…and so the journey begins

By: Chris Pavlakos | March 6th, 2009

Thank you Pete for the great introduction to what will be going on over the next few weeks. As Pete said, I will be going all over Greece on a footballing holiday and will share the whole experience with you right here on olympiacos.theoffside.com! (You can click on the picture to the left to see more details)

Today’s Itinerary:
Today I am departing from Washington Dulles International airport bound for Athens. I have a 2-hour layover in Frankfurt and my flight from Dulles leaves in an hour. HOLY CRAP!!! MY FLIGHT LEAVES IN AN HOUR!!! Im at the airport now on wifi… I had to pay $5.99, but it was worth it. I got to the airport 2 hours early because security and checking in are always a mess at any DC airport, but as my luck would be, it only took me 9 minutes to get my boarding pass and thru security– crazy German efficiency!

Im off to go wander around the airport for a bit, just thought I would give my first update… hopefully the krauts give me a beer on the flight.

UPDATE: IM IN ATHENS!!! Here is what I wrote on the plane:

Lufthansa: Das gut!
Guys, if you ever have the choice, fly Lufthansa. This is seriously the best flight I have ever been on. The captain speaks German and English over the speaker, and his English sounds just like German and the plane is a bit warmer than I would like but those are the only two faults I can find with this flight. Actually I lied, there is a third problem, when I booked this flight, it was supposed to have wireless internet on the plane. Ends up due to our shit-tastic economy these days, the firm that provided Lufthansa with their flying internet has gone under and the plane no longer has the capability so even though I am writing this blog on the plane you wont be able to read it until I land.

We started boarding about 10 minutes late but these krauts, ever the sticklers for efficiency, starting taxing at 550 just as they said they would even though people were not sitting down. No pointless delay because malakes cant find their seats: +1. After about an hour in the air it was dinner time. I had the choice of spaghetti with marinara sauce or chicken with rice and corn. The chicken was actually good (well as good as youre gonna get on an airplane.) And I had a Warsteiner Premium Verum to wash it down, that was one hell of a beer. After dinner they gave us our choice of coffee, cognac or bailey’s I am currently sipping on a glass of cognac . Now on to Frankfurt and my 2 hour layover at 6 a.m….. Maybe I will get to see Amanatidis in the airport .

UPDATE AGAIN:

I just called my contact at PAOK and he has my ticket in his possesion, i just have to meet up with him before the game to pick it up. I just booked my flight on Aegean Airlines for 99 euros and will be leaving in the morning