Unknown protest on Mitropolitous
Harry Potter in Greek
Ian with his travel documents
Alitalia's special seatbelt for Ian
Over France
Marseille from plane
Catching bus to Marseille
Marseille sunset
With Rocky Bilboa-our cabbie's dog in Marseille
Rick & Ian
The original plan was to be up by 7:30 and out the door by 8:30 to finally see the Acropolis before leaving town. The reality was that the funny tasting cheese from last night was probably bad and I woke up around 5:00 am with very unpleasant cramps and abdominal contractions. Thus, I wasn't going anywhere any time soon lest my body take an inopportune moment to purge itself of the toxins. It turns out that Amanda and Ian were happy to sleep until 9 am as well. The bottom line was that there was no Acropolis this morning. We were doing well to get to the airport 45 minutes before out flight.
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I just have to mention two notable events that occured just prior to leaving the hotel. First, Ian and I wandered into some sort of protest march on the edge of Syntagma Square as we were out hunting for an ATM machine. I asked someone what the protest was about, but as they were tourists as well they didn't have an answer. So I took a photo and will have to find someone who can read Greek to translate. The other incident was actually somewhat traumatic. As Ian and I were trying to get my 20 kg backpack into the tiny elevator, one of the straps of the backpack got closed into the doors. As the elevator started to move, I began frantically pushing buttons to stop the elevator, but it was too late. I stepped backwards into the elevator (with Ian strapped to my chest) and watched the 50 lbs of luggage rise to the ceiling of the elevator and then come crashing back down when the strap finally broke off. I shreiked, Ian cried as a result, and all-in-all it was a high stress elevator ride.
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Our flights to Marseille were fine, with the exception of me leaving my purse/camera bag on the plane from Athens when we transferred in Milan. Thus there was no lunch during our 45 minute layover. The no lunch part ended up being not a problem once we finally made it into Marseille. We grabbed a bus from the airport to the bus terminal in downtown Marseille where Rick met us with a pre-arranged taxi. Even the taxi was a treat for me, since I got to sit in the front seat with "Rocky Balboa," the cabbie's permanent canine co-pilot. We arrived at Rick's place around 6, he made us a wonderful big dinner of pasta & salad, and we spend the next few hours doing mundane things like laundry and emailing. It is nice to be in a home again, though it will be even nicer to be in my own!
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