Back in the Athens airport... AGAIN...

July 13, 2006

Today we left the lovely little town of Rethymno, Crete for the scriest one hour cab ride I have ever experienced (well, next to the two scariest bus rides ever!). Seriously, for the price of 60 euros, you too can have the pleasure of watching your life literally flash before your eyes! I swear I kept my eyes focused on what was going on to the side of the car because if I would have looked forward any more than I did... I think I would have passed out. All I know is that while Tara was riding in front, Alysa and I started another verbal "Dear Mrs. Lucas" letter concerning Alysa's death after falling out of a speeding taxi. Luckily for us (and the goats on the side of the road), we did eventually make it to Heraklion to catch our fight to Athens.

Now, while I've been here, I've had the pleasure to learn a little about European time. Tihs is almost like whatever time my own family is set to, except we are more likely to be on time than ANY European you are likely to run into . The reason I bring this up is because not only was our plane late again, but there were a couple of flights that were waiting on 3-4 people to take off and usually, these people were seen running to the terminal and then the plane. I think that's where we got the idea to blame our delay on those peeps. Anyways, after making it to Athens, we were fortunate enough to encounter the "lovely" customer service available from Alitalia-- meaning, they took one look at us and walked off in the other direction. Once we discovered we could only check our baggage in at 4:30am (it's only 1:55am now), off to baggage storage we went so we could begin our Athens adventure (which Alysa says is a glorified way of saying that something could go wrong at any minute).

As I mentioned before, the wrong part would be taking the airport express bus into town. These bus drivers are NUTS! There is no polite way to say it- I can't help it! I mean, I don't even think they follow the speed limit. To them, it's merely a suggested speed at which they could travel if they really wanted to. I don't even know how many accidents we could have been in-- I readopted the side view policy from the cab ride earlier in the day. In any case, we finally made it to Syntagma Square and from there headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for some comfort food and possible souvenirs.

Our waiter was absolutely adorable and although he claimed to be a dental student, I think he needs to rethink that career choice. I don't know if someone that has the brains to call "Just My Luck" a good movie should have ever been admitted to dental school. Anyways, after dinner, we doubled back into Syntagma Square and took pics. We even managed to get a temporary guardian during our time there, believe it or not. This little stray dog followed us up the square, across the street to Greece's version of the Tomb of the Unknown soldier, back to the side we started on, and then he made sure we got back on the bus to make our way to the airport. Perhaps it was a little Angel-- I'm not sure, but it was kind of reassuring actually. After all of that, it was back to the airport for us.

To kill the time, I mailed some final postcards and got a couple of magazines for the trip home. And now, believe it or not, I'm back in the Athens airport, in the same seats we were in the first time we came here. Isn't it funny how time really does move in a full circle? I don't know if I'll get in one more entry in before I get back to State College, but I'm sure you'll understand the need for sleep.

Kalispera and adio from Athens!

**This ends my recounting of the journey to Europe this summer... all blogs from here on out will resume life as it exists currently! :) **