Day 46

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Day 46: Gioria’s and Shopping in Athens

We were all pretty worn down, and decided to sleep in till 9am. We got up, I took a shower after Neil and Jenn, then we all went to the Carrefour grocery store to pick up breakfast. After that, having packed our Greek language books and laptops in our bags, we went out to meet Gioria in her neighborhood. We got off the tram at about 10:15am and met up with her, and she walked us down streets that lead up to her parent’s house. We met her parents; her mom was just about to head out and her dad and brother were busy working in the yard. She lead us inside and boy was it nice! It was super artsy and eclectic, we can definitely tell where she gets her taste and personality from.

She made us tea, as Lisa and Jenn attempted to finish up their last Greek language unit before writing the midterm exam. It was about 11am, and Gioria was suppose to head out to catch the ferry and bus back to Poros at 12:15pm, so once Jenn had finished her unit, we all (including Gioria) helped Isabelle write her exam, which she scored 100%! Then I wrote mine, and I got 99%, same for Lisa and Jenn who followed. We’re all really proud of our grades and very thankful to Gioria for letting us use her house, her internet and all her help on the exam!

Once all the stress was gone, and the exams were written, she heated us up lunch that her mom had prepared; we ate homemade pastichio (almost like a baked pasta mixed with moussaka: pasta and meat bake covered with béchamel sauce), a salad, baked beans, and bread. The house was a little smoky for my taste, so I had to go outside sometimes and take a breather; my asthma was acting up because of the smoke and because I was at the peak of being sick.

We left at about 3pm from Gioria’s and she came shopping with us; Neil called our prof and twisted his rubber arm to convince him to let Gioria stay one more day with us in Athens before she returned to work in Poros with him. Our prof, being the softy he is, of course let Gioria stay with us, and he was just unhappy he had to miss out on our fun; but considering all we really did for the rest of the day was shop, I doubt he would have been very entertained or impressed. Gioria took us to Monastiraki and Syntagma to go shopping along the high-end fashion district (H&M’s and European stores), then she took us to the place where she gets all her clothes: Sadao. I didn’t find anything worthy buying myself, it was all pretty expensive and some I could have made myself, but Jenn, Isabelle and Lisa all found 2-4 items to buy and lots more to try on.

It was about 6pm by the time we left the store, and we walked back to the metro line with Gioria, she was going to meet another one of her friends before she left the next morning, so we said our goodbyes on the train, and we continued back to our hostel. Just before we got to our hostel, Neil saw a collector’s shop and next door was an Asian clothing store; I found a cute pair of genie-like gray pants, they’re really comfy and I figured I should come back with at least 1 good buy from Athens. After that, we dropped off all our bags at the hostel, and we walked to Exarchia Square (which is the big live music bar district in Athens). We found this side street full of restaurants and seating outdoors; we stopped at Taverna Pozania and ate there. I had a Tortellini Pozania (cheese tortellini in a creamy red sauce with ham, chicken breast, mushrooms and onion) and they threw in a free dessert (a crumbly sweet cake, with the honey baklava sauce). We gradually walked back to the hostel, while checking out the square and the neighborhood. We got back to the hostel at about 11pm, where they have free wifi internet access, I took a pill, and then I went to bed with the sniffles and coughing.

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