about the cats. We got to the place and went up the stair where the apartment again occupied the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building. Two bedrooms, the bathroom and living room were on the 2nd floor and the huge beautiful rooftop terrace and another bedroom and bathroom were up top. You got to the top floor by going up an exterior spiral staircase. You could even see the sea from up there. We let Debbie choose her room and she chose the room with the large bed on the lower level, I chose the roof top terrace room and Jodi took the other bedroom on the lower level with the single beds. Dimitrios was a talker and I kept kicking myself for continuing to ask questions (pretty sure Debbie and Jodi were wanting to kick me too) as were were a bit punchy from the hectic travel and having no bags. After he left, all we wanted to do was shower and change but because we did not have toiletries or a change of clothes, we ventured out to a super market to stock up on snacks, breakfast stuff, coffee, etc. We went out for a lite early dinner at one of the restaurants that Dimitrios recommended and called it an early night sending up wishes that our bags would indeed arrive the following day.
