My Premiere Flight :)

My very first flight: Toronto to Athens. What a story! It went something like this:

A one hour delay for no reason at all (at least no reason that was given to us).

The plane was scheduled to make a stop in Montreal, but halfway to Montreal we were informed that Montreal closed their airport due to a severe thunderstorm. We started to head back to Toronto. Then we were told that Montreal had opened back up and so we turned around. Then it was closed again. Then it was opened again. (It was only supposed to take us 48 minutes to get there….it took over two hours!). Anyways, because we were circling in the sky for so long, we not only had to load passengers in Montreal, we had to refuel! You can imagine many happy faces and one very creative looking route on the big screen!

During the chaos of the storm, we were not allowed out of our seats, which meant no washroom breaks!!! You can imagine after 3 hours of “no washrooms”, people were starting to get quite anxious. We were especially glad to discover that we had to wait one more hour (a total of 4 hours) because we couldn’t use the washroom when the people from Montreal were boarding. AHHHHHHH. The last Tim Horton’s I had before the airport was soooooooo bittersweet!!!

The pilot always spoke to us in Greek first and English second. Because the people sitting around me were primarily Greek, I knew if the pilot had said good news or bad news, simply by their sound effects and facial expressions. However, when the English version came on, the Greeks were busy discussing the news, and so I could not hear the updates in a language comprehendible to me! (I had no clue what was going on for the entire plane ride! I suppose mysteries are fun…)

I sat beside a butcher. If you know me well, you know that I am not a big meat eater! I really did not want to hear so much about the meat business (he was a man of detail), but when he wasn’t talking to me about meat, he was blaring Britney Spears’ “Gimme More” on repeat. So I chose to alternate. Learn about meat. Listen to Britney. Learn about meat. Listen to Britney. I find it very funny!

Now, onto the entertainment! Apparently they forgot to bring headphones for the movies they were playing. I was okay, because I came prepared with 4 sets of headphones. But others, (remember we had already experienced delays and sore bladders) were very angry! Lucky for them, the plane stuck to “Made of Honor” the entire flight and by the end of four showings, I think the subtitles got the point of the movie across! Man, oh, man!!!

As for the “ability to sleep on the plane”……are Greeks known as party animals?? I’m talking specifically about the senior citizens of Greece…because they didn’t get one bit of shuteye! They did indulge in fine conversation though and so “no sleep” was the default option if you were unable to understand their discussion. WOO HOO!!!

Okay…so besides all of those little details…..I was very brave for my first time on a plane!! I felt like a frequent flyer and reassured the woman sitting next to me during take-off and landing! I fooled her lol……because secretly…I felt a little sick to my stomach too!!!

Cheers to being BRAVE!