Pete's Ride of Dreams: Airport to Athens

30 miles (1711 miles total)

I had a wild day today. Over the past 24 hours, I traveled on 3 continents (connecting in Abu Dabi)! The flights were long, but I found ways to keep myself busy. Ethiad is very impressive with their service, accomodations on their airline, and their airline food! I sat next to a girl who is travelling to Germany to see her boyfriend for the first time in 6 months. She was a great flight companion, thanks Ash!

I soon got through the first 14 hour flight through a combination of watching episodes of How I met your mother and recent (often terrible) movies. Landing in Abu Dabi was interesting, seeing all of the arabic travellors in their traditional dress. The four hour flight went by like a breeze. I took many cat naps over the past few hours, hoping that I would have enough energy to 1)put my bike together 2) ride to athens from the airport 3) track down my host.

I put my bike together in record time, since I have had more than enough practice. Riding along the highway, I managed to make my to the coastline. Surprised, I found a coastal path! I ran into a young student who was having trouble with his bike. Happy to help, we talked for a half an hour in English. He told me about his life, his country, and my story as well. The ocean is beautiful and am pleased with how my journey is commencing.

No sooner than an hour, two men approach me on their bicycles and we talk chatting about my bike and my trip. Everyone is very impressed with my travels in Australia and New Zealand. The two men lead me along the coastal paths, they start and stop along the coast. One of the men, Anis, is fluent in English. I really enjoyed getting to know both of the men and they buy me a beer along the waterfront. The views of the Olympic stadiums are incredible, especially with the backdrop of the city buildings. We ride by a few old war ships, one which used to be the fastest steam ship in the Med sea. My two new friends helped me contact my cs host for the night since the telephone number I wrote done was not working. Yannis told me to meet him at the train station in Perissos. Exhausted, I hopped on the train and made the three connections to Perissos to wait for him. After meeting up with Yannis, we rode to New Philadephia and I had a delicious Greek dinner...a gyro! Later, I met Yannis extended family in one of their family homes and he set me up in one of his basement rooms. I passed out as soon as I turned the lights out.