It's early Saturday morning...and I've been up for more than an hour now. I'm suppose I'm not all that surprised about jetlag, but I was super tired last night and went to bed around midnight after going to Oktoberfest in Fremont.
I arrived home on Thursday night after traveling for almost 27 hours, including the time it took to take a taxi from Akropoli to Syntagma Square and taking the X95 bus from Syntagma to the airport in Athens. Nevertheless, nice to finally be home.
My trip was smooth, and I got to spend a few hours in Munich after knocking out on the plane from Athens to Munich. I got on, fell asleep, and the next thing I heard when I woke up was, "Meine Damen und Herren, Herzlichen Wilkommen in München"...two and a half hours after take off.
In Munich, I cleared security, got another Munich stamp in my passport, and headed for my gate with two hours to spare. I decided to grab breakfast at a nearby cafe, and seriously, a ham and cheese sandwich and a cup of Sprite should NOT cost 9 Euros and 10 cents. When the cashier told me the total, I almost dropped all my stuff. Munich is wayyy to expensive; hence, why I prefer Berlin. :P
From Munich, I flew to Toronto and, amidst a few hours of napping, watched a few of the same movies I watched on my way to Europe back in August. Had a nice chat with the gentleman next to me. He was a businessman who was returning home from a business trip to Munich. He was telling me all about his travels...to Japan and all over Europe. Sounded pretty neat, and he told me he wouldn't trade anything for his job as he truly loved it.
In Toronto, I spent about two and a half hours waiting for my next flight (this time it was on-time as opposed to my three hour delay on my way to Frankfurt). I found a good looking sports bar and had a red beer and Great Canadian Grilled Cheese...it came with a tiny Canadian flag on a toothpick. You can see the flag on the edge of the plate in this picture.
Once we got on the plane, a young Somalian lady with her 6-month-old baby sat next to me in the window seat (only two seats on either side of this airplane). He was quite cute and surprisingly calm for his first flight ever. He cried only a few times, and his mom even asked me to hold him for a few minutes as she got his milk for him. That was fun.
As we got closer to Seattle, the sun was starting to set, and outside our window, the Cascade Mountains were visible in the pinkish sky. It looked awesome, and as beautiful as Greece is, it reminded me of why I love the Pacific Northwest so much as well.
When we arrived, my luggage arrived quite quickly and my friend and GEAR UP co-leader from this summer, Latana, picked me up from the airport. Nice to catch up on things after being gone for six weeks.
Once I got home, one of the first things I did was add another flag pin to the world map on my wall. I know, I'm such a nerd, but it's nice to add Athens and Crete to the spots I've traveled. : )
Yesterday, I ran around for errands and meetings as I typically do when I'm home, and it was great to see so many people that I hadn't seen for a while. That was really very nice to catch up. Then last night, I also checked out Oktoberfest in Fremont (I just missed the real Oktoberfest in Munich as it started the day after I left the airport). It was a bit underwhelming, to be honest, but it was still fun to go with a few friends.
Coming home from Greece after spending the past month plus there, though, has made me notice a few things I'm getting accustomed to again.
- Flushing toilet paper instead of chucking it into the waste basket next to the toilet.
- Crossing streets between cars and use the crosswalks with lights instead.
- Using my credit card now instead of having to find ATMs and withdrawing cash.
- Wearing warmer clothes.
- Saying thank you in English instead of saying, "Efharisto" (I kept catching myself almost saying that in Munich too when the flight attendants spoke to me in German...).
- (Also, forgot to add this one originally) Using miles, feet, Fahrenheit, etc. instead of kilometers, meters, and Celsius.
Anyway, today is a big day. I need to crank out my Fulbright essays with all the feedback I've received. The Huskies play USC today and then tonight, I think I'm going to the Mariners game against the Yankees. Have to confirm that still. I hope so though...Ichiro hit a walk-off, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth last night to beat the Yankees, against the best closer in baseball over the past two decades too. Pretty awesome.
Alright, I should go work on those essays. I leave Monday for Denver for a Dream Project presentation at Colorado State University, so I'll have an opportunity to post on the travel blog again before school starts in two weeks.
Until then, toodles.
Sam
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