Vacation

2 weeks off

People have been asking me to write again on my blog, but I took a vacation of 2 weeks here in Greece. The reason for this was that project Elea was closed during the holidays, and I really enjoyed my time off.

But don't be worried, I will catch you up on the last 2 weeks. 

On one of the first nights of my vacation, the group of volunteers and I went to the rocks. This is a place in Monestraki, high above the city but just a little below the Acropolis. Here, we had a beautiful view of Athens and also had a lot of fun. But, soon the wind was getting stronger and it became colder. We decided on going down and enjoy the neighborhood of Thissio. 

Christmas eve, we all went to the hospital to celebrate Christmas a little with Mr. A. He is a refugee from the camp who's right leg got amputated right below the knee. This didn't heal good and slowly an infection got the best of him. Till this day he is still in the hospital. But, that night he was really surprised to see us all. We came in with star flashes and sang Christmas carols. We even had one of the volunteers join us with a violin! Together with our company and some good food we made it into a wonderful night for Mr. A.

Christmas day, we celebrated together outside on a balcony. We all brought food and had a lovely dinner together. There were guitars and we sang and played music. But, there was a little scare... As one of the volunteers left, he closed the outside door of the balcony, and we couldn't go back inside. We tried all the windows, but unfortunately, that didn't work. Eventually, we got the lock open with a credit card, this might also show that the locks in Greece are not that strong... 

New years eve was magical. We first all met at another volunteer's apartment, there we did some drinks and then walked to Exarcheia. There we went up on a hill, where we were surprised with yet another beautiful view of Athens. We watched the fireworks there, and I got my New Years' kiss.

After a few days of relaxing, and mostly visiting bars at night, we visited the prison of Socrates. This was based on a beautiful hill called the Filopappou hill. It was so green and we could even see the top of the mountains being covered in snow. Again we saw this beautiful view of Athens. I think I have seen it now from every sight.

The last day of the 2 weeks vacation ended at the Acropolis. Again with the group of volunteers, we climbed up, but before we saw the Acropolis, we went to see the Agora of Athens. This is a museum about all kinds of ruins, but inside you could find a lot of historical things; like pots and pans they used, but also 3000-year-old children grave. After this, we started the climb up onto the Acropolis. In one word it was BEAUTIFUL! 

Of course, this is just a very short summary of a lot of beautiful days here in Athens. But the work now has started again, and I will keep you updated on that as well! 

Please don't forget to check out the photos!