Our flight wasn't until the evening,
but we had a rehearsal in the afternoon before going down on busses
as a group. Bobby and I didn't do as much packing the day before as
we should have after his mom left from staying over for Christmas. I
don't know what his deal was, but I was getting anxiety about the
whole thing and just did other stuff instead. I upgraded my phone to
go with a fitness tracker Bobby had gotten for me for Christmas, so I
spent most of the day re-downloading apps and trying to figure out
what the Hell all my passwords were. I pulled all the clothing I
thought I would need and made a list of other stuff, but left the
packing 'til Sunday morning. Sunday Bobby and I cleaned and packed
and got some last-minute things bought that we needed before heading
to rehearsal. Rehearsal was from about 12:30-3:00 and then we got on
the bus for the airport. I mostly read on the way down and Bobby
mostly slept. They gave us boxed lunches from Honeybaked, which were
actually pretty good. The airport was pretty uneventful; we had many
lines to stand in and lots of waiting to do before getting on the
plane. We got stuck with center seats for the whole flight, which
made getting up and stretching a little annoying, because there were
people we didn't know on either side of us who were sometimes asleep
when we needed to get up. They had decent in-flight movie selection,
and the food wasn't half-bad either. I mean, it wasn't great, but it
didn't make me sick either. Sausage with potatoes and a salad,
bread, cheese, and a rather meh brownie. Someone next to us was
celiac/vegetarian (I will never understand people who already have
eating disabilities imposing even more food restrictions upon
themselves), and couldn't eat the lasagna which was the vegetarian
option, so Bobby and I shared it, and it was actually better than the
sausage. I was absolutely shocked that the vegetarian option wasn't
just a bowl of peppers, which is usually the case. I slept a bit,
though not very well, and read a bit on the plane. It was an
overnight flight, leaving 9pm our time, arriving 11am Zurich time (6
hour difference) the next day. They served breakfast before landing,
which was more bread, yogurt, orange juice which I don't drink, and
something else I can't recall at the moment.
Our layover was supposed to be two
hours. There was heavy fog and the plane we were supposed to get on
didn't land on time, so we wound up with an almost-4-hour layover by
the time we actually got off the ground. It was during this time
that I introduced Bobby to a game called Panda Pop, which he's been
playing nearly constantly on his phone during our down time/travel
time. The flight from Zurich to Athens (1 hour time difference) was
only 2 or 3 hours, and I don't think we were originally supposed to
get a meal on it, but because of the delay and when we were flying,
we got one, and it was the best one yet. Chicken pesto pasta (cold)
with bread & cheese (they love their bread here) and a really
good strawberry mousse for dessert. If Greek food is at least as
good as the airline food on the way over, this will be a very tasty
trip.
The original plan was to check in at
the hotel, eat, and then go to a three-hour rehearsal, but because of
the delays, we went straight to the rehearsal from the plane.
Thankfully, they only kept us about an hour and a half, but it was
still really trying to be concentrating on these minute musical
changes on very little sleep with less than optimal levels of food in
in our stomachs. There was one tenor, who turned out to be the
choral director of one of the other groups we were singing with, who
over-sang everything and ruined the blend constantly, making the
conductor go back over places many more times than should have been
necessary. The weather here was chilly, but not super-cold, and when
we were making the short walk from the rehearsal hall to the hotel, I
was just glad to be breathing real air again. Being inside the
rehearsal hall was actually colder than being outside, which made
rehearsal that much more difficult. However, after singing for our
supper, literally, we dropped stuff off at the room and went down to
a buffet dinner, which was actually pretty good. There were quite a
few options, not all of which I tried: several good salads, decent
fish, some unidentified bean-like vegetable that was tastier than it
looked, potatoes, bread & butter, pasta, sausage, rice, chocolate
mousse, flan, some kind of citrus cake. I assume our suppers (all of
which are at the hotel) are going to be mostly the same things each
night, so I'm pacing myself so as not to get sick of any one thing.
The only free wi-fi here is in the hotel lobby, and it's pretty
spotty and slow at times, so I will probably post these well after
writing them, and may not include too many pictures. I'm planning on
putting up one picture a day on my instagram, so that my family at least knows I'm alive while my phone is
non-functioning as such and I'm not online that much. It's easier to
sit in the lobby for a few minutes before bed while one picture loads
than try to sort and upload several dozen, or hundred, depending on
how many beautiful sights we see. When we get home, we'll sort out
all the pictures and put them up. You know, right after we do that
for our Hawai'i pictures from September. Unlike that trip, I gave
myself a day off between when we get back from Greece to when I get
back to work, so maybe if I'm not too jet-lagged, I'll do it then.
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