The flight out started well - DD fell asleep on me just before takeoff and slept for about an hour. However, once she was awake it was a different story. We managed to keep her entertained for a while and she took a real shine to the guy sitting next to me who luckily was happy to play with her.
Landing wasn't so great though - she screamed for about 45 mins as we descended and we weren't able to console her or get her to suck anything to help her ears. It didn't help that we went through thunderstorms too so the plane was really rocky (this didn't help my sanity either!)
Anyway, we arrived in Greece at 2.30am and were greeted by the ecstatic grandparents. We managed to just cram all of us and our luggage in the car and arrived at their apartment around 3.00am. DD took a while to settle but she slept ok.
The next day DBF's grandmother was there bright and early and his sister turned up too. We spent the whole day in the (not very big) apartment with his parents, grandmother and sister going nuts over DD.
I don't know what it is about Greek women but they all turn into squealing idiots when faced with a baby. It's only acceptable to speak to them in a voice reminiscent of Joe Pasquale on helium and it's totally necessary to flap and wave at them all the time.
Consequently when we tried to get DD to sleep that night she was so wound up she screamed for four and a half hours!!! Not how we wanted our first proper night there to go but she was definitely telling us she wasn't happy with the situation.
Sunday we went downtown in Athens to meet a friend for coffee and I learned just how awful it is to try and take a baby out in Athens. There are absolutely no baby changing facilities anywhere, the pavements are covered with cars, trees, rubbish and pot holes and nobody, but nobody, gets out of the way for the pushchair...
It's appalling that in a modern European capital city it's damn nigh impossible to take a baby out - in fact I got used to everyone staring at me because I did take her out. In the ten days we were there I saw less than ten other prams out.
Later that day we started what was pretty much the trend of the holiday, we'd go out to eat around 9.00pm and get back around midnight. This fitted in with both the Greek way of life and DD's body clock that never adjusted to the two hour time difference.
DBF's parents apartment is quite small so DD was sleeping in a cot in our room (about a foot away from our bed). This was quite strange for all of us and every little noise she made woke us up (just like old times). However, she slept good the second night and most of the rest of the time so we can't complain.
She did get a bit of a stomach upset though - I think it may have been the water as we took the formula we use with us but obviously it's totally different drinking water there but it too settled down after a few of days.
So the first couple of days went as well as we could expect I guess and the only real issue DBF had was getting used to his teenage bedroom now being pink!!!!
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