The best birthday weekend!

Last Tuesday (3rd of April) was again the practical training in Attiko hospital and after I went straight to the central T.E.I for my greek lessons. The car ride from the hospital to the school was so cool! Car full of students, good greek music, coffee, windows open and everyone going crazy and singing and dancing! That's life! The feeling was so good! That would never happen in Finland unless people had been drinking something else than coffee.. :D

When the greek lessons where over I had a date with my greek friend Dora at Syntagma and we walked to Monastiraki to have a coffee at this so awesome place down the narrow alley. We sat there like over three hours talking about everything! :) it was so great. :) After I walked back to home and was exhausted after being out for over 12 hours..

Wednesday 4th of April the day was similar. After greek lessons I decided to try another way back home by bus which I've seen passing my place, 732. It took a while before I found the bus stop near Larissa metro station. The bus ride took for ever and the bus was so packed with people! When I got home I felt so tired and also a bit sick AGAIN!? My throat was hurting and I had a terrible headache. :( 

Thursday I was supposed to go to the rehabilitation center but I felt not good at all so I just slept for 12,5 hours! Then I tried to do some packing and rested the day. In the evening it was time for the final semifinal game in basketball: Panathinaikos - Maccabi Electra. I went there with Xenofon and Miina and it was so awesome! Like 1,5 hour before the game the stadium was full of people!! Even before the game the noise was crazy! 

Before the game

Me and Miina, PAO fans!

After winning the game 86-85!!

When the game ended everyone run to the court!! :D

It was a really good thing that we won the game 'cause I was afraid how people would have reacted there and also Xenofon told me that he wouldn't speak with me if we would have lost.. :P We got a ride from Xenofon back to home and I went to sleep around 1. 30 am. 

On Friday 6th of April it was my birthday and the day that the long waited sailing trip started!! The trip was organized by Athensmus and it cost us 165€ for three days. We met at Syntagma tram station at 8 and started our way to Edem tram stop near Marina Alimos. We: me, Elise from Holland, Erica from the States, Marti from Italy and Marie from France shared were in the same boat together. We got of the tram at Edem and went to the nearest market to buy stuff to the boat while me and Elise stressed a bit about being on time since it was already 8.35 and the meeting was at 8.30. We went to the pier 2 ahead with Elise after shopping and there really wasn't anyone there.. 

Since me and Elise were the first ones in our boat we got to choose the best room or cabin from our Black Pearl boat! After we got ourselves feel like home and the other girls also came we went to buy coffee and hang around on the deck of our boat. We waited and waited some more.. 

Finally at noon our boat was the first boat the set the sails and leave from the harbour while we enjoyed on the deck of the boat! In our boat also was our skipper (Skippy) and this really nice guy Nikos! :)

We sailed around 4 hours until it was time for the first stop somewhere near Eagina island at some bay. The sailing was so so nice! Just to relax on the boat, enjoy the sea and the sun!

The first stop

All together we had 11 sailing boats. We left from the first place towards Poros around 8 pm and I was so starving! We had a great time sitting outside and talking with the girls and our "grew". We also got to try to sail the boat and it was nice!

While sailing towards my second home we admired the full moon and the people on the boat sang me happy birthday in different languages! I absolutely LOVED the greek version!! <3 Also me and Marie sat like two hours on the deck under blankets watching stars and the full moon and wondering about life..

Titanic :D we felt like being those two guardians on the deck looking for icebergs :D

Marie and me

Poros <3

When we arrived to Poros we left straight to eat at Oasis restaurant which I chose. :) There the owner was really happy to see me, once again, and the girls told him that I have a birthday. We ordered and ate and when I asked for the check they brought more wine to us, when I ordered it again after drinking the wine I got this big ice-cream portion with some sparkler sticks on it and everybody sang to me, again.. :D When we finally got the bill they hadn't included any of my food in the bill. When we were walking away the owner asked where we were going and he told as that the bar Malibu was open and wrote us a note saying 10 free shots from him! :D

The night went really fast and we had fun time at Malibu and we also met Costas and his two friends. Me, Marie and Erica were the last ones from our boat to go to bed around 4 am. :)

The next morning it was so great to open the trap door to the deck and see the sun up and feel the warm weather! Nikos had bought some breakfast for us so we ate it and left to walk around the town. I showed the girls around and we climbed to see the clock tower and the view! :) 

We walked around the town and went grocery shopping since the next time we would touch land would be back in Marina Alimos on Sunday evening.. Then it was time to leave Poros around 2-3 pm and again our boat left first from the harbour. When we were around the corner of the island our Skippy asked if we wanted to swim quickly and of course we did!! That was an extra thing for us since we left first..

Get ready, jump!

We sailed maybe 4 hours to Agistri to some small bay where we "parked" our boats next to each other. On the way there I was sitting on the tip of the boat while the other girls were sleeping on the deck. At some point this other sailing boat which wasn't one of hours sailed right next to us. They started talking with our Skippy, they took pictures of me from their boat and suddenly this one man started climbing to our boat while we were sailing all the time! Once he made it to our boat he came to talk with me. :D He couldn't really speak english that much so I tried to talk in greek with him. He was a funny, 38-year-old guy with wife and children. Everything I told about myself to him he shouted it to his boat to the other guys. They wanted and tried to kidnap me to their boat. :D They were friends of your Skippy. :) 

In the bay some girls went to swim but I was freezing so I took a hot shower and changed warm clothes on and it felt so much better! We played cards inside and at 8.30 pm Nikos made pasta for us to eat at dinner. We made the table outside and enjoyed the best pasta and "white party wine". All the boats were in line and everyone was eating in their own boats. :) 

Little by little the music at the "head" boat started to get louder and they had a dj desk and real sound system! :) The night was awasome! They reflected some lights to the rocks in front of the boats. We had light sticks and some people also had torches and stuff! At some point of the night we had a great idea to get one of the tiny lifeboats to go around the yachts.. So we found our Skippy, who was a bit drank, to take care of us.. :D It was fun to go around them and see the party "outside". The guys who wanted to get me to their boat in the afternoon had decided to join our party so I hang around a lot with them practising my greek skills!! It was so much fun! So much fun! :D I was the last one up from my boat and I went to bed around 4.30 am. 

on a lifeboat

The next morning I woke up at 11 am and went to the deck to enjoy the sun. Everybody had so many bruises on their legs from jumping from boat to boat. I wonder how everyone managed to stay on the boats.. :D We hang around at the same spot, we sunbathed and swam. At 3 pm we set the sails towards Pireus. After one hour sailing the weather changed totally!! It was cloudy, cold and the sea was starting to get rough!

The weather was so terrible for the last 2,5 hour of the trip that we couldn't go inside cause immediatelly we felt seasick.. We had to stay outside and freeze. :D But we finally made it safely to the harbour and it started raining a lot. We all got a car ride from Nikos to home, that was so nice! 

Black Pearl family: me, Marti, Marie, Skippy, Erica and Elise

Nikos and his girls

I had absolutely the best birthday ever! I couldn't have asked for more! :) <3

On a Monday morning I woke up late and discovered that my voice was gone. Great. I took the day really easy and in the evening Elise came to stop by my house so I could get pictures from here camera which we used most of the time 'cause it was new and the best camera we had. The next two weeks most of the students have of from their schools because of the Easter holidays!

Tuesday: like I said most of the students.. We still had to go to our practical training but it was actually pretty fun day there since the supervisor/teacher really challenged me to speak Greek and wouldn't let anyone help me by translating.. After I went to the central campus to eat and this really shy professional swimmer boy started talking with me. :) He was a nice guy but really really shy, and didn't speak that good english and I could see that he was really nervous talking to me! Maybe some day I can see him swimming in the "big games". The day was really clod, it was only +12 and I was freezing!

In the evening I walked to Miina's place to say hi since she could go to Corfu for easter and I would be in Poros so we wouldn't see each other for almost couple of weeks! :) She had had her friends from Finland over and she had finnish rye bread and finnish chocolate!! That made my day! Also my voice was getting back and it was stronger!

Today on Wednesday my practical training was really boring since we only had two patients. The teacher let us leave already at 10.30 and I went to school to eat and headed home. I'm planning on taking a nap and then heading to Pireus to try to buy ticket for the ferry tomorrow morning.. All the flying dolphin tickets are sold out. Hopefully I'll get a ticket!! THEN (I've been waiting this for four weeks..!) I'm going to Pireus at this restaurant to surprise a family friend of ours who has worked earlier in Poros..! Manos has NO IDEA that I'm even in Greece or that I know that he doesn't work in Poros anymore.. He is going to be in shock! Last time two years ago when I surprised him he almost stared crying.. :P I just don't have any idea what time he is working so I just have to try to guess. I really hope I can see him tonight! :)

Small stuff I've noticed and I love about:

•  Men and children! Oh my god, it's like a day and night compared to Finland and young men there. Here most people adore children! I've noticed it when spending summers here but I've only thought that it was kind of part of their job to get along with kids so for example their parents would come again to some restaurant to eat. But no. It's the culture. For example the other day at the practical training at the hospital the door for the room where we work at was open and outside sat this maybe 3-year-old cute girl reading her book outloud. One of the manly, muscular, jock boy was the first one to go outside and to kneel down to her and start chatting and reading the book with her! I was shocked! And today on of the boys suddenly just come in with a baby in his lap and told us that isn't she cute!! :DD 

• Most people here buy metro tickets which are only valid for 90 minutes. (In Finland most of the people have these monthly travel cards). So here when people leave from the metro or bus and they don't need their ticket anymore they give it to you straight or leave it on the validating machine for someone to use. That would never happen in Finland. And that's just the most obvious thing here.

• The traffic here is what it is in most of the southern European countries. Also here it's really hard to find a parking spot. So many times here I've seen that when someone is trying to pocket park to some small space people stop to help them by showing how much further they can back. Again, it would never happen in Finland. 

•  Here you can find almost every one carrying in their hands either coffee cup, komboloi (the string with pearls used to relieve stress, keep hands and fingers occupied and generally pass the time), a cigaret or a phone! 

..and hate about:

• People have here usually two phones. And they have these stupid prepaid phone things that they never have credit to call or text. So they can't get a hold of you when they need. So people use a lot their friends phones so I never know who is calling to me from which phone!