21/06/2010
I just looked at the date and realised that we are half way through the year. It’s a bit scary how much time flies. Yet at the same time I feel like it was years since I was at home. I have done so much and seen so much since I was in my comfortable little Tasmanian home, working and then drinking cups of tea with my friends. I miss all of that comfort and love but to have an adventure is something that everyone needs to do, to experience love, happiness, fear, sadness, anger and pain is all part of life. I sound a little bit like I have had an epiphany or something but I often think about things and how we are all so lucky to have the opportunity to have these experiences (and we all can if we try!) and I appreciate how lucky I am to have received a scholarship but if anyone strives hard enough you can see the things I have seen and have these experiences.
The hardest thing about the experiences that I am having is the goodbyes. They are constant and inevitable, you cannot always stay together. You have different plans and different ideas and things you want to see so eventually you have to depart. I just said goodbye to my new best friend and I feel very sad. The friendship we had formed in just 4 months was quite special. But i have to remember that it is not goodbye, it is a see you later. I think from so much travelling I have become immune to goodbyes, I have had to say so many and sometimes I know that I will probably never see these people again but I have faith that I will see the friends I have made in Greece again. I will make sure I see them even if it costs me thousands of dollars because they are all very special and they are now my family.
So I am alone again, I left Elise and Ben in San Torini and now I am off to Paros. Well what can I say about SanTorini? One word: INCREDIBLE. Or I could say many words; beautiful, stunning, fun, hot, lovely, amazing... the list goes on. When I was in Athens I met some girls from Idaho who had just been island hopping, they recommended that I go to San Torini, they said it was beautiful and their favourite island. I was waiting for Elise to join me in Athens and then we would decide where to go next. We had considered the Pelenopese and then catching a ferry to Kithera but after a bit of research we realised that Kithera would be an expensive thing to do with just two people as there were no buses. After dying of heat exhaustion in Athens I decided I needed to go straight to a beach and an island was a must. So when Elise arrived we discussed our options and then just said, ‘lets go to San Torini!’ it was the best and most spontaneous decision. We booked our ferry for midnight and spent the day wandering and sweating our way around Athens, in museums and shops.
We spent the night on the ferry, we just booked the cheapest tickets we could, its great having a Passo (a Greek student card), we get discounts for everything. Our ferry ticket was only 16€. We set up little beds and slept the whole 6 hours. It was great, I was actually pretty comfortable and a little bit disappointed I had to wake up and get off the boat. But hold on, I’m in San Torini!
epomine stasi, next stop.. paradise!
So I woke up suddenly and we made our way off the boat. Travel advice: try and pack as light as you can, because a big pack is a big pain. But then it is nice to have clothes and outfit options... but try!
We got off the ferry and onto a bus which took us to the main station where we transferred to Perissa which is where most of the hostels are and where my friends in Athens said i should go. We hadn’t booked anything, the night before we had looked at hostels online but we just figured we would find something when we got there. When we arrived it was already getting hot and we wandered around asking at different hotels and villas how much for the night. I found an amazing deal, 14€ for 2 people per night. But listen to me now. Really listen. When you are in a foreign country and they offer you a price too good to be true ask them to write it down, don’t just say ‘wow, thats amazing, we will take it!’ Because when they ask you to pay a bill of 200€ you get a little bit of a shock... but I will talk a little bit more about that. But usually deals like that don’t exist. So be aware! But in saying that as we wandered around there was a lot of very cheap accommodation, we found luxury for 25€ for two people a night so staying in something that wasn’t luxury for that much made sense and also the backpackers was only 8€ per night each so it made sense. But clearly we are rich travellers and we can afford absurd prices or so they thought...
Anyway this amazingly cheap place which ended up being expensive was very cute, painted bright blues and greens and very Greek style, as you walked in a little arch went over a swimming pool and lead to the rooms which had a view of the brilliant volcanic mountains.
The first day was spent lying on Perissa beach, its volcanic so the sand is black and therefore the water doesn’t appear as blue but its still extremely clear and beautiful. we sat at the ‘Beach Bar’ right on the water which had a little buzzer that you pressed for service and next minute down strolls your very own Stavros with a delicious Greek salad in hand. Then when you have filled up you roll into the water and then dry off in the sun. Oh how hard life is on Santorini!
That night we caught the bus into the main town Thira to explore and watch the sunset. Unfortunately the place was swarming with tourists and although I love to travel, I don’t like tourists and I get easily agitated in crowded places. After weaving our way through the tourists we caught the sunset across the horizon, it was beautiful despite the smog that must have made its way across from Athens. After the sunset we had a delicious dinner up on a terrace overlooking the town.
The next day we decided to go on cruise across to the volcano And to the other island Thirassia. We left at 10.30, nearly missing the boat because I went off to get some water. We took the bus down to the port and to our dismay the sail boat that we were about to board was filled to the brim with tourists, I mean it was squirming with them, barely any room at all to move. I almost felt like asking for my money back there and then but I thought, suck it up Ella, you can ignore them. So we ended up getting a spot at the front of the boat, I didn’t have to look at any tourists, just out to the ocean, it almost seemed as though we were the only ones on the boat, apart from the tour guide blaring over the speaker. We got to the volcano after about 20 minutes of sailing without sails and we all hopped off the boat for the little hike up to the summit. The day seemed to be getting hotter by the second so I stocked up on water from the boat... a little annoyed as the water was 1€ for a small bottle, O..M..G.. one euro, what a rip off, listen to me, I have become so accustomed to cheap water!! So we made our way to the top of the volcano, walking amongst volcanic rock and lava. Quite incredible. And the higher we got the better the view got. We could see a 360 degree view across the ocean and over Santorini. Once at the top the tour guide told us that the volcano was still active and the last eruption was in 1955 and a lot of the rock around us was from then which is amazing to think how new the majority of the island is. She also said that we aren’t at much risk of being caught in an eruption because they can usually predict it 100 years in advance.
After the volcano we sailed over to the natural hot springs, its not so much springs but really hot ocean water. The boat left us and we swam about 100 metres into this little bay where the water slowly heated up to around 35 degrees. It actually felt really wierd. Kind of like we were swimming in urine. That sounds really gross but it was like that. At the very end of the cove there was this strange mud that was bright orange, it was like the volcanic rocks were rusting and the orange muck was the rust, nevertheless I rubbed it all over my face and body! It didn’t really wash off and I looked like a bit of a fake tan disaster. Poor Elise got it all over her bathers (sorry Elise, swimmers!!) and she really looks like she has trouble with fake tan. After that we sailed to Therissia where we explored and ate lunch by the water. Pretty special little place, lots of white buildings and blue doors. The cruise left us in Oia which is the town on Santorini famous for its sunsets and all of those famous photos of white houses with blue domes. I had a swim in the beautiful water whilst Elise was a journalist and interviewed someone and then we climbed up to the town. We had coffee at a really cute little cafe and then went to get ouzo and lemonade from a little shop. We perched ourselves on the edge of a building facing a windmill and direct towards the sunset. We easily polished off the first bottle of ouzo so we went to buy some more and easily polished off the second. We met some French boys who proposed to us in the ‘most popular site for proposals in the world’ (apparently). It was a romantic little event and the bus ride home was quite fun, full of song and laughter.
When we got back to Perissa we bought more ouzo and ordered delicious pizza. All this was followed by a fun night at the beach bar full of dancing. And of course, more ouzo. Aaa, ouzo...
The next day seemed to come around too fast and I woke bleary headed to see Ben in our room, he had flown from Istanbul to be with his ladies, Elise and I, how sweeeeettt... I was a little confused but pretty happy to see that young mans face. I soon got over my little hang over and we hired quad bikes and road around the island. We went to the red beach and some other villages close by. I cant remember the name of the village but we ended up finding this old building on top of a hill totally abandoned and in ruins but the inside still had all its possessions and it was set up like it was still being lived in, it would have seemed that way if it wasn’t for the thick layer of dust over everything.

this is red beach that we went to. pretty ah-may-zing babes
Then we made our way back to Perissa and had another delicious dinner and some more beachside ouzo and lemonade. Followed by another night of dancing, ouzo, dancing, beer, dancing, strange scary Albanian men trying to fight Ben, running away from strange men, getting home and sleep.
The next day was very lazy. Woke up late, i took off on the quad bike alone around the back streets of Perissa which was really fun and interesting to just see where people lived, I ended up in the old town but my quad bike wouldn’t go so far so I had to try and manouver it out of a little spot I got stuck in... (not this stuck but stuck) we lay on the beach and then ate and tried to figure out the next few days and what the plan was. We had a delicious dinner at Yazz, on Perissa, recommend going there, really cheap 10€ for a platter for 2 and its huge! Also they do amazing smoothies and a pretty good breakfast.
The next day we had to check out.. thats where the sticky situation was. After a lot of arguments and confusion and anxiety we gave them 150€ and said that was all we could give, eventually they settled on that, realising that we knew we were getting ripped off and they were still making a fair bit of money out of us. we had one last swim at Perissa and the caught the bus to Thira. In Thira we interviewed the environmental consultant For the mayor of Santorini for a story miss Elise Dalley was writing. He was really interested and concerned about the environment and future of Santorini, i felt so inspired to do more journalistic work and do something about the environment, unfortunately I have been to busy lying on beaches... then we went out for one last lunch all together in Thira and then I had to say my goodbyes to my two honey babies. I knew it wasn’t a forever goodbye but I may not see them for some months so it was still pretty sad.
Then I jumped in a taxi, I had half an hour to get to the port, plenty of time. Apparently not. The taxi driver had another passenger who had to go to a village on the opposite end of the island, um, excuseme, I actually have to get a ferry, take me first, she doesn’t have to be somewhere urgently. Soo then the taxi driver asks me why I left it so late to get to the ferry as he’s speeding like a maniac because I’m worried that I will miss it. The cheek! If the hadn’t taken another passenger off the other friggin way he wouldn’t have to speedy Gonzales his way through the bends down to the port. I was actually a little bit frightened, he was going very fast. But i made it, not a minute to spare but still made it on board. Heading to Paros.

Right now I feel like I am a long way from any sort of Greek island, well I am but I can’t believe I was lying on a beach in Ios just yesterday because now I am in Sofia, Bulgaria in my jeans and a cardi inside..
So paros, well I ended up making friends with the two people I sat down next to on the ferry. They were Canadian and I recognised the guy from Saturday night at the beach bar where he had been dancing up a bit of a storm. We got talking and asked me where I was staying, at that point I had now idea and they said I should just follow them to their hostel and see if there were vacancies. So i did. And i ended up sharing a beautiful room with them, no way was it a hostel, with a pretty good breakfast.
It was really nice, we all seemed to hit it off. We went out for dinner that night at a little taverna that had live music. The music was pretty good and the owner of the tavern was really entertaining but by the end of the night a little annoying. He constantly tried to get Niki (my new friend) and I to dance with him, it was good the first two times, even though I really can’t dance and Niki can so I felt like an unco fool whilst she looked like a graceful Greek princess.
Then the next day we hired scooters and explored the island, i almost crashed a few times... scooters take a bit of getting used to, its not so much that you have to steer but more that you have to lean to turn the corners and one really sharp corner i just didn’t go around and ended up on the other side of the road heading straight for a bush. I’m just very lucky there were no cars coming the other direction. Anyway, we went into this old marble quarry where they used to get marble hundreds and even thousands of years ago, we went so far in you couldn’t see anything without a torch and we had to climb through some very tight spaces, lucky I’m not claustrophobic or afraid of the dark but it was really quite exciting. It also made me realise how unsafe it all was, I was leaning against this rock for support and it tumbled down bringing a small landslide with it, i really thought that I had caused something terrible and freaked out for a second. And also there were no lights or steps at all in the whole quarry and it was a tourist distraction, im not complaining about this, I actually think its pretty cool that things are still like this! Then we explored some beaches including golden beach and some other cute beaches that we discovered through walking off track a little bit! It was actually just really fun to drive around the island on a scooter.
The next day my ferry to Ios left at lunch time so I had half a day to kill, we spent it riding around on the scooters again, looking in the little towns and discovering more cute beaches. The only problem was getting the ticket because there was a ferry strike and there was only one ferry for the day running between the islands so it was going to take me twice as long to get to Ios and also it was almost sold out so I had to wait until I got my ticket but all was good in the end. I made it to Ios but I will talk about that in the next update, this one is already way too looooong....
Ciaou!

Goodbyes, hellos, riots, beaches, islands, ouzo, coffee.

Ok, its official, worst blog keeper right here. But you know now I am Greek and now things are slower...
So this last month has been quite eventful, probably the best month and the worst month here in Greece. I have said goodbye to some wonderful people and I have said goodbye to my home Thessaloniki. I will miss it. Life has been good but now it’s time to start an adventure and explore this world! At the moment I am in Athens. I arrived at 6 in the morning and spent the day site-seeing. I was welcomed to my hostel by two prostitutes. Charming. I showered and got ready for the day, walked outside and a car pulled up beside me. A creep peered out the window, tooted and beckoned me over. Ok. So he thought i was a hooker. Even more charming. But you know what, it paid for my day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, wine. We should all prostitute ourselves.
So Athens is quite an amazing city. I never realised how old it all is. And how on earth is it all standing and still in such good nick? And you can touch it and sit on it and walk on it and kick it if you please... thats 3000 years right there! I started to have ruin overload like I had in Egypt, it was all a bit too incredible and now i have about a thousand photos of some old rock that was a building or a pillar or a pot. But still incredible.

but sometimes a dog is just as fascinating....
Its also bloody hot here. When its hot you seem to get so much more exhausted, i came back to my hostel before dropping quickly into the brothel to say hello and I slept for two hours (in my hostel) non-stop. When i travelled a few years back I used to look at the sleepers in the room and think, why are you sleeping in the middle of the day when you are in such an incredible place? Well thats me now. I think I am old. Need my nanna naps. And i don’t even feel much like going out tonight, partly because I know I have to wake up at around 6 am. Baa. The joys of being a backpacker! And a little note on my backpack. It is huge. I don’t really know what to do, I want everything in it and I just spent about 60 euros sending everything home but its still huge. I feel like I am carrying a little man on my back.

So, enough about today, not a lot to say. Lets talk about my last month. I did start to write a post about 3 weeks ago... Here it is....
22/05
Theres a kid that lives in my building and everyday she has a tantrum, i found out today that she’s she, i saw her in full swing, stomping her feet, fists clench, pounding the walls and screaming. Mum didn’t do a thing, she just ignored her. How do kids get like that? Everyday she screams for around an hour and its really really annoying.
I went to the soccer on Sunday, PAOK vs ... both are Thessaloniki teams but PAOK is the number one team on the Greek board at the moment.... or whatever it is in soccer terms. PAOK was number one even before the match. PAOK supporters are crazy. Ben told me that PAOK supporters are the biggest graffiti gang in the world?? Everywhere around Thessaloniki PAOK is tagged, at first you think ‘wow, this guy really gets around!’ but soon realise that they are Greece’s number one team. Anyway the soccer games here are madness. Its like going to a riot, we decided it was preparation for the riot coming up on Thursday (not missing it this time!) everyone watching the match is so into it, they are jumping around and yelling and singing, the crowd is like one crazy moshpit – its really exciting! We weren’t in the middle of the huge moshpit, i guess thats a good things as it looked pretty crazy especially for a young lady!! So the match was the finals, PAOK already knew that they were in ... number one... it was pretty much just a fun match and there were no supporters for... absolutely none, you would be crazy to go if you were a .. supporter, you probably would have got killed. The whole match people were lighting flares and throwing them on to the field, people were throwing rolls of paper on the field (kind of like a receipt roll) the whole place was a bit of a mess. Right at the end of the match fireworks exploded above our heads, there was only about 10 minutes to go and ... had the ball in their territory so i think those fireworks were an effort to distract the players. It looked great but they were right above us, i felt like they were going to fall on me or something!

One thing about being a tourist in a place, even though i now call this place my home but what i mean is this is not my home so i need to do some touristy things, like go to a soccer game but when you try and study at the same time as site-see you get into a little bit of a pickle. Especially when your brain decides not to function which is what happened to me yesterday. I spent all day on one assignment and i got nothing. My brain just switched off for the day, actually i think my brain is just off for this whole time in Greece.
There were supposed to be riots yesterday but to our disappointment the protests and demonstrations were all peaceful, no rocks were thrown, no teargas, not even a policemen getting involved. They were there waiting for havoc but there wasn’t any. The demonstration was huge, thousands? of people stormed the streets. but still peaceful.

hmmm a whole lot more to update... but im already very behind in updates...

new house, new kicks, assignment from hell, meteora, riots, halkidiki, hot fashions of thess

So another update and another week of events. I sort of feel like every week i don’t do anything, i sit around and go on facebook, watch movies and drink coffee. But every time i come around to writing this blog i have so much to say.
Well first of all, i have moved. I now live up near the old city of Thessaloniki, with cobbled roads and cute little Greek homes, it feels a lot more like Greece here. Its quieter but at the same time noisier, there is no traffic but there is the noise of children and people so the atmosphere here is really cool. I really felt like I needed to move too, i felt trapped in my tiny Agia Sofias unit, i turned into this lazy sloth creature. Now i feel refreshed and happier, you know when you feel a vibe in a place and its difficult to get rid of that? Well thats how i felt. But now things are different. I have moved in with two French girls, Marie and Melanie, so hopefully my French will improve, seems a little strange, live in Greece and come home speaking French but i do love the language and i have always wanted to speak it. The flat is empty, we each have a bed but thats about it. And i don’t have the internet anymore which is a good thing because i don’t waste my days away on facebook. But the main plus is the money i save that i can spend on travels (and clothes!)
I had to do a presentation today. I don’t know why but it was one of the hardest/worst assignments I have ever done, i think because I haven’t done one for so long and it was about a topic that i had no idea about and that i just hated it. So lets not talk for long about that. But my teacher was awful. She was so rude whilst i was doing the assignment. First of all i started, 2 students came late so my assignment was interrupted but thats ok because they were a bit distressed, they are having a lot of problems with immigration, Greece pretty much wont let them get a residency... so they are stuck here. But hopefully Christos (the smoking teacher) will sort all of that out for them. Or Dimitra, another of our teachers said she will call her lawyers. But its great being British, none of this immigration stress. But anyway. So those girls came in and it interrupted my presentation and then the teacher Dr Anna came in, i should tell you about Dr Anna but I am a little bit scared as Dr Christos has been reading his students blogs, he told us and i am a little worried about what i write online... but anyway. She’s one of a kind. So she came in late, all in a fluster, no make-up, white pants up to the waist with a chain belt, white t-shirt with ‘saucy’ written in gold sparkles across the bust. Gorgeous. Then she proceeded through my whole presentation to make phone calls and receive calls and talk. I was nervous enough. But its done. I hope i pass.
I got new kicks. They are awesome. Take a look. those are bens new kicks behing. pretty wonderful.
We went to Meteora. It was beautiful. thats meteora behind my beauties. Like a magical place from a fantasy land. And we stayed in this place that was bit like a castle. Well our room wasn’t much like a castle but our friends got the presidential suite and they had a spa bath and a four poster bed upstairs, overlooking their posh living room. I was a little jealous, my room was like slums in comparison. But we had a wonderful trip.
Poor Christie. She got a little bit ill and went to hospital whilst we were at Meteora, then she went back to Thess. So she didn’t get to spend the night in the castle with all of us. i hope she feels better soon. But no drinking for a while and eating healthy all the way!
So last Wednesday there were massive riots. Unfortunately i was my usual lazy self and i was sleeping and then sipping on coffee at a cafe whilst it was all happening. But Ben, Elise, Paddy and Christina got involved. They were at the end of the riot, following the police. They experienced tear gas to the full and avoided getting hit by rocks being thrown by anarchists. The riots were after greece's financial agreements with other european countries, and also someone told me that this time last year and innocent man was killed. the demonstration began peaceful but once the anarchists were involved it soon turned crazy. bummer i wasnt involved.
i got some photos of the aftermath. And i also smelt teargas. And had a cry.
and the rubbish men also decided to have a strike. so the streets of thessaloniki were rubbish infested. delicious.

One thing i have noticed here in Greece is the fashion. It is top-notch. Heres a few examples. One guy I didn’t know how to take his photo, so i told him he was really good-looking and i wanted his photo. Bad idea ella. He will try and kiss you.
Kissing. Brings me to the subject of the world famous, or Thessaloniki famous eightball. Wow, that place is really going to go down in history. Erasmus nights at 8ball on a Wednesday night are unforgettable or very hard to remember. Depends on how much you drink. But you usually drink a lot. So they are usually hard to remember. But its pretty much the trashiest thing you could possibly go to, everyone is swaying there way around, kissing each other and dirty dancing with whatever they can find. We found a book on Wednesday and we thought it might be a good idea to rip it up and throw it around. It was a great idea. A lot of fun and a little bit naughty. this is eightball at the end of the night. But the problem with a good night is the next day. You have a terrible day. Or you don’t even have a day in my case. But i did have a great coffee with Elise and Paddy followed by a bowl of Asian noodles that I was craving like crazy. But first of all i got approached by the scariest looking man in the world. I wish i got a photo, hoop earing in one ear, jumpsuit worker style and dirty and undone down to his crotch which i wont even talk about because you will vomit and his greasy ponytail pulled behind his ears. He said ‘hello’ and stood in front of me for the longest 3 minutes ever. I thought i was going to die. It was worse than Fabio.
I have some new friends. I sit out in the park opposite my new house to use the internet and they sit with me and talk to me in Greek. He tried to steal my necklace.
oh, i also forgot. we went to halkidiki last week. it was amazing. what i was dreaming of when i applied for this semester in greece. the typical still aqua blue of the mediteranean with mountains as backdrop. there were also beach bars right on the water, not joking, at one point we had to relocate ourselves and our drinks further in becuase the waves were lapping our feet. unfortunately we couldnt stay long because we were worried about a certain someone who drank a little too much and got very ill and took himself to hospital. yes lots of people have been going to hospital lately. but i think this one was the cause of too much fun at eightball. but we wont talk about that.
i will put photos of egypt up soon. but now i should do another assignment. oh the joys of actually doing uni work. and its raining in thess. quite wierd..
but untill next time.
Adios!

so many stories

i have so much to say. so much has happened in the past two weeks since my last post. clearly im quite hopeless at keeping a blog. but part of that could be because i have been riding camels and sailing along the nile and visiting 4000 year old temples. and also i am back in greek mode, in this mode i can not be bothered to do anything. like i said last post, sleeping is my hobby here, the other day i woke up pretty early, 1pm. and i discovered the perfect hangover cure, i will let you in on my secret because it actually works: gelato. i had watermelon flavour and passionfruit. YUM! and i felt soo good, i started singing james brown. i was with my lovely friends elise and christina and we went down to the white tower to chill and talk and for me to lie around and feel sorry for myself. but then something terrible happened. fabio was approaching. ok, i will introduce fabio, he's a bit of a thessaloniki celebrity, he wanders around everywhere with his shirt unbottuned down to his belly button, his hairy chest clealy visible and his hair is pulled back in a pony tail. elise pointed him out and next thing we know he's approaching, he introduced himself, fabio is a much better name so we don't need to know his real name, he shook all our hands, i swear for about 5 seconds too long and then he proceeded to lie down in front of us, sprawling himself right near our feet, we had no idea what to do. apparently he's a fashion photographer (whatever) and he's originally from america.. go away!... he kept talking and then ben 'called' and we had to leave. thankyou to elise and her quick thinking. he shook our hands again for far too long, he held mine for a bit, i felt a little bit of a finger stroke. aaaaaaa. but here he is, famous fabio. hope he doesnt find this post.
then we went and found a new spot to lie around, fabio was keeping a close eye on us but we managed to escape his watching eye. we went near the tower of alexander the great, one of the guys skating there lost his board in the water. poor guy, he just sat there and watched his board disappear.
i actually had a really good hungover day. elise, paddy and i went back to their house and elise cooked up her delish couscous salad and we watched america's top model. elise and i decided to go and top model down at the white tower. watch out tyra banks. she does not know what she is missing!
so since my last blog we have experienced 'the ultimate australian erasmus party', a dream in egypt and yet another disasterous night at eightball. and of course a couple of very enjoyable and not at all boring classes at uni. soo i should start with the party. well what can i say, australian's really know how to party. i would say that this is going to be remembered for some time! and there is another one befor we all leave! so watch out erasmus kids! party time!

then there was an early morning straight after this and off to egypt ben and i flew. i managed to get 2 and a half hours sleep but ben got zero. yep, zero. i really don't know how he managed for so long and he wasn't grumpy or difficult to be around. as soon as we got to cairo we slept for a few hours though and then went for dinner where we discovered our new favourite food: koshiry, amazing!
we did have a pretty fantastic room; the bed covers matched the curtains which matched the wallpaper which matched the seat covers and even the carpet. it was like living in 5star in the 60s.
the next day we had an incredible day. all i can say is incredible. i couldn't believe and i still can't believe that i was there. what a dream and i now realise how lucky i am to be able to see such beauty and amazing things and i encourage everyone to travel travel travel! you haven't lived until you see and experience these things.. there is so much beauty.. soo inspiring. words can't describe.
its also very fun.
now i must go to bed. halkidiki party beach fun tomorrow and i must get my sleep. i will update more about egypt soon, i promise. its too amazing to miss!
till next time, and it won't be for a fortnight!
caiou!

i think im greek

first of all i would like to start this post with a special thanks to my dear friends at centerlink for providing me with the funds to purchase not one, not two but 3 new dresses and some tshirts. your help is greatly appreciated.

so its official. im turning greek. well my body clock is anyway. and the other australian students here are, as i said in my last post they are having a lot of difficulty getting residency but paddy and i are lucky enough to have some pommy heritage and we breeze on through with our british passports, the other aussie students went to the hospital today to get some crazy tests to prove that australians arent disease infested and get one step closer to being a greek. so they were successful, they are probably more greek than me now. but anyway the issue of my body clock. ever since i got here i have loved to sleep. and we all say we love to sleep but all i can think about is my bed and falling onto my soft pillow and getting all twisted up in my sheets with my beautiful green itchy blanket scratching my face, no seriously, my bed is pretty sh*t (as if that makes it not a swear word) and my pillow is not fluffy. but i love it. i love to sleep here. i go to bed early, i dont sleep, i will watch a movie (i have been getting up to date on my movies because if you know me well enough you will know that i have seen hardly any movies) or i will read a book (just started 'the catcher in the rye' - amazing) so i will be in bed for an hour or so and then go to sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep. waking up around midday and then just eating and lazing around getting ready to get back into bed. it might be partly becuase i dont really have much to do during the day, apart from purchasing beautiful dresses. and also it might be becuase i go out drinking till the sunrises...
yesterday i woke up at 3pm, this is the fourth time i have done this since i have been here and i never do that back at home. the greek way is to start the party after midnight and party untill sunrise. so this is how i party now. i get home when its light after a night of dancing. one thing i should point out about greece is that when you go out dancing you are usually the only one dancing, people here dont dance. its really wierd. they all stand around looking hot and sipping on there €10 drinks (about $15) and not letting loose. to be honest i dont know how they stay up for sooo long and afford to drink! they earn a small percentage of what we earn in australia! and one thing about greece, the hangovers are awful. awful awful awful. so sleep is the best thing to do. some people say that the spirits arent pure and they often put cheap spirits inside expensive bottles, with added chemicals and what not so the result is a headache of hell. and also when you order a drink, it might be a €10 drink but they fill it to the brim with spirits and then add a little bit of tonic or whatever you have on top. my gin&tonic was intense.
not this one. this one was just a gin. intense.


some of you may have heard about the current economic crisis here in greece. well here i am right in the heart of it all. i can't say that things are different because i didn't know what they were like before. it seems normal to have strikes every other day and for demonstrations to pass through my street twice a day. its perfectly normal for something so simple to take such effort.. is it?
so yesterday i went to the supermarket and when i stepped out i was in the middle of a demonstration. it was loud and it seemed angry. i walked with it for a while. i had no idea what it was all about but i was interested to find out.

the march stopped at an intersection and we were faced with another demonstration.i asked a guy there what was going on, he said that they were 2 separate political party followers, one was left winged and the other were anarchists, they told me to be careful before they joined the anarchists.
mcdonalds was safely covered by big garage door type things (i can't think of what they are called right now) but all the banks also had covers over the entrances as they are targets for these groups. i saw a guy spray painting something in greek on a bank. i dont know what it said. the photos blurry because i was worried if he saw me take it he would get angry.


i was a little worried that a fight might break out but curious me stuck around to see if anything exciting happened. unfortunately, or fortunately, nothing happened. it was interesting though, they had a bit of yelling battle, yelling their different chants to each other. maybe there was more of a riot down the street? i dont know, i went home. i went back about half an hour later and mcdonalds was open again but there were riot police everywhere with those shields and big helmets on, there was also a lot of noise and commotion. a bit exciting!
so it turns out that anarchist students occupied the journalism school so education is out the window. they have destroyed classrooms and are masked and dangerous. apparently 3 anarchists were arrested yesterday so this is the revolt. we are going to have a look later. the funny thing is the police cant do anything, police have no authority on school property so i don't know how this one will be sorted out.


so tonight is the 'ultimate australian erasmus party'. pretty excited but unfortunately we don't have any beerbongs or goon bags so its not going to be as australian as we hope. but we are sure to play some aussie rock. and do some aussie dancing. and show all those erasmus students how we party. woo.
and then i have to wake up early and get on a plane to egypt. poor me. i have to go to egypt. so im well pumped for that, this time tomorrow i will be in cairo. markets here i come!! that is if they havent cancelled the plane because of the volcanic eruption in iceland, they cancelled all flights out of england and they say the volcanic cloud is travelling down europe, currently in russia or something.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8623817.stm
so please cloud can you evaporate or something before you make it to greece?

anyway my friends. have a good week. i will be updating this after egypt. or if i get a chance to go on the internet whilst i am there. not sure how good the connection is in the sahara or on the nile. we will see. ciaou!

finally!

Γεια σου. Με λένε Ελλά. Είμαι αυστραλιανή. ζω στην Ελλάδα. Είμαι 21 ετών.

ok. enough greek. that about all i have learnt in the past 7 weeks here. i know its bad.
so finally here it is. my blog, i have been meaning to do this for 7 weeks. but like everything i do, i kept putting it off, everyday i would think about it, meaning to do it... but now here i am doing it. i had to start it before i left.because i think i have about 7 weeks left. so i am half way through! i should introduce myself. im ella, i am 21 years of age and i am originally from tasmania, the little forgotten island at the bottom of australia that is shaped like a loveheart.
this is friendly beaches, tasmania. beautiful





i am currently living in thessaloniki in northern greece, its the second largest city and it is pretty beautiful. cafes line the waterfront and music can always be heard.

this is the waterfront, the water is rarely this crazy but life is this crazy..





i am studying at AUTH, aristotle university of thessaloniki, well im not really studying, i go to class and watch my teachers smoke and talk,
or i dont go to class because they are on strike. so what i do most of the time is eat, drink, dance and fly to lovely other countries like germany, czech republic or egypt (yep im going to egypt). im studying, or not studying, journalism and when i grow up i want to be a photo-journalist so where is a better place to start than a blog?

so where do i start?
here i am, living in probably the most crazy non 3rd world country, (is that 1st world?) in the world. everything is noisy and busy and well just crazy, and im not saying that that is a bad thing because it makes life more exciting. i have it easier than the other australian students here because i have a British passport, the drama that they have to go through everyday (or the days that they choose to stress) is awful and i know i am very lucky to not have to go into a dusty hospital where the doctors blow smoke in your face and be refused a blood test. bella, my swedish friend who studies here, told me that hospitals often go on strike (the hospital is currently on strike till the end of the week - what kind of hospital goes on strike????) anyway, bella told us that hospitals often go on strike and they operate very dodgily, dealing with patients and so on under the table, they won't operate on them unless they can show the money. what kind of human could look at a dying child and not operate unless they cough up €11,000?!
but i shouldnt just complain about greece. i am enjoying myself here. i have made some great friends and eaten some delicious food,
seen some atrocious fashions and danced to some very trashy beats. but all in all i am having fun.

but now i must be greek and go and have a coffee. the day cant go 2 hours without a sit down in a cafe and a sip on a frape. i will continue from the beginning soon. or near the beginning. so i dont bore the tears out of you (i think i just made up a saying..) ciaou!