My Bahá'í Pilgrimage During a Crazy Global Pandemic
March 8, 2020
Post 11: New Friends and Old Tests
[Post 10] [Post 12]
We met a group of Bahá’í youth from Athens today! It was awesome. They invited us to join their reflection meeting at the Athens Bahá’í Center, which was in an apartment building tucked deep in the city.
The Bahá’í youth gave us a warm welcome when we arrived. It felt like we were meeting long-lost friends. Turns out we weren’t the only ones from another country there; some of the youth were from Germany, Albania, and Kenya, too. And one of the youth was related to one of our Bahá’í friends in Chicago! Such a small world. :)
We learned that the Athens Bahá’í community is bursting with activity. They have lots of programs for people of all ages, backgrounds, and religions to come together and build friendship and unity in their communities. It was amazing to hear how the efforts and experiences of the Athens Bahá’ís were so similar to those in the U.S. We felt right at home, and would have stayed all day if we could, but we had to check out of our Airbnb by 11:00 a.m. We bid our new friends farewell, and hoped we would see them again during our stay.
Our lovely new view. There were pigeons everywhere!
Our new, cheaper Airbnb was in a quiet neighborhood outside the main hustle and bustle of downtown. It was nice to be in a more peaceful part of the city. It felt more authentic, too. We ate at a Greek restaurant where a huge family party was being thrown, complete with traditional music and dancing! We were tempted to join in, since it looked like so much fun, lol. Also, the gyros were amazing.
Our new Airbnb, however, was not. It had been advertised with two bedrooms, but only had one bedroom, plus a futon and an extremely uncomfortable bunk bed in the living room. But worst of all was the dark hole in the bathroom floor, which emitted a rancid, moldy-sewer stench.
“Huh. I’ve never seen that before,” said Dad, unphased as always. “It smells like sewer gas, which means it must lead right to the sewer.”
Here’s us on the balcony, escaping the fumes, lol.
Katie and I exchanged grimaces. Uh … no. This would not fly. We escaped onto the marble balcony (which was the only pleasant, fume-free spot in the apartment) and got to work. We tried contacting Airbnb support to explain the situation and get a refund, but their customer service was so backed up due to COVID that we couldn’t reach them. That meant we were stuck there for the night.
Things got worse when Prashant called us later that evening. He told us that Israel was now considering whether they should require a 14-day quarantine for everyone who entered the country. That would mean we would miss our pilgrimage. Again.
As you can see, Katie was pretty exhausted at this point ...
“You should start looking for flights back to Chicago now, just to be prepared,” Prashant advised. “A lot of flights are being canceled due to travel bans, so it might be difficult to find one out of Greece."
We were really nervous now. We might not only miss our pilgrimage again, but we might get stuck in Greece indefinitely!
While Katie and Prashant searched for flights, I slipped onto the balcony and wrapped a blanket around myself, trying to unknot my stomach. I was so close to fulfilling my lifelong dream of visiting the Holy Land. I longed to climb the steps of the terraces on Mount Carmel and pray at the shrines of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh, and Bahá’u’lláh’s family.
I dreamed of visiting the Shrine of the Báb in Haifa, Israel.
Was it possible that it wasn’t meant to be this time around? Even after all the late nights we had spent replanning our trip to evade the coronavirus, it still caught up with us every time. Was it time to stop running?
Pacing on the balcony, I prayed for detachment to help us accept whatever tomorrow might hold. Our fate was in God’s hands.
Blog8 Blogger7 Blogs37 Travel82 Europe31 Discover516 Pilgrimage28 Cultures128 Adventures26 Bahá’í Faith515 Challenges234 Pandemic23