On Tuesday morning we met up at Acropolis with the other Erasmus students to get a guided tour at Acropolis to see Parthenon for cost of 2€. Parthenon is said to be the most perfect building built by the world's most advanced civilization, and I didn't think I would appreciate it as much as I actually did... But I would recommend everyone who visits Athens to visit this, preferably in the evening so that you get both the view in daylight as well as the sunset, and then you can go straight down to the area around Plaka and Monastiraki to get some dinner.
From 1/4-31/10, a standard ticket costs €20 and from 1/11-31/3, a standard ticket costs €10. But, as with much else here in Greece, there are discounts for higher education students. So as long as you have your student ID with you, proving that you are a student in the EU, you get free admission. If you are a student from outside the EU the ticket is only €6.
After the guided tour I was once again starving (since, once again, I didn't have access to a kitchen at my hostel...) so me and some friends walked down to the city center in order to find somewhere to eat which can be a surprisingly difficult decision given that there are restaurants and cafes just about everywhere. And yes, I actually googled how many restaurants there are, and in 2018 there were over 100,000 in Athens alone. However, we ended up at Gypsy Jungle and were left disappointed...
We spent the rest of the day together in the city and after a quick stop at my hostel to get changed, I then walked with Pauline to see another apartment that I had found on facebook. It was located close to school and close to most of my friends, which also means that it's also located in one of the worse areas. But I had been thinking about it a lot, and decided that I'd rater be close than to be further away in a safer area, but alone and far from it all.
The apartment is on the fourth floor, newly renovated with reinforced locks on all doors and windows, insulated walls, spears on the balcony (yes, spears) so no one can be able to climb in and the landlord was very kind and trustworthy. He had another who had looked at the apartment that same morning, and just after me there was also a third person coming see it, but I made it very clear to him that I wanted the apartment ant that I had the money to pay both the first rent and the deposit right away. So, we facetimed my roommate (a girl from Germany) and told her that I was her new flatmate and then I signed the contract.
I then had some soda at Pauline's with Mia before we took the metro back to Barstation where we had the "Greek dinner with unlimited wine". We sat down at our tables with all different kinds of greek-food coming one after the other and in the background we had live music. This was by far one of my absolute favorite evenings and my heart overflowed with love.
All of our Greek buddies, who also are volunteers for AUEB ESN Athens and who has arranged all this (and more to come) must be some of the kindest and friendliest people on this earth. And once again, we all talked about our home countries, about differences and similarities. We raised our wine glasses, we danced, we sang and over and over again I thought about how grateful I was to be alive, and to be right here, right now.
With love, Elsa ♡
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