Hi,
Welcome to the third flight from the following series:
FLIGHT A3 873 - WAW-ATH - A320 - https://flight-report.com/en/report/38121/aegean-airlines-a3-873-warsaw-waw-athens-ath
FLIGHT OA 910 - ATH-LCA - A320 - https://flight-report.com/en/report/38214/olympic-air-oa-910-athens-ath-larnaca-lca
FLIGHT OA 901 - LCA-ATH - A320 - you are here
FLIGHT A3 870 - ATH-WAW - A320
After two flights with a very tight connection time in ATH, I finally arrived to Cyprus for what was supposed to be a one day stay.
CYPRUS IN DECEMBER
Even if it was a very short day full of work, it was nice to stay in Cyprus even for a couple of hours in the middle of December when most of central Europe is already covered with snow and there is hardly any sun. As my hotel was very close to the sea, I woke up early to please my eyes with this view.
December is the month when lemons and oranges grow here
As the weather changed here frequently during the day and it was raining from time to time (a thing hard to experience here in the summer), this rainbow showed us the way back to Larnaca from our meeting place
My customer invited us for a great typical cypriot feast called "meze" that consists of almost all the dishes cypriot cuisine has to offer. It's funny how the words may sometimes be deceptive: "meze" in Greece means appetizer while in Cyprus the same word in the same Greek language means what you may see beneath:
I made a short walk in Larnaca center in the evening, the city was already preparing for Christmas but it didn't look as nice as it does in the summer
The church of Saint Lazaros, the patron of Cyprus, looks great inside but as a mass was being celebrated it was impossible to enter
THE FLIGHT
Have I already told you I hate early morning flights? I do. Departing at 5:40 means you need to get up at… try to guess. Anyway after a very short sleep we headed to the very empty airport and after a very fast passport and security check (I must have been still asleep as I don't remember anything) I found myself in almost totally empty airside of the terminal. The first flight of the day appeared to be LO flight to Warsaw departing at 3:40. I would like to fly Cyprus Airways one day, I love their livery, hope the small reborn airline will survive this time.
Boarding started rather unexpectedly and as I didn't want to search for the empty overhead bin for my hand luggage, I decided not to wait to the very last moment.
View from my seat
The flight was full
Decent legroom of this Aegean A320. As on the ATH-LCA flight, this was also operated by Aegean aircraft and crew.
Service started shortly after take off. This time it consisted of a warm sweet pastry and a cereal bar. The pastry was good, nothing special but ok for the very first meal of the day.
During the entire flight the sunrise seems to be chasing us, it wil finally catch us once we land.
Flying over the island and city of Rhodes
and soon after the islands of Rineia, Dilos and - the most famous - Mikonos in the background
next to overfly is the island of Siros and the capital city of Cyclades - Ermoupoli, visible in the right down corner, while the island of Tinos can be seen in the background
We are already quite low while passing the small island of Giaros
But before we reach the mainland there is the last (or the first) island of Cyclades called Kea or Zia as it has two names. I've never been there but people say it's very beautiful and empty as it's not very popular being situated too close to the capital. I wouldn't mind an island like this being so close to Warsaw, I would go there every weekend if I could ;)
Each time you see Makronisos (the name literally means "Long Island"), you know that Athens are close
The southernmost part of Attica with famous cape Sounio
After a deep turn right we are now heading directly towards ATH
Landing
Passing by a big part of A3 fleet while heading to a remote park stand
This time the break between the flights was 1:30, that's not much for the whole process of getting from non-Schengen arrivals to Schengen departures but at least no marathon was required this time and I managed even to buy some olive oil at the duty free, so comparing it to the previous experience I would call this one quite relaxing.
Thanks for reading, the last part of the series will follow soon.
Hello Loukas. Homeward bound, I see.
Great shots of Cyprus, and a lovely meze spread — in Greek is it roughly the equivalent of tapas in Spanish, a meal consisting of a bunch of smaller dishes?
“Have I already told you I hate early morning flights? I do.”
- Anything before 8:00 is brutal. Anything before 7:00 is inhumane. Anything before 6:00 is torture.
Legroom looks very good for economy again, aided by the slimline seats.
The meal’s a bit of a letdown, but you didn’t expect the caterers to be up for 5:00 am, did you? ;-) Although, it is a flight of barely over an hour, so one can’t really expect too much.
Lovely shots en route to Athens, and a much better connection time than your last sprint through the terminal.
Looking forward to seeing the conclusion of this series — thanks again for sharing!
Hi Hometoyyz, thanks for your comment. Yes, meze in Greek normally is like tapas, something small you eat before the main meal but, as you can see, not in Cyprus :) I wasn't really hungry at 6 am, so this meal was quite ok. The last report will follow soon :)