I woke up around 11am on April 3rd, the day
before leaving for Athens. I did the usual and checked out my hotel in Daejeon,
sort of around the corner from Elizaheth and Joseph’s place. I hung out at
their place until about 2:30am on April 4 when I left for the bus terminal in
Daejeon to catch the first bus up to Incheon Airport. The terminal ticket
counter opened at 3am, I purchased my ticket, and boarded the bus.
The bus ride was uneventful. It made a few other stops in
Daejeon before trekking up to Incheon, and we arrived to the airport around
5:30am. I only had an e-ticket from purchasing my flight online, so I had to
wait for the Asiana counter to open to get a boarding pass and (gulp) check
what I thought was a carry-on bag. It all worked out though, and I was shown
the baggage info with ‘ATH’ at the end.
(After talking with Amy a few weeks ago, I was confident my bag would
end up in Athens.)
It paid to be early: I got my boarding pass, and found and
went through security being almost first in line at each. Security was quite
easy, no removal of shoes – at any location – just sent stuff through the xray
thing and showed my boarding pass and passport. After that, I found my gate and
waited for the flight.
The plane ride was good, a little turbulence but nothing
drastic. I was able to take what I think are some good pictures out of the window.
I landed at Tokyo Narita airport around 11:30ish
Soko time, which is the same as Japanese time, and I was met just outside of
gate on way to int’l connections by a lady with a sign that had my name on it.
She directed me towards security with no other passengers there. (yay! No
lines!) I didn’t have a boarding pass but the man at security said it was ok. After
going through security, I found my gate to depart for Rome from and then stopped
at a little shop and bought a few things: a passport holder to go around my
neck, a black Tokyo bag with ‘Tokyo’ written all over it in gold, and two
beautiful hankerchiefs, one blue and one pink. The total was 4,300 yen. I just
did the conversion, and I’m going to keep that bag and those scarves for the
rest of my life. Then I stopped at information to explained what happened upon
exiting the plane and asked her what I should do because I didn’t have a
boarding pass yet. She said it was ok and that the gate would give me a
boarding pass. They did, and even gave me the one for my flight from Rome to
Athens (through the same airline). They were very nice and even made sure to
give me my requested window seats. I boarded the plane around 12:50p for the 1:15p
flight that took just over 12 hours to get to Rome. Y A Y
The food wasn’t bad, pretty good actually, and Alitalia is
probably the best airline that I’ve
been on. The coach seats on the 747 were roomier than Asiana, the flight wasn’t
crowded, the entertainment selection was great, and the food was good. However,
the service was lacking drastically. On the first offering of drinks, I asked
for a white wine, same as the Japanese man sitting two seats away. He got wine
instantly, I had to ask for it 3 more times, during which the cart passed by
several more times and they had moved onto the serving of the food. Later on I
needed some water to take some advil, and my row-mate was fast asleep so I
didn’t want to disturb him by waking him up and asking him to move. So I turned
the call light on. Twenty minutes later, it was still on. So I turned it off
and back on again. They turned it off. I turned it back on when I noticed. Ten
minutes after that, a lady decided to come see what I needed. Good thing I’m a
patient person. Apparently the attendants were preparing the next meal, but
still - I put my call light on a good hour and 15 minutes before the meal was
even starting to be served.
Landing in rome was confusing. I followed the signs with
everyone else and got on the airport tram (just a little train to take you the
distance to the other terminal – didn’t have a choice otherwise). Followed all
the signs to my gate and eventually got there, but it had London Heathrow on
it, so I figured I’d ask someone if that was the right gate or not. Even though
I cant speak Italian, I figured I’d show my boarding pass, motion to the gate,
and say quizzically, ‘is this right?’ and sort of raise my arms in an ‘asking
why’ motion. So I tried it out. I walked to the opposing gate where I saw two
ladies standing around doing nothing, just waiting for the plane to show up I
supposed. As soon as I started walking towards them and they knew I was coming
over, they both started to busy themselves with anything – one on the computer and
the other arranging some papers that had already been arranged in a nice little
display. Really? Ok, that’s cool. So I tried my idea of asking if that was the
right gate and pointing across to the gate. My response: I was looked at like I
had two heads and each of those was sprouting two heads of their own, each with
chicken pox and foaming at the mouth. Oh, and don’t forget the obvious rabies
sign around my neck. That’s important, too. I noticed this, but I really wanted
some help, so I ignored it and continued to be nice as can be, because I’m a
nice person. Really, I am. So I pointed again to my boarding pass and looked
confused (didn’t take much) and the only spoken response I got was in English,
with a snotty ‘I can’t believe you’re bothering me, I’m 100000% more important
than you, go away now’ attitude. She said, “Look at the sign.” Ok! I’ll do
that. Hadn’t thought of that before. Thanks a bunch.
Turns out, they did change the gate, but to the one right
next to the original one (thankfully not the one with the rude ladies). My
flight information showed up on it about 10 minutes prior to boarding time.
Wow, so efficient. Definitely the worst airport I’ve come in contact with. And
although I’m pretty new at this travel stuff, I’ve been in contact with a few
now: Orlando Int’l, LAX, Incheon, Tokyo Narita, Rome Ficuiano, and Athens.
So I boarded my flight to Athens, which was cool because the
plane was smaller (still big though) and the pilots greeted us ‘bueno cera’ as
we boarded and I could see into the cockpit. So many buttons!
Takeoff and landing on that flight were the most beautiful
sights I’ve ever seen from the air. They stated a few times that use of any
electronic device during takeoff/landing were strictly prohibited, but I got a
slightly blurry one anyway on landing. I couldn’t resist. (I know it’s for
phones and computers mainly, but I’ve been yelled at in Korean before, and
those people are nice. I wasn’t about to be yelled at by an Italian.) The city
lights were so bright and orange, I know my picture doesn’t do it justice at
all. It was really beautiful.
Coming into the Athens airport was interesting. I felt like
I was straight out of Casablanca. We un-boarded the plane via metal staircase
directly onto the runway and then got on a bus that took us to the terminal. Once
I got to the terminal, I followed the signs to baggage claim and retrieved my
bag. (If I’d have known I was going to have to check it, I’d have brought a
larger bag and a few other items! Oh well, smaller is better when travelling I
guess.) Once I retrieved my bag, I followed the signs out and through some
doors where there were family and friends waiting for some passengers, and just
beyond that was the exit! I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it so much
that I stopped at the airport information desk and asked if that was correct.
The man was very nice and when I told him I came from Rome, he said that Rome
was my entry into the EU, and Athens is just another stop. How awesome is that?
It’s like travelling from state to state (kind of).
So off I went in search of an ATM to get some money,
something to drink (note to self: get food next time, too), a place to use my
computer around not too many people, and the bus. I found an ATM almost
immediately and withdrew some euros, found a little café and got a Sprite (the
menu was in Greek and the food cases were empty because it was around 1am), and ran into this free internet kiosk where I looked up my
hotel address and directions. I thought it was great how everything I needed
was right there and easy. Then I walked outside to find the bus. I found it
pretty easily, as well as the bus ticket counter. The bus I needed was 5 euros
because it goes from the airport all the way over to the hotel street my hotel
is on, up to the Port of Pireaus, into and around Athens, and then back to the
airport. I bought a ticket and boarded the bus, not knowing how I was going to
tell the driver where I needed to stop. So I just did. Sitting up front, I
leaned over and asked him to stop at my stop. He didn’t answer, but a very nice
lady sitting across the aisle from me asked where I was going and I told her
(and showed her the hotel info I’d written down), and she was very nice and told
the driver to stop where I needed to stop. I thanked her then, and again when I
exited the bus.
After walking around a bit, down streets and over some,
freaking out because it was about 1:30am and I’m in Greece unable to find my
hotel and I don’t want to get kidnapped (shouldn’t have watched ‘Taken’ a few
weeks ago), I eventually found my hotel. It’s really pretty, and I have a great
room. The view this morning is wonderful. Directly across the street from my
balcony are what I think are apartment buildings, but not regular apartments. Instead, they're very cool European
buildings that you’d expect to see by the beach. When I look left, I can easily
see the beach, the Saronic Gulf, and a huge marina. I’m still jet-lagged and
famished, but I’m going to check it out maybe after ordering some room service.
Peace!
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