Athens, Greece 4/1/08

I got up at about 6:30, and packed what was left of my things to be out the door by 7. Andrea graciously drove me to Larnaka Airport to catch my flight leaving at 9:30am to Athens. I was a little anxious in the beginning, thinking that I might need more time to get through security, and with my past hostory of airports, and jumping countries I wasn't sure what to expect. However, andrea assured me that I should have a much easier time with airports now that I'm within the European Union.

When we got to the Airport, the lines were extremely long. The Cypriots don't do that curving style of cue that we have in America, so everyone just tries to get in one big straight line, so it maked the line look a whole lot longer than it is. I went to the ticket office for Cyprus Airways, and payed for the ticket I had reserved over the phone the day before, and Andrea waited with me in the line to check in and get my boarding pass. Along the way, Andrea saw and introduced me to several people she knew who were standing in the same line. Cyprus is a very small country, and being that she's a diplomat for the government, she knows a lot of people who frequent the airport. We got to the front of the line, and I got my boarding pass, said goodbye to Andrea and thanked her for her hospitality, and got through security astonishingly easily. Finding my gate was a little bit interesting, because the gate printed on my ticket was wrong, and they kept switching it around, seemingly not able to make up their mind which terminal the transport bus was coming to to pick us up, but I just went where they told me to go and eventually I made it to the plane. The attendants helped me find places for my bags, because I now have 3 of them, and I got situated next to a nice Cypriot couple. The woman had never been on a plane before, this was her first flight ever, so it was interesting to see her face light up when she saw the world from the birds' perspective for the very first time. She held on tightly to the her boyfriend/husband who was enjoying every minute of watching her experience this phenomenon many of us take for grantite. It was very sweet, and I enjoyed watching the two of them interect.

I landed, and realized that this was the first flight since I've been on this adventure that was not a complete disaster. I thanked God for delivering me safely with all of my components intact, and caught the metro to the Acropolis in the center of Athens. I walked around looking for a hotel, and eventually found a moderately priced one right in the middle of where I wanted to be. It's called the Hotel Parthenon and it's right in between The Acropolis, and the ancient Pools, walking distance from all the major Museums, and just around the corner from the Parthanon. It's about 70 eros a night, which I keep debating might be a little expensive, but I get my own bed, TV, free internet, hot bath and shower, and breakfast is included. Andrea also told me it's the best idea to get a hotel with my own room at this time being sick, because it'd only get worse in a dorm hostel in Greece. So maybe right now a moderate hotel is the best place for me.

As soon as I got situated, I took a nap, and uploaded my pictures from Cyprus. I did a little sightseeing at just before sunset, and ate at a Greek resturant where I ordered Moussaka. I'd never had Moussaka before, but I knew it was very Greek, so I tried it. It was alright, not so much my favorite, but I'm glad I tried it once. Afterwards I went back to the hotel where I tried to catch up on my blogs of the previous weekend, took a hot bath and fell asleep watching CNN on an English channel.