May 15- The Flight

Got up early. Mom drove me to RDU..( Raleigh, NC). I went and checked in, there were hardly any lines. There was pretty much nothing going on, same with security. So we said our good byes and I left her to go upstairs and wait for my plane. My flight from Raleigh to New York was the first time I had been on a plane since I was about four. It was a tiny, bumpy, loud connector flight, and I was in seat 13. I did not like it. 

We landed in NY at LaGuardia... I then had to transfer over to JFK. That was fun. No signs, and the people working their may as well have been speaking another language. I couldnt understand any of their yelling. I finally found buses and avoided a $40 cab ride. My bus ticket was $13, the exact amount of cash I happened to have on me. Lots of thirteens.  The bus took me over to JFK. I checked in, also very quick, no lines, and waited for the flight to Athens. Other people from class showed up for the same flight, Justin, Ryan, Lauren, Ben and Aaron Post.  I was glad to have a group. My seat was with Aaron, and the flight was about 10hrs.

May 16, 2005- "MERICANS!"

Our plane arrived in Athens. The airport was really clean and quiet. We all got ourselves on the bus to Syntagma and found the hotel. I had no idea Athens was so huge. It still looks like an old city though, just with about 4 million people living there (photo below).  After putting bags away in the hotel we went out for a walk and to find lunch. I think at that point the idea of this whole trip was still very surreal.  I was walking around with my normal friends, just somewhere totally alien. We all stuck out as American tourists pretty badly. Everyone was rockin the t-shirt and jeans uniform. That and shorts... Europeans don't really wear shorts. "MERICAN!" became our catchphrase, an easy way to find a friend in the crowds.

Later the whole group met at the hotel and we hiked up to the Hill of Muses.  From here you can really see the span of the city.  It was smoggy and the sun was setting but I could make out the coast line. There were huge aloe plants growing along the path. People had carved their names in them.  On the hill we found an old city wall as well as Roman monument.  There was a good view of the Acropolis from here too. We took a group photo on the top. Everyone is so pale compared to the one we took on the last day.

We then went down to dinner. The restaurant had an upstairs that accessible by a weird tiny metal spiral staircase that went to the basement as well. This was our first Greek dinner.  They brought out a tray full of choices and each table was to pick ten.  The food was good and mostly things I had never had before. We also tried some ouzo, which was cool because of the whole turning white thing, but definitely not my favorite drink.

That night we walked around, exploring the streets. Athens is full of crazy drivers, on motorcyles and in cars. Apparently, the sidewalk is open territory for driving. I think they have some kind of "common sense" law here. If you get hit by a car it's your own fault. We dodged traffic and looked at all the stores. Vendors were everywhere, trying to weasel us into their shops. There was lots of open front shopping. It reminded me of a permanent flea market. Also there were cats and dogs everywhere. They are accepted and allowed to be in all the stores.  I saw three scraggly dogs lying on the floor of a really nice jewelry store. We named them “public" dogs/cats. We even saw a “public baby.” Later we learned the Greeks call them “free dogs/cats.” We were so close.