Landed in Athens

As I sit on our couch in Athens, trying to understand the heating system because it's a little cool tonight, I'll recap the approximately 24 hours of travel it took to get here. 

A tearful farewell between Clara and her parents was touching, although the cell phone conversation between them through the plexiglass that separates the waiting area from the outside world made it look like a prison scene in a movie.

We had a six hour layover in Montreal and made the best of it with fine dining, reading books, exploring the gaming arcade, and hanging out in the penguin play area.

The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful; no crying babies, a gourmet meal of what looked like Kraft Dinner, fitful sleep that lasted an average of 10-20 seconds per round, and a couple of below average quality movies. Come to think of it, one of those movies reminds me of how I feel tonight.

In Frankfurt, there were police all over the airport just because, and we were reminded several many times that our passports had to be signed to be considered valid. 

It was a short stay in that Frankfurt airport that involved a 4km trek to find a water fountain, discovering Apfel Schorle in a vending machine - reminding me of how much I love that European sparkling apple drink, and a bus ride from the terminal to the plane because - I dunno - their pilot trainee is not allowed to park near the terminal?

Airport bus drivers speaking to passengers is strictly verboten, as indicated by the sign above the driver's head, reminding him how to behave in case he forgets what that relationship is supposed to be like. 

The flight to Athens was like a roller coaster for the last half of the trip, with some rollicking turbulence that made it impossible to forget that only a few inches of steel stands between us passengers and a -50° C wasteland outside and that it's a long way to fall to earth.

By the time we got to the Athens airport, beleaguered by the ravages of travel, we dragged our sorry and stunned behinds to the Uber loading area and got driven to our VRBO rental close to the Acropolis. It had "stopped raining just two hours before we arrived," chatted the friendly Uber guy.

We were reminded that simple things like opening a lock box, unlocking doors, operating two-person elevators, and finding light switches is so much more difficult when jet-lagged and in a foreign land where the letters of their alphabet make absolutely no sense.

It's now 10 pm and everybody is tired after a walk to a quicki-mart for some essentials, a slice of pizza, and a five hour nap. OK, I was the only one who had pizza.

The responsibility of recording the events of the day(s) (?) has fallen on me and I hope you can forgive this travel-weary man's ramblings written in the last few minutes before passing out.

- Rik