After leaving the Main Press Center in Athens at 4:00 am, I arrived at the Airport around 4:45 am. Athens airport is not such a great place to hang out. Maybe it picks up after 6 am. I got on my Alitalia flight to Milan at 6:30, and arrived there at 10:30 am or so. Milan’s airport was really nice, although going through security again to get to the international departures terminal was a bit of a pain. The business class lounge in Milan was a lot nicer than the lounge in Athens. The people working there were nicer, and the food was a bit better. I got a nice espresso.
My flight from Milan to Washington, DC was simply incredible. The airline staff was wonderful, the food was quite good, and the seats were luxurious. And when I say the food was good, I mean it–it wasn’t just good for airline food, it was legitimately good food. I had two kinds of pasta, a nice dish of grouper, and a really nice dessert of fruits. There was gelato as well, but I didn’t want to stay up. I was able to sleep for four hours, and then I had a small meal before we landed.
Business class makes a big difference. If I had flown coach for nine hours, I would be a wreck right now. Getting in a really decent four hours of sleep made a ton of difference in my life. I was able to be a human being at the wedding, and I was able to actually work effectively today. Time Inc. definitely got its moneys worth.
I might dig up the menu from the international flight a bit later and pound it into the computer. It’s pretty impressive.