Every summer, my family and I go to Lebanon to visit our family and friends. Since it is a far trip, my parents like taking us to stop in another country on our way. These places have included France, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, etc. Last summer we stopped in Greece. I was so excited! Since I was in 7th grade mythology has been my favorite topic to study in my English classes. I was finally going to visit the places I had read so much about.

The day before we left for our trip, I was packing my luggage in my room with my iPod in my ear. My dad came up to me and told me that I was not allowed to bring my cell phone. I rolled my eyes at him because this was about the fifth time he has told me this. He stressed this because the summer before, I took my phone with me to Lebanon and had texted so many of my friends that the bill was outrageous. I just wanted to get on the plane to Greece!

After landing, I felt so relieved. The flight was so long, 11 hours, and there was a lot of turbulence we experienced. We went to our hotel, showered, and planned to walk all around Athens for the remainder of the day. Our first stop was the acropolis. We walked all the way up the long hill, and took many pictures. It was so beautiful. Unfortunately for my older sister, Laura and I, our legs were not prepared for that workout. We were all tired, so we went to dinner then planned to head back to our hotel room later that night.

Here is where the story gets interesting. It was a Saturday night at around 10:30 p.m. in Athens. Everyone was using the metro to get to and from places, including my family and I. We got on the metro and were standing because all the seats were taken. There is no limit on how many people fit on each metro, so it was so crowded. Suddenly the doors opened and many people were coming in and out. I looked at my sister Laura and we both had the same thought in our head- Lets get to those open seats! We took seats right next to the window. Just as we were about to close our eyes, we heard a scream and knock from the window. It was my parents and my little sister! We sprinted to the door but it closed and the metro started moving! We got off at the next stop and waited for what seemed to be an eternity for my parents to come find us. After about 15 minutes with no sign of a metro coming, we went up to the police station. We asked the police if they spoke English and they said they did. When we slowly explained our story to them, they told us they did not speak English and shut the door on us. We went back down to the metro station to wait. There was an old couple with a cell phone. My sister and I went up to them waving money at them asking to use their phone. They thought we were crazy and walked away!

It was about two hours after we got lost that we gave up. We were so scared so we decided to try and find a taxi, go to the hotel, and call my dad’s cell phone from there. (My dad brings his cell phone everywhere in case of an emergency.) When we got outside, we saw my dad coming for us with his face red with anger! He was so upset with us for not paying attention but my sister and I did not care- we were happy to have found them! It took weeks for my parents to learn to laugh about this little incident.

After talking to our parents, my sister and I found out that after about an hour that we were missing my dad got a phone call from an unknown caller, so they hoped it was us calling! Instead, it was the police from back home telling my dad that the alarm in our house was going off and they think someone had broken into our house! He told them he lost his daughters and when he found us he would call back. It turns out my grandpa came in the house to borrow something, heard the alarm going off, so he left! Looking back on this memory makes me laugh hysterically. After all, how many people can say they got lost in Europe on the metro?