This is my life and I'm loving it!

After the trip to Milos I started realizing that I've only got around one month left. Time goes past too fast. The next day I did some housework, went to the gym, studied some greek and went to the beach with my boyfriend. The next day it was time for me and Miina to go to the international office to get some paperwork done and return some reports. After that we tried to prepare ourselves for our greek exam.. The exam ended up being really easy for me and I did it in 10 minutes and got everything right. It was really sad to say goodbye to the teacher and hug her goodbye :( When our exam was over we went to sit in Egaleo and rewarded ourselves with ice-cream. :) We talked about going home and what we were scared and afraid of.. In the evening me, Miina and her friend went to Panourmou to some coffee place called Playce. It was a nice place where you can drink coffee and play different kind of card or board games. :) 

On Thursday 7th of June I woke up early and went to the gym. After that I had a date with Miina in Monastiraki and I saw my language partner Despoina in the afternoon. I hadn't seen her in like two months! She had made me so lovely gift with pictures of Greece and a long poem in Greek which was about me and she told me she was inspired by all my facebook photos. It was so nice! We had a last chat and of course we were having coffee at the same time. Then we hugged goodbye and agreed to keep in touch and keep learning the languages. :)

Αν η Ελλάδα
καταστραφεί τελείως,
θα μείνει μια ελία,
ένα κλήμα
και μια βάρκα.
Είναι αρκετά για να 
ζαναχτιστεί 
από την αρχή.

On Friday I went to the rehabilitation center in Ilion to say bye to everyone I knew. It was sad to see my "supervisor" so sad. It was so difficult to just walk away from there 'cause I don't know if I will ever see them again and I'll never get to know what happens to the patients.. :/ I realized that the rest of my time in Greece would be saying goodbye to some people and see you later to some.. :( After I went to the gym again and then I discovered a new and faster way to the beach! It usually took me around 45-60 minutes but with this way (first bus 550 and then a tram for couple of stops) it took around 30-40minutes! 

On Saturday afternoon I travelled to Miina's place since she was leaving back to Finland. We hang around and then it was time for her to leave. It was so sad. :( I helped her to get her stuff to the cab and then we hugged goodbye for this time. :/ In the evening I went out with my boyfriend to some place near his home and it was nice to just hang and listen to greek music and enjoy. :) 

On Sunday 10th it was so hot day! It was around +38 but it felt so much more. It was burning hot. You couldn't even eat without getting sweaty. I took like five showers during the day. It wasn't even an option to leave the house and the aircondition. We had a barbeque on the balcony and once in a while for a short time I tried to sunbathe..

The next week or the beginning of it went past without me even noticing. On Tuesday I went to Attiko hospital to get a signature from the teacher and to see everyone there. On Wednesday it was time for the beach again and then on Thursday morning I went to the fruit market near by. It's only once a week and they sell everything like potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, strawberries, peaches = everything! And it was so cheap: three kilos of tomatoes was ONE EURO! 

In the evening of Thursday 14th me and Dafni left at 10 pm towards Thessaloniki by train since it was an election weekend (again) and she went back to her home town to vote and had asked me to join her. The train trip took so long and it was so cold on the train that we didn't sleep almost at all. We arrived to Thessaloniki 7 am and went to her friend's place where we slept until 1 pm or something. After me, Dafni and Artemis (aka. The Ninja or Fight, Believe, Rainbow) left to have a coffee in the center with some other Erasmus students.

The white tower

Ninja, Dafni and me

We had coffee with Irish, Greek, British and some other students. After we went to see one of Thessaloniki's sightseeing place: White tower. Then we spotted more Erasmus students and joined them in What'sUp Park where we just hang around. Some of us where playing rackettes, some juggled with balls and some of us where balancing on a narrow rope which we put between two trees.

In What'sUp park

Then we went to have a nap and outside in the evening. I was really tired at the bar and I didn't feel like drinking or partying that much. I met the first greek people who like to drink and actually get drunk and party! :D I surprised my boyfriend by calling him at 4 am when he woke up to get to work.. We went back to Artemis' place at 5 am.

Taken from Edessa to the valley down

On Friday morning all three of us headed towards the bus station to get to Edessa where they were both from. Edessa is a city of 25 000 people in the northern Greece. There Dafni's dad picked us up and we went to their home to eat. After we headed towards "the center" to the Riverplace (a coffee place) to hang around with some people. It was so funny to see how most of the young people there knew each other. Then we started our way towards the famous and the biggest waterfall in Greece. It was nice to see the old part of Edessa and also the waterfall was beautiful. After when the sun set we went to sit this amazing place with a view towards the valley and eat crepes. 

Old part of Edessa

The waterfall

In the evening we went out again and saw some crazy football fans getting crazy when Greece won one game on the European Championships. There was a summer opening to this huge bar (Club One) that night and it was outside and you had to walk there and get two outdoor elevators to go down to the actual bar. There also I felt so tired but we went back to Dafni's place already around 4 am. 

Taken from Dafni's balcony

On Sunday we slept late and just hang around at her place and ate delicious home made greek food. Then it was time to leave with her family to drive to their village: Florina. It took around 45 minutes to drive there. It was a tiny village with only one school where they went to vote.  I think they said that only 400 people live in the village. Then we visited her grandparents and every one took me into their homes with open arms and so much warm and love! I felt like being part of the family. Her grandparents were so cute! Someone told me that I'm probably the first and last Finnish girl ever to visit their village. We also went to visit their cherry, apple, peach and other trees what they had. They also showed me a nice lake nearby. We also visited the border of Macedonia. 

The place of Dafni's parents with their plants

Cherry trees

Saving a turtle from middle of the road

The lake

On the left side Macedonia, on the right side Greece

We came back around 22 o'clock to Edessa, we changed and left outside to a restaurant with Dafni's friends to sit around. The next morning we left to visit Dafni's godmother and after her dad and mom drove us to the train station and hugged me goodbye. I'm gonna miss them, they treated me like their own daughter. :/ The train ride went surprisingly fast and I was at home around 7 pm.

On Tuesday 19th me and Mido left to some beach a little more far away from Athens than where we usually go to. It was so different, not that many people and the water was much cleaner! :) On Wednesday Mido surprised me and we left with his friend and his girlfriend to Mojito Bay, a beach around 30km from Pireus. It was so nice and relaxing place where we spent the whole day!

Mojito Bay

On Thursday we went to the fruit market again and in the evening I saw my friend Xenofon at Panourmou where we went to have a coffee. On Friday I saw my friend Dora for the last time. :( We went for a coffee and to gossip about everything. It was so so sad to hug her goodbye. After it would have been the last party by my flatmate at our place but I had decided to move to Keratsini to my boyfriends place. On Saturday it was time to watch some football games and on Sunday morning we went to bazaar in Pireus to buy some Nike shoes for me. :P

On Monday morning I left for gym and it took me 90 minutes to get there! When I was there I was already so hungry that my training wasn't that good.. Last time at the gym and I was really gonna miss the cosy gym. :/ It was my last week in Athens I couldn't really understand it.. On Tuesday we went to the beach. On Wednesday morning when I opened up the tv I saw a familiar landscape of Helsinki. It was so weird feeling, I didn't know that the European Athletic Championships were held in Helsinki.. I felt even more sad when I saw Helsinki and the rainy weather through tv. Most of the people at the crowd were blond and they had jeans and jackets on while I had been wearing shorts and tops for like two months.. In the evening we went to Monastiraki to walk around and we took the tourist "happy train" around the center. It was so much fun! :D

Happy train :) 

The last days went past too fast. :( On Saturday we went out to Gazi to spend the evening/night and we had so much fun!! I won't forget that night I really really enjoyed myself and the atmosphere and the warm night! We ate my last souvlaki/pito-gyro that night. It is just delicious! On Monday I did my last shopping in Egaleo and actually got a little lost when I got too confident and took a wrong bus and ended up driving in it around one hour.. Funny, getting lost in the last day. Well that just reflects how huge the city actually is.

Keratsini <3

On Tuesday 3rd of July was my last day in Athens. Or actually only half a day. It was indescribable.. :( I don't have words to explain what I felt. Saying goodbye at the metro station must have been one of the most difficult things I've ever done. I couldn't believe I was actually going home after almost 5 months! I felt so sad, like I had to leave my home or that I wasn't ready to go back just yet. The train ride from Egaleo to the airport took around 50 minutes and I felt miserable seeing all the Finnish people at the airport and hearing them speaking the language.. My exchange period had gone to the end. I can't write  any summary about my exchange yet, since I really can't put together my thoughts, I'll try to do it in the next text.. :) 

-Never stop smiling

Milos

On Friday 1st of June me and the other Erasmus students from TEI decided to leave to Milos! Me, Marie, Erica, Marti, Alex, Pierre and Mariel didn't really know anything at all about the island. I had just heard that it's really beautiful and that I have to go there! We didn't have an accommodation, info or anything about the place we were going. We bought the tickets from the harbour and left at 8pm o'clock boat towards an adventure.

We arrived to Milos around 10.30 pm and started walking in the port until we found four people with studios and hotel signs. We started negotiating about the price and what they had to offer. The first woman and her hotel was a 3 minute walk away and she had a swimming pool and she promised us two rooms one for the girls with four beds and the other to boys with three beds. When she lowered the price to 10 euros each/ night we had a deal! + her daughter was so cute! :D The name of the hotel was Hotel Moschoula it's a family run hotel with a good service. :) 

After leaving our stuff in our rooms we left to walk in the port and the small center of Adamas. We started comparing the prices for a day boat trip around the island. There were so many good options and seven different opinions what people wanted to do and which boat to choose. Even after sitting down and eating delicious crepes we couldn't decide between the two best ones. We decided to go to sleep and wake up early the next day for not to miss the departures of the boats. We agreed a time to meet the boys outside the hotel.

Of course the next morning when we girls were ready the boys were still sleeping. We told the guys to come to the port and went ahead to decide. Eventually we just chose a boat called Oneira (=dream) and agreed on paying 40 euros each including food and drinks. The boat would leave at 10.30am and come back at 6.30pm. We had an hour spare time which we spent walking around and watching Adamas wake up for a new sunny day.

At 10.30 we all went to the sailing boat, also the boys who had finally woken up. We sat at the bow of the boat when we left from the harbour having a close call of collading into an other boat.. At the sea it was so relaxing and the captain and his father were telling us history at the same time as we were looking the sights and the island.

me and Marie

The first stop was a place called Vani, if I remember correctly, but I really can't remember anything about it since me and Marie were goofing around and taking pictures of the crystal clear water.

The next stop was at Sykia which was breathtaking! It was this cave surrounded by huge rocks! The water was magical, it looked like it was photoshopped! We all went to this small lifeboat and in to the cave, it was unreal! You could see the corals shining from the water. Amazing! After that they offered us snorkling equipment but the water was so cold!! I had swimmed so many times before, but there, at that time it was really cold. For a second I even thought of not going. I'm glad that Pierre convinced me to jump with him to the water. This time we swam to the same cave and saw the corals even closer, the underneath rocks and everything, oh my god! I enjoyed the snorkling more than I did in Egypt last summer. This time I couldn't see any colourful fishes but everything else was more magical for me.

The rock which looks tiny but it was really big

After snorkling a while we got a crazy, stupid idea to climb to this huge rock coming from the ocean. The rock was slippery and Marie cut her elbow and knee when climbing up and she was bleeding. Me and Marie couldn't get to the highest point of the rock so Mariel helped us by pulling us there. Immediately after he did I knew that I would have a hard time going down.. The view was amazing and an other boat arrived and people took photos of us since we looked so funny on this huge rock. After a while we started figuring out how to get down. We knew that we couldn't jump since there were a lot of rocks under the surface.. Alex and Mariel started climbing lower 'cause the really wanted to jump. The rock wall was so steep that I just could't do it since I would have rolled down like a rock. So, me, Marie and Pierre had to go down the same way we came. Pierre went first since he is really tall. We gave him instructions were to place his feet since he couldn't see anything going down backwards. It was really scary, taking one miss step, you would have been on the rocks. Then it was my turn and I was terrified!! My legs were around two meters too short to get down by myself.. Eventually, after having couple of scary moments Pierre took me into his lap and lifted me down while standing on a two small rocks in a very scary position. Marie came down the same way.. The other two boys managed to climb the rock down so they could jump but it still looked so scary since the rocks in the water weren't that far away from them..!

The cave

The coral

The cave

Next stop was at Kleftiko which was also an awesome place! It used to be a home to Pirates.. Aka. Pirate bay or I don't know if it was just me and Marie who used that name.. :D There again we went around by the smaller boat and took pictures, of course. The water there also was so clear! And all the caves, perfect! There we went snorkling and again me, Pierre and Marie found a nice flat rock on which we climbed (not high this time!) and just relaxed sitting and watching the ocean. After a while we started snorkling even farther away until we found this huge huge dark cave. I was terrified going inside but for sure I didn't want to wait for them outside alone in the ocean. The cave was so dark and the farther you went the darker it became. On one corner of the cave there was like this narrow way where of course they wanted to go to check if it was a dead end or not.. I already at this point had the horror imagines in my head..! But we made out of there alive and back to the boat to eat delicious food. :)

All of us! :) 

Erica, me, Marie and the captain

the dead end scary cave into which we snorkled (we had a light with us so it's not dark now..)

Then we continued more farther (at this point we were on the south shore of the island). We made one more stop at somewhere and were given an opportunity to swim but there it was so windy that no one wanted to swim there. Little by little we started making our way back. On our way somewhere near the famous Lion rock (it could also been seen as a rabbit) we spotted DOLPHINS! A dolphin family! Three adults and a baby! We drove close to them and they started playing with our boat! They were only one meter a way from us! They were so big, much bigger than I had imagined and SO beuatiful!! Everytime they started going away we turned our boat a bit and they started to swim with us again! IT WAS AMAZING!

Lion rock

Then we headed towards Adamas and on the way we passed three small fishing villages which looked like straight from a postcards!!

Back at Milos

We were back at the port around when the captain had promised us and while arriving, from the radio of the boat, I heard my favourite songs at the moment and I went so crazy. On board with us were also a greek couple who were laughing to me when I was singing along with the greek song and wondering how I know the lyrics! :D 

Small, narrow allies at Adamas, the center of Milos

At the harbour we decided to walk around and wait for the sunset. We walked in the narrow streets and found a huge church or cathedral on the top of the center. Eventually we decided to go to the hotel since it was a bit cloudy and we should have waited at least one hour before the sunset. Me and Marie decided to go swimming to the swimming pool for a while and then take a showers and get ready to leave for eat. We searched for a restaurant so long and walked a lot until finally we found a small and quiet one right next to our hotel.. After we went to our hotel room to play drinking games which didn't work that well since we couldn't even play them sober. :D At two o'clock we decided to go check the night life for a while. Alex and Mariel "borrowed" two SMALL girl's bicycles from our hotel and biked around the center. They were so afraid that someone might steel them so they carried them with us to the bar. Us girls and Pierre stayed at some club and danced when the other two boys soon went back to sleep. We stayed an hour or something and then went to the hotel to sleep also.

The next morning on Sunday we went to hire ATV's to go around the island. We were seven people so we decided that one of us would wait outside and hide when the rest of us went inside. We hired three ATV's for a day and the guy was so annoying. When we went inside he started: "Oh, I know you. You are the group how danced funny last night at the club.." To which we replayed that we were to only ones dancing at the club.. Anyway we go them and started driving and Marti hopped on. We drove like 5 minutes when the man drove next to us with his moto PISSED OFF! He was so pissed off. Mariel had to go with him and hire a scooter.

First stop was the famous Sarakiniko. It was so awesome! We jumped from a cliff which was 8 metres high and people stop to look us and the photos of us. The place was so cool!! We had a blast!

Shipwreck

We also swam to the rock near by and again people took photos of us :D 

Next stop was same small village of Zefiria but there wasn't really anything so we just quickly passed it. The next beach was Kyriaki beach which was so white and the water was crystal clear! 

Marie, me, Marti and Erica

Kyriaki Beach

Next beach was called Tsigaro and me and Marie were the first ones going there since the other stayed to take photos from the up. It was a surprise how you were supposed to go to the beach, it wasn't that easy.. See the photos below.. :D Oh, and Marie went first and at some point she stopped and whispered to me oh my god this is a nude beach should we still go there is only one old couple there.. :D 

The first ladders..

The rode without which you couldn't have managed it

The second ladder and almost at the beach

Soon after we came the couple got dressed and left. It was so relaxing there surrounded by the ocean and the sea. After we left we had a trouble with one of the ATV's which didn't started.. But eventually after 15 minutes of Alex working on it he got it to work! :) We were supposed to drive somewhere high to watch the sunset but the boys decided to drive on the water with one of the ATV's and the result was that it died. We had to call the crazy man to come and help us.. He said that there was water in the engine and that's way it didn't work and the boys told him that they don't know how that happened. So, we missed the sunset and got straight to the hotel.

In the evening we went to Pollonia to eat and after drove around the village for hours like crazy!! I didn't like it at all! It was so dangerous and we had couple of close calls and almost accidents.. I told many times that I don't like this but since I was the only one.. We drove over two hours by night when everyone was sleeping. We got back to the hotel around 3 am. 

The next morning on Monday we were supposed to return the ATV's at 10 am but the boys were still sleeping. Eventually we returned them at 11 am and were a little afraid of the men but everything went smoothly and we even got our deposit back. Then me and Marie hang around on the pool, the girls left for shopping and the boys went to eat. Eventually we all had fun at the pool before getting showers and starting our way to the port and back to Athens at around 3.30pm boat.  The boat arrived so late to Athens that I was so mad 'cause I had plans and I hate when people have to wait for me.. But eventually the Milos trip was perfect and the island became one of my favourites! It had so much different things to offer! :)