Pleasant Surpise and Success

Another early start to another long, productive day. Woke up to cereal, bananas and fresh-squeezed (by self) orange juice. We got up earlier than we needed to specifically to go to the Open Street Market in the morning. It's about two blocks from our apartment and then extends for several blocks along a cross street. Vendors everywhere! I ended up going twice with M and K separately. We've completely overstocked the refrigerator. The pictures below do no sort of justice to the grand scale or business of the market, but gives you an idea of what all was there.

M getting some grapes. Look at the size of those bunches!!

In all, we bought garlic, potatoes, olives, olive oil (the best I've ever tasted), grapes, corn, cucumbers, lettuce, string beans, carrots, spinach, bananas, pears, oranges, tomatoes, cilantro, melon, a basil plant, a persimmon plant, eggs, and more for about 20-25€ total. Not grocery-store sized portions, either. And so fresh the lettuce still had the roots attached. The man told us (in Greek) to put them in water so they would last. We understood after a few minutes of charades. We made several friends among the vendors with our broken attempts at asking for what we wanted. We'll get better. Hopefully at least a little by next Friday.

After that adventure was the similarly thrilling task of actually attending Modern Greek. The class was more fast-paced than I would have believed (or cared to believe for that matter) but the teacher is very sweet and just wants us to try more than anything. That seems to be a running theme here - one that I like very much!

We had lunch and M and I planned on doing laundry right after, but while dragging clothes down to the washing machines, a passing fellow student told us that her friend had her clothes "ripped to shreds" by one of the machines. Combining that tidbit with the fact that the drums were barely big enough for two pairs of jeans, and each load would take nearly 2 hours, we decided to try our luck at hand-washing in the bathtub instead. It worked, but 8 hours later the clothes are still on a drying rack in our room. However, SS decided to do her clothes via the machines and the Academic Center (where the machines are housed) closed before the locked machine was finished, so she can't pick up her wet laundry from a couple blocks down the street until tomorrow after lunch. It's annoying, but the clothes will be safe (unless the machine ripped them to shreds!)

I had to run to Ancient Greek (too busy doing laundry to realize the time) but still made it before the teacher. This teacher is, like the others, just wonderful! He's British (+1), he's not assigning assigning essays (+2), he doesn't believe in piling on lines (+3), he'd rather we go out and see Athens than sit in our rooms fussing over Greek (+4), and he let us decide what we wanted most to read of Thucydides (+5)! The class will still be difficult and more book work than all the other classes combined, but it will be fun and hopefully pretty low-key, especially since K and SS are in my class, too.

I cooked my own dinner for the first time since I got here tonight. Eggs, bread, half an ear of corn, and salad made with lettuce, carrots, string beans, cilantro, feta cheese and a little olive oil. Oh, and there was Nutella (which is insanely cheaper on this side of the Atlantic!) for dessert. Livin' the high life. :) We really need to learn to read Greek food labels, though. It took several minutes to find the salt, even though we were staring right at it, and G accidentally picked up dessert wine instead of a bitter wine. This was her second failed attempt. We're all having a good laugh about it. "Fortunately" she picked up some ouzo, too. I'm waiting to see how "fortunate" a decision that was. ;) More on that tomorrow (in all likelihood). We're planning a beach trip tomorrow, so hopefully there will be pictures of that. Καληνύχτα!

Days of Travel, Nights of Fun

Today started early again (though it's ending rather later than expected!) I saw the sunrise and took nearly th same photographs as yesterday. As today was the final day of orientation, most of it was self-guided, particularly in the cases of my roommates and me. We started with a trip to the academic center to get books and finalize a few matters with the registrar. Naturally, I took my camera. :)


This is less than half of the cats we ran into at the corner. They're malnourished strays, but mostly kittens, and watching them play is so heart warming. There's a reason that the program has to stress to us that we aren't allowed to domesticate the animals. It's SO tempting!


The Acropolis is closer, and just as lovely from the balcony at the Academic Center. :)


In case I haven't mentioned, the Academic Center is quite literally next door to an ancient stadium that was recovered in marble for the Olympics. Lucky for me, it's a heavily trafficked tourist stop, so I can take all the pictures I want pretty surreptitiously.





After lunch, five of us decided to take a walk down to Plaka and be tourists for a little while. This meant going even closer to the acropolis, and heading right into fresh photography grounds!


The Parthenon almost recedes behind the traffic. Almost. :)


I'm know the name of this building from it's roof, but I don't know exactly what it is. The area around it is just lovely, though. They seem to have to plant flowers intentionally in the urban districts, but the flowers that survive are beautiful and oddly exotic.


Statue at a street corner. No idea on the date or what she's doing there, but she's very lovely. It's incredible how the ruins just sit right in with the modern architecture!


Evidence of the same. Couldn't quite make out what this depicts from across the street. Will examine more closely soon. :)

Arriving in Plaka, we quickly found fun stores for tourists who wanted everything from Postcards to jewelry to replica antiques to funny t-shirts to...

Spartan helmets?

Well, whatever floats your boat I guess. M and G had a lot of fun trying these on. Unfortunately, the price tag prevented us from bringing them back with us.

G found these lying outside a shop and had to try them on. We HAD been looking for a shoe store anyway. :P


Turning a corner and quickly getting lost, we found a large, roped-off area of ruins. We didn't notice an English sign explaining them, but that didn't stop our cameras (and the cameras of many people around us!)


Without the barricade in front of the lens.


From left to right: G, SE, M and K walking in front of me past the ruins and on towards what turned out to be a large open food market, a restaurant row equivalent, and the entrance to the flea market.

Some awesome ruins (edit: Hadrian's Library) against the bluest (un-photoshopped) sky I've ever seen. No digital alterations here!


What is that I spy beyond the amazing building of which I have no knowledge?


Oh, hello again, Parthenon. It's always nice to see you. :)


A beautiful church of some kind. Pity about the scaffolding, but that stuff does seem to be as much a part of the architecture of the city as anything.

We did manage to make it back, despite being told by our directional giver that it was "not possible by foot" and nearly getting lost in the National Garden (a good place to lose your way if you must!) We'll be getting our full exercise this semester, no question! We also went (in two groups) to a place called The Grill and Pita for fabulous gyros, only 1.80€! We will definitely be going there more often than we should. It's quite literally across the street from our apartment. M and G had attended a 2 hour crash lesson in Modern Greek between our adventure and dinner (I napped) tried ordering in Greek. They basically succeeded in that the server knew what we all wanted and told us how to say it properly.

We spent most of the night trying to get back online (that's my excuse for posting so late, anyway - plus our internet seems a bit wonky) and planning trips to Meteora, Olympus, Corinth, Neopoli, Santorini and many, many other places. I'm afraid we won't have enough weekends to cover them all. But we'll try. ;) I took a quick break when I noticed the sun was setting to take one last (the previous adjective is a lie) shot of the Parthenon from our window.


I'm having far too much fun with this camera.

Classes start bright and early (8:30 am) tomorrow, so that will be a whole new adventure! And I've recently discovered that after this week, every weekend is a three-day-weekend, as we don't have Friday classes usually. This will make trips much easier and much better. We don't plan on going anywhere as a group this weekend, so I'll probably go back to Plaka and maybe up to the acropolis. Who knows? More adventures always await!

Early Morning Adventure

I went exploring early this morning on all the balconies/windows in our apartment and got some fun pictures!





Yes, this last one really is from our apartment, or the stairs in the hallway leading to it, anyway. what a lovely surprise for a beautiful morning!

Self guided tour of Pangrati

A few pictures from the area around my neighborhood. Things not pictured, but also found on this trip: Glassware and mirror store, St. Stephen's Church, Grill and Pita Restaurant, and many, many adorable food markets. The first post of many of it's kind.

What is that giant crumbling structure I faintly see in the background? :D

(I think G saw my flash. Oops.)

These guys are EVERYWHERE. I already love them. :)

He was really happy to have his picture taken. Thank you for your kindness to a tourist, κύριε!


More soon, promise!

Arrival, Orientation, & a Quiet Early Morning

I arrived sometime yesterday morning in a blur. Looking back, taking the metro from the airport may not have been the best idea, tired and full of luggage as we were. A group of us did it anyway, though, and I feel very accomplished now, navigating Athens on my own 15 minutes after getting there. Plus, I got to see the guards switch off by Parliament. I had no idea that a single step could be so bad-ass. (Oh, and I saved about 40€ by not taking a taxi, part of which was used on a delicious spinach pie for breakfast this morning!)I woke up absurdly early this morning (about 5:45 am) which I guess was from jet-lag, (and going to bed REALLY early last night) but was also from excitement. I watched the sun rise over the street outside our apartment from the balcony off my room and tried to write in a journal for a few hours. The bakery run that followed was much more successful. ;)

I have not unpacked yet. That will happen... soon... *ahem*, but the room is looking cozier all the time. M's side looks now what my side will look like in a week or so, and that thrills me more than I can say! We agree on organized chaos, at the very least. She shares my same sense of humor, too, as does almost everyone in the apartment. I feel really lucky with my roommates. :-) Especially now that we all have internet and the sounds of happy skyping fill the halls.

Our lovely room


The even lovelier kitchen


And most beautiful of all - the hot pink bathroom! Notice the most gorgeous toilet seat ever!!

Orientation this morning was a series of lectures, as per usual, but there's a walk around Pangrati (the district of Athens I'm located in) this evening which should be useful, and they've fed us for almost every meal so far. "Refreshments" go a long way here. ;-) I've got a few basic grocery needs from the local market already, though, and will be cooking with my roommates starting very soon. We also think we've found a gyro place nearby! :-D

Athens is more urban than I expected. I knew logically that it was a large and growing city with crazy drivers, lots of stores and 4 million people all told, but the feel of a real city isn't something that numbers and description convey if you haven't lived in one for a significant period of time. I don't remember Dallas and a week in NYC doesn't count, so Athens was something of a beautiful, chaotic surprise. Also, that means hot water and internet, so who am I to complain? I will start carrying a sketchbook, maybe starting tomorrow. The city begs for pencil drawings, with the miss-matched-knick-knacked terraces, rooftops, window displays and pedestrians. It's too eccentric for my pencil to let alone.

Looking down the street, left and right respectively, from our apartment's balcony