Tuesday, January 30, 2007

It's All Greek To Me...

Mrs. TBF and I were supposed to be in Athens this weekend. The trip has been cancelled because the meeting Mrs. TBF was supposed to attend next week in Athens has been called off. I, the "trailing spouse", was yet once again, planning on tagging along on one of Mrs. TBF's business trips. Her meetings were to start on Monday and we were just going to go a couple of days ahead of time to take in some of the sights. Then, I was going to return to Basel on Monday night to avoid the "solo sightseeing" thing that happens if I hang around during the week when Mrs. TBF is on business.

I'm not too upset about not going to Athens, and I think Mrs. TBF isn't too upset either. Afterall, she just spent nearly two weeks in the U.S. We returned to Basel on Sunday, and then she left for Bangkok the next day. She returns from Bangkok this Friday, and then we were going to leave for Athens on Saturday morning. Sure, I was going to return on Monday night, but she wouldn't have been back home until Thursday. That's a lot of time away from home in a three-week period.

King likes it when the three of us are at home together; for the 2-3 hours per day that he's awake.

So, the good news is:

Mrs. TBF will be home next week!

We can stay at home and rest up a bit (especially Mrs. TBF).

We can watch the Super Bowl beginning at midnight instead of at 1:00 a.m. (Athens is one hour ahead of Basel).

King will not be wandering around the apartment aimlessly wondering where we are.

The bad news is:

We miss out on a weekend of eating Greek food. Although I have to say that I had a KILLER greek omelette at the Buffalo House Restaurant in Buffalo Grove, Illinois last week - gyros meat, feta cheese, onions, tomatoes, and tzatziki. I asked for extra egg yolks, but I didn't get 'em (I think the waitress thought I was joking), and I have to say that I like "real" American feta cheese better than that "fake" Greek stuff.

I had to call the Lufthansa service number (CHF 0.15/minute, choice of German or French only) to cancel my flight. NOTE TO SELF: The next time you do this...look up the word "cancel" in the German dictionary ahead of time. It really helps when you are speaking German and...WANT TO CANCEL A FLIGHT! Fortunately, the lady spoke English and I was able to get the flight cancelled. The airfare was non-refundable, so I lose that. However, 60% of the purchase price was taxes (rip off!) which means that I'll get a refund of CHF 251.85. I guess that's better than nothing.

Ok...so I miss out on seeing Athens for the time being, but I'm sure there'll be other opportunities. Anyway, I'm in the process of booking another ticket for Chicago in April. Maybe I'll just go have another one of those Greek omelettes, or maybe I'll just head to Chicago's Greek Town for dinner.

That's almost as good. Isn't it?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Greek food in Chicago is almost as good as the real deal. You just keep telling yourself that. Whatever helps you to sleep at night...

CanadianSwiss said...

Since I've never been to Greece or Chicago, I couldn't say. But I'm pretty sure that there will be another opportunity.

Oh, and next time you want to cancel a flight in German, it's: "Ich möchte meinen Flug stornieren."

The Big Finn said...

GL - I would say that the Greek food I've had in Chicago is pretty similar to the Greek food I've had in Greece. I'd also say that I found the Thai food in Bangkok to be pretty similar to the Thai food I've eaten in Chicago. French food? - better in France
Italian food? - better (in my opinion) in Chicago.
Japanese food? - I'll let you know later this year after we go to Japan in October.

CS - Thanks. I got everything right except the last word. I realized I had absolutely no idea how to say "cancel", so I just said "cancelieren". She seemed to understand me...and then she switched to English.

Anonymous said...

My boys love the lamb meat in gyros. I myself love gyros with a wheel barrow full of the cucumber sauce on it.

The Big Finn said...

Medium Swede - Tzatziki IS "the cucumber sauce", but you already knew that...didn't you?

oskyldig said...

I wanted to go to Greece suddenly out of nowhere recently, probably because I've never had the opportunity of seeing a beach. Maybe I'll find time someday.