I would like to preface this blog with a short explanation and history of the Blake News. It began in 2006. At the recommendation of Gayle Eilers, I carefully documented our two week trip to Netzbach, Germany and Paris in a small notebook with a pencil. Since then, the journaling has modernized into short notes on the iPhone throughout Europe in 2008, detailed "Blake News" e-mails sent home from Germany in 2009 and then, even more e-mails from Germany in 2011, titled The Blake and Jenna News. This time around, the audience has grown and so too has the trip. I will be spending the entire fall semester studying at SLU's campus in Madrid, Spain. Today I am traveling to Athens, Greece with friends, Dan and Lauren, to spend a week sightseeing before beginning classes next week in Madrid. Once class begins, we plan to travel on the weekends both around Spain and throughout Europe. Therefore, I intend to keep everyone abreast as I take the "Blake News 2 Spain". ¡Que todos disfruten!"
Our first day of travel was long anticipated and much prepared for. Days of errands, chores, lists and packing. Followed by unpacking, unpacking and more unpacking until my ONE checked bag arrived at the notorious 50 pound limit. Quite a feat for me! My last day at home, was spent poolside with countless friends and family members gathered to send me off in typical O'Connor Oasis style. It was a perfect end to the summer and an even better beginning to this experience. I cannot thank everyone enough for that wonderful day! Today was slightly less joyful with a slightly bipolar and weepy ride to St. Louis, followed by an emotional goodbye at the airport as our parents sent us off into security. We boarded our first flight to Chicago and practically 15 minutes later we touched down in the windy city. On the quick trip, we studied some of Dan's Greek flashcards from high school and come to find out, they were ancient Greek! So, at best, we will sound like Greek speaking Shakespeares trotting around Athens. We walked to our next gate, regrouped, quadruple checked for our passports and had a quick snack at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant. Dan began to fidget with his new million dollar DSLR camera which evidentially transformed him into a borderline professional photographer in a few months. Perfect - less photos I have to take! Unfortunately we were unable to get seats next to each other on the plane, since the seats were assigned randomly. Lauren and I lucked out with window seats and Dan got stuck in the middle. After ditching my bag all the way across the plane in an overhead bin (hope it's there when we land) I took my seat next to Carlos, a very nice 16 year old kid from Valencia, Spain. We chatted about his time in the US and his life in Valencia. He convinced me to go there to see the beaches, museums and famous zoo. We watched Los Juegos del Hambre (The Hunger Games) in Spanish, nibbled on the chicken dinner and gossiped about the loud and rowdy family behind us that received kosher meals, before trying to sleep a little. I managed to look out the window after the captain said we would be passing over New York and really think I caught a poor quality picture of NYC. I have attached the photo and you vaguely make out Manhattan and Central Park! The flight actually seemed to go quickly for me and as we landed in Madrid, there was a cool camera mounted on the tail of the plane, which showed us a live view of the landing. We walked 20 miles around the ultra-modern Madrid-Barajas airport to find our connecting flight. We took a rest in a big food court to reflect on our trip and plan some activities for Athens. We had a snack and only threatened to have a beer. We were so confused that it seemed like nighttime, but was really 8 AM. However, we did see another couple having a beer, so we considered it. Haha! We slept through nearly our entire next flight now that we were seated back together. I woke up at the exact moment the flight attendant was hovering over me to serve lunch. I sleepily ate my whole meal (with Lauren stealing only a bite) and went back to sleep. We landed in Athens, nervously awaited our bags and hopped in a cab to head into town! The traveling was finally over!!
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