Sept 6 10 pm

We left SFO at 7:15 on Saturday evening and flew 10.5 hours to London. We had a 3.5 hour layover in London and then another flight from London to Athens that took 3.5 hrs. LOTS of travel. We had purchased more expensive seats on British Airways to see if it would make a difference. Our usual MO is to travel through New York and than fly direct from there. Decided to go all the way from SF and have a more comfortable seat to see if that would work. The best thing about our plan is we are arriving at night so we can go right to bed. The travel was BRUTAL. So long to be in an airplane and my hamstrings were on fire two hours into the flight. Tried to use my self talk and meditation and ibuprofen and got through it ok. David and I managed to sleep a couple hours. The plane was almost empty so you could stretch out on a row of seats although terribly uncomfortable. So glad to finally arrive in Greece. We had the driver from our Air BnB pick us up and that went smoothly with about 30 minutes waiting for him at the airport. We got to bed about 1 am. I took 1 mg of Ativan before going to bed and David and I both slept 12 hours without stirring! Avi finally woke us up at 1pm. I couldn't believe it. 

We had such a wonderful day here. Did a walking tour that included the Philopappos monument, Ancient Agora, Theater of Dionysus, Erechtheion, Temple of Athena, Acropolis, Parthenon and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. It is hard to describe how magnificent and beautiful the Acropolis area is. The feelings you have are overwhelming. Everything is so old, much of it from the 400 BC era and just spectacular. Loved it so very much. Definitely one of the high points of my travels. 

We had a great breakfast on the way and a wonderful dinner tonight. The Greek salads are nothing like the Greek salad at home and of course, fish is on every menu. So far, it looks like we will enjoy the cuisine. And doesn't seem like it will be very hard to stay gluten free for me but we will see. 

Our Airbnb is very comfortable, including the beds. It is a bit weird traveling during Covid but we are so happy to be here and feel privileged beyond measure.