Left hand, this is right hand. You've met, right?

Six AM call to the Foreign Ministry in Athens. They said that they couldn't find my visa authorization in their files, and to call the Periferia. Call to the Periferia went unanswered. (Call to the office in Athens led to my learning that the Periferia generally doesn't open for business on Fridays. Their tax euros at work.)

Starting to wonder if somebody circular-filed my approval out of spite.

Steee-rike

So got one answer. The Periferia's been shut down for three weeks by a labor strike which has apparently shut down the stock exchange and something like a third of the government.

Two plus two equals one and a half?

Checking on tickets for returning to Athens. Calculated two ways, figuring out a one-way ticket, and then a round-trip with a return of August 7th (because of the jury notice for August 11th).

The one-way ticket is more expensive than the round-trip ticket.

When I add on a helicopter flight from Newark Airport to a heliport in Manhattan to the round-trip ticket ... the one-way ticket is still more expensive than the round-trip ticket.

Not that I'd normally consider taking a helicopter, but a taxi from Newark to Manhattan was damned near as expensive. And I've never been on a helicopter. At least not one that flew.