Making The Best of Summer 2022 Post-Pandemic, Post-Vertigo Travel

Venetian lighthouse in the Old Port of Chania on Crete in Greece.

If you’ve tuned into any news regarding travel in the post-pandemic summer of 2022, you know it’s been a rocky road for both travelers and those working in the travel sector. I am a victim of this rough start having been without my baggage for seventeen days. While waiting those days, I went to the airport with my Apple AirTag tracking info to demand we go to the location and get my bag. That didn’t work. 

At the airport counter, I met another traveler who told me that the ten days I’d been waiting was nothing. He was at the end of his three-week vacation and at the airport for his flight home when he received notice that the airline had found his bags. For me, I’m on a two-month journey. So while the seventeen days is a nuisance, I feel bad for those who take just two to three weeks and must accept the reality they won’t see their luggage until they return home.

    I’ve been tracking the bag since it first was left behind in Toronto, and most recently I see it in Athens Airport, but the people in Athens can’t find it and won’t let me in to use my tracker to find it.

Another side effect of travel in the summer of 2022 is the lack of availability of accommodations, flights, ferries, and more. I missed my Ferry to Cyprus because of my lost luggage—I needed my motorcycle gear which is not easily replaceable. When I tried to book another date once I had my bags, there was no availability—I was out of luck.

This put me into another vertigo-like haze of wondering“what to do?” I couldn’t waste more time in Athens—though I’ve come to endear this city. I set my sights on a place I’d hope to visit later in the summer: Crete.

My Cabin aboard the Blue Star Ferry heading to Crete!

Quite nice digs aboard the ferry, they even have a fancy ala-carte restaurant onboard!

It’s a nine-hour ferry ride to Crete. I wanted a cabin to use the downtime to work and have the freedom to snooze a few hours before debarking. This challenged me, but eventually, with the help of my friend Nafsika and her travel agent, I locked in dates. I will spend almost three weeks wandering and riding around the largest island in Greece.

The ferry set sail just after 8 AM, and it was smooth sailing for the next nine hours. My cabin was spacious and comfortable and even had a shower. I packed some cheese, cured meats, and a chilled down bottle of Assyrtiko—the infamous white wine grape varietal grown all over Greece but notably in Santorini. The perfect beginning to the end of my travel nightmare.

Not only did I carry a bottle of wine onto the ferry, I did pack a proper Riedel wine glass—just because. How long until this glass thing breaks? People are taking bets. So far so good!

It’s a bit crowded in Chania’s Old Port this time of year. Yet you can get away from the crowds on Crete which I will do in the next days!

I rolled off the ferry just before 6 PM in Chania and made my way to the Old Venetian Port to settle for the next phase of my adventure: post-COVID and post-Vertigo.

Stay tuned.