CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

May 18, 2023 — When we last spoke, I’d just made it through a hellish-turned-pretty-good night and was on the plane to Greece! (Finally!) I’d been looking forward to heading to Greece for weeks — months, even. I was so looking forward to going back to Europe, a continent that I adore with all my heart, and I was looking forward even more to getting to experience a new country, one that I’d wanted to visit for years. Before I get to touchdown in Greece, though, let me tell you about the second 11.5-hour flight I’ve taken in my life.

You may remember that I had quite the experience on my plane to Melbourne from Honolulu back in January. I didn’t know whether this plane would be easier simply because it was my second long-haul flight or if it would be just as bad. Thankfully, I had a pretty easy time.

My flight left Singapore at 5:35am and landed in Greece at 11:55am, local time. This means that when I landed in Greece, it was going to feel like 5:35pm to me. Add to that the fact that I hadn’t slept overnight, I knew that I needed to sleep on the plane. My neck pillow helped a ton and I slept in hour-long bursts for about three hours after using the bathroom after the seatbelt sign went off just after takeoff.

After that doze time, I used the bathroom again and then slept some more. I was in the middle seat on the plane, but I got lucky with my seat mates because it was easy to get out when I needed to — and I really didn’t need to very often.

About five or six hours into the flight I didn’t really need any more sleep time; I was feeling alive and well. I watched an episode or two of How I Met Your Mother, which I’d downloaded in the airport lounge. After that, I played a lot of 2048 and actually made the 4096 tile! (Woot, woot!) The hardest part of this flight was actually waiting for the pre purchased meals to come around. There wasn’t anything at the beginning of the flight and I was quite hungry. Scoot, who I was flying with, unfortunately prioritized meals that people ordered on the fly, instead of the prepaid meal people. That annoyed me, but eventually I did get my meal and I really enjoyed it. By then, too, it was only about another hour until we landed.

All in all, the flight this trip wasn’t as bad as the first. And I tell you, I had a moment of absolute relief when we touched down in Athens. I was so incredibly happy to be back on European soil for the first time in five years.

When I finally got off the plane, I followed the masses to customs, went through and got my passport stamped, breezed by border control as I had nothing to declare, and then found the exit so that I could get a train into the city. I had to ask at information to figure out what ticket I needed because I simply had no idea, and the gentleman I talked to was very helpful and pointed me in the right direction. I bought my ticket and headed down to wait for the train.

One of the first things I noticed when I was finally outside was how blissfully cool it was. After weeks of sweating to death in subtropical Australia, then being in Indonesia and spending the last couple days in Singapore, it was an absolute relief to need long pants.

The train into the city took a little over half an hour and I had to change to another train at one of the stations to head in the right direction to the station near my hostel. I emerged onto the streets of Athens and headed for the hostel according to my lovely Google Maps directions. I got checked in and settled into the room. I desperately needed food since it had taken so long to get any on the plane and I found a very cool little al fresco spot right around the corner from my hostel. I got my first souvlaki in Greece 🥹 (mmm, I can still taste it now).

I headed back to the room after I ate and met a couple of the girls staying in my room! One was from Scotland and the other was actually from Toronto! They were super nice and we chatted for a little bit. They were going out to eat in a little while and invited me along. I went out to get a SIM card and then joined them. We went to a cute little restaurant just a few minutes’ walk from the hostel and had a lovely meal. I’d just eaten and wasn’t super hungry, but they had spinach pastry on the menu — similar sounding to spanakopita — so I went for it!

I went up to the roof for my welcome shot and a drink and ended up meeting even more people! One of them was a girl that was also staying in my room, from Australia, and whom I’d met briefly a couple hours before. I talked with them for a while and they were heading out to check out the bars, which I decided against because I really needed to sleep after the day I’d had. I was practically dead on my feet.

And so ends the Southern Hemisphere chapter of my trip! Let European Summer begin!

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