Ya Sas!
Trip Start
Sep 14, 2008
1
4
25
Trip End
Dec 15, 2008
Thessaloniki,
Greece
Friday, September 19, 2008
Academic orientation was the theme of yesterday's sessions. We took part two of our Greek survival class where we learned that flirting is their national pastime, you can't show people the inside of your palm because it is considered offensive, and vehicles have the right-of-way rather than pedestrians. Afterwards they taught us a few key phrases such as hello (ya sou), my name is (me lene...), and how are you (ti kaneis)
Downtown streets
. Jared and I received our class schedules, and although we had to make some minor changes, everything seems to be in order for our first day of class. For lunch this time around we were taken to the President's house where we were served a full lunch that was the exact same thing we had as yesterday (meatball thingies, bread, Greek lasagna which is nothing like Mom's, and mushy eggplant salad) along with our first foray into the great world of retsina, the original Greek wine. My advice is this, NEVER DRINK RETSINA! The wine is actually made with pine sap and is absolutely disgusting. It's like drinking turpentine. I guess it might be an acquired taste, but I don't think I want to acquire it. The Greek lasagna is also worth mentioning because it is so weird. Greek food by standard seems to be about sogginess, and this lasagna lives up to that expectation. It has a top layer that is about an inch thick of a creamy, custard-like topping and below that is a layer of macaroni noodles that are really soggy, and on the bottom is a little bit of sauce and tons of ground beef. It's good for the first couple of bites but the texture definitely gets to you after awhile. But the lunch was still fun, we mingled with the rest of the study abroad students, found out that we were the largest class of Study Abroad students Thessaloniki has ever had, and even got a visit from the Greek Consulate who reminded us that he was the one who would have to bail us out of jail lol
A view of the bay (kind of)
. After the lunch we went on a neighborhood tour in our area as well as a scavenger hunt that although completely wore my legs out, it also was a lot of fun and very informative. We found the butcher for cheaper and fresher meat, a pharmacy in case we get sick, an even better supermarket than before, and learned how to buy public bus tickets should we need them. The scavenger hunt took us all across downtown, letting us get some really great pictures of the different ruins and of St. Demetrios' Church. When we finished up there we came back, and Megan and I split up for a night out with the guys and a night out with the girls for her.A group of ten girls and I from my building all got dressed up and went out for a girl's night on the town. During our tour of the city we heard (and Jared told me) about a great restaurant across from the big outdoor market. We took a short walk across town until we had reached the place where a few restaurants were right across from each other and the owners fight for your patronage. We knew if we told one restaurant that we wanted to go to another they would fight for our business and give us a deal. As soon as we walked up two men tried pulling us into the place and asking how many were in our party. We tried not to seem interested, so he pulled us in further and eventually worked out a deal where we all received a few glasses of free wine and bread for the table
At the clock
. We decided to go with the Greek tradition of ordering and all requested a different appetizer which we shared with the entire table. The food was absolutely delicious! We had a spicy cheese spread, fried zucchini balls with a yogurt filling, a variety of cheeses (YUM!!), a cucumber dip, loaded potato dish, grilled mushrooms with a white sauce, grape leaves, and another kind of dip with various things in it. It didn't seem like food I would usually eat, but man was it good! When the check came it only ended up costing us 5 euro a piece, which is super cheap for food here.My night out with the guys started with grabbing some souvlaki at a local eatery for 2 euros, and it was absolutely delicious. Souvlaki and Gyros beat hamburgers hands down in my book. The difference between the souvlaki and a gyro is the type of meat put in it. Souvlaki is skewered meat that is usually lamb but really can be any type, the difference is in the spices they put on it. Gyros have shaved meat which is really cool to see. Basically they take these huge slabs of meat and put them on a vertical spit that rotates in front of a burner and when someone orders a gyro they shave a small portion of the meat off from top to bottom. Now what these two dishes have in common are that they are wrapped in flatbread which varies from place to place in taste, then if you say you "Thelo ena souvlaki/gyro apoupla" which means "I want a souvlaki/gyro with everything" then you get ketchup, mustard, red onions, and FRENCH FRIES put inside of it. I'm sure there's something else too but I can't remember it as of right now. But the French fries are what make it for me. So anyways, we grabbed our food sat around and talked for a bit then went back to head out to the waterfront later. After we put on some warmer clothes we headed to Dante which is a small bar and met up with the owners Kristof and Angel, who my roommate and our friend Mike know very well
The street that the big open market is on
. We had a good time mingling with the locals and used what little Greek we knew to communicate. The bar played a mix of American music and it seemed that everyone there loved it. We stayed till closing talking to all our new friends and actually got a ride back from one of the bartenders that was a Russian immigrant who is studying journalism here in Thessaloniki and speaks her language (of course), Greek, and English (but with a British accent). When we got back we went to bed immediately and got ready for a day out at Vergina (Vur-ge-na), the burial site of Philip II, Alexander the Great's Father.Bye guys!
Megan and Jared
