Athens and Kruger

I have so much to write and not much time to do it in so I am going to break up this post covering the last week in a couple of posts.

Athens was OK. To me, it is a poor man's New York City, but even that is generous. It was a couple of the positive qualities of NYC, but does most poorly. For example, the Athens version of Central Park, called the National Gardens, used to be the play area for royalty. It can be explored in entirety in 30 minutes. The negative qualities of NYC, Athens does not fall short, and often exceeds. It is nearly as busy, far dirtier, and people have a similar disposition.

I had heard that Greeks are very vain people. I did not form this opinion, but I did notice that they like spending money. You know a couple of years ago when Americans spent about 100% of what they earned? I would not be surprised if most Greeks do the same. Except, instead of buying homes they cannot afford, they buy clothes, cell phones, and cars they cannot afford and eat out all the time. Even the tourist restaurants were had locals locals in them.

Leaving Athens, Greece to Johannesburg, South Africa was a trip. I had a stop over in Dubai, UAE, which is like going from Chicago to New York to Houston, expect the distances are longer. Fortunately I was on the airline Emirates, which is easily the best airline I have ever been on and, apparently, is currently rated the best airline. It was awesome. The food was good, service was good, entertainment options were outstanding and flight pleasant despite the string of terrible women I had sitting next to me. Coincidentally, my next destination after South Africa is Dubai, so I will be going back there (but on a different airline). This is OK with me because Dubai's airport is awesome.

I booked my Kruger National Park safari about 1.5 days before it was to begin. Oddly enough, doing so left so little time for me to pay the agent to in turn pay the suppliers, so I paid the suppliers directly, saving me about $150. From the Jo'burg airport I took a connecting domestic flight to Nelspruit then a "transfer" (private car ride) to my lodge in Kruger.

Aside from the family vacation in Mexico, the lodge is easily the nicest place I am going to be staying at during my travels, and might rival the time in Mexico. There was a table cloth! The service was good, food outstanding, and game drives unforgettable. A very expensive few days, but truly awesome. I have a ton of photos and even a few videos of game that I saw but am having trouble once again posting. I really need to get this figured out.

Another post to come soon-ish