26/004 Life in Northern Greece Ταλαιπωριστάν

9th May 2026. It can strike at any time. The Greek system’s urge to fuck people’s lives up. My son was supposed to fly to Athens yesterday. He was going to the capital to see Metallica this evening.

At home he was unable to do his online check-in for the 12:20pm SkyExpress flight. At the airport he found out why. SkyExpress had overbooked. He went through security and waited for boarding to start. Six passengers were on standby, 4 Greek women and 2 men with foreign passports. It will come as no  surprise that, magically, there were seats available for the four Greek girls, while my son and the Hungarian were told to take their chances with the 8:10pm flight, also overbooked.

Apparently, SkyExpress are allowed to overbook. Lesson learnt: get your boarding pass as soon as the online window opens. My son and the Hungarian were offered the lounge facilities for free, but my son wanted to return home. (We are only 20 minutes from the airport.) SkyExpress managed to get on the wrong side of my son’s angry Greek mother. Phone calls were made and a written complaint submitted regarding SkyExpress’s shoddy practices, and, for good measure, an accusation of racism and sexism was levelled at the airline.

Following more phone calls, my son was guaranteed a place on the last flight of the day (11:55pm). He arrived in Athens after 12am on 9^th May instead of after 12pm on 8^th May. His sister and brother-in-law were there to meet him and whisk him off to his favourite haunt in Athens, the South Athens Paragon Brewery, where beer is brewed on the premises.

He is due to return on Monday. Again, there is a chance that he will run into difficulties. When things like this happen in Greece, one has to consider Plan B and even Plan C. We started to look at KTEL (ΚΤΕΛ) the semi-private coach company, and as a last resort we even considered driving to Athens with the three of us sharing the driving.

The above is another instance which illustrates why I often refer to Greece as Ταλαιπωριστάν (Hasslestan), a country where mindless, unnecessary factors can ruin a person’s day, and nobody is held accountable. Was there any need for SkyExpress to overbook to the extent they did? No? Was it necessary, several years ago, for the National Bank of Greece to insist that I produce my expired passport rather the current one? No. It was then that I lost my temper and screamed, Εδώ είναι η χώρα της ταλαιπωρίας, είναι Ταλαιπωριστάν. Maybe we should call people in government or semi-government jobs the Talepan.