Greetings from Thessaloniki!!!

My journey to Greece started out in MSP, flying to Chicago O'Hare airport, which took approximately 50 minutes. Crazy how fast flying is compared to driving! We literally reached the altitude we needed to and then started to descend again! As we started to break through the clouds on our way to the ground, there was a Northwest plane flying parallel to us. But no worries, we won the race to the runway!
If you look really close you can see the Northwest plane that we beat to the runway!





Dewey Thoner and I were going to meet up with Sarah Frost at Chicago O'Hare and give her some encouragement because it was her first time flying... (Not a good flight to start out on) 9 hours for her to Heathrow, London. But it turns out there are a ton of terminals in that airport and she was clear on the other end of the airport! We couldn't get passed security without having to go through customs twice and we really didn't want to go through all of that. We began to wait for our flight to board which took about 2 hours. A total of seven of us met up in Chicago and made the trip to Thessaloniki.
Me in the Chicago O'Hare Airport, on the way to our terminal to catch our plane to Frankfurt, Germany!








On my way to Frankfurt, I was relying on the fact that I would fall asleep but guess what... That didn't happen - go figure. So I watched Night to Rodanthe, two episodes of Grey's Anatomy (the same episode), and the beginning of Burn After Reading… I watched the map as we crossed the Atlantic Ocean and talked with Dewey for a while.


Morning finally came and I tried to watch the sunrise through the plane window but I was blinded every time I opened the shade. The flight attendants brought us our yogurt and piece of bread for breakfast and I think it was because of my nerves but I felt really sick. I really didn’t want to finish it but I didn’t know how long we would have before we could eat again and I was not paying the outrageous airport prices for food. Everything went down ok but I still had an uneasy feeling but once we landed in Germany it instantly went away! I was over half-way to Greece and only 1 time zone away!

As we got off the plane and boarded the bus (we got off the plane in the middle of the plane “parking lot,” near all of the gates that lead into the building. We got inside and then tried to figure out where we were going. After asking someone and then getting frustrated because we didn’t understand her directions, we just started walking in what looked like the right direction! It was but when we came to a T in the hallway we went the wrong way and had to go through customs on the wrong side of the airport. That was a fantastic experience let me tell you! I figured you couldn’t take liquids through security because Dewey had to throw his Pepsi away in MSP. So I hid my water bottle in my backpack… I knew they could see it but maybe, just maybe they wouldn’t say anything. Boy was I wrong… They pulled my bag aside and asked me to open it. So I did and they said they would confiscate the water bottle or I would have to drink it. It was my Nalgene bottle so I didn’t want to throw it away because then I would be stuck without a water bottle in Greece. So even though the thing was approximately all the way full, I started to drink it. The security guard starting chanting “ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh…” It was rather disturbing.
Then he was like “look at the beautiful frouline,” as I looked at him as if I was going to puke. I was not a BEAUTIFUL FROULINE at the time let me tell you!
Seven of the UWEC Students in Frankfurt!

After we made it through customs, we went back upstairs to try and find a place where we could get our boarding passes. After we found that we went back through the passport verification and ended up in the same spot we were when I had to chug my water! FRUSTRATING! We had gone in one complete circle and didn’t want to go through customs again. But at least I didn’t have any more water to drink! We read our boarding pass and that is when we realized that we had taken a wrong turn before so we went left and found our gate (after going through the other terminal’s customs – which were far less painful!).

After we found our gate and took a little time to rest, I ventured out to find a bathroom. After all I had just downed a huge bottle of water ;). So of course the stall that I go into has a little left over in it from the person before me. It was the only one open at the time and I had to pee real bad. I flushed it – BAD IDEA! In America, the water sits in the toilet and then as you flush it, it fills back up. Sounds pretty simple huh… NOPE. In Europe, the toilet is empty and after you flush it, the water washes everything down and then empties. Guess What! I didn’t know that. I flushed it and the water level kept rising… I didn’t know what to do… I just started to giggle (because I was tired) and pray that it didn’t flood the entire bathroom. It kept rising and rising and it finally started to empty after about 3 teaspoons of water came out. I have never been that scared in my life… I really didn’t want to be known as the AMERICAN that flooded the Frankfurt, Germany Airport bathroom.

After that little incident, I decided I should just go and wait for our plane to board. After it did, I settled down into the “comfy” plane seat that reclines about 2 inches and was as hard as a rock and finally fell asleep. I had maybe 30 minutes of solid sleeping in when Dewey tried to wake me up. Apparently I was out and he had to basically nudge me REALLY HARD. When I finally woke up, I felt really disoriented. My ears hadn’t popped yet from taking off and they were hurting pretty bad. But they finally did after looking like an idiot and moving my jaw around enough so that they would pop. The rest of the flight was pretty much smooth sailing.

I finally landed in THESSALONIKI, GREECE! I ACTUALLY MADE IT! I was in Greece! It felt AMAZING! Again, we were dropped off in this little plane parking lot and were told to walk toward the gates. As we neared the doors, there was a tall, muscular man calling out “All Americans come with me.” I ws getting a little nervous because we were not told that some random guy was going to meet us out in the parking lot. I was beginning to wonder what we were in for… Turns out they had all of our luggage on a pallet from MSP and it was taken to a different baggage claim so it was so much easier to find! We found our luggage and were greeted by the Anatolia – American College of Thessaloniki guide we were told about! Everyone for this bus run was in except for Sarah, because she was coming from London and it took longer. We all, there were about 13 of us now, sat out by the exit and just relaxed! I kept my luggage close to me in one of the little carts they let you use. There was this odd looking person that kept walking by and she made me kind of nervous. So I reached up to grab my purse and just set it by me. It was less than arms reach away and I could see it from where I was sitting so I thought it would have been ok. It was stuck underneath my backpack but I kept my hand on it as I got up to move my backpack. As I was turning to hoist myself up, my purse came free and as I looked up the girl was hanging onto the other end and smirking a bit. I was really nervous. She let go of it as soon as I turned around and it looked like she was just trying to help me get it unstuck but everyone else around me said she was trying to JACK it from me. I seriously think I would have cried if that would have happened. That was the last thing I wanted to happen at this point.
Landing in Thessaloniki!

Sarah got in and we all boarded the bus! WE were HOME!!! I couldn’t wait to go to bed!! Sarah, Dana bauer, Rohit, and I went out to get some din din and went to “SUBITOS” and the whole menu was in Greek. That is when I knew the language barrier was going to be pretty interesting throughout the next four months. I ordered what I thought looked like a club by pointing to a picture on the menu. It was a club and it was really good! I even ate the tomato off of it! I really didn’t care at that point! We got back I unpacked my stuff and clonked out! I had my alarm set for 1oam, it was about 2am at the time, and fell into my long awaited slumber! It felt so good to be laying in a bed, and not in a plane chair. 3pm came around and I finally woke up! I didn’t hear my alarm go off, Sarah came and knocked on my door, rang my door bell, and called me. I was zonked out!

All in all, I would say I had a fantastic trip to Thessaloniki, even with all of the mishaps!!!

LOVE YOU ALL! Stay Tuned!

The Text in Green describes the picture above it!