Kalinychta (or, kaliméra for me since it's currently 1:00 am here in Athens)!
As of approximately 7 hours ago, I arrived in Athens, Greece for a Spring 2017 study abroad program. After flying out of Philadelphia International Airport on Friday evening, transferring in London early Saturday morning for a 5-hour layover, and then flying into Ελλάδα/Hellas (Greek for "Athens"), I was beyond ready to have my legs back on solid ground, some delicious local food in my stomach, and fresh clothes on my back. While the trip was long, it went fairly smoothly for the most part. I voyaged with 3 other women from my study abroad program, and eventually met up with a 4th once in Athens. Having some travel buddies made the long, tiring, and - frankly - rather sweaty/grimy journey a bit more bearable. However, there were some minor blips in the trip:
Thankfully, our cab driver was very nice, normal, and helpful - which was relieving after a full day of travel consisting of several minorly-annoying incidents. After a few minutes of silence in our taxi and then passing through a toll station, I got the urge to ask our cabbie how to correctly pronounce some words in Greek that I was having difficulty reading/saying, most significantly "thank you." In Greek, the word is "ευχαριστώ/efcharistó," which is obviously a bit flustering at first glance. I soon mastered that pronunciation (including the phlegm-y sound you make for the "ch" in this word), as well as the words for "you're welcome," "hello," "good morning," "good evening," and "good night." Once I got out of the cab and paid the fare, I made sure to use some of my new vocab ("efcharistó, kalinychta!). The cabbie gave me a nod of approval, and I smiled as I entered the lobby of the apartment building that will be my home for the next 3 months. Finally, once the 5 of us arrived in Pangrati (we were the last ones to make it), we quickly showered, changed clothes, and headed downtown to the square to find some food. The combination of jet lag, notable hunger pangs, and seeing nothing but Greek words/letters everywhere made me a bit overwhelmed, honestly. Learning a new language is hard enough on its own, let alone learning an entirely new alphabet at the same time. We eventually decided on a little restaurant right in the square that looked good....and had menus that contained absolutely no English words on it. Embodying the stupid, culturally insensitive American stereotype, we asked for English menus and got seated. Unfortunately, the restaurant staff did not seem to like us or our large presence very much. It took over an hour to get our food - and it took nearly 40 minutes after our other table had already received and finished their food for the rest of us to be served. Oh well. That chicken souvlaki (basically chicken kabob with veggies and fries) made up for it. Next time I'm totally getting spanakopita (spinach pie) and at least trying to butcher my pronunciation of "efcharistó/thank you, " even if the waiters are highly unamused. TTFN, Hannah
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Hannah BisbingStudent @ Penn State. Figure skater. Writer. Traveler. Coffee fanatic. Foodie. Semi-professional people watcher who recently returned home from backpacking around Europe. All photos taken by me, unless otherwise noted.
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