December 31st, 2010
2:57am
Athens, Greece
Student & Travelers Inn- Plaka
First of all you’re probably wondering what I could possibly be doing at 3am…well I could blame it on jet lag but really I’m just so tired of sleeping that I felt like I should be doing something productive: hence, blogging.
To pick up where I left off, Brendon (my traveling companion) and I made it to the airport (SeaTac) just fine, with plenty of time to spare. Security and passport issues= nonexistent. Had some food and waited for our delayed flight due to mechanical issues (a little frightening) to come in. Ten hours later we landed in Amsterdam, Netherlands. We rushed off the plane only to discover that we had 20 minutes to go through customs and make it to our next flight with a HUGE, stagnant customs line awaiting us. After some persistent pushing and making it known that we had 7 minutes before our flight left we made it. SUCCESS!
-Side note: You know those stories about the absolutely horrible people on airplanes? The women with the screaming babies, the guy in the corner hyperventilating, and the person in the middle seat continually sneezing and blowing their nose? Yeah, that last one was me the entire trip. Poor 16 A and C, they didn’t deserve to be slathered in Susie germs, but I just couldn’t help it! For some reason the altitude gave me a runny and stuffy nose, as well as a headache, and I just happened to sneeze at least 3 times every ten minutes. Sounds fun, right?
1:45pm December 29th
Brendon and I landed in Athens, went to baggage claim and of course our luggage wasn’t there. As I was in a sick stupor, he took charge and went to the information desk and figured it all out. In the end they were going to deliver our ‘lost’ bags personally to our hostel, which surprisingly worked out amazingly as they were heavy and we didn’t want to have to lug them around anyway.
Out of the airport, fresh air was my savior, waking me up from my I-Hate-My-Life-And-Am-Not-Excited-For This-Trip haze, allowing me to look around. Mountains completely took up the right side of my vision. So beautiful, and I didn’t even have my contacts in. Roaming from escalator to escalator we found the metro, figured out how the tickety thing worked and took a seat. Little by little people began filing in and it was easy to see that my professor, Taso, was right. They were all very well dressed and well kept. They looked like people from New York City would look like: lipstick, curled hair, petty coats, and amazing shoes. Way to make my shaggy hair and airplane creased clothes feel inadequate Greecians.
Metro, check. Emerging from the metro station we found real world Athens awaiting us, people and pigeons everywhere, as well as tons of vendors selling all sorts of things from cake donuts to Disney balloons, not to mention the random Santa’s everywhere. Christmas is over, what is that all about? Digging out our map, we (and when I see we, I really mean Brendon) easily navigated us to the street our hostel was on. Taking a pit stop for some overly-priced shampoo and stopping to ask directions once, when our hostel was apparently almost right in front of us, we made it. Checking in was easy enough as the clerk spoke perfect English. Paid and ready to go we found our teeny tiny room with no trouble, and got ready to back out into the city after getting the airport grime off our clothes and skin. Got ready…but never ended up going out as we crashed and slept until the morning. Jet lag, you are not a myth.
7:00am December 30th
Hitting up the ATM and having French toast (with chocolate as the syrup) and highly concentrated orange juice for breakfast we hurried out into the city. Skinny streets just bigger than alleys are what you find everywhere in Plaka, except that they are filled with shops and vendors instead of trashcans and homeless people. Slowly walking around taking it all in, watching the working locals rush from one place to the next, ignoring all crosswalk signs and dangerously close mopeds, my first real impression of Greece was similar to that of a huge city in the US. You see the obvious tourists (did we look like that?) with their cameras, fanny packs, and numerous maps, then the street vendors ready to approach you if you stepped a hair too close, as well as the countless stray cats and dogs (not to mention pigeons) fearlessly walking this way and that.
Now I’m not going to pretend that I noticed all of the differences of this foreign culture to one like Seattle, because right now I don’t. They may speak a different language, have mountains surrounding them as well as ancient ruins, but I haven’t experienced enough of their culture and life to really understand them and their lives. This is something I hope to accomplish along the way.
We decided wandering aimlessly was the best way to get to know our surroundings: after all getting lost is the best adventure. Brendon with his high-tech camera was always stopping to shoot graffiti and locals, mesmerized by how beautiful and unique everything was, hoping to get some amazing shots. I, on the other hand was just following, growing tiresome from the directionless wandering, and suggested having lunch to give us a real activity to do. After lunch we made it to the Acropolis, but decided to save that tour for when we met with our program. We had somehow made it to a very quiet, deserted area of Athens with rusty, ancient buildings and graffitied walls. Can you say PERFECT spot for a photo shoot?
We spent the next hour or so posing and being silly next to the tons of unique Greek graffiti, enhancing our photography skills and having a good time. My wary mood was gone, and it turned into the excitement and happiness that should have been present all along. With what seemed like a simple turn of the corner we were right back at our hostel, inside and planning what our next activity would be since we had the entire day ahead of us. But guess what? After tidying up the room and going over a list of Greek phrases I had compiled, I fell asleep, AGAIN!
And that’s why I’m awake at 3:47am, listening to tunes and typing away to all my family, friends, and professors. I’ve been trying to decide what I want this blog to say about me. What am I trying to get out of this program? How am I going to document how I’ve grown as a person? Should I censor some of the things that happen and not others? I haven’t come to full conclusions to all of these questions, but I do know that this blog will be sort of a diary, letting my readers know what happened in my days so when I explain how I feel and the questions I’m contemplating they can understand the context. I plan to write at least 5 days a week, and have started some goals I plan to reach:
Goal 1: Learn 20 Greek words a day
Goal 2: Keep up with my blog, every day (this way I don’t get behind and forget what happened)
These are the two goals I have so far, and I hope to continue adding to the list.
My favorite part of this trip so far: the fact that I am completely and totally free of responsibility for the next four days. It hits me at random times that I am almost entirely alone 7,000 miles from home with no working cell phone (yet) and only the internet to communicate with my “real” life back home. And I LOVE IT! I have never experienced anything more exhilarating than absolute liberation from everything. But at the same time with liberation brings responsibility. Because I’m free from responsibility I now have responsibility: no more parents to save me if I get lost, they’re not just a phone call away anymore, no more secure feeling of American police, I have to feed myself, wash my own clothes, lug my stuff from place to place. It seems petty, but these are the things I take for granted. And I’m sure very soon I’ll realize all the other things I take for granted as well.
Wide awake and ready to party,
Susie
Pictures: From Top to bottom
-1. Overpriced shampoo in the hostel shower
-2. I love Greek letters, my quest to learn them continues
-3, 4, & 5. Brendon Beardsley's photography, just goofing around at different ancient graffiti spots
-6. Brendon Beardsle'sy photography. Walking down a deserted street, when Santa happened to pop out- why was she there? And with a Banjo nonetheless!
