Arriving in Athens

It was 9:00 am on a Monday when Jane picked me up from Athens airport. We rode a taxi to the residence, which was in central Athens. When I arrived I was given a card key with my name taped across, it opened the door to room 4. Luckily my room was on the first floor, of a five-story stair spiraling building. As I stepped in, I went over the layout of the room. The first thing that caught my attention was the bunk bed, it had used sheets on the bottom bed. I wasn’t a huge fan of sleeping on the top, but then again, I didn’t really mind. It was a good-sized room with a balcony, a bathroom, and a small kitchen. We had bedside tables, a coat hanger, a shoe rack, a bathroom rack, a laundry bag, a fridge, a drawer to store our clothes and an open space where we would soon get a study table. We had all the basic necessities to have an organized room.

As I had hoped and guessed, my roommate was Samaya. She's half Dutch and half Bhutnese. Since I had arrived a few days late, everybody was away and had started their first day of school. The building was quiet and I was left alone in my room to unpack and shower. The shower I would find, consisted of a showerhead, drainage hole and the entire bathroom. There was only a small glass frame on the side, which did nothing to stop the water from spraying over the entire bathroom floor.

By the time I had showered and unpacked it was around 2 O’clock. I wasn’t too hungry but Stephanie took me to lunch on the main road, in front of the residence. I ordered a Greek salad, which consisted of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, capers, olives, feta cheese, and of course olive oil. Pretty much all savory dishes in Greece include olive oil. Afterwards Stephanie ordered us a Greek yogurt for desert. I was pretty full but I decided to try it anyways. Once I had tried it, I couldn’t stop myself from having more. It was the most delicious yogurt I had ever had and so my addiction to Greek yogurt had started. Traditional Greek yogurt tastes different because it is made of sheeps milk.

The sun was setting, casting an orange glow on the city. I had the familiar dreamy feeling of confusion as I walked along the line of restaurants. I felt as if I were walking into a painting because beautiful sceneries always seem to remind me of paintings.

My roommate Samaya on the left and Ayyyyyesha on the right.

Balcony view. Pretty much all streets in Athens look like this.

Bitter oranges trees grew all around the residence. Supposedly they are very bitter, but they make jams out of them in greece.

#Athens