Today we were SO excited to be off to Cyprus again we were awake at 5:30 a.m. We had had a restless night as we kept checking the clock and trying to remember if we had actually packed everything we would need for our trip. Once we were up I cooked an onion and cheese omelet so we could finish off the eggs, etc. After breakfast we quickly finished our packing, checked our lists, put the car in the garage, watered the plants and checked with our neighbor down the street to remind him we would be gone for 3 weeks. About 9 a.m. our friend, Susan, arrived so we could give her the keys to the house, tell her the alarm code and go over the plant watering routine. Once that was finished she drove us to the airport arriving about 9:45 a.m. We said our goodbyes then went in and tried to use the check-in kiosks, but of course they wouldn’t work. We thought it was us but one of the employees couldn’t get them to work either. So we had to get in line to check in with a “real” person. Once we were all checked in and our bags were on their way we went through security (what a lovely surprise, we managed to go through without any problems).

About 11:20 a.m. we walked to Brioche Dorée for lunch. Mike had a turkey and bacon sandwich, I had a tomato, basil, and mozzarella sandwich and we shared a diet cola and a bag of chips. By the time we had finished our lunch they were beginning to board our plane. Yay! We were in the air by 12:10 p.m. At 12:50 p.m. they announced we were in the Eastern time zone so we changed our watches to 1:50 p.m. The flight attendants came by at that time with drinks (diet cola for me and tomato juice for Mike) plus 2 small bags of peanuts (it is Delta after all).

We arrived in Atlanta about 30 minutes early so we had to wait for the gate to open. Once we parked and left the plane, our first stop of course was the WC, then we rushed to our gate. Not surprisingly we had to take the train as we arrived in Concourse A and we were leaving from Concourse D. We arrived at our gate about 4:20 p.m. and boarding began shortly after that. Quite often there is not much time between flights so one can not dawdle. 

About 4:45 p.m. our flight took off—a very rough and noisy take-off which is not something that inspires confidence for sure. Once we were in the air, the flight attendants came through with water and peanuts again. We had planned to watch a movie but the VCR was broken (before we left the gate they gave us the option of taking a different flight or getting a $100 voucher—we chose to stay on the plane). After the rough take-off we were wondering whether we had made a good choice!

Finally the flight attendants came through with dinner. Mike had the chicken, vegetables, salad and a brownie, while I had cheese manicotti, salad, and a brownie. Amazingly the wine was free since it was an international flight. Well since wine was available Mike had 2 glasses of red wine and I had 1 and a half of white (Mike drank the rest of my 2nd glass). All we could say about the food and the wine was that they were just okay—typical institutional (airline) food but not bad.

After the dinner detritus was removed it was time to attempt to get comfortable for the long night’s flight. It was getting dark outside so they turned out all the lights. It said 8:30 p.m. on my watch but who knows what time it really was?! Mike of course was fast asleep almost immediately while I tossed and turned and slept fitfully as usual throughout the night.