Rainbow Child

Yesterday I went by myself at the beach. I can’t believe that at 7:20 I was waiting for the bus to come! By 8 I was at the beach. I thought I was going to be the only one there, being a Sunday early morning, but other crazy Greeks got there before me.

I’m not a big fan of sunbaths so I usually read while at the beach. But this time I was lucky: I met Mika. She’s a senior *I have no idea how old she is, cause she’s looking really good for her age, whatever that is* with blond hair, incredible body and a lot of charm. She’s from Switzerland, but she’s been living in Athens for 29 years! She was married to an USA marine officer and lived in the American base in Athens, but unfortunately, her husband died 9 years after their marriage. She remained here though, but she still goes every year back to Geneva where she has family. Oh, by the way, she takes care of 15!!! cats Gotta love Mika! We liked each other instantly and then spent 2h talking about so many things. I’ve got her phone number and I can hardly wait to met her again!

Then in the afternoon I went with my aunt to Lycabettus Hill. The view from there is more than impressive! Athens is a HUGE city! I kept staring at the view in front of me and couldn’t believe my eyes! Streets after streets, buildings after buildings! I’m still under the spell of the hugeness of the city! Athens was everywhere you looked from up there. Truly impressive!

Today we went second hand shopping and with 13 euro I bought like 2 pairs of jeans, 2 of pants, 2 skirts and 3 T-shirts. I have to thank my aunt for showing me all these cool places Speaking of which, we get along really well and we talk about stuff and we eat vegetarian food and if I don’t feel like eating she let’s me have only water melon, so yeah, she’s cool!

I was supposed to meet with Pia this afternoon, but she didn’t answered her phone, so I have no idea what I’ll be doing. Until Pia sees my message, I’ll just go to the Internet cafe near home. Keep you updated!

This Friday wasn’t at all eventful. I went with my aunt to the beach and for the first time in my life I didn’t get sunburnt. The sea is so beautiful, calm and salty! Now wonder even Mum was able to swim here My aunt goes to a part of the beach were there are mostly old people. It was OK, no one staring, no one making stupid jokes, I felt at ease there. And I was impressed when I saw all those 70-year-old people swimming and my aunt told me that some of them go almost every day to the beach. There was this man who went swimming and took his crane with him, so he could get out of the water!!! I was speechless.

Tomorrow’s another sea-day, but this time I’ll be on my own. Hope I won’t get killed by some angry Athenian woman on the bus I thought that Bucharest people were aggressive and like to shout at each other on the street/in the bus etc, but Athenians are worse! It’s good that I don’t understand what they shout, I wouldn’t like to hear them curse at each other. Crazy people!

Today was a real tiring day. I woke up at 8:30, took a shower and by 9:30 I was out of the house. I was curious to see how close to the city centre we really are. Verdict: about 35 minutes of strolling. Cool! On my way to Syntagma I made a stop at two museums: The Museum of Cycladic Art and Benaki Museum. The Benaki Museum is very nice! You can see exhibits starting from Ancient Greece and up to the forming of the modern Greek state. Too bad they don’t allow visitors to take pictures. I spent more that 1:30h there and I didn’t want to leave. I walked up and down the corridors with the hands in my pockets cause the temptation of touching some of the exhibits was way too powerful! Imagine, standing face to face with a sculpture that was made 2-3 centuries B.C. It’s now wonder I’ve always liked history: I’m in awe when it comes to all these things Man made and survived up to this age; I feel so small, so insignificant compared to Man across the centuries.

Like usual, I didn’t have an itinerary, and I just kept on walking where my feet took me. From the museums I went to buy the ticket for the Fly Beeyond Festival. A group of 3 Americans stopped me on the street and asked how could they get to Acropolis and I felt damn good when I was able to help them! Then I was on my way to where my aunt told me I’d find the music shop. Well, I was walking for some time on that street and no music shop, so I stopped the guy with dreadlocks which was walking in from of me:
- Hello, do you know where I can buy tickets for the Fly Beeyond Festival?
He started laughing:
- I’m buying tickets myself. Follow me!
So I did. We talked about Athens, Bucharest, the difference between the two, music festivals until we arrived at Ianos, music and book shop. Well, they sent us to another music shop so we continued our talk. I had to give my full name and my phone number at the tickets selling point and I found out that if you buy 2 tickets, you get on free. That’s never going to happen in Romania! Never! Well, 55 euros for Massive Attack and Gogol Bordelo is not a fortune and I can hardly wait for the fest to start! ^_^ Then I said good-bye to the nice dude and I was once again on my way.

Syntagma is kind of a fancy street so I headed to Monastiraki. Oh, before that I entered some book shops. What can I say? WOW! Carturesti and Humanitas Kretzulescu are nice, but these ones were more than nice; and I still have one more big book store to see. So, I spent another hour or so walking on some shopping street in Monastiraki. There are sooo many shops there! I’m trying not to be impulsive and buy whatever I lay eyes on, but it’s kind of hard. From Monastiraki I went and took a short walk in the National Park near the Parliament and then went home. It was past 3:30 when I arrived. I ate, took a shower and went to bed. Man, was I tired! I’m still not jumpy even now, but I have to pull myself together and get down to work. Sucky, I know.

2 girls smiled at me today and I people don’t stare like they do in Bucharest. And one guy stopped me on the street:
- Wow, cool hair!
- Thanks!
- Do you like mine?
- Uhm, yours is OK too *what a silly haircut!*
- Keep it real!
- I’ll try!

Yeah, Greeks are nice. Crazy, but nice

Got up at about 10 in the morning and my aunt told me we would go to a supermarket to buy some food. Well, the funny part is that the supermarket turned into Syntagma. We went windowshopping for about 2-3h hours. Man, that was tiring!

I might have overreacted a bit regarding the heat. Today it was bearable and there is a breeze going around the city. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m not sweating, but at least I can breathe. I didn’t get the chance to take pictures cause “we were in a hurry”, but I’m going back there these days and I’ll come back with an update + pics. On the way there I saw the Parliament and the National Garden, and I’m definitely going to visit the last one.

I asked for a map of the whole Athens and the guy at the kiosk gave me on of the city centre. Happy happy joy joy! This means that tomorrow I have to buy a new one, but a good one this time. Greeks are crazy, at least the drivers are. I don’t know about traffic jams and stuff, but I saw how they’re driving and they’re absolutely mad! I’ve been with the bus only 2 times till now and I totally hate the bus drivers! I’m never again going to complain about the one back in Bucharest! The bus drivers here act like the bus is full of stones, not of people and they drive accordingly. You can actually fall when they stop if you’re not holding reaaaaaally tight to the bar. And when it comes to crossing the road, the light turns incredibly quick from green to red so I kind of have to run to be sure I make it on time on the other side, cause the cars are surely not waiting for anyone.

Athens is packed with tourists, which is good, cause I don’t feel like the only alien here. And all the people serving at the kiosks know English and usually the Athenians are friendly so it’s quite nice to be a tourist here. I like very much the buildings here cause they’re not as tall as the ones in Romania and they’re not gray

In the afternoon I took a walk on my own, but I didn’t go too far, but just far enough to spot a Starbucks and be happy about it Where’s Starbucks, there’s a hotspot and that means I can actually post these before I get home Tomorrow afternoon is Starbucks day

Tomorrow we’re going to the beach, so I have to be up at 7 Guess I’ll be going to bed now. Talk to you later!

Athens – day 1

I left rainy Bucharest and came to hot Athens. Like I’ve said, this time I traveled light: my backpack was about 13kg and my laptop bag didn’t weight more than 4kg – can’t get lighter than that.

The trip to the airport was pretty OK, the check in went smooth – it was my first time traveling with a plane and I was on my own, I have to admit I didn’t think it was all as simple as mum told me it would be – but once on the plane, I started thinking about plane crashes and me dying and you know, I kind of panicked. I was really cool about flying before I got on the plane, then it just happened. The first 10-15 minutes after take off I was convinced I was going to die. I almost started crying. I wasn’t thinking about dying and not telling some people how much I love them, but of the fact that I hadn’t made a will.

For my own peace of mind, if anything bad happens on my future trips, I want my parents to take care of uRMa, Jen to be the first to choose from my books, Oompa to have my accessories and my camera, Roxa to have my iPod, Puck to choose from my clothes *I think we’re kind of the same size*, Hiacint to have all my teas and tea sets and they can fight for the rest of my stuff

I was upset that the steward didn’t let me take pictures of the clouds and the sunset, though the guy sitting behind me was using his laptop, and where I come it’s an electrical device as well. It was pretty awesome being above the clouds. They looked so fluffy and puffy! It was 9:20 in the evening by the time the plane got to Athens and the city was splendid seen from above!

I met my aunt at the airport and took a bus back to her place. She lives near the American Embassy, near the town centre, which is totally awesome. What is not that awesome is that fact that it’s bloody hot here: 28ºC at 10 o’clock in the evening. I’m sweating as I’m writing this, though the window is wide open. There’s no wind blowing here, the air doesn’t move one bit. I think Roxa’s curses finally got to me and now I’m complaining about the horrible heat.

The house my aunt lives in is so nice! She has a 5-room apartment on the second floor of a building. I have the smallest room, but, in my opinion, the cosiest one as well! I like the old furniture in my room and the shelves full of books. Of course, they are in Greek so I have no idea what they’re about. And my aunt is 90% vegetarian and eats only healthy food which is awesome!!! I predict we’re going to get along quite well.

Tomorrow I’m buying a map and going exploring! I can hardly wait!

Well, I wanted to use the Starbucks’ hotspot, but the drinks there were kind of pricy so I came to an Internet cafe. The bad part is that I have all my updates on my laptop. Sucky! I’ll come back one of this days and give a full update of what I’ve been up to since I came here.

To cut the story short, it’s awesome here! I love the city, I hate the heat, the people are friendly and OK, I’m red from staying in the sun, my aunt doesn’t eat meat as well ^_^ and only from tomorrow will the “get lost in the city marathon” start.

So, catch up with you later!