Journey to Cyprus

Twenty-four hours and seven (?) time zones later, my friend Jenn and I have finally arrived in Cyprus. We had to utilize a decent amount of brainpower to figure out what time it was as we traveled (actual time and the time our bodies thought it was).

The flight from Richmond to Atlanta was short. I got tomato juice as my drink of choice, which always intrigues me. For some reason I have yet to figure out, I never drink tomato juice unless I am flying. 

This short flight was very peaceful. There was a beautiful sunset as we took off. It was a clear night with a bright moon that illuminated the puffy cumulonimbus clouds that littered the ocean blue sky. I always imagine myself walking on clouds like that when I fly, and picture it feeling similar to walking on a giant bed of cotton balls. There was quite a bit of heat lightning in the distant clouds as well, and I spent most of the flight looking out the window at the astounding beauty of our world. 

Richmond sunset

RIC to ATL

We were slightly delayed in Richmond, so by the time we got to our gate in Atlanta, they were already boarding. The eight-hour flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam did not feel as long as I expected. I fell asleep for five hours straight and was so confused when the flight attendant woke me up to tell me we were landing. "Please put your seat in an upright position." I can't imagine how I must have looked. I had a blanket over my entire body - including my head - in a feeble attempt to block out all sunlight. When he woke me up, I sleepily ripped the blanket off of my head and felt my hair go in about 15 different directions. He laughed slightly, but in an endearing way. I am glad I can provide in-flight entertainment.

Atlanta to Amsterdam

When we landed in Amsterdam, our bodies thought it was 6:30 am but it was 1:30 pm there. It took me a good five minutes to figure out why the airport café wasn’t serving breakfast food. Time warp. I was just about to pay for some fruit with U.S. dollars when I remembered I was, in fact, in a different country. I exchanged $20 for Euros and only got 10.30 back due to some hefty fee the machine charged me.

Our last leg of epic travel was from Amsterdam to Cyprus. Jenn and I slept for another two hours. I kept sleeping but was getting increasingly more tired. The plane to Cyprus was relatively empty so I had a row of three seats all to myself, which did a decent job fitting my 5’9 frame when I went to lay down. Jenn and I were fairly pleased with ourselves that we could understand some of the Greek words our flight attendants said: parakalo = please, efhareesto = thank you, nero = water, paghakias = ice cubes, yiassou = hello/goobye, yiassas = hello/goodbye to a group. We only know a total of approximately 30 words, but hey, at least we know enough to be polite.

We are currently waiting in the airport in Larnaca in Cyprus in something called the "flocafe." We are waiting for another classmate to arrive at midnight. 

Cyprus from the air

Outside the flocafe

It is slowly becoming apparent to me that the theme of this trip may be “journey,” in many different ways both literally and figuratively. Physically and emotionally. And maybe in more ways than I even recognize at the moment.

"The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination." - Don Williams, Jr. 

Different country, same beautiful sunset

Cyprus sunset by air