Lunch at JTY

Arriving and leaving Astypalaia by plane or ferry can be a bit tricky, it is not unheard of to miss your flight or ferry due to circumstances beyond your control. Worker strikes, high winds, equipment failures, angry Greek gods are some of the many pitfalls. You can imagine our dismay, but not surprise, to learn that our flight would be delayed. No clear answer about the length of the delay was given.

We sat down to wait, both for an answer and a plane. 

 

JTY is tiny, I mean a waiting room about 15x15, and a separate room, half that size for the baggage carousel. Security, 2 restrooms and an administrative office comprise the airport. There is absolutely no food or water in this airport, not even a vending machine. They do have AC, a polar blast to your body when you step inside the terminal. 

 

Only small planes can land here, the runway is short, a cliff dropping to the sea on either side. No extra planes hanging around.  The video shows almost the entire length of runway. Experienced pilots only for this job.

 

We arrived at about 11 am, and by 12:30 pm the update was that a plane would come from Athens to get us, between 2:00 and 2:20 pm. Which can really mean about 3:00 pm in Greece. So now we are all stuck there for many hours without food or water, or so we thought.

 

It must have been around 1:30pm when the most miraculous thing happened. One of the guys who guides the planes in, all dressed up in his reflective gear, shows up with stacks of handmade ham and cheese sandwiches. Not store bought, obviously made by somebody on site, or by the mother of one of the employees who then jumped on her moto to deliver them. Bottled ice cold water was the next offering. Amazing!

 

We finished our lunch and Andrea wandered off to look at the planes outside, private air traffic was still landing and taking off. It was at this moment that the same airport employee dressed in all his heavy gear asked me in Greek if I would like a coffee. I was so shocked that I asked him if I had heard him correctly. Was he offering me coffee? Yes, he says as he reaches around the corner and presents me with a frappe. He laughed out loud at the look of shock on my face. 

 

Greek frappes are water, ice, instant coffee and a bit of sugar whipped into a cold froth of bubbles. Extremely refreshing on a hot day, but totally unexpected at JTY. I took one, thanked him profusely, and set about drinking it. 

 

It was at this moment that Andrea returned, shocked to see me sitting on a bench, drinking a frappe, wagging my newly manicured toes, happy as could be. 

 

Kudos to the staff at JTY for making a bad situation so unexpectedly pleasant. Hospitality has always been Astypalaia’s strength, this instance they went above and beyond. Thank you to the considerate hard working staff at JTY!

 

More soon.