i came across this travel agency on the second floor in a side street somewhere between syntagma square & the plaka district of athens. the guy whom i dealt with was a rather suave middle-aged, silver-haired greek guy called giorgos. he wore a dark floral shirt and spoke fluent english, with a slight but consistent american accent. he was competent at his job and gave me a good price for a one-way plane ticket; although he asked more than once why i didn’t want a return ticket. with the benefit of hindsight, i suppose that was a more understandable question than i thought it to be at the time.

after almost six months on a greek island, i was more than ready and very keen to get to my destination, which i’d decided upon over & above turkey or a ski season in austria. i’d also seriously considered going by boat to this destination, but that would have been a long, slow journey and i wasn’t that patient by that stage.

there was a small radio / cassette player on the window sill by giorgos' desk, and it was tuned in to an athenian radio station. as giorgos booked my seat and took my details, guns n’ roses’ “welcome to the jungle” came on. as it turned out, this event was quite prophetic.

giorgos completed the reservation, i paid my money and got my one-way ticket. the next afternoon i flew to cairo with egyptair

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