2nd day!

Exploring the neighborhood

After a relaxing morning and settling in my room, we decided to explore the neighborhood we live in, Kypseli. We went on a mission to get some coffee and walked downtown. The first thing I noticed was the graffiti on almost every building, besides that, almost every building looks the same. Some of the graffiti on the street were protests, for example about the situation in Syria, but also did we see a big graffiti art about Zak/Zackie. He was a guy from Greece who was brutally murdered because of his drag stage. He was a tireless defender of the rights of LGBTI people and HIV- positive persons. This kind of art reminds us that situations like this still occur and that he will not be forgotten. 

As we walked further, we passed a street with orange trees. I have never seen that before, but these oranges didn't like they were edible. As we kept on walking we arrived at a square where a lot of drugs were sold. Everywhere you saw small groups of people and when we passed them they all tried to sell us some weed. They had to laugh when we told them we came from The Netherlands and already know it. We also passed a Christmas market, they sold Belgium waffles and German bratwurst. Also, did we notice that when it came to selling kids toys, you saw a good separation between boys and girls. Where the boys' stuff was mostly weapons and cars, the girls' stuff was mostly dolls, vacuums, and kitchen tools. I hope this is not something we want to show our kids how it should be. Boys and girls should be able to be whatever they want to be. A boy can cook and clean and take care of babies, whereas a girl can drive a car and fight.

We sat down at a nice coffee place in the neighborhood Exárcheia. The Greek has this nice gesture that when you sit down you get a glass of water or even a bottle of water. I don't know what kind of coffee I ordered but it wasn't a full cup of coffee...maybe just one sip. Very strong but very delicious too. The trees were decorated with Christmas lights and the terraces were full of people. 

On our way back, we were looking for something to eat. So we decided on some Italian food. There was this take-away kind of restaurant that sold pizza and pasta. I decided on some pasta with mushrooms and shrimps, that was a good choice I made. We all had dinner together at home and played some cards afterward. 

We went to bed on time, cause the next day will be the start of the internship at camp Eleonas. I'm nervous but excited and ready for it. Let's do this!

Temperature: 15ºC