Erasmus life in Athens!

Hey everyone !

So far I've only written about the Greek culture and the economic crisis. Now, let's talk about the fun part! The Erasmus life!

The ESN in Athens is very active and they rea

lly try to get all Erasmus students together. Just after my arrival was the introduction week. There were 2 activities each day, a cultural activity in the noon and a party in the night. I Think that approximately 75 Erasmus students atte

nded the introduction week. Also after the intro week they organized parties at least twice a week and the other days you just organize parties yourselves w

ith the friends you made during the intro week. Yes, the first weeks of your exchange are more like a holiday than an exchange :p. But you'll have to learn to drink ouzo ( if you never drank it before )because the prices of the alcohol you're used to drink are probably more expensive here than in Holland.

MYKONOOOOOOOS !

Life in Athens

Dear Bloggers and readers,

I've been in Greece for 3 weeks now and it's amazing. To be honest, today is the first day I actually went to the university and the rest of the days was just "Erasmus life".

It's not that I didn't want to go to the university, which is really close to my apartment, but is had been occupied by protesting students for the last whole month and therefore we were not allowed to get in. Studying in Athens university is totally for free because it's a public school. Even the meals in the cafeteria are for free. Now the government wants the students to start paying a little amount of money and that's why they are striking. There are also protests and riots almost every day and at least one's or twice a week there's public transport and/or a taxi strike. That makes life a little harder because without public transport or a cab we cannot go anywhere and the streets are not really safe during a riot. Then I just have to stay home and listen to the sirens of police cars all day long. 

My first day in Athens

Hey all

Thank you for reading my blog and I'll try to make it as interesting as possible!

This morning I arrived at the airport of Athens. My contact person ( so called exchange buddy ) was waiting for me there. The taxi drivers are on strike today because they refuse to start paying taxes so we had to use the public transport. Although all travel information was available in English I was glad that my buddy knew which train and bus to take. He guided me to the office of Stayinathens, the organization I booked an apartment at. There I met the landlord and he took me to my apartment and stayed there for a while because he still had to clean most rooms. His English is very good and like al Greeks he likes to have a long conversation. Of course, the economic crisis and the Greek culture were two of the many topics.