The first 24 hours

View from the Areopagus

 

Well, it's been 24 hours since I have arrived in Greece and it has already been the craziest adventure, from the 22+ hours of flying and waiting in airports to the crazy bus ride. While on my flight to Greece from Munich, I sat next to the nicest Greek gal named Fata who is from the same area of Athens that I am living in (the Pangrati neighborhood), and after we landed we met her boyfriend at the airport and they both helped me to navigate the bus, carry my luggage, and find the CYA academic center. They were the sweetest couple and really helped me out in my first few hours in Athens.

My living digs for the next 5 months

After arriving at the academic center, I was shown to my apartment which is about a 2 minute walk from campus. The apartment is on the 4th floor (but actually 5th because ground floor is 0) and there are three rooms with four of us living in the space.We have a small living area with some chairs and couches, a table, and a bookshelf, a full size bathroom, a funky storage closet, and a kitchen. Noa and Jamie have their own rooms and I share a room with Katie. There is the cutest Juliet balcony that runs along outside of the three bedrooms which has a street view.

My roommates and I atop the Areopagus (Jamie, Katie, myslef, Noa)

It took me about 30 minutes to unpack all of my belongings and set up my room which came along with getting to know my roommates and living space. Around 7pm we met the other students who came early for the dig and were introduced to some of the faculty with Dominos pizza. After a short orientation, Jamie (one of my roommates) showed us some shops around our apartments as she has been here since the fall and knows the area. Once we got back to the apartment, I showered and relaxed a bit before the jet lag hit me and I passed out around 9:45pm.

The Acropolis behind snow covered trees

We were up and out the door by 7:15 this morning to meet our professor for the dig at 7:30 with a short stop for coffee on the way. When we got to the academic center, our professor John Karavas found us and let us know the the site was closed due to SNOW because it had snowed overnight all over Athens. With the day to ourselves, and our own personal tour guide (Jamie), we spent a majority of the morning and early afternoon touring around and getting acclimated to the city.

 View from the Areopagus

 Rex the tour dog

Starting with going to a small cafe close to campus, we met the kind owners and got some pastries and coffee before heading out to the rest of the city. Walking around Athens is beautiful with vast amount of culture and sites that led us to visiting the acropolis, which was also closed due to the snow. The Areopagus was right next to the acropolis so we went on top of the site for an amazing view (pictured above). We then continued down next to the agora and towards more shops and restaurants and were met by a local tour guide stray dog, Rex who was happily pet and excited to lead us around. Stopping for an early lunch at a cafe, I got a delicious sandwich while the group relaxed for awhile. From there we continued to walk around for quite some time and found a phone store where I was able to get a SIM card along with a Greek phone number so I can access internet/make calls to other Greek numbers.

After shopping around for awhile we finally made our way back to the apartment, where I sat down to relax and start this post before taking a nap. The group made plans to get dinner which we did around 7:00 at a place called Poco Poco, a 24 restaurant with Americanized food and I got a burger (sorry, I know I'm super American) which was delicious (they also deliver so rip my bank account). It has been a day full of adventures and getting to know the city along with my classmates which has really helped my transition into Athens. The first day of digging begins tomorrow and I am so stoked to get out into the field.

*Editors note: Stray dogs, like Rex, are taken off the street and spayed/neutered and collared with a name and released back out into the public to live freely. I am told this is because dogs are a symbol of Greek democracy and it wouldn't be right to kill off such an important symbol.