All the excitement and anticipation seemed to make for endless days of waiting. I think with each hour closer to our departure the minutes actually went by slower.
Our adventures started right from the tax ride to the airport. I mean, how often do you get a taxi driver who is really a multi millionaire who supports himself and his family by playing blackjack. A better card counter than all those kids from MIT that they just did that movie 21 about- yep he knew them all, was much better than them and just drives a taxi to keep him busy on the 65 days a year that he's not hunting and fishing at one of his several estates. Oh - and he doesnt want to put his fastlane pass on a credit card because he may need to buy a house or a truck or something on it. Seriously - what do you say to this person?! I was very good - my eye rolling was not detectable. What a ride!
So there are lots of things that I know about my mother - including that I have some of her personality traits. We both talk to people in line wherever we are - this made for great conversation and immediately meeting people on our cruise before we even left Logan. We also both love to talk to babies and small children and try to guess their ages.
Flying international is a different experience. Most notable by not calling row numbers and not having a stampede as 300 passengers get on a plane. Our Lufthansa flight was really great. The seats were comfortable and we had little individual movie screens which totally helped to pass the time - especially the one that told you how much time was left until we landed. The staff was nice and very accommodating - and the flight to Frankfurt was smooth. Neither of us slept much on the flight and the silliness began. As we're getting off the plane, Mom asks me if I thought we could find a good frankfurt in Frankfurt - just struck me as totally ridiculous. Silliness continued through customs when the agent asked me where we were going - I told her "the ladies room" then we'd like to go to Athens...she laughed. So into the terminal to wait for our next flight and what do we see? the first thing listed on the menu of the restaurant in the terminal is a Frankfurter. Score 1 for Sylvia.
Next flight Frankfurt to Athens. I'd tell you about it but I passed out before we took off.
Baggage in tow we boarded a bus and headed to our ship. Our driver was Dimitri (of course it was). Brigita gave us a short overview of Greece as we drove to Athens - We passed the acropolis off in the distance - too far to really see anything, but it kind of hit - wow we're actually in Greece! Olive trees, beautiful churches...oh and a really big Ikea off the highway.
Into port and onto the ship - bleary eyed but very very excited!