Throughout the semester, my friends and I have made a
concerted effort to make the most of study abroad. As we travel nearly every single weekend, it
would be easy to feel unsteady in your routine. We have a more limited time in our home city than many programs
offer.
To combat this, we are constantly exploring all that Athens
has to offer during the week. From Monday
to Thursday, we made sure to take every opportunity to go out into Athens. To create a sense of normalcy, I dedicated
certain days to specific activities. For
instance, Monday is exploration day. I
choose a different neighborhood of this sprawling capital city and walk its
streets with a friend. Together, we seek
out hidden side streets and shops, sip coffee in cafes, and appreciate the
variety within Athens. In this way, I
have gained a true sense of the city and have made it my own.
Athens nightlife largely occurs on weekends. The club scene is rather quiet during the
week, compared to its rowdy nature on Friday and Saturday. Mondays are still nights to dance in the
clubs without quite as much of a crowd.
Other nights, my friends and I frequent bars like the Greeks do. In an overly crowded, overly loud space, we
find a table and post up. Sitting
outdoors if the weather permits, we sip a drink and socialize with our own
table for hours.
Greeks are friendly in some circumstances – and not at all
in others. At a shop or café, the locals
will say hello and chat. In a social
setting however, they do not talk to people outside of their group.
I often spend Tuesdays visiting museums. With my school ID, I have free access to all
of Greece’s museums and archeological sites.
Outside of class, I have viewed the artifacts in the National Archeology
museum, the Acropolis Museum, the Benaki museum, and the Byzantine museum. Initially, I saved the museums for rainy or
cold days unfit for outdoor adventures.
However, as the semester progressed, I happily realized that days of
inclement weather were infrequent.
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