Dear gentlemen: i wanted to mention i personally had a ufo encounter in athens, greece in august 1983 which three other american ladies witnessed as well.... here is the story: "it was end of august in greece, and my wife pavlina and i had just returned from mykonos that summer of 1983. pavlina was inside her apartment with her two american girlfriends, nancy and victoria sandler, who came to stay with us for two nights, and the ladies were in the kitchen cooking us dinner. i was sitting out on our fifth-story penthouse balcony, enjoying the great view with a glass of wine when something incredible happened; it was about 4:30 pm on a clear, sunny, hot summer afternoon, and i was gazing across the street out at the columns on ancient parthenon when something caught got my attention. whatever it was, it came slowly towards me from the left and i caught its elliptical shape out of the corner of my eye. when i finally turned to look and saw it, i was absolutely stunned. what i saw was a sleek, dark, chrome-like object in the form of an aerodynamic metallic object. it was slowly moving past me at eye level where i was seated and cruised by only about 50 yards away. it was in fact, a flying disc-shaped ufo moving past me going about 40 mph, with multi-colored red, blue and green flashing strobes lights circling around the edges. the vehicle made no sound at all! after it came into full view i gasped at the extraordinary sight and shouted... "what-the-fuck-is-that?! pavlina and her two girlfriends heard me and ran out the sliding glass doors to see what happened. i pointed to the amazing flying object saucer passing by the balcony and they saw it too. they were stunned as it glided gracefully by. we all saw it and were speechless and lost for words. if you have ever had the fortune to see such a thing then you know it's a completely overwhelming experience. all we could do is gape with our mouths open at the extraordinary craft moving past us. we watched as it continued hovering at the same height travelling down the street then gained speed. about a mile further down, it suddenly swooped upwards at incredible velocity and disappeared into the sky. pavlina and her girlfriends looked at one another in shock. they turned to me and asked what it was we had just seen, and i told them, "i think we just saw our first ufo! there was no other explanation. we damn well knew it wasn't any type of military or civilian craft. they didn't make them like that on earth. whatever it was, it was not from this world that's for sure. all i can say is we were completely dumbfounded, but actually i felt kind of special to have seen such a thing, and it continued to occupy my thoughts about ufos and where they came from for many years later. absolutely true story. and this is the first time i've ever told it formally, except among a few trusted friends. is this story helpful to you? otherwise not to be published without my approval. thank you for understanding. sincerely, gary vanhaas novelist and journalist