Greetings from Greece! July 4, 2014

I'm always happy to be able to write this first trip post that says " Safe in...." Today it's "safe in Loutraki, Greece". Loutraki???? Yes! It's a beach town outside of Athens which we chose due to that very reason. We wanted a place that we could easily and somewhat quickly reach after being awake/flying for 30+ hours straight. Over and over I have made the mistake of trying to get to far/ drive too much on that day of arrival and we were determined not to do that this time.

My flights were fairly uneventful, TSA at San Diego airport was a breeze (although Paris more than made up for it) and I enjoyed pleasant and interesting company on all of my flights. From San Diego I talked with a guy who develops Wine Pairing apps, my seat mate from Minneapolis was going on a first date.....to Uganda, and even though Air France wouldn't let us book our own seats, I ended up sitting next to Annelle and we were across the aisle and back one row from Carrie!

Back to the guy going on a first date (because I know you are as curious as I was)...

He met a woman from Uganda on an online Christian  dating service. They fell in love over Skype, and he was on his way to Uganda with a wedding ring in his pocket, a book called "fiancé and marriage requirements" in his backpack, and hope in his heart. Good luck Tim from Montana!

Annelle, Carrie and I deplaned in Athens and got our first culture shock when we saw the Winston cigarette smoking booth in the entry hall. We had been through the police border/ passport control at Charles DeGaul and there was no customs, so we breezed through the exit to find a young woman with a sign with my name on it. She was from the car rental agency and after 5 minutes of paperwork we were off for Loutraki in our silver Fiat.

The drive to Loutraki was just over an hour. In tryng to get gas from a defunct gas station, we got caught up in a " you can only go left and we wanted to go right" situation and Annelle and I gasped as Carrie drove us across an old bridge... We were crossing over the Corinth Canal, which was one of our destinations for tomorrow . The Corinth Canal is a  canal that connects the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean. It separates the Peloponese and the Greek mainland. The Peloponese used to be a peninsula but it's now an island due to this canal. We were there in time to see a cruise ship making its way through that canal which is the only practical use for this narrow canal. 

After establishing ourselves in our hotel (with the grandma who doesn't speak English) we went in search of dinner ( we had Greek salad, which begs the question... Is it just "salad" now that we are in Greece??). After dinner we wandered down to the beach, hobbled barefoot across the rocky surface and put our aching travelers feet in the Gulf of Corinth. On the way home we bought a few supplies and headed back for showers and bed. We made it until 10 pm which is a good first attempt to be in the time zone we're in.