This morning we were up at 7 AM to take my brother Jared to school. We spent the rest of the morning packing and running last minute errands. My mom came home around noon and once we had everything together we left for Long Beach to meet up with my grandparents fo lunch. We picked them up from their house and drove over to Second Street to eat at La Creperie. I had a garlic-basic pesto pasta and Doug had a Croque Monsieur minus the ham. Both were really amazing. We had trouble deciding on which dessert crepes to share but settled on a lemon butter and sugar as well as a strawberry and dark chocolate ganache with whipped cream. Over the meal we talked about the trip as well as last summer's adventure in Africa, plus some other random things and shared some helpful travel tips.
After we ate we drove back to their house to visit Hailey, a chocolate lab whom they are babysitting for my uncle and aunt Jim and Val. We hung out at their house for awhile, checking out the sea terns that nest across the street and discussing possible trips for next summer (Costa Rica and Nepal are my two top candidates). Around 4:30 we said our goodbyes and received many wishes of good luck, and set out to wait in traffic on our drive to the airport.
We arrived at LAX around 6 PM. After parking, we worked on bundling our pack straps so they wouldn't get caught in the luggage carriers or carousels and then got in the British Airways line to check in. When we got to the desk I had to explain to the lady how STA Travel had screwed up my name during booking, inputting it as Dooden instead of Wooden, so after some trouble she noted it on my boarding pass and all was well. We dropped our bags off at security and went upstairs to get a snack with my mom. I got a rather stale chocolate crossaint and Doug had an ice cream. We sat down for awhile and chatted as the planes roared by outside the panoramic windows, then bought a Sudoku boook and said by to my mom. I told her she had better walk our toy poodle, Brandy, while I was gone....Bran had gievn me the saddest look when I left the house, something she had heart-breakingly perfected over the years.
After going through security (guard to me: "wait...so what IS your name?"), we walked to your gate to wait for the boarding call. A nice British guy gave me Sudoku tips and questioned my beginner abilities, telling my how good his daughter was at it while I smiled politely and nodded occasionally. We also made some final calls home to say goodbye. The boarding started at 8:35 PM, and we were in the very back row by choice, hoping the seats would still recline - they did! - with me on the aisle and Doug next to a friendly mother with braces (woman to us: "thank God we're not all big!).
I was excited to watch Sweeney Todd (even though the ending had been ruined for me some time ago outside MiMi's Cafe) and Doug weatched some sitcoms before we were served dinner, which of course wasn't vegetarian because they hadn't given us an option to request it so. We had ginger ales, carrots, nasty mashed potatoes, rolls, salad, and lemon cheesecake; we left the chicken behind. I finished watching my movie, which seemed rather pointless but was thoroughly entertaining and made me want to go back to the London Dungeon. Doug was already asleep, so I pulled out my iPod, put on my default sleeping CD, Foo Fighters "In Your Honor" Disc 2 on repeat, put my eyeshades on, and fell asleep. The rest of the flight consisted of sleeping off and on, small stretch breaks back by the lavatories, a lot of dry mouth, and a breakfast of egg salad sandwiches which I didn't eat. After the ten hour flight, we got into London Heathrow at 2 PM (about 7 AM our time).
We went through security, where the women in front of us had to taste test every jar of baby food she had with her, and found a place to eat lunch among the Prada, MAC, and Dior shops. We had lunch at a place called Giraffe. Doug and I shared orange juice, a little caesar salad, and an excellent bowl of veggie penne margherita with cheese. The meal we a bit expensive ($26.00) but we needed good food to refuel and get the airplane food taste out of our mouths.
After lunch we found a little seating area next to a caviar bar to wait out our layover in, our flight scheduled to leave at 8:55 PM and the gate not yet listed. I laid down across some chairs and took a few short but really awesome naps. We also bought some water to take on the next flight with us. About 45 minutes before our flight they put up the gate and we headed over there to wait for boarding. On this plane we were also in the last row, but this time just the two of us with me at the window and Doug on the aisle. The flight was three hours, during which we both slept a bit, read, and talked, trying to hear ourselves over the guy in the cowboy hat in front of us (and we witnessed the flight attendant give him some sort of brown medicine which she said she could get into a lot of trouble for dispensing) who talked to his friend the whole time. We inquired about the vegetarian meal we had requested, but apparently we weren't on the list (go figure) so they have us chicken, which came with green beans, carrots, a roll, and apple rice pudding. We of course both had another ginger ale to drink. When the flight attendant came around offering tea I asked for some. It looked really dark and strong, but I was excited for it - until I tried it. It was most definitely coffee and not tea. She had been carrying to wrong pot!
We got into Athens International Airport at 2:15 AM local time. We went through passport control and waited only a few minutes for our packs at the baggage claim. We exited the building and sure enough, right across the street all lit up in blue was the Sofitel where we had early check in and reservations for the following night thanks to my grandparents' generosity. We went up to reception, armed with printed e-mails insuring we could check in at 3 AM. The receptionist couldn't find a reservation for us under either my grandparent's last name nor mine as well as no notice for early check-in, so we presented her with the series of e-mails. She spoke to her manager and finally, after declaring there had been a misunderstanding, simply gave us the key to room 544 and we, confused and reasonably tired, went up to the 5th floor to our room.
In the room, which we really nice, we both took showers and soaked in the tub a bit, and then had a snack of chocolate Teddy Grahams and got ready for bed. We finally went to sleep around 4 AM, the room pitch black so we could easily sleep well into the day. I woke up around 11 AM, but both of us continued to sleep off and on until about 1 PM. Then we got up and got ready to head across the street to the airport to get some things done. We got some Euros from the ATM, picked up a map and some brochures, and used the timed free internet to e-mail home. We were unable to type in the email box for some reason, so we had to write the whole e-mail in the subject line! We walked up and down the arrivals hall three times in search of food, but found only two cafes with identical collections of drinks, pastries, and sandwiches. We got a Coke, a Powerade, a donut, a tuna sandwich, and some waters after waiting in the line twice because the first time they forgot the donut.
We took our food back to our room. The donut (to Jared's jealousy, I'm sure) was filled not with chocolate but with Nutella. After eating we both sort of drifted off to sleep for about an hour and a half. When we woke it was 5:30 PM, and we journaled and read for awhile before journeying back across the street for dinner at 7 PM. Doug had found out that there was a food court up one more level from arrivals, so we went up to Sbarro, the place with the huge pizza slices. I had a slice stuffed with spinach, cheese, and broccoli plus a peach iced tea. Doug had a slice of cheese with a really delicious bottle of carbonated lemonade. Then once more we headed back to our room, but the maids were cleaning even though we had a Do Not Disturb sign up. We killed time by going up to the 9th Floor to scope out the pool, which was nice but a bit hot and everyone's swimming noises echoed annoyingly.
When we got back to the room we soon got a call from reception saying that we should have checked out at noon (!), so we went down to speak with the front desk. We again showed the e-mails, and the receptionist made copies of them and said that depending on her records of the e-mails we may be charged for a second night since technically we should have been. She told us to go back up and wait for her to call. I was pretty angry about this, since it was the reservations agent who had made the mistake, not us, and I didn't particularly want to spend the night in the airport given that we couldn't afford a 400 Euro/night price tag. We waited anxiously until about 10:30 PM (an hour and a half) for her to call and say they wouldn't charge us for another night - damn straight you won't!
Relieved, we both got ready for bed. I washed some clothes in the sink, and we both worked on our journals and listened to music until about 12:30 AM. In the morning we head into central Athens for some serious pack-toting, camera-clicking sight-seeing.
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