Athens: Day One

Saturday morning I woke up around 3am to get ready and head out to the airport for my 6am flight to Athens. The taxi ride was seamless and luckily I wasn't stranded anywhere, being approached by shady characters and scared out of my mind. After that experience a couple of months ago, any airport experience will seem anticlimactic. Also, it's reassuring to know that NOBODY looks good while waiting through security at 4:30am. Glad I wasn't the only zombie there...

I flew via EasyJet, a reputable European budget airline. When I went to check in, I realized how the company makes their money. Their luggage policy is much stricter than other airlines, limiting your carry-on to roughly the size of a backpack. The carry-on that I bring everywhere, of course, wasn't "regulation size" so I had to pay to check it. Even though that was a bummer, I was happy to see that nobody had the seat next to me, allowing me both the window seat and some wiggle room as well- score! Towards the end of the flight, a woman passed out on her way to the bathroom and they called for any medical personnel on board to rush to the front. All of the chaos definitely woke my sleep-deprived self up. Luckily, the lady is fine and was well enough to walk back to her seat after the doctors did their thing.

I met Kathryn, Tiffany, and Faisal at the airport around 11am, since our flights got in within 20 minutes of each other (they were flying from Munich). We figured out how to use the metro and get to our hostel. Turns out, we went to the wrong hostel. The owner of the hostel we went to said "Oh! You're supposed to be at my son's hostel!" how Greek is that!? I found tons of humor in the stereotypical Greek family connection situation. We made our way over to the correct hostel and checked in around 12:30. (side note: if your luggage is ever broken (ie missing a wheel), do yourself a favor and DON'T take it somewhere that has only cobblestone streets. I learned that the hard way so that you don't have to).

I was too beat to do anything right away, so I took a nap while the othe three got some food and explored around. They were kind enough to save me some pizza because they knew I'd be starving when I woke up. We found outthatthe city of Athens is basically shutting down on Sunday for the presidential elections, so we went to the travel agency by our hostel and booked a day trip. We'll be going on a sailboat cruise that will take us to a Greek island and provide a day of snacks, drinks, snorkeling, and exploration. All with a young, hip tour guide that we met today. Her name is Adriana and she was so friendly! We are all looking forward to a fun day with her tomorrow!

στοργικά,
Katie