Athens arrival - April 12th

After leaving Paris Thursday morning, we hopped on an Olympic Airlines flight at Charles De Gaulle and immediatly got our first taste of Greece. All airline announcements were in Greek, then French (and sometimes English). I found it incredibly entertaining to watch the standard airline safety demonstration - stewardesses holding up the seat belts and oxygen masks - in a language that is nothing but sounds to me. Think of the Charlie Brown perspective in Snoopy movies when the adults talk ... "waa waaa wa wa waaa, wa waaa" ... and you'll get the picture. My brain slips into a dreamy state of pure observation, zero comprehension that I actually find quite peaceful. Anyhow, our flight from Paris to Greece took us over some incredible areas of Europe, and we kept peering around our neighbors trying to see out the windows from our middle seats. First the lush, green French countryside, then the foothills of the French Alps, the Rhein, the Black Forest, the Alps of Switzerland, Zurich, the Italian Alps near Turin, the Adriatic Sea etc, all the way down to the western coast of Greece, then the mainland and the eastern islands before reaching Athens.

I was fairly nauseated during most of the flight, and maintained that frozen, terrified position I always get with nausea, trying not to move and doing deep breathing-oh-please-don't-throw-up exercises. Lucky for me, when the meal service started, I was served a "special" meal of all vegetables that smelled far less stomach-wrenching than the other options. When I bought our tickets, the airline included a list of around twenty meal options, and Robert and Lindsay got their surprise "special" meals too - Robert's was certified kosher, and Lindsay's was a very healthy salmon Halal meal - which tickled all three of us. Lindsay and I spent the remainder of the flight continuing through scientific articles on trafficking and prostitution, and reading more on the latest changes in the Greek healthcare system. We realized we would still be getting into a largely unknown situation once we arrived, but reading general information at least made me feel more prepared.

As we descended into Athens, I felt a sense of relief at finally arriving. We could see bare yellow hills surrounding the endless sea of white buildings filling the valley. Everything looked somewhat dry and dusty, punctuated with four or five dark green hills poking up over the city. In the distance there was a hint of blue water off of the coast and the contrast of all the colors was even richer in the early evening light. The stewardesses are saying something again in waa waaa waa that I assume means we're HERE!