Arrival

OK, so i made it to Athens, it was a long plane ride. My flight got delayed a little before i made my connection in Newark and then my flight to Athens left about 30 mins. late but we got here 30 mins. early.  It doesn't make a lot of sense i know. ANYWHO, the flight wasn't bad, reminded me of the one to vegas, i watched the movie fools gold, read some of my book, and ate lots of snacks to try to lighten the load. lol I had 43L which was sorta all the way in the back BUT, i had the window seat and there was just one lady sitting next to me and she was pretty nice, she let me out to use the bathroom like 3 times. The meal wasn't too bad, we had salad (which was amazing) and then we could choose between lasagna or chicken something, i wanted lasagna but they ran out so i had to settle for chicken, it was pretty good though, then we had a cookie for dessert. Then i took about a 4 hour nap and then i woke up and we were flying over Italy, it was really pretty, they also have a ton of coastline! Then we had breakfast and that was a croissant and a fruit salad, it was good too. Soo then we arrived at the airport, I was like the last person off, and it was extremely hot. Then i had to stand in the longest line ever to get through customs and they didn't even give me a nice stamp in my book, just a date! Ridiculous! So then, i went to get my luggage, both bags made it, then i went to bathroom and rearranged everything for easier transport and changed into something cooler. After all this, i had to find directions, this was difficult, i waited in line at like 2 different places and then finally there was this greece travel place, which i guess is what the janitor lady that was practically yelling at me in greek was talking about. haha Anywho, they gave me a map, which is nice, and showed me where to go and such. So then i bought a metro ticket, my first 6 euros spent, and got on this train with all my crap. It wasn't crowded at first but then, the further we went tons more got on this train! The city here is nice, kinda dumpy in some parts when you get into it but, the ride here was lovely, there are tons of trees and irrigation everywhere, most things are in greek and english but not all. They seem to be very proud of their "green" atmosphere here. There are tons of little trees that you can tell were just planted and crops of some weird bush nearly everywhere you could put one! Everyone here drives a small car, like smart cars and the little hatchbacks. It just as i would have imagined a city in Europe. The taxis look much nicer than american ones though. They're very modernized over here but then again, i'm not sure why i was expecting they wouldn't be. So after i got off the first train i had to changed to a second one. After getting off this train, I was a little lost, all the guides are in greek and don't match all the words on my map. I started walking in the direction that I thought the hotel was in and then stopped in another hotel for directions...haha, i was going the right way though, he helped me the best he could but said he wasn't sure. I found out the name of the street and then tried to find my hotel. The street signs are on the buildings that are on the corner and are faded and very small rectangles like the size of a cherrios box. You can barely tell what they say, if your lucky enough to find one! Its ridiculous! Then the stoplights are not hanging in the air they are on poles on the sides of the streets and i nearly got run over when i had a walk sign, i tried to remember the piss off phrase in my phrase book but couldn't get it out in time! lol The streets are kinda dirty and you can tell that they are ancient! They really need to update their sidewalks, and people with mopeds or bikes just park them right on the sidewalk blocking everything! Anyways, i made it here and was awfully glad because its like 95 outside and i almost broke a sweat. Its not humid though, its just hot, which is nice. I checked in and made my way to my room, very interesting the way things work in here, you have to put your room key in this little slot for any light to come on or any other electric use. I guess its a good way to cut back though, intelligent idea. I took a nap, got a shower, and now i'm trying to decide what to do with the rest of the evening and during the day tomorrow before everyone else arrives. I'm going to try to work out the phone situation but i'm not sure what i'm going to do about that yet, I assume the lady at the front desk might know, she speaks good english too. I'll probably post again in the morning because the hotel i'm staying at tomorrow charges 5 euros for 3 hours of internet access, plus, i will probably be busy with the JWU people! I'm very glad i decided to come a day early though, we all know how stressed i can get and this definitely would have been bad if i had to meet all those people and get lost all in a days time. :)