A very Greek adventure

Sorry I haven't updated the blog in awhile. We took off a couple weeks for vacation in Greece. It was AWESOME!!!

I will post more about the trip and add pictures later. But for now, here's how our trip started, on June 30th...

We made it to Athens safely! It was quite a trip--my favorite part was in Newark, when the Greek Americans switched seamlessly from a thick New Yawk accent to Greek. "Ahm sittin' heyah!" one lady yelled, then lapsed into what I think were a string of Greek cuss words. Those Greek New Yorkers are a tough bunch!

There was also a little old Greek couple who pushed their way past me to take up all the overhead bins. They insisted the flight attendant help lift their 50-pound bag, and then they tried moving both my bags. I popped out and stopped that. The flight attendant yelled at them for taking up three bins, but when she turned her back, the Greek grandma filled another one. Then another friend of theirs showed up and claimed a seat, which the poor flight attendant explained was not part of the protocol.

"You have a seat!" she told the Greek grandma, who shook her head and shouted, "No! I prefer this one!" That set off the other Greek grandparents, who took the opportunity to move their luggage (and mine) around again, and to yell at the flight attendant about why their friend couldn't sit with them, and set off the New Yawker who screamed, "This old lady is irritatin' the *bleep!* outta me!" The third Greek grandma planted herself in the seat of her choice and I thought the flight attendant was gonna cry or punch somebody, and I wouldn't have blamed her for either.

And guess who pushed me outta the way to get off the plane first when we finally landed in Athens? That's right, the Greek old people, who then ordered three wheelchairs so somebody else would push them and carry their luggage.

"You need how many wheelchairs?" the flight attendant asked, incredulously, as they were certainly spry enough to knock me and everyone else outta the way.

"I want chair!" Greek grandma screamed, and she got it.

Mark slept for maybe one of the 14 hours on the plane, because he didn't want to miss anything (and by anything, I mean Gameboy and iPod time). He was dragging a bit by the time we arrived, so I took a quick shower, then we headed out in search of food. We ate a fantastic lunch--meatballs and fries for Mark, chicken vin santo (with rice and red wine) for me. I'm gonna like Greek food.

Consequently, after refusing to sleep at all, Mark melted down during lunch, begging me to take him home to sleep. Which I did. I woke him up 2 1/2 hours later, and he spent the next 30 minutes crying that he wanted to go back to bed--even the lure of the pool couldn't sway him! I eventually dragged him crying to the pool, where he insisted he wouldn't swim, but then he met another kid and spent the next couple hours swimming happily. :-)

Our hotel is awesome! I stared at the Acropolis while Mark swam, and everything was right in the world.

More soon...