Travel days are always a bit of a challenge but they also offer some of the funniest stories. Today would be no exception.

Believe it or not this major rail station is just 2 blocks from The Beehive.

The first step was to walk down to the train depot and get on a train to the airport. We had actually read that the walk to the airport train could make you late even if you are IN THE TERMINAL with plenty of time to spare. We had actually gone yesterday briefly to check it, and, yea, it is a long way down the track, so we gave ourself extra time.

An important little Rome tip: Anytime you see one of these "T" signs, you can buy bus and Metro passes there,
no matter what type of store it is.

The Italians may know cloths but that is ONE UGLY FONT, look at that "e".

Beth pulling off the "onehander".

On the train we met a group of college age art students and sat across from some adults that were traveling with them. I had a chance to tell them a few stories of girls that had gone missing while abroad. I didn't mean to scare them necessarily but I did want them to know that you have to be extra careful. Apparently the chaperones were having a problem instilling in the girls that were in their group how they needed to be safe.

Now, the scavenger hunt challenge. Back in January Jan Lachenmaier, who I have the pleasure of working with a couple of times a year, had been to Santorini, where we were headed. She showed me some photos that she had taken. Jan is an exceptional photographer. She has a wonderful eye for composition and a love of color. She doesn't profess to be a pro but I find myself wanting to slow down and soak up her photos. To me, that means you're pretty good.

So I asked Jan to give me some of her photos because they were taken in the winter when it was really cold and almost no tourists on the island. I said I wanted to use her photos as a challenge to find the same photo ops that she did but in the summer time.

Luckily we found a "Kodak Picture Maker" at the airport for our "Photo Scavenger Hunt".

Well, lucky for us we found a Kodak Picture Maker at the Airport in Rome and were able to print out Jan's photos that I had been carrying around on my iPod since I saw her about a month ago. Call me a geek, but I think this is going to be fun.

We headed to our gate and got there just in time but when our boarding time came nothing happened. Turns out "Olympic Airlines" has a bit of a marginal track record for punctuality. I think we finally boarded about 30 minutes late, but we had a long lay over in Athens so we weren't concerned.

Safely on the plane to Greece.

This is how we travel with the cameras, just lay them on the floor and go.

If you don't know the story about our choice to go to Australia a few years ago you should read this. On December 31, 1999 we were at a New Years Eve party and were talking about our 10 year anniversary. Remember, Beth is a planner so she likes to plan ahead, (we were married in 1992). We wanted to do something really special so we decided to take a really nice trip BUT we couldn't decide between Greece or Australia. We decided that on that night we would flip a coin and let someone call it and decide that way.

We choose 8 year old Amber Nunn and she called "heads" and that meant we were going to Australia, which is what we did in 2002 for our 10th Anniversary.

Now, jump another 3 years into the future and we are getting to go to Greece as well. I have to admit we are really blessed to be able to do this trip at all, that's why we feel so compelled to share it with others.

Uh oh.. they have weird letters in Greece, traveling here may be harder then we thought.

So far so good, we stepped off the plane in Athens and, you gotta love it, there right in front of us is a McDonald's sign and all apprehension was set aside when we realized that everyone at the counter that WE had to deal with spoke English, at least, enough to order a plain double cheeseburger meal.

Whats with this alphabet?

Whats with the little forks for your fries? (Look for Chris)

We had a little time to kill after lunch and before the plane so we went to our gate early and I started working on the journal. It was going to be a couple of hours and we didn't really want to shop at an airport to look at over priced airport things that we can't buy anyway because we have no room to carry them. Beth walked around and took some photos and eventually other people started to show up for our flight.

Working on the journal while we wait.

More of that goofy alphabet, (if you roll over with your mouse).

Of course we still had more then an hour to kill so we got out our DaVinci Code audio book. We had seen a "special edition, illustrated version" of it in a book store that had photos of many of the buildings, and pieces of art that are referenced in the book. I still say it's weird to deal with things that are partially real, it's always difficult to draw the line between fact and fiction.

The rest of the people on our plane start to show up.

Our "boarding time" came and went and it was clear there was going to be a bit of a delay with this plane as well. So we dove back into the audio back.

Still listening to The DaVinci Code.

Eventually over at the ticket counter it started to get ugly, Beth motions over and I pull my headphones out, which almost completely block out background noise, only to find that one of the less patient passengers is really giving it to the girls at the ticket counter.

All I was thinking was, I'm glad I'm just on Vacation because, I really don't care WHEN we get there, I just want to get there safely. Since they were saying they were have some "technical inspections", which I think means, "we're fixing our aging propeller plane". I thought, "Take as much time as you need, I just want to get there in one piece."

The lady over Beth's shoulder is the one that started yelling.

Eventually one hour turned into two hours, (we were still engrossed in the audio book) and a crowd of angry people were really giving the girls at the counter a bad time. I felt really sorry for them, its not like they broke the plane on purpose, what good does yelling at them do? (Again, I'm in "low key mode" since I don't have any place urgent to be.)

Making the best of it.

I ended up getting a piece of paper and a pen and I wrote:

Then I went up to the counter and there was this very good natured Australian dude there who was just in it for the ride like I was and I thought he would get a kick out of my note so I showed it to him. He smiled and then I and handed it to one of the girls at the counter and walked away. As I walked away I saw her smile and she showed it to her co-worker, I thought she was going to cry.

Then I over heard one of the angry people say, "What does THAT say?" The Australian dude said, "It says he is sorry that YOU all are yelling at these girls and that he thinks they are doing a great job!" For a moment I thought one of them was going to come over and take a swing at me, but they all knew I was right. I think it helped everyone see that they were yelling at the wrong people and it wasn't going to help the situation.

Eventually after getting their supervisor on the phone he instructed them to start handing out food vouchers. They were worth 3 Euro each and they were told to give two to each passenger. I felt bad but when I went up to see about getting ours I over heard this exchange. It was between Cool Aussie Dude's not so cool wife and the Ticket Girl.

Now, granted the girl could have used better conflict resolution skills but it was really funny to watch. This woman was getting way to worked up over a 9 Euro differentiation for what she thought was fair.

You mean I get 12 Euros worth of sandwiches AND get to fly to Santorini 2.5 hour late?

Anyway, they start handing out the food vouchers and people start to trickle away in small groups to go get food upstairs, outside of security, when all of a sudden... you guessed it. Within 10 minutes of handing out the vouchers they announce that flight 558 was boarding!

Yea, it's 2.5 hours late for a 35 minute flight but hey, just tell me that the plane is going to be safe! I was kind of surprised we didn't hear more people complain about how they had just left the gate area when they were called back.

Then comes the scary part, we get on the transport bus that takes us out to the plane and we board. Beth and I sit down in our seat and LOOK WHAT IS RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR WINDOW.

Not the sight you want to see outside YOUR window when you board a plane
that has been delayed for 2.5 hours for "Technical Difficulties".

All I could think of was, I hope they weren't doing any repairs on the propeller for the past 2.5 hours. Seriously, they whole time we are sitting there I'm doing geometry and physics in my head thinking of centrifugal force and how fast those blades would come hurling off that thing at "X" thousand feet of altitude and wondering how fast the cabin will loose pressure if Beth's window is blown out by a flying propeller.

Seriously, right THERE is the prop outside the window.

Most of the faces you can see, are of the English speaking "easy going crowd". Cool Aussie Dude on the far right, his UNCOOL WIFE was sitting to his left outside of the frame.

When the plane finally took off I initiated a cheer and applause from the passengers. I would say about a third joined in and the Flight Attendant that was sitting at the front of the cabin in the aisle looking backward just looked at me and smiled. Santorini, here we come.

I haven't bothered to tell you about the group of very pushy Italian "gofers" that were on both of our planes today, (GOFER - someone who has an unapologetic way of diving and digging there way to the front of the line regardless of how many people are in front of them). There were a group of about 6 older Italians who all spoke with their hands (a funny sight in and of its self).

Beth and I were really happy that when we were standing at the luggage carousel our bags were almost first off and we were out of the building and in a cab before most people even saw their bags.

12 Euros later, maybe a bit too steep, we are in a delightful place. Firostefani, Santorini. Even in the dark it appears to be everything you think of when you think of Greece. White stucco buildings draped over steep stepped hills with accents of blue and coral colors.

A very short walk from our room... PIZZA! We're gonna love Greece.

Tomorrow will be a whole new day with all new roads to explore.

We were let into our room by Thanos and as he gestured out toward what had to be the ocean in the dark he said, "In the morning, all this will be blue!" I can't wait!