Greek adventure

by Samar Salim (Egypt)

Making a local connection Greece

Hello My trip in Greece was really great and I can say that I lived there the best days of my life. In 2016 I won a scholarship to attend a program of learning modern greek in Thessaloniki for one month, it was like a beautiful dream that I didn't want to wake up from it. At the beginning I was afraid because it was the first time I traveled alone and preparing the required documents was really a tiring task, that's why I slept all the trip and I woke up to find myself in Athens When I arrived at Thessaloniki i was surprised because there is no crowd if I compare it to my city Alexandria. I just arrived at the hostel that was only for students and I shared a room with an Egyptian girl. We just had a rest for two days and the other colleagues arrived, we were eight girls, four Egyptian girls including me, two Spanish, one Turkish and one Ukrainian. We started the first day of the course 22 September, I was very excited and happy to meet new people from all over the world and my new teachers that I liked alot. We had two greek teachers and they were excellent. It was an intensive course and I sometimes got bored but I would like to go back again. After that I just encouraged myself to discover the city alone and to communicate with the people in the streets so I got used to everything there. But I felt as if I were at my home because i met 2 of my Greek friends, I met one of them on Facebook and when we met I was shy at the first time because I didn't know them well but after that they treated me in a friendly way and they made me feel as if were their daughter. They helped me to visit many places that without them I wouldn't have think about it,the other colleagues were jealous but I was happy and grateful. Thessaloniki is a quite and a small city but it looks like Alexandria of Egypt specially in the general form of the streets. The most famous places i visited there were the white tower, the rotonda, the old city that is full of old walls and castles which will make anyone feels as going back in time through a machine. I tried also Greek food like souvlaki, tzedzaki, seafood etc.... The food court of the university offered us meals for free but I just bought other food that i liked alot but the only kind of sweets that i didnt like was the samali, it is the same as an egyptian sweet but not the same taste. I also attended Greek dance lessons that were really very interesting, I was about to learn with them but unfortunately it was only one month and I don't remember the movements. I also visited another two Greek cities ''Panorama'' a small city full of rich houses and natural views '' pella'' the ancient city of the Great Alexander where there is a museum full of many ancient pieces like pottery, statues, jewellery etc..... The only thing that made me a little sad was the economic crisis, most of the houses and the shops were for sale or for rent, no jobs, homeless people and some racist people but still a beautiful city. The last day I was about to cry because i knew that the nice dream was about to be ended and i would leave my friends and get back to Alexandria but at the same time i was happy because I missed Alexandria, my home, my family and my work. I returned back to my country with many souvenirs and with a new experience that I will never forget even if i will not see some people again but i am not the same person that i was before this trip. Now I just try to live new experience with a new stories, who knows when and where it will be and if i will also enjoy it or not I should wait for the future to answer me. Thanks