Wednesday we all woke up at 7:30 so we could be ready to leave at 8:00. Our flight did not leave until 11:00 but we wanted to play it safe. We took the Metro to Termini station where we had to catch a train to the airport. We were extremely glad we ended up leaving so early because it took us longer to get to the station than we imagined. Our suitcases were what seemed to slow us down because we couldn’t walk as fast with them. We got to the station at about 8:40 and got our tickets for a train that was set to depart at 9:07. Jeana went to go find a bathroom while I waited with our stuff. While she was gone the train arrived so I loaded our things on and heard someone say it was leaving at 9:02. It was now 8:57 and I began to get worried Jeana wasn’t going to make it on time. I had left our luggage on the train so if it left without us we would have had nothing. Right at about the point I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown Jeana appeared and we got on the train safe and sound.
It left a few minutes later and we were on our way to the airport. The train ride lasted about 40 minutes so we arrived around 9:45. For Jeana and I this was plenty of time as we had done online check in. We checked our bag in about five minutes and it took only about ten to get through security. Security in Europe is nothing like security in the US. We didn’t even have to take off our shoes! Jordan and Tyra had barely moved through their line by the time we got through everything so we were a little worried for them. Jeana and I headed to find a bathroom but walked towards our gate along the way. After the bathroom break we arrived at our gate only to find out they had just moved it. We then began our trek back to the other side of the airport where we found our new gate. There was still no sign of Jordan and Tyra and we were set to board in ten minutes. They ended up running up to the gate just as we were supposed to start boarding. They had had to walk to the other gate first too. Luckily for them they didn’t start boarding us on time. They actually started checking our tickets about fifteen minutes before the flight was supposed to take off.
Once our tickets were checked we were put on buses to take us to our flight. They made us stand in these jam packed buses for about fifteen minutes. Just when I thought I wasn’t going to be able to handle it anymore it started to move. While we were waiting some people got really upset and one guy even started yelling at the crew. I have no clue what he said because he was speaking Italian but I think he made his point. A bunch of people wanted to do the same thing he did because they all started clapping afterward. I’m not sure the person he yelled at deserved it or was even the person to blame, but the way Easyjet handled the flight was not exactly done well. When we were finally bused to our plane they didn’t open the doors for about five minutes. I was scared I was going to pass out of something because I desperately needed some air. They finally let us off and we quickly boarded the plane. Although they got everyone seated quickly, the plane left twenty minutes behind schedule.
The actual flight was really smooth but we did end up arriving in Athens behind schedule. This wasn’t a huge deal for us but sort of a bummer since it cut into our time in Athens which was limited to begin with. We got our bags and went in search of a way to get to our hotel. We found a bus that took us to the metro station we needed so we got our tickets and waited for it to arrive. It was really crowded so we ended up having to stand for the entire duration of the bus ride which probably ended up having to stand for the entire duration of the bus ride which probably ended up being a little over an hour. On top of that we couldn’t see the names of the bus stops so we really had no idea if we were headed in the correct direction or not. Luckily we overhead a lady tell another lady the last stop was the one we were looking for. So we all piled off and probably looked confused. A guy asked us what we were looking for and we told him the metro station. He kindly pointed us to it and we were happy that it was not far.
We then proceeded to figure out how their metro worked and got ourselves twenty four hour passes. We got on the right line after a bit of a struggle to figure it out and were able to get to the stop we were supposed to be at. From there we only had one more hurdle to cross and that was walking to our hotel. Luckily we had picked up some maps at the airport so compared to the rest of the day figured it out fairly easily. The area we were in was not exactly a classy area though and we were all a little leery of our surroundings. It especially doesn’t look good when you have four girls with two huge suitcases…we were obviously tourists. We were all on edge from a long day of stress from traveling so we were ready to just be at our hotel. It really didn’t take us to long ot find and boy was there a huge sign of relief once we did. Although Jeana and I took turns lugging the suitcase around it was a lot of work to do and really wore us out. Being able to put it down in the room was an awesome feeling. Our hotel was really nice as well so we were happy about that. We didn’t stay long ot admire it as we were all famished from not having time to eat lunch.
We asked the hotel manager for some suggestions and headed out. He pointed us to the area around the Pantheon. We were just relieved to get away from the area we were in. It was just really dirty and didn’t make us feel comfortable at all. We got on the metro and when we got off all breathed a huge sigh of relief. We were finally in Athens. What I mean by this is the area was clean and we felt safe in our surroundings. On top of that it was an absolutely beautiful area. As we were super hungry we set out to find a cute place to eat. We walked along the road that ran parallel with the Parthenon and it was an incredible sight. Once we got all the way down the road we realized there were no restaurants so we headed back the other way.
As we were walking we noticed there were stray dogs all over the place. What was unusual was that some of them had collars on them. I didn’t think it was safe to get neat them. And although Jeana really wanted to I convinced her it was a bad idea. Sadly they aren’t the same dongs we know as our household pets. As we walked down the street we ran into a cute restaurant so we stopped there and ate. As we had not eaten all day we sort of decided to go all out at dinner. Jeana and I split an appetizer of fried feta and a Greek salad. For my main course I had Slovaki, which is basically a chicken kabob with some potatoes and rice. It was quite a delicious meal. Afterward I really didn’t think I was going to have to eat the rest of the trip!
We headed straight back to our hotel after dinner because we really didn’t want to be walking back when it was pitch black out. Plus we had a full day ahead of ourselves the next day. We were completely exhausted from the stress of traveling that day and we lost an hour when we got to Athens so we had to get ourselves to bed at a decent time. We all learned a big lesson today though as we realized how draining travel can be on a person. Even though we thought we had figured out all the details for our trip before we came a lot of unforeseen circumstances appear out of nowhere. Luckily everything worked out for us but from now on we are going to be extra cautious when it comes to allotting time for things.
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