Our plane left Seattle for Athens at 1:25pm on Friday. I was thinking it was going to be a long boring flight, and that I’d end up sleeping through most of it. Neither of those thoughts proved to be true. There were a handful of us, including Finitsis, sitting at the very back of the plane, and we managed to live up to every fun-loving college kid stereotype we could. Talking loudly, getting in people’s way, eating lots of food… We were also fortunate enough to be entertained by an adorable little toddler who kept running to the back of the plane to flirt. By the time we landed in Amsterdam it was ten hours later, but about 8am there. As we left the plane, I mentally prepared myself to be in an airport in a country that doesn’t speak English, thinking that all of the signs would be in Dutch. To my surprise, pretty much everything was in English. And not just English subtitles, but predominately English. Very surprising. We roamed the airport for a few hours before boarding the plane to Athens. And can I just say, European airlines know what’s up. Tons of legroom, plenty of overhead space, and not only could you get a complementary pop or juice, but you could get wine or beer as well. For FREE. Needless to say I was sleep-drunk enough already that I passed on the Heineken and opted for something caffeinated.
I don’t think that it really hit me that I was actually going to Greece until we flew over the Alps (at least I think it was the Alps.) I looked out the window and saw them and was like, alright. This is really happening. The Athens airport was more like I expected: signs in Greek with the English translation below. We got outside and hopped on our bus to take us to our apartments. One thing I noticed on the drive was how small the cars are. I don’t think I saw one minivan or SUV. Another important thing to note: Athens is HUGE! It seems to go on forever, and it’s incredibly dense. There doesn’t seem to be a single foot of unoccupied space.
At our apartment, we struggled hardcore with our key until the lady across the hall finally came out and helped us open the door. No worries, we’ve got it figured out now. We also found the lightswitch in the hall so that we don’t have to stumble down the stairs in the dark.
After a run to the supermarket and to get slouvaki (my first Greek food!) we took off on a three hour tour of the city, aka the Death March. At that point I was so tired I have no idea how I kept moving. The Acropolis was beautiful all lit up at night. And I also saw at least three vans full of police officers just chilling on the side of the road. I passed out when we got back to our apartment around 10pm, and didn’t wake up until about 1pm this morning. I mean afternoon.
The best part of today was dinner. They kept bringing us tons of food to try. And I actually did try almost all of it (Be proud mom. I even tried some salad.) Besides dessert, my favorite dish was the meat pie. The wine was good, but even better was the surprise shot of tentura they brought us at the end of the meal, which was cinnamon-y and tasted amazing.Can’t wait for the adventures tomorrow will bring! Good night and skinny asses to you all :)
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