On the Road...

First day on the road to Rome, Greece, and Paris! ...the beginning of a wonderful adventure.

We met at ten in the morning, bid a fond goodbye to our families, and headed on a three-hour drive to the Atlanta airport. It was uneventful at first (I read for the first two and a half hours)... then, the omen hit us. One member of our caravan gained a flat tire only twenty minutes from the airport, and the car I was in pulled over to help change it. ...with another flat tire. Didn't work too well, really. So, our third vehicle came back, we transferred luggage (my Luggage was fine, but it was getting hungry), and went as fast as we could to meet the others.

Then, it was a wonderful seven hour-ish flight to Paris. Some slept, others watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow two-and-a-half times, and I managed to finish my book and put an addition into my sketchbook. My media choices consisted of The Incredibles, Sky Captain, and an episode of the original Mission Impossible. COOL. XD

At seven-thirty in the morning, we RAN through the Paris airport to catch our short connection.
...and at seven-forty, we were still in the airport. The airline had given away our seats because we hadn't made it in time, and the next flight was at six or seven in the evening. Also, there was no (inexpensive) way out, because the RER was being worked on that day. UGH.

I was beginning to wish I'd seen The Terminal before I'd left home, because what I'd gathered from the trailers made me feel very sympathetic for Tom Hanks' character. No matter how loudly we groaned, we were stuck inside that airport with no way out for nearly twelve hours.

Joy of all joys.

So, from eight until twelve, we explored every inch of our surroundings. We tried many times to seek refuge in a warmer environment, but when we were literally kicked out of the Sheraton lobby, we figured that wandering was our best alternative (though, when we came out, we saw three guys in camo and berets walking around with BIG machine guns. O_O We didn't do it, officer! The lady in the lobby overreacted!)

Around noon, we managed to find lunch in one of the nicer places in the airport. The people at the ticket counter had given us 18E lunch vouchers, and we planned to spend them. Unfortunately, I spent mine on a very nasty bowl of pumpkin soup. >_> Great idea, that was... And, after that, ten out of eleven of us took naps on the cold, cold floor of the terminal. I stayed awake (the subconscious fear of missing a second flight overpowered my desire to sleep) and entertained myself by counting the number of people who walked by wearing glasses. Two hundred and four people later, it was almost 4:30 and we groggily headed through security. We WEREN'T missing another flight.

Soooo.... longer story geting shorter, we finally got in the air to Athens! It was a smaller flight, no TVs or anything (ah, well, I had my notebook ^^ so I was happy), but I slept a bit on my empty food tray. Poor, poor Katina accidentally got high off of airsick pills and sinus medicine, so she was still flying even after we'd landed ^^a Oops?

Two lost bags, a long and crowded bus ride, and a tedious hike through Athens later, we got to the famous Hotel Attalos after one in the morning. We met up with our final two members, Adrienne and Patrick, and managed to be in bed around three or four a.m. after calling home. Mom and Dad were at a baseball game, and nearly freaked me out when I couldn't get a hold of them.

But, when we did get to bed, we slept.