Work day! Well, that's what it felt like. We got up, packed, and stored our stuff at the hotel. Then we were off to complete a number of errands.

First, we packaged up some books and miscellaneous items (Tessa's keychains, etc.) and mailed them back to Canada.

Next, the kids needed a new power converter for their Nintendo DS games. This is their third one. The first one, purchased in Canada, didn't work out of the box. We bought another in the Netherlands, which died when we hit Greece, so they haven't had DS games in a few weeks.

Next, a hair cut for Barry.

Fourth, we tried to wire money to Kenya for our safari. Two hours later, we gave up. It was getting too complicated - the shuffle from person to person to fill out forms, complete a cash advance, and then wait in line to complete the transaction at a teller's counter. We also had roadblocks because we didn't have our passports (still being held by the Indian Embassy) and, to top it all off, we would have been hit with heavy transaction and exchange fees. The bank was also very smoky (cigarettes) and stuffy. In the end, Barry emailed the safari company to see what our other payment options were.

Next, we went to get our Indian visas. We can't even begin to explain how nervous we've been about that but, thankfully, there were no problems. We are officially set for India and very pumped about this upcoming chapter in our trip. Everyone we've talked to so far in our travels has loved India or knows someone who does.

With that off of our shoulders, we headed for the 2004 Olympic Park. It's unbelievable and unused! What a facility and what a shame. It made us sad to see weeds growing in the parking lot and a grand total of two other couples visiting as we walked around.

Supper was back at our favourite restaurant in Athens where our waiter from last week greeted us. We had a lovely supper and then headed back to Hotel Aristotle to grab our bags and head for the airport.

We caught the 12:50 am flight to Cairo where we will trust our fate to three gentlemen, Roshdy, for his advice; Shady, who we met last week in Athens; and our hotel contact, Ahmed, whose nickname is Metallica. Wish us luck!

September 18

The last entry sounds like the end of our day, but we were flying out at 00:50 am so this is really just a continuation. On the subway to the airport, we ended up across from four very rough looking men - one was all scraped up and the others seemed like they were a little drugged out. The bleeding man asked if we had Kleenex for his injury and we said "no", but he took that as an invitation to start a broken-English conversation with us. Two teenagers behind them kept signalling that we should stop talking to them. We started to get nervous, but we didn't show it. As we got nearer to the airport, the train got emptier and emptier and we didn't know what was going to happen! Then the injured man took off his silver cross and gave it to Tessa (he said it would keep her safe), and then he tried to put it on her silver chain from her Aunty Pat! Thankfully, their stop came and they got off, after shaking all our hands. However, they came back to tell us that we had to get off, too. At this point, we were starting to panic until we realized everybody else was getting off too, since the train wasn't running any further. So we got off, and the men went on their way, and we realized they were just everyday criminals who thought it was nice to meet a traveling family from Canada! After transferring to the continuing train, we got to the airport three hours before take off. We asked where to check-in, and were told it was at counter 95. We were the only ones there, so we had a seat on the floor and waited until 10 minutes past the time we were told the counter would open. Down the terminal, a massive line-up had formed which was being processed through another counter, so we asked Connor to double-check that we were at the right place. He came back with the affirmative. Eventually, a woman came to open our counter, so we asked if she was taking passengers for Cairo and she promptly answered, "Of course, Business class". Arghhh!! We were going to be the very last people in the massive line! We explained the misinformation we'd been given and had just started to walk away when she called us back and said she'd check us in if we were quick because no one else was in her line-up! Hurray! We spent the time before before going through to our gate using up the remainder of our Euros by lowering ourselves to MacDonald's milkshakes.