My Life Before Greece

Greece!

           Knowing myself, I could probably write a short novel in each blog entry, so I will try and keep it short! :) I basically decided to travel to Greece because it had always intrigued my travel bug, and it was most certainly on my bucket list!  For those of you who don’t know, I am in the University Honors Program at San Diego State University and studying abroad is a mandatory requirement in order to graduate through this program.  The Greece Summer 2010 Study Abroad Program was also a UHP course, and since they are also required to graduate through the UHP, I was killing two birds with one stone! :)  Anyways, it almost seemed like one day my family and I were talking about me studying abroad, and the next day, I signed the paperwork and paid the deposit and there was no turning back! 

            I had honestly never traveled outside of the country without my family and I did not want to come to think about the time when I would have to say good bye to them in the airport!  I knew it was going to be a big cryfest, so instead my family and I avoided the conversation about me leaving the entire time before leaving to Greece, which was probably not the healthiest thing to do, but it got the job done!  I’m back with my family now aren’t I? ;)  My family and I went, when I could, to REI as often as possible in order to prepare as best possible… I am not going to lie, those lightweight clothes certainly came in handy when it came to washing my clothes in the bathroom! 

            In the weeks before leaving to Greece, I became extremely busy at school and I could barely juggle my responsibilities at school, studying, spending time with my friends and family, and trying to get ready for Greece… i.e. shopping!  School had ended for me just a few days before I left, so I needed to spend my time with everyone wisely. 

            It was finally the morning of my flight, and my suitcase was extremely overweight, but there was no going back now!  Without doubt, I was extremely nervous.  I had never flown without my family before, and for the few weeks prior I was dealing with my fears of flying.  Obviously everything worked out for the best, but I was still scared!  There were three other SDSU students on my flight, but we were not sitting as close together as I hoped!  From San Diego to Newark, New Jersey I sat in the aisle next to a little old lady, and a very nice Englishman on the window.  After landing in New Jersey, I saw that Tony Hawk was in first class!  Of course, I mentioned this to an older gentleman and he had no idea who I was talking about.  We rushed through the airport, and made it as they were boarding our next flight to Munich, Germany!  Luckily, I had a pretty great seat, on the aisle of course!  And more luckily, in the center of the airplane there were three empty seats and I mentioned this to Tracie, who was more in back of the plane, and we shared the seats! 

            I didn’t sleep a wink, okay maybe a wink or two… It was almost difficult to fall asleep when everyone else was asleep around you and you felt like the only insomniac on the plane!

            We landed in Munich, to a rainy day.  The landing and deboarding was entertaining because we had to walk on the runway into a bus! So I did touch German soil!  Tracie and I quickly went through customs and found our gate.  We had split up from Brandon and Catherine since they were farther back on the plane.  It was interesting to see, or smell, that the airport was filled with a slight haze from the smoking boxes within the Munich airport.  Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of them, but they certainly did create for a unique humid experience; rain, cigarette smoke and a stuffy airport did not make for a good experience.  Interestingly enough, there was a big group of very attractive people, which I later came to found out that were part of the “Ralph Lauren Tour,” waiting to board the plane to Athens as well.

           The airplane food was terrific, very chic!  Except, Brandon, who I was sitting next to, was a vegetarian and almost the entire meal had animal products!

My meal after Brandon gave me some!

Brandon's vegetarian meal! :)

           The view from the plane was wonderful!  The first hour, I saw snowy mountains, and closer to Greece I saw beautiful blue water!  The scenery was very San Diego-like, a little of everything: mountains, beaches and desert!

About a half an hour into our flight: snow!

The snow is slowly melting about an hour into the flight!

Beautiful!

We finally landed in Greece, saw another “smoking box,” which was basically a room to the side that was in no way shape or form, closed off from the rest of the airport!  I knew I was in Europe!  After a little catastrophe that Brandon’s luggage was still in Munich, we landed in Greece safe and well and headed to the Astor Hotel in Athens!

After this point, I have planned to separate my blog entries into topics or cities, and not chronologically.  I will also try and add as many pictures as possible! :) So much for not writing a lot… ;)