The Trip to Greece

It’s Maddie writing this time. I have never written a blog entry, so this is my first time. Well, here goes!

Our trip to Greece was so far the coolest place I have ever been to. Like, I have never ridden to the airport in black limousine. That was our ride.*

It was huge inside, even bigger then how it looked from the outside. For once in my life, I was glad that it took a while for us to get to the airport. After stuffing all three suitcases into the trunk, and even the front seat, we sat down inside the limo and drove away from our house, Jack and Brady waving as we went. (Boy, you should have my Aussie Shepard’s reaction to being left behind ).

Inside the airport, we came face to face with the worst part about traveling in an airport. The lines. But as we were traveling to a different country, the lines were a bit shorter because not that many people go to London in the fall, at least, not as many as the amount of people going to Florida. We quickly found our gate after going through security, and when the women announced that it was time to board the plane, I had know idea how long this plane ride was going to be.

When you are flying to another state, like from New Jersey to Georgia, it takes about two, maybe two and a half hours. But when you are flying from New Jersey to London, it’s a whole other story. That plane ride was six and a half hours straight, and even thought there were T.V. screens on the back of each seat, I was waiting for the plane to land so that I could get off and never come back. I didn’t even want to think about the plane ride home. On the last hour of the last plane ride, I just kind of snapped. I needed to get off, and fast. As soon as the plane landed, I hurried off. We met up with a woman named Chris, a friend of dad’s from his work. When we got all of our luggage, and had gotten into the taxi, we sat enjoying the sights from the windows of our cab.

(Mom is interrupting this post to point out that we actually got on a 2^nd flight from London to Athens, which Maddie either does not remember because she was asleep or she has blocked it out because no active 11-yr old wants to be cooped up on an airplane for 2 consecutive international flights! Now, back to Maddie.)

Our hotel was called the Divani Apollo, and when we screeched to a stop in from of the hotel, mom checked us in, and we went on up to our room, number 111. As soon as our luggage was set, and our bathing suits were on, we took the elevator down to the pool. It was huge (and cold), and we chose a couple of chairs, sat down, and hung out there for a while. Actually, after mom and dad had had their nap, we decided that we were all hungry, so we sat down at the pool side restaurant, and ordered our food. It was really good food, and we all had an early bed time, so that we would be ready for the day ahead.

The next morning, we split up. Dad had to go to a thing with his work, and Mom, Jenny, and I went to the Greek outdoor market called the Plaka. The ride to the Plaka was very long (at least to me it was) , and it was kind a bumpy on the hotel shuttle, so I was glad when we finally arrived. There were people everywhere, and we actually got to see a little glimpse of the Changing of the Guard at the Embassy. We walked all around, admiring the pretty necklaces, beautiful scarves, and Greek shoes.

There was even a large Lego store, with a life size Lego sculpture of a famous basketball player. (At the airport on the way home, we saw a life size Yoda Lego sculpture.)

After walking through the twisting streets for a while, we sat down to eat at a small restaurant. We ordered a plate of chicken and pork Souvlaki.

It was great, and they had french fries on the plate as well. In Greece, pretty much all of the potatoes are French fries, literally. I was really full by the time we left the restaurant. I was looking around the winding streets when I spotted something in the corner of my eye. It was a man sitting on the ground with a wooden board and a bag full of what looked like squishy, colorful little balls.

As we watched, he took one of them out of his bag and threw it onto the wooden board. To my surprise, it didn’t bounce off the way that I had thought it would. Instead, it appeared to have melted. As we stood there, the ball began to take it’s own shape again, until it had assumed it’s natural form. Jenny and I instantly walked over and watched him again and again, until mom walked over. We immediately began to beg for one. Mom watched him for a moment, and then decided that we would really enjoy this, so Jenny and I picked one out, and mom got them for us, along with buying one for Brady too. (We played for 15 minutes straight back at the hotel). Well, by the time we had got back to the place where the hotel shuttle was going to pick us up, we were all really thirsty. We bought two waters and ice cream and waited for the shuttle. When it came, Jenny and I fell asleep, and I awoke when we were about halfway there. I watched the beautiful scenery (but I also saw a lot of graffiti-covered buildings), and when we got back to the hotel, I wanted to fall asleep right then and there, but we walked down stairs and ate dinner.

When we ordered the dessert, though, I could have stayed down there for years. It was delicious, and after we finished we went up stairs, got into our pajama’s, and went to bed.

THE END of DAY ONE!

* Mom's note: The Farmer family does not routinely (or ever!) travel around in limousines. I wish! Could you imagine arriving at the local Shoprite in a limo? The truth is, because of Jamie’s travel schedule with work, they provide a ride to the airport for any of his business related trips. Occasionally, when demand is high, the transportation company runs out of standard black sedans, and they send a limo. The girls were so excited that for a minute there I thought perhaps the whole trip was a waste and maybe we should just ride around in the limo for a few hours and go home. They flat out loved it!