From Atl to Crete

Wow! I'm sitting here on my balcony looking out on the Aegean Sea with the breeze blowing in my face and I must admit, if this isn't paradise, I don't know what is. Crete is such an awe-inspiring, beautiful place, words don't do it justice, but i'll try. But first, an update on my travels. So the last time I wrote I was sitting in the Atlanta airport, waiting to get on the plane. The flight to Frankfurt was long and bumpy, lots of turbulence, so I probably only slept an hour and was exhausted when I landed. But I went into the city anyway and Frankfurt, while not the best place I've ever been, is pretty cool. It's got a nice skyline and is right on the river Main, which is nice. The old part of town has some pretty old buildings and churches and I enjoyed walking around there for awhile. But I was so tired I just wanted to get back to airport and rest. On my way back to the train station, I found street vendors selling bratwurst and that made a nice lunch. After several hours in the Frankfurt airport, I finally caught my flight to Athens. And I must admit, it got me excited to get to Greece because I had the most attractive group of stewardesses I've ever seen (thanks Aegean Air). Anyways, I didn't get to my hotel until about 11:30 and was so tired I just crashed and it felt great to be in a real bed. Then I had Friday to get reaquainted with Athens. First, I met up with the woman who was in charge of my study abroad program when I was over there in college. It was great to catch up with her and things seem to be going along quite well at U of I. After a strong Greek coffee, I headed to the Acropolis. And although I've been there before, it truly is stunning to see such a famous site in person. So I wondered around and checked out the brand new Acropolis museum, which was awesome. The rest of the day was spent walking through central Athens, remembering my time there and being thankful that I was not staying. While the monuments in Athens are cool, the city is so huge and the development so sprawling, its just not very appealing. It's dirty, the traffic is nuts, etc. So I happily caught the overnight ferry to Crete and arrived yesterday morning. And what a fantastic day I had. In fact, since this post is getting rather long already, I will put this up and post another entry on my first day in Crete. Talk to you soon.