Athens Day 2

Actually this was our first full day in Athens. I've found the food
is great - and not too costly if you are careful about where you eat.
Our first night we went to a local restaurant where I had a Greek
salad and the tastiest mousaka. One of its main ingredients is
eggplant. I couldn't even tell there was eggplant. The price was 9
Euros. On Friday we spent the early afternoon at the Acropolis (12
Euros) and then walked. We walked for eight hours until I got a
blister on the one foot. By six o'clock we were starving. In the
flea market we found a small counter restaurant that served cheap
food. We ate Greek salad and had a plate of five or six kinds of
meat. The cost was 10 Euros. Both times the meals were much more
than I could eat. My traveling companion is a big man - high energy
needs. He says when his father travels with him his father always
puts on weight. I'm going to have to start eating less and let him
eat what he wants. I bought a kilo of cherries at the open street
market for 3 Euros. I washed them and so Saturday that's what I will
eat all day.

Rushing for Airplanes

We made all our airline connections, but barely. Only because every
plane we took was late taking off. The plane was late getting into
Kansas City and then had to change a part. In Newark we had to take
the shuttle bus from one terminal to the other. By taking the bus we
avoided going through security again. That was good. We barely made
the plane so didn't get to go to the toilet (the word they use in
Europe). In fact the nearby toilets were all closed. When we got on
the plane, we waited over a half hour in a warm cabin while mechanics
changed out parts in the air conditioning system. The plane circled
in London for half hour so we were late getting into Heathrow. We
walked a good distance to get to terminal 2 for our next flight. We
went through security again. Much more relaxed, although serious. We
didn't have to go through customs and immigration. This time I was
sure to use the toilet even though we were late. We got to our gate
about 10 minutes before scheduled take off. We waited at the gate.
The plane was 45 minutes late getting off. Everyone is late on both
ends, but don't depend on that. An older couple in Newark missed
their plane. From the loud complaints we heard it was obviously
upsetting. The airline people didn't show much empathy either. "It
wasn't our fault. You'll have to take it up with them," they said.

I survived the night flight of 6 1/2 hours because we had lots of
movies to watch. I watched Last Chance Harvey, Inkheart, and Dial M
for Murder. I lost the last few minutes of Dial M for Murder. The
flight attendants were great on all our flights. Friendly and
helpful. I was dehydrated by the time I got to London, though. I
should have brought or bought a bottle to refill with water at water
fountains. In London we had to go through security so would have lost
our water, but not our bottles. I brought snack bars, but only ate
one. There was plenty of food on the flights. The flight from Kansas
City had a snack plate with several items. On the flight over the
Atlantic we had two meals. Pasta and meatballs for dinner and fruit
for breakfast. The person in the neighboring seat didn't want her
salad so I had two. Olympic Airlines offered pasta and meat, salad
and pastry. I asked for water and a can of juice at each meal. The
secret is ask for the can and you get more liquid. I didn't drink the
soda pop and caffeine drinks. They destroy you immunity and keep you
awake.

Re: Athens

Hehe.. Thats funny dad. I'm glad you're safe. I love you!

I wanna know to what movies you watched? :-D

Yay Dad. I am so happy for you and jealous. Of course your hotel was 5 minutes away. That is always what happens. What movies did you watch that kept you up your whole flight. I am excited to see pictures and hear more details later. Love you lots. Remember to think of Jacob tomorrow. You can yell a shout out to him. Maybe we'll hear it from here. Have fun and enjoy every second of your trip.

Love,
Angelene

-It's a Wonderful Life

RE: Athens

Yay Dad. I am so happy for you and jealous. Of course your hotel was 5 minutes away. That is always what happens. What movies did you watch that kept you up your whole flight. I am excited to see pictures and hear more details later. Love you lots. Remember to think of Jacob tomorrow. You can yell a shout out to him. Maybe we'll hear it from here. Have fun and enjoy every second of your trip.

Love,
Angelene

-It's a Wonderful Life

---

Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync. Check it out.

Athens

Elliott and I are spending our first night in Athens. We had quite an
experience finding our hostel, but eventually after taking a bus and
the metro, we took a taxi. When we got the taxi, we were five minutes away from the hostel.
It cost us 5 Euros for the taxi. The bus from the airport was packed
with tourists. Cost 3.20. Metro was 1 Euro. On the bus we sat near a woman from
Winnipeg. She was a pharmacist, one year out of school, taking her first European vacation on her own. No one we asked knew where the address was on a map. They
didn't even want to help. However, most everyone we asked were
immigrants. Not very helpful. Finally we asked a beautiful blond
woman, who spoke great English. She was Greek and knew the city. She went out of her way to help us. Temperature is about 80 degrees. A good time to come to
Greece. The deskman at the Athens International Hostel speaks good
English and knows the city. We're discovering how really helpful and friendly the Greeks are.

The trip went a lot faster than I would have thought. I watched 3
movies from Newark to London and slept from Heathrow to Athens. The
food was good on Olympic Airlines. Lamb with pasta, salad and filo
pastry. A touch of Greece. Elliot thought the baklava was too sweet so gave me his.

One suggestion. I put my backpack in a duffel bag with rollers. It
was hard to maneuver through crowds. I should have just carried my
backpack on my back. It would have been easier.

Ef-ha-ri-sto, John

http://www.livingbetter.org

Should I exchange U.S. dollars to euros before leaving on my trip?

We found that Bank Of America online had the best exchange rates. You
could charge the money to your credit card and have it sent directly
to your house. Get enough for a few days - in case of emergency. You
don't have to be one of their members (we aren't), but if you are then
you can probably order it right from the bank. Talk to your bank about
doing this.

You'll need cash when you get there to pay for a cab, tip your driver,
tip your bellhop, get food, and possibly other things.

Then, if you have a credit card that doesn't charge any fees or has
very low fees for rate conversion, use that as much as possible. The
credit card companies get excellent rates, and it's safer than
carrying cash around. We have one card that charges a 1% fee on
foreign transactions and that's it. It then gives us a 1% cash back at
the end of the year, so it's a wash.

Once you are there, look for a bank that accepts your ATM card type.
Ours is anything with the STAR logo. You'll have to set up a 4 digit
pin before leaving so that you can access your account. And, ONLY USE
ATMS THAT ARE ATTACHED TO BANKS, AND ONLY USE THEM DURING OPEN
BUSINESS HOURS. This way, if your card gets eaten, the cash doesn't
come out, or anything else goofs up, you can march right into the bank
and talk to someone.

I recommend NEVER exchanging currency at the airport, at an exchange
office, or at the hotel. The rates are terrible compared to those on
your credit card or from the bank.

And remember to call your credit card company and your bank to let
them know you will be traveling. When you call, get a 24 hour
toll-free international number from them. We also scan a copy of our
cards (both front and back), passport, and DL into our computer and
send it to ourselves on several e-mail accounts. Do this for each
person traveling and print out at least one copy of each person's
scan.

This information was obtained from
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060716134329AACO5Ng