I took a trip to Italy and Greece in the summer of 2012, and it was one of the best trips I have ever taken. On the first day, exploring around the city of Rome, I saw some things that some people would only dream of seeing. The Colosseum, the Vatican, and many other Roman structures. At first, you walked up, took a picture, and looked at the structure. Then, it finally went through your head and you told yourself, “Wow, I am standing in Rome inside the Colosseum”. It just took a second to process through my head that I was really in Italy, almost 4,000 miles away from home, when my family was home in the United States in the middle of the normal work week.
The next day, we were boarding the overnight ferry to go to Greece. Eighteen hours after we set sail from Italy, we were in Greece. I then got to see how different one country is from another, when they are only a few hours away from each other. After exploring around the different parts of Greece for about 2 days, it was finally time to board the cruise ship! We arrive at port to see our ship; Louis Olympia; waiting for my group and I to board.
For the next 4 days, it was time to relax and enjoy the time at see and the time at the different docks. Going to two islands a day, there was a lot more exploring to do. Even though the islands were so close to each other, within just a few hours time, each one was so different in its own way. The four islands of Greece were so different from the one of Turkey that we explored. Different currency, different people, different towns. It was really cool to see how the three different countries had their own ways of doing things.
After two weeks of exploring, relaxing, having fun, and enjoying the international travel; it was time to go home. Being about 4,000 miles away from home definitely comes with its consequences of almost 12 hours on the plane. Our first flight to Paris, France left at 6:50 am, and was 3 ½ hours. The worst part about that, we had to be at the airport at 3:30am. The entire travel group, 20 of us to be exact, decided we weren’t going to sleep that night, but stay up straight through so that we would all sleep on the plane. That was not a good idea!
After being up for 21 hours, we slept in the airport until it was time to board our plane. Sleeping the entire way, we landed in Paris France at Charles de Gaulle Airport with a connecting flight back to Maryland. Our first flight was a little delayed and landed at the time that our connecting flight was boarding. Our flight landed at gate A20, and our next flight was boarding at A21. We thought it would be close to our gate. Well, we had to go through security and customs, and go to the other side of the airport. We were running to get to our flight on time. My group and I boarded our flight at 10:15 am, and the flight was scheduled to leave at 10:25am. Out of 20 of us, I was the only one on the top flight of the double-decker plane for the 8 hour ride. Not a fun time, especially when we found out we were delayed! Finally, we were back in Maryland, after a great time.
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