Attika, agapi mou

It's 6:36 AM Eastern Standard Time, and I'm sitting in my own bed with my laptop and a cup of fresh FILTERED coffee. Mmm.

I pretty much slept for 9 out of the 11 hours during the flight home, had a nice dinner with the fam (vegan meatloaf- haven't had that in a while!) and hit the hay by 9:30. Strangely enough though, I woke up around 4 and couldn't really fall back asleep... must be the time change and such. I figure it will take a while for me to readjust back. Until then, I probably won't be sleeping like a normal human being.

EST - 1, MORGAN - 0. Sweet...

It feels so strange to be back in the states. The snow, for one thing, is a bit of a shocker. There's just so much of it!! And the air is so bitter cold! I thought it was cold our last few days in Athens but this is just horrid! Driving home with my dad from the airport was an interesting ride because I slowly began to absorb the difference in the landscape around me. It feels so strange not to see green fields of orange and olive trees, colorful Mediterranean style buildings with orange tiled roofs, cerulean blue skies, or the limestone silhouette of the Acropolis in the distance. Instead, I see WHITE. White picket fences, white snow, a white bleak sky, white colonial style houses... Almost the complete opposite.

During our farewell dinner at a local taverna, my Greek Art History professor, who is a world-renowned archaeologist living in Greece, told me to contact him if I come back to Greece and he would give me a private tour of any site I wanted to see. For me, it's not a question of if- it's a question of when.

While I was living in Athens, I met many people who- like me- first became acquainted with Greece through a study abroad trip with their university. Each one of them told me how that was the beginning of their "love affair with Greece," because they just continued to come back until they made the decision to move their permanently. I can already see this happening for me. There is something about Greece, almost like an infection that just takes completely over you the longer you stay- and you either get it or you don't. And once you get it, there's no cure besides giving in and going back.

This trip has really extended my knowledge of ancient Greece and it has showed me all the opportunities in careers that Greece has to offer me. I've also discovered a real passion for the Bronze Age period as well as Archaic art and architecture, and I think that this is something that I would really like to get into.

There is so much to do in Athens (let alone Greece) for someone like me who is interested in what I'm most passionate about. I feel like it would be silly not to consider living or at least going back to Greece in the future. We only merely touched upon the surface of what Greece has to offer-- with over 2,000 islands and all of the Peloponnese and mainland Greece, one month is just simply not enough time.

So, I guess my next language to learn will be modern Greek then...

Thanks to all who read my blog and experienced Greece with me. I hope you enjoyed it and maybe even learned a little something too. I had the most amazing time and I've returned home feeling refreshed and missing Greece, agapi mou, already.

Yassus for now :) and polla filakia! (as they say in Greece which means "many kisses")

I hate packing.

It's our last day in Athens and it's raining. Greece is crying for us!

I HATE packing. Hate, hate, HATE it. The only thing worse than packing, in my opinion, is UNPACKING. Bleh.

We took our Greek History final yesterday morning and then went back to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens to finish looking around. It's a huge museum though, unfortunately, much of it is closed off due to a shortage in staff. There are a lot of labor strikes going on right now in Athens- one being the public transportation. We're lucky Pangrati is pretty much within walking distance to everything we truly need.

We just had our Art History final this morning. I got an A+ on the Art History midterm so hopefully I'll do well on this exam too.

Since our plans for the day are somewhat on standby considering the weather (I was gonna go for a nice long run around the stadium, then all of us girls were gonna walk around Pangrati, Plaka, Monasteraki, go shopping, stuff our faces with baklava... ya know), we're going to get some packing done and wait it out. Hopefully things will clear up soon!!!

I am SO sad that it's our last day. I honestly can really see myself living and working here in Athens. There is just so much to do here in Greece, with over 2,000 islands, how could one ever get bored? It's official. After I graduate, and do a bit of traveling, I'm moving to Greece. Sorry Mum, Dad, but you'll just have to come and visit... or move too.

Tonight we have our graduation ceremony at the Athens Centre followed by a farewell dinner at a local Greek Taverna and then possibly staying out until 6 AM in Gazi seeing as we'll have a full 11-hour plane ride to catch up on some sleep.

Last Weekend in Attika!

On Thursday, we got let out of class early, I went for a nice long run and then afterwards Sami and I went to the “Benaki Museum” in Plaka. The museum was fantastic, the building itself is a beautiful classical style structure made out of white marble. The museum was really unlike any I’ve been to before because it had artwork of all periods starting from Neolithic all the way up to present day, and the most interesting thing was the way they presented everything- they mixed modern pieces amongst the ancient ones so as you were looking through geometric pottery from the 600s BC, suddenly you would come across a modern sculpture that would just kind of make you stop and think. I really enjoyed it.

We stayed there until about 8:30 and then we headed off to downtown Plaka to have some dinner. We ate at the same restaurant we had gone to for lunch the day we saw the acropolis. The taverna itself is literally at the bottom of the acropolis so when you look out the window, you can see the lights from the acropolis and the parthenon glowing in its immensity and glory. We shared the “seafood platter” which was a fairly good size plate of tuna salad, vinegar octopus salad, fried calamari, grilled shrimp, and anchovies. It was absolutely delicious! Probably one of my favorite--if not my favorite--meals I’ve had here thus far. The seafood tasted so fresh and it really hit the spot. After we were finished, the owner of the restaurant offered us a complementary traditional greek dessert, on him, and of course we accepted! He gave us a huge plate of revari which is a honey soaked spice cake and a raisin sorbet with bourbon caramel sauce drizzled all over the plate. Yes, I ate some! It was incredible and the greatest part was after that meal, I didn’t feel yucky or overly full because we had walked so much that day and after dinner we walked around Plaka a bit more and then had to walk back to our apartment. I’m loving the lifestyle here- no wonder everyone is so lean despite the amount of carbs they seem to eat! They walk all the time! After that meal, Sami and I kept saying how we could totally live here. Even though I’m not much of a city girl, I could really see myself living and working in Athens. There’s so much to do in Greece, so much history, it would be almost impossible to run out of things to do!

Friday it rained ALL DAY. It was an awful awful day. It was windy, cold, wet. Sami and I attempted to go out anyways but that just ended up being an awful idea. We got soaked and were miserable. We decided to head back to the apartment and just work on some homework. Boring.

Today seems like it’ll be a little better in terms of the weather. It’s a bit nippy, very cloudy and a little windy but hasn’t started raining yet. I just did 8 miles at the track and now I’m going to meet up with Ally, Julie and Sami at the Acropolis Museum to explore Plaka some more. I’ve decided that Plaka is my favorite section of Athens! It’s gorgeous, quaint and more quiet than other parts of the city.

Unfortunately, I no longer am able to get wifi in my apartment for some reason which totally sucks! So I won’t be able to post as regularly as I have been doing in the past. We won’t be doing a whole lot of sightseeing this last week-- just finishing up classes, writing some papers, final exams, and then we have our graduation ceremony at the Athens Centre on Thursday evening with a ceremonial farewell dinner at a local taverna to follow. Then, we leave for the states! So sad :’(

Saturday night, after us girls shopped around Plaka, Mary, Samanatha, Ally, Julie, Phil, Zach, Sami and I all went out to a club in a district of Athens called Psiri. It’s similar to Gazi in the sense that it has a bunch of clubs and bars except it’s a little less touristy and expensive, and its a bit rougher around the edges and more locals tend to go there.

The club we went to was called “Vega” and in order to get in you either had to be on their list or make friends with the bouncers. Obviously we did the latter. The club was pretty crazy, the bartender was a transvestite, and for once everyone--even the greeks--were dancing! Normally they just kind of stand there, purse their lips, and bob their heads to the music and check you out as you walk by. Us girls just kind of stuck together like we always do and had a good time. We got home around 5, ate hummus in our semi-drunken stupor and passed out. Great night.

Sunday, Sami and I woke up late (naturally)- I went for a nice long run at the stadium while she did some writing in her travel journal and then we went window shopping in Monasteraki (all the shops close by 5 o’clock on Sundays). we walked around forever, just getting lost in the city, which is really the best way to explore. by seven, we were thirsty so we stopped at a cafe to have some coffee and a little nosh to refuel before heading back home. Once we got home, we took a three hour nap before getting all dressed up for our last night out in Athens! We went to this really cool bar in Plaka that we have walked by in the day time and have always said that we should check it out at night. three of the four walls are lined with shelves holding bottles of house-made liquor in every flavor and color that you could possibly think of- mandarin, raspberry, coffee, lemoncello, chestnut, green apple, banana, pistachio... you name it, they got it. The fourth wall had two large shelving units that were holding huge barrels labeled “ouzo” and “brandy.”

While Sami and I sipped our drinks and chatted, this "lovely" Greek man whom I shall nickname "Eyebrows," due to the fact that he had a unibrow situation going on above his eyes, came over and sat next to us. He and his friends-- who were all about 40 ish-- had been eyeing us since we walked in. He was kind of drunk, didn't speak much english and very creepy. Just another night in Attika for ya!