Honest Greek Cab Driver

We recently spent a month at a 200 year-old stone farmhouse on the isle of Paros, Greece. Our stay was absolutely fantastic.

Getting home, though, was another story. All the Olympic Airlines flights were cancelled on the day we were supposed to return to New York. We checked into a small family-owned hotel in Parokia. The next morning we took a ferry to Athens, a 4.5 hour journey.

At Athens, we arrived at the port, an hour drive from the airport. At the airport, we had to straighten out our tickets to New York. Because of the flight cancellation from Paros, we had missed our connecting flights.

At the port in Athens, a cab driver approached us and offered us a pretty good deal to drive to the airport. We accepted.

Along the way, he stopped on the freeway and pointed out the Parthenon, which we photographed from a distance.

I was exhausted by the time we got to the airport. I handed the driver some Euros. He handed something back to me, and it became confusing. Hannah saw the problem and interceded. Thinking the matter was settled, we headed into the terminal to straighten out our tickets.

While waiting in line, I realized that I had been shorted 10 Euros. It wasn't so much the money that bothered me, but the fact that I had been screwed. Later, I had planned to admit to Hannah that I'd been had.

After dealing with Air France (a great airline, by the way) for almost 45 minutes, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned. It was the cab driver. After leaving the airport, he realized he'd made a mistake, in his favor.

He handed me two 5 Euros. I couldn't believe it. I don't know where he parked his cab to look for us. But find us he did. 

There is at least one honest cabbie in Athens. Probably many more.