Leg One - to Rwanda

Bags packed, check in complete and I am ready and waiting for my long awaited return to African soil. My favourite continent awaits and my yearning for adventure along with it. 

My stay in Athens was short but I managed a catch up with my cousins and an afternoon checking out my old haunts and reminiscing. The RWC semi-final wasn’t what we had hoped for but my heart survived the drama and life carried on.  

With great sadness I said goodbye to my sister-in-law and then my brother. She is very ill and I will not see her again. My brother has a mountsin to climb but he has the strength and skill to do it. Nevertheless it was a hard choice to make, stay or go and saying goodbye to him as he dropped me at Athens airport was difficult to say the least. 

Airports are airports are airports and nothing ever seems to improve the absolute chaos at most of them. Athens was no different with queues here and queues there with this queue and that queue ending up in the same place. But we got there in the end and happily boarded bound for Istanbul. It was an interesting flight. Firstly someone was sitting in my pre-booked aisle seat. It took a while but the occupant thought better of insisting and moved along to her own seat in the middle of the row. The flight would  have been uneventful had she not sniffled, coughed, sneezed and slobbered into the air next to me for the whole trip. I tried to crawl away but those damn seat belts hold on to you pretty tight so my right side copped it. Even worse she wanted to hug me when we arrived at our destination, Istanbul. Sorry lady go dhare your bugs with someone that wants them. I dont. 

Istanbul airport was so different to when I last saw it but again I felt at home. Something about this city that I love. The airport is new, vast and orderly and it was pleasure to spend my hour long layover just checking it out. It seems that Istanbul, like Athens, has become far more expensive and I was somewhat surprised to see that a burger king meal (medium burger, fries and drink) came to the equivalent of 24NZD. Yikes. 

I was seated next to a guy who seemed to think that he owned his seat and part of mine letting his body, his BO and his stale cigarette smell invade my air space. I stopped one of the crew to ask about my non-reclining seat back and he whispered that there were spare seats further back so here I am not quite in the lap of luxury but with 1.5 seats and no bugs and no smells. 6.5 hours to Kigali in Rwanda should go quite quickly. 

I am looking forward to the adventures ahead and the opportunities to take my friends along with me. So keep watching, sign up for email notifications and I promise that your travels will soon begin. 

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