Everything seemed to be smooth through the first flight except minor negative lower intestine reactions. During the flight I swear I saw some crop circles. As we began to descend it was bit unearthing falling through thick snow clouds and boom! you're at 3000 feet and there's suddenly snow everywhere.
After stupid security and finding the next gate, I met up with Tony, Graham, and Zach and as we began to leave on the next plane, it drove on a bridge over the highway before taking off. Tony was crying the whole time, I mean a baby was. The in-flight personal movie screen was so fun that me and graham only watched movies. We started Seven Psychopaths, Here Comes the Boom, Taken 2, and Lincoln at exactly the same time. Eventually my legs became so sore and I had a killer headache.
Landing in the Frankfort airport or parking lot (exiting plane just off the runway) was different than what I would normally expect, although I should have expected it from another country. After finally getting trollied, we literally walked what seemed like miles through long tunnels on multiple floors. At this point I just felt fatigued and I sure needed a shower. I was just completely dead getting onto the next flight, and when we got into the Athens airport we expected to have to go through a bunch of security and customs, yet after grabbing our bags and heading through another door, we were already outside.
From there we had to get to a hostel we are all supposed to stay at in Athens the first few nights. To get there we first had to take a bus to Syntagma Square, which is where all the protests occur. After 45 minutes on a bus, our group of 7 people realized that the Drury instructions to the hostel were actually just to "Athens" or the just the square. We had no choice but to wonder around the city asking for directions but of course no one knew what the heck Backpacker's Studios was. We managed to find a phone and make a call to our director who was able to get us on the right path. So what should have been very easy with directions to find turned into over an hour of walking aimlessly around Athens with all of our luggage. We finally reached the hostel and ended up walking at least two miles with luggage in rugged downtown Athens.
It was at the hostel where culture shock really hit us. We were told our room of 7 guys was on the second floor but it is actually on the fourth floor. We are not sure why that is and even the elevator insists that we are actually on the second floor. This area of Athens and what seems like most of the city is filled with all types of graffiti and in America, we would consider these areas to be the ghetto. There seem to be less traffic laws in the city as drivers are free to go very fast. Luckily for us our area is on a calmer street filled with little cafes off the street. I noticed a place for gyros for dinner. It was delicious and cheap! We roamed around for a while longer and all crashed at 8. The original plan was to sleep twelve hours until 8 in the morning and be on the right schedule again, although the guys slept until 4am and came out. I had no prayer of sleeping with them making noise so my schedule may be off another day.
Today we are trekking around a monument and museums. More posts and pics to come!
After stupid security and finding the next gate, I met up with Tony, Graham, and Zach and as we began to leave on the next plane, it drove on a bridge over the highway before taking off. Tony was crying the whole time, I mean a baby was. The in-flight personal movie screen was so fun that me and graham only watched movies. We started Seven Psychopaths, Here Comes the Boom, Taken 2, and Lincoln at exactly the same time. Eventually my legs became so sore and I had a killer headache.
Landing in the Frankfort airport or parking lot (exiting plane just off the runway) was different than what I would normally expect, although I should have expected it from another country. After finally getting trollied, we literally walked what seemed like miles through long tunnels on multiple floors. At this point I just felt fatigued and I sure needed a shower. I was just completely dead getting onto the next flight, and when we got into the Athens airport we expected to have to go through a bunch of security and customs, yet after grabbing our bags and heading through another door, we were already outside.
From there we had to get to a hostel we are all supposed to stay at in Athens the first few nights. To get there we first had to take a bus to Syntagma Square, which is where all the protests occur. After 45 minutes on a bus, our group of 7 people realized that the Drury instructions to the hostel were actually just to "Athens" or the just the square. We had no choice but to wonder around the city asking for directions but of course no one knew what the heck Backpacker's Studios was. We managed to find a phone and make a call to our director who was able to get us on the right path. So what should have been very easy with directions to find turned into over an hour of walking aimlessly around Athens with all of our luggage. We finally reached the hostel and ended up walking at least two miles with luggage in rugged downtown Athens.
It was at the hostel where culture shock really hit us. We were told our room of 7 guys was on the second floor but it is actually on the fourth floor. We are not sure why that is and even the elevator insists that we are actually on the second floor. This area of Athens and what seems like most of the city is filled with all types of graffiti and in America, we would consider these areas to be the ghetto. There seem to be less traffic laws in the city as drivers are free to go very fast. Luckily for us our area is on a calmer street filled with little cafes off the street. I noticed a place for gyros for dinner. It was delicious and cheap! We roamed around for a while longer and all crashed at 8. The original plan was to sleep twelve hours until 8 in the morning and be on the right schedule again, although the guys slept until 4am and came out. I had no prayer of sleeping with them making noise so my schedule may be off another day.
Today we are trekking around a monument and museums. More posts and pics to come! |
| Endless tunnel in Frankfort Airport |
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