"Just one other guest..."—the possible Dateline episode

A story from solo travel: The unexpected stuff makes for way better stories

Seeing an island for at least a day felt like the right thing to do while in Greece for a couple weeks. But getting stuck on an island felt like not the right thing to do—and that was a possibility if I went to any of the very far islands. Something about stormy seas and bad weather in early February makes it more likely that ferries will be canceled and delayed…

Needing to get back for a budgeting class I had been asked to teach to a church youth group, I chose to go to a nearby island, Aegina. I wasn’t likely to get stranded there.

Wanting to travel even lighter than I already was, I asked the hostel hotel—not “hostile hotel”—if I could stash my stuff there. Not minding that I was checking out and was no longer a paying guest, they said “No problem.” It was even there when I returned. #grateful.

Packing all my most essential things in my Cotopaxi backpack, I metro’d like a pro to the Piraeus Port of Athens. Coincidentally, this is Europe’s largest port—and China owns it. How’s that for…complicated.

For the only time in my European travels, I was not only encouraged to wear a face mask on the ferry ride over, but required to do so. Which meant I had to buy one off a conveniently-located hawker. I realize now that this was a requirement of the island, since they were still taking COVID precautions seriously.

When I checked in at the basic hotel I’d booked, the owner informed me that I’d be staying at their satellite location, up the hill. And offered to give Cotopaxi and me a ride up the hill on his scooter. That could’ve ended a lot of ways, but it ended with me being safely deposited at a 16-room aparthotel complex up the hill.

You should know that the main reason I most often stayed in hotels abroad is for the feeling of safety that comes with 24-hour hotel staff and other guests. There went that.

I was thinking, “Okay, I can be brave up here all by myself,” when the owner informed me, “It’s just you and one other guest up here tonight.” My thought: “What about that sentence is supposed to give me comfort?” Can you name that movie?

He obviously couldn’t know that I listen to Dateline—I know things—or that my very gifted imagination made his news mean that no one could hear my screams if the “just one other guest” proved to be foe not friend.

They didn’t prove to be a foe. To my knowledge, they didn’t even try to break into my room. It was not a very restful night’s sleep, but I survived. And I got views like this from the balcony off my isolated hotel room, so it was all really, really good.

Sunset scenes from my isolated balcony

This whirlwind trip to Aegina goes on my very long list of life experiences proving to me that you make what plans you can, then you roll with what actually happens.

And honestly, things work out so much better than we think they will—and things working out differently than we planned gives us way better stories than we’d write ourselves.

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