An Eventful Week in Athens

On Monday after my training my new Greek friend V invited me to go watch her friend play in a music concert. It wasn’t really what we expected but it was a nice experience. The event was in a French school and somehow it was related to Christmas even though for me Christmas has already been celebrated a long time ago. It was old, classical Greek music which only lasted for like 15 minutes, so I wouldn’t say it was a concert. After the music they held a lot of speeches, so we decided to take the subway back to the center of Athens. But it was nice to visit Pireas, the harbor area of Athens. After being between high blocks for three weeks it was wonderful to see the ocean. Later that evening we climbed up to the rocks beside the Acropolis and enjoyed the view.

The illuminated Acropolis

On Wednesday I met up with V and K and some of their friends to go to a basket ball game organized by some of the Red Cross volunteers. We stayed there for a couple of hours and then we went to Keramikos for some Greek fast food. We ordered pita gyros with French fries on the side. A pita gyros is usually a pita bread filled with your choice of meet, lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, fries and tzatziki – I really recommend it. 

Pita gyros at Kándaulos

On Friday I went to a Latin club together with V. It was a really small but crowded place. I think the name of the club is Palenque. I have always loved dancing, but I had never danced salsa with a partner before, so it was quite awkward. At first, I wasn’t even planning on dancing because I felt uncomfortable but suddenly someone just grabbed my arm and took me to the dance floor even though I tried to tell that I really don’t know how to dance with a partner. I think I stepped on some toes that night, but they didn’t seem to mind. The best part was the atmosphere in the club; everyone danced with each other regardless of the age or whether they knew each other from before or not. Maybe I’ll take some salsa lessons when I come back to Finland…

Palm trees in the National Garden

On Saturday I finally met E, who arrived to Athens on Friday, also for an Erasmus placement. I tried to be her guide for the day and we walked around in the center of the city. We went to a few shops and then we stopped for some Greek souvlaki. It was a beautiful, sunny day, so we climbed up to the Acropolis and watched the sunset together with probably a hundred other tourists. We continued the evening in a bar called City Zen which had a nice rooftop with a view to the illuminated Acropolis.

After a while we got invited by V and K to come to a restaurant with live Greek music in Exarcheia. We had heard some bad stuff about that area, but they convinced us that it would be totally safe at that time of the evening (22.00). We took the metro from Monastiraki to Omonia and walked about 10 minutes to the restaurant. On our way, we saw some men with those kinds of black cover-up masks that you see in movies and they were actually beating somebody up at the Omonia square. We got a little bit alarmed and continued walking faster towards the restaurant. We got there safely and had a nice evening, but I have to say that it was one of the most horrible looking restaurants I have ever seen. All though, it seemed like the locals really loved the place because after some time it was totally crowded with Greek people singing and dancing.

At around 1 am we started to get tired, so we decided to leave the restaurant and head home. The second we went outside our eyes started to burn but we figured it was because we had been in a room with a lot of cigarette smoke. When the burning sensation spread its way to our noses and got stronger, I suddenly realized that it was tear gas. We kind of freaked out a little bit because we didn’t know what to do and we saw people walking really fast with their mouth and nose covered with clothing. Well, we went back inside the restaurant and told the others what had happened, and they just laughed and told us not to worry. After 30 minutes we tried going outside again and the worst was over, but we could still feel it in our throats while walking to the taxi line. 

Sunset from the rocks beside the Acropolis

On Sunday I woke up to a knock on my door. I opened the door and my roommates looked at me all shocked and asked me if I was okay. I was really confused and told them “yeah, why?”. Because I had come home so late the two past days we hadn’t seen each other at all, so apparently, they were worried about me which was warming to know. After convincing them I was fine, they asked me why my eyes were so red… I guess it was a side effect from the tear gas.

I believe that was the weirdest birthday wake-up I have ever had. Usually it has been my family or boyfriend with chocolate cake and presents but this time it was my worried roommates interrogating me. I continued my morning reading all my messages and it was the first time I got really homesick. To be honest I might have cried a little, but it was mostly happy tears from all the wonderful birthday greetings I got. When I had pulled my self together I went out with E for some Chinese food and for dessert we ate Lukumades which remind me a little of Spanish churros.

Lukumades with honey and cinnamon (traditional) and some with white chocolate

Despite the scary situations, I had the best week in Athens so far. Sorry for the long post!