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!