.. and so we arrive

Every now and then before we came, my mother warned me about what to expect when we got to Greece. I wasn't too sure how much was just preparation for "expecting the worst" and how much was true, so I tried to keep a relatively open mind either way.

We arrived in Athens and I was a bit excited even while I was waiting for someone to find Cody's stroller from where it was stowed. We were finally here, it was as hot as I expected and everyone spoke Greek. I was a little wide eyed at everyone bellowing in Greek and yakking at us as if we'd been here forever. Can barely imagine the shock Renee got *laugh*

We eventually lined up for immigration. In typical Greek fashion, there was no organisation anywhere. I had the assumption there were at least a few desks somewhere at the front of the "line" where passports were being processed, however from as far back as we were, they were all assumptions. For anyone who's ever seen a Greek church when communion is on, picture that. Just a mess of people who are all grumpy, having jumped off an 11 hour flight ;)

One woman with a young child (a bit older than Cody at a guess), asked one of the guards whether people with babies could go through first. The guard looked at her like she had asked to burn down the airport and told her to wait. For that conversation alone, I am glad that Greek was coming back to me pretty quickly ;) Priceless.

Eventually someone decided that it made sense for babies to get through quickly and so we scuttled to the new line that had been formed. The officer took several looks at Cody before determining whether we were smuggling in someone else's child or not. Admittedly, she looks nothing at all like the photo in her passport, yet only 6 months or so has passed since then!

Once we grabbed our baggage and headed out, the race was on. We were in Athens and things only run once or twice a day apparently :P Like the train from the airport to the city. Clearly they haven't kept up some of the timetables that made the Olympics work :P