Life in Athens from an Erasmus student perspective

Hello Everyone!

I am Hina. I am a Pakistani girl who went for her undergraduate studies in Turkey and had the opportunity to go for Erasmus exchange for 1 semester in Athens, Greece. In this blog, I would like to tell you about the life in Athens from an Erasmus student perspective.

Athens is a very beautiful city to live it. It contains one of the most important historical site in the world and that is the acropolis of Athens which includes the Parthenon. The Parthenon is one of the best places to visit in Athens. It is located on a hill and we can see the entire view of the city from there. The view is fabulous.

Another nice place to visit in Athens is the Lycabbetus hill. The way to the hill is very beautiful. At the top of the hill, there is a monastery and an open air theater. The Lycabbetus hill is at a higher level than the acropolis of Athens and so from there we can even see the Parthenon. At night, the view from the top of the hill is very beautiful. We can see the Parthenon lighted which look quite amazing.

The beaches in Athens are very beautiful as well. There is a beach in Piraeus which contains some nicely shaped rocks. Moreover, there are many other beaches in the city that are magnificient. Apart from the beaches, the Vouliagmeni Lake is a very nice place to visit as well. The tempeature of the water of the lake is thermally controlled and so one can easily swim in it. There are little caves present there which can only be reached by swimming in the lake. The experience is fantastic.

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One of the mostly visited places in Athens is Syntagma square (the city center) and Monastiraki square. Syntagma square or the city center contains a lot of shops from local to branded ones and different restaurants. As it is the city center, the parliament is located there where there are several guards. The guards change position a lot of times during the day and evening and its really nice to watch them. When there is a specific event, a lot of guards come and do some interesting parade and ceremony.

Monastiraki square is really nice as well. It contains a lot of cafes and bars. From the top of the cafes and bars, we can see the acropolis of Athens. The food over there is very good and we can always find people there during the evening doing some dance activities. Its quite enjoyable.

In Athens, there are several stadiums and it also contains the olympic stadium. We can go to the stadiums and enjoy watching football matches or other sports.

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When it comes to shopping in Athens, Athens is a great city to shop. It contains a lot of huge and nice malls such as the Mall of Athens, Metro Mall, Athens heart mall, etc. Some of the malls also contain an ice skating rink. We can even watch movies in cinema there and enjoy bowling. The experience is fantastic. On events like Christmas, the malls light up with different lamps and installation art. It makes them look even nicer.

The transportation system of Athens is quite fantastic. It can lead you anywhere within the city. In Athens, there are 3 metro lines which are faster and can take you to most places. The metro line also connects with the Athens International airport. Apart from the metro, there are trams that connect with the metro lines and can take you to the extreme end of the city. Then there are buses with stations all over the city. The metro system is quite easy to understand but it may take a few days to understand the bus system. However, the bus system isn't complicated and we can always use google maps to get to the desired destination and apps that show the bus route.

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The best thing about Athens is that the people there know English. If you go to the supermarket or the restaurants, the people have at least some basic understanding of English and so its quite easy to communicate with them if you don't speak Greek. Also, there is the Erasmus student Network in Athens of different universities. The ESN arrange several trips within the city and outside the city in order to become familiar with the country and make friends coming from different European countries. It also arranges a student buddy that helps with all the university paperwork for registration.

As you can see, there are so many places to visit in Athens. Also one of the advantages of living in a big city and most importantly the capital is that you can always find things to do there or there are always some places that are left to visit in the city. Also, if you are living in Athens, you can visit other cities via the sea (ferry), air (airplane) or the land (bus). That is quite amazing.

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