I'm Here!

Well, I’ve been in Athens for about a week now, and the city is absolutely amazing. The side streets are small, quaint, and full of hole-in-the-wall stores. The entire city is surrounded by large hills, so you can look in almost any direction and see hills on a clear day.

Gyros at my new favorite cafe just down the road - mmm mmm good!

And from our apartment balcony, you can see the Parthenon, the Aegean Sea, and a much of Athens’ residential centers.  The weather has also been clear and warm – perfect for walking all over the city.

Even though we only started classes yesterday, we’ve been quite busy.  The Athens Center has taken us on two long walking tours of the city and hosted three welcome dinners/receptions.  Our group of students also took a day trip down to an Aegean beach, and swam in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. 

The most incredible day, however, was Saturday – the day we hiked across Athens to St. George’s Church.  Kalenga, Darryn, and I, plus two classmates, Emily and Kelsey, undertook the adventure.  Why was this church so special?  St. George’s Church was built on top of a very tall hill – the kind that pokes through the skyline like a giant finger.  We could see every inch of the city that was ringed by the hills and the Aegean.  As the sun set on the city, the city’s shadows grew longer, and gave Athens a magical glow.  I’ve never seen anything like it. 

And finally, then past week has been a large learning experience – here are a few of the things I picked up…

1)      Grecian traffic, like most European traffic, is crazy.  Red lights are merely suggestions, and pedestrians are not a large concern of the average driver.

2)      Greek food is my new favorite hobby – gyros, spanakopita, suvlaki, Greek meatballs - it's beautiful! 

3)      The average Greek on the street won’t smile at an American stranger – enjoy it when it happens.

4)      Greeks love Americans who try to speak Greek.  This is a good way to get a Greek to smile (especially if your language skills are rusty.)

5)      Wild cats rule the city – I’ve actually heard rumors of armed cat gangs mugging unsuspecting tourists in the alley.

6)      The current city of Athens is not an ancient city.  Athens was a massive, ancient city-state (or polis) for ages, but the current city came into existence only 150 years ago.

7)   Athens is really, really safe.  The only crimes we were warned about were pickpockets.....and flashers.  Evidently it's not unheard of to be accosted by underdressed criminals in dark areas during the night.  Guess you have to look out for those cat gangs too....

See you soon!