Day 25: Long, long journey home

After an awful night's sleep on a very hard bed and in a noisy hotel, I woke up at 8 and took a shower in the gross community shower. Thankfully, they had a nice breakfast of fruit, bread, eggs, and juice provided. We packed our stuff up and then check out of the hotel. Cassandra, Sophie, Sara, and I caught a taxi and jammed all of our luggage in. The driver said it was a good thing we left when we did because all of the roads were going to be blocked in a few hours. As we drove, we got to see the magnitude of the protest. It was the day of the vote so the protests spread away from just Syntagma square to all of the city. There were police officers every where and people already clashing with them. I can't imagine what it looked like after the vote. After a long, speedy( I think he went 100 mph) ride, we got to the very busy airport. It took about 30 minutes to check in after a giant high school tour group. We then said goodbye to Sara and Sophie and then went through security. The Athens airport is really weird. Inside security, there are only gates. There aren't and shops or food. You also have to stand in a line to get into your gate. We were so confused and hungry. Thankfully, we found a little kiosk with prepackaged sandwiches, chips, and drinks. We waited at the gate for about 2 hours and then got to board our flight. We had to sit on the runway for an hour though, because it was backed up after the strike. Then, it was a long, 12 hour flight. Luckily, I got to sit next to Cassandra. We watched movies and chatted. She slept a lot but I couldn't sleep. We actually got a pretty good meal. It was chicken, mashed potatoes, veggies, salad, and a roll. Best plane food I have ever had. When we landed, it was 8:10. I realized I only had an hour to deboard, get through passport control, pick my suitcase up at baggage claim, go through customs, recheck my bag, go through security, and go 3 terminals down to my gate. Everything went smoothly and I ran frantically to my gate and got there just as they were closing the gate. I didn't get to say goodbye to Cassandra though : (. I was sweating and had to sit between two larger men. The air conditioning happened to be broken the whole flight as well. Thankfully, it was only 40 minutes to Charleston. My parents were waiting past security and I was so excited! My mom had mac and cheese waiting for me and Lexie was sooo excited to see me. Ahhh it is so good to be back in the US. Things I have been enjoying the most: a normal shower, a comfy bed, flushing toilet paper, American food, a full fridge, working internet, and normal tv. I will miss Greece and my friends a lot, though!