K, so as promised, here is a more in depth blog about the most epic travel week EVER.
October 31, our entire squad, minus our 3 incredibly amazing squad leaders who have now left us, loaded onto a huge bus with all of our stuff a little later than 5 am. Two cups of coffee deep and only a few hours of sleep, I was bouncing of the walls and yet tired, jittery from both the caffine and my excitement for Africa.
We got to the airport about an hour before our flight, and dressed excitedly for a warm day in Greece in my blue polka dotted dress, I was freezing in the airport, but so excited to be on our way. The flight to Greece was nice, and only a few hours, and landing, watching the landscape engulf us was like a dream. By noon there was a huge group of us giddy with excitement packed onto the tram for our 45 minute ride to the Acropolis.
I cannot even describe adequately, how it felt, going from the heavy coat requiring cold of Romania, to PERFECT sunny warmth, in ATHENS, GREECE… especially when 5 days before I had no idea that I would be there, let alone have hours to explore. At the Acropolis, we all split up, and my lovely Bino and I got to have a day together just the two of us 🙂 We decided to pay the 12E to actually get in, because i mean hey, we were in GREECE. After buying tickets we went to the top of this hill by the Acropolis (which we later found out was nothing other than Mars Hill, btw…) and marveled together at the panorama before us. It was ABSOLUTELY beautiful! We just stood together taking a million pictures (to come whenever we actually get decent internet) and relishing in the love of our God, who would give us such a blessed, and unexpected treat as such a day.
We then moved on to the actual Acropolis, which was swarming with tourists, but oh so worth it. It was weird being around so many Americans, after 4 months from home and quite comical. It was so surreal walking through so much ancient history. We were blown away. We spent a good amount of time there, taking in everything there and catching up after a month a part. It was glorious 🙂
Once we had covered all of the grounds there, posing with ancient statues and admiring the landscape of Athens, we went back to the cobblestone street we exited the tram onto and did a little bit more exploration with the time we had left. We stopped at this little gelato shop and had the most delicious gelato in our lives then walked through various souvenir shops, finally picking our Athens’ bracelets of similar design. To finish our jaunt through Greece, we stopped at a small outdoor restaurant, sharing a Greek appetizer of stuffed fig leaves and a pair of Greek beers.
It is so amazing to serve a God who does so much more than we could ever imagine, not only blessing us with the countries we have privilege of serving in, but who orchestrates perfectly timed layovers in a place we had only ever dreamed of going to one day! It was such a blessing and treat, and forever Robin and I can say that “we had Greece!”
We met everyone else back at the station around 4, excitedly sharing in our adventures and anticipation of the journey still to come. A few hours later we were boarding our flight with Qatar airlines, the nicest planes and service I have ever had, and a few hours after that we were landing in Qatar in the United Arab Emirates, one flight away from Africa. In the airport I managed to get a quick 2 minutes online, receiving such an exciting and encouraging e-mails from one of my dearest friends, Dree (love you Dree!) and boarded the plane excited and EXHAUSTED.
We had a lengthy flight ahead of us, and I was blessed by having an aisle seat next to a South African man who had the row to himself. I asked if he’d mind if I could snag the open window seat, and he kindly obliged, making my travel once again supreme.
By the way, all of you at home should be oh so proud of me… Our in fight dinner, was…. Lamb Kashmir. And I most definitely did eat it, all of it, and without a single complaint of gag. Told you I wasn’t coming home with my food prudence, and hey, I’ve now got goat and lamb under my belt 😉
I was able to talk to my seat mate, sharing about the race, and hearing about his previous missions experience, and enjoyed good conversation before finally knocking out, sprawled out like road kill, long overdue for sleep. I woke to coffee, breakfast, and AFRICA out of my window 🙂
We landed in Johannesburg, South Africa a little bit after 8 am, got our luggage and set up camp, waiting for the other half of our squad to get in, so we could begin our adventure through 4 African countries, to our destination in Malawi.
For those adventures, read part two….. 🙂
