Erasmus in Greece-A lifetime experience

Hello Everyone!

I am Hina. I am an undergraduate student studying in Kayseri, Turkey. In this blog, I would like to share with you one of my life experience and that is my Erasmus experience in Greece. By the end of the blog, you will know more about the life of an Erasmus student.

I am just an ordinary girl in the world of billions of people. I was born in a small city in Pakistan where life was mainly static. After I completed my high school, I was lucky enough to get to study in a well-reputed university in Turkey. My father was hesitant to let me go alone to Turkey because I had never experienced the outside world. My life was just constraint within a bunch of people and the walls of my house. After a lot of discussions and hard decisions, I was sent to study in Turkey alone. I was nervous because that was the first time I went so far from my family. However, as the days past by, I started to get used to my new environment.

Coming to Turkey was a huge change for me; for a girl who couldn't even go to the supermarket without someone coming with her. In Turkey, I met different people, experienced a different culture than back home and made a lot of new friends. My confidence level drastically increased. Living in Turkey was one of the best things that happened to me. However, it wasn't enough. Life had so much in store for me than I could even imagine. After a year studying in Turkey, my university selected some students to go for Erasmus exchange. I was one of them. After a long and tiring application and visa procedure, I got to go and study in Athens, Greece for 1 semester (5 months) as an Erasmus student.

I still remember when I was sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to Athens, some people belonging to my home country asked me aren't you scared of going alone. That question put me to a complete silence because all my past life started to appear in front of me. How from a small city I got the chance to go to Turkey and then Greece. Very few girls back home get such huge opportunity in their life. The 1 year that I spent in Turkey had made me strong enough that I had the guts to say that No, I am not scared. I remember when I said those words, I wasn't sure enough myself. There was a deep feeling of nervousness inside me but that feeling was long gone after I went to Greece. My Erasmus experience in Greece made me a much stronger and confident person. Also, it was perhaps the best experience of my life.

The first time I arrived in Greece is unforgettable. I was at the airport. A person who worked at my university had to come and pick me up from the airport in his car and drop me to my apartment. We talked a lot in the car and I realized that he knew nothing about the people coming from my country. That was very strange for me. I felt quite isolated. However as soon as I got to my apartment, things started to get better. I was living in an apartment with a German boy and a Spanish girl. Both of them were studying in the same university like mine. When I arrived at my apartment, the German boy was already there while the Spanish girl was to come in 2 days. The apartment owner was very nice to me. On the first day, I went to the city center with the German boy and ate ice-cream. The place was very nice and the ice cream was delicious too. I soon started to feel at home there.

When I went to university for the first time, it was 2 days after I arrived in Athens. It was the orientation week and I had to be there in order for me to not miss any details about the university. The university was located far from my apartment and I had to take the metro and the bus to get there. Metro system of Athens was quite easy to understand and in 2 days, I had already become familiar with it. However, I wasn't familiar with the bus system. After I took the metro and was waiting for the bus, I realized that I could even walk to the university using the google maps and GPS because if I took the bus, I wouldn't know where to get off. So, I started following the maps and reached a place. I thought it was my university but it was some sort of military building. The people there told me the way to my university. When I reached there, however, the orientation presentation was already finished. I felt quite bad but right after the presentation, I met my student buddy. Before coming to Greece, I was appointed a buddy by the Erasmus student network of my university. The buddy helped me get settled in Athens and also helped me with all my university paperwork. In a few days, he had become a friend that I could count on if I had any problems or any questions about the university or city life.

Within a week of my stay in Athens, I got to visit Santorini, a beautiful island located in Greece, on a trip. The trip was arranged by the ESN of my university and other universities in Athens. Before coming to Greece, I already knew about the trip and was eagerly waiting for it to come. It was a wonderful trip. We took a ferry from Athens port to Santorini. The ferry ride was about 8 hours which was quite long but the sea view was enjoyable and the cold winds blowing all throughout the journey were quite enjoyable. When I arrived in Santorini, I stayed in a very nice hotel located in the center of Thera. On the ferry I had made a few friends coming from England, Czech Republic and Poland and so I got to stay with them in the hotel room. My stay in Santorini was of 3 days. In those three days I got to visit some really nice places and nearby islands. Also, I got to visit the volcano. The place was really beautiful. The 3 days that I spent in Santorini were amazing and unforgettable.

2 weeks after my trip to Santorini, I got to visit another island named as Aegina on a trip. The trip was also arranged by the ESN. The island was located close to Athens and so the ferry ride was not long. It was a one day trip and in that day, I got to visit a lot of archeological sites and a museum. They were quite interesting and on the same hand beautiful. It was a day well spent experiencing the beauty of the Greek islands.

My studies in Athens were not difficult. I had a few classes in a week and the university system also wasn't strict towards the Erasmus students. Therefore, I had a lot of free time to enjoy a new place and a new country. Therefore, I got to visit Kastoria, a city located far from Athens for 4 days. On my way to Kastoria, I stayed in Meteora for a little time. Meteora is a really beautiful region containing a lot of monasteries. As my stay in Meteora was limited, I got to visit only one Monastery named as St. John Monastery. It was really beautiful. I really enjoyed my short term stay there and even made some new friends there coming from different European countries.

After staying in Meteora for a short while, I headed towards Kastoria. Kastoria is a really beautiful city that is surrounded by limestone mountain and is located on the western shore of lake Oresteia. We can see the lake from almost everywhere in Kastoria. The way towards Kastoria is really beautiful as well. My stay in Kastoria was quite long so I got enough time to look around and enjoy the beautiful landscape. In Kastoria, I visited the cave of the dragons and even went to the shelter of the endangered species such as bears and wolves. It was an amazing experience.

During my stay in Athens, I even got to visit an adventure park. The adventure park was located very close to Athens in Malakasa. The visit to the park was one of the best experience of my life as I got to do some fabulous activities like going from one tree to another with the help of several types of equipment. I had never done anything like that before in my life. Also, the visit to the park was a great way to overcome my fear of heights. Before going to the park, I was really scared of heights but going to the park and doing stuff that I had never done before greatly reduced my fear of heights. It was a remarkable experience.

Life in Athens is really good as well. In Athens, there are so many nice places that you can visit. Also, it contains the very famous Parthenon. Back home, I only used to look at the Parthenon in google images and dream of going there. When I came to Athens, my dream became true. I got to the visit the Parthenon. The Parthenon is located on a hill. From the top of the hill, we can see the entire view of the city. I really liked the place and used to go there almost every month. The view was fabulous.

Apart from the Parthenon, the lycabbetus hill was also one of the places that I used to visit very often. The hill was located at a higher level than the Parthenon and the view from there was also quite amazing. On the top of the hill, there is a monastry that one can visit. The winds blowing at the top of the hill were bit cold but it was nice to stay there and enjoy the view.

In Athens, the typical places that I used to go almost everyday were Syntagma square (the city center) and Monastiraki square. The places contain very nice shopping places and restaurants. I often used to go there to eat or simply walk around with friends.

There are a lot of nice and big shopping malls in Athens. The best thing that I liked about the malls was that some of them contain an ice skating rink. I started ice skating in Turkey and within 1 year was able to skate pretty well. Before I went to Athens, I thought that I had to give up on ice skating because maybe I won't be able to find an ice skating rink in Athens. However, to my surprise, I found a few ice skating rinks that were easily accessible by the metro system and were mainly located in the shopping malls. It was wonderful for me. I used to go for ice skating a lot there.

Erasmus student network of different universities in Athens was very active throughout my stay in Athens. Almost every week they had parties in some clubs which I didn't usually go to because I am not a party person. However, at the same time, they had a lot of trips. One of the trips included a visit to the air traffic control tower in Athens International airport. The visit to the tower was unique, something that I could never imagine in my entire life. There I learned a few things about how air traffic is controlled and monitored. Also, I went to the top of the tower where everything was controlled and monitored live. It was a unique and interesting experience.

The months that I stayed in Athens were very enjoyable and productive at the same time. During my stay there, I got to learn Taekwondo- a kind of Martial art. The gym from where I learned Taekwondo was located very close to my apartment and so I could easily go there. They had other kinds of Martial arts like kickboxing, Karate or Kung fu but I choose Taekwondo because I always wanted to learn it since I was a child. That was the first time I was learning it and within 4 months I achieved my first belt (yellow belt). It was a wonderful feeling. A feeling that cannot be described in words.

The 5 months that I stayed in Greece passed within the blink of an eye. Erasmus was coming to an end. 1 week before my flight to Turkey, my German friend asked me to come with her and visit Delphi. That was my last trip to Greece and it turned out to be fantastic. I took a public bus to Delphi in the morning, visited some archeological sites and a museum. In the evening, I again took the public bus and came back to Athens. The bus ride was almost 5 hours and because of that, the day was a bit tiring. However, I found the archeological sites in Delphi to be very interesting and beautiful on the same hand. It was a day well spent.

My last day in Athens was a sad one. Erasmus had come to an end and I had to leave the place and the country where I spent the best 5 months of my life. I was very sad and had to say goodbye to my friends. At some point, I even cried because I didn't want to leave my friends as I thought I will never be able to see them again. But someone told me 'its not a goodbye, It's a see you soon'.

Now I am back in Turkey completing my undergraduate studies. I miss my Erasmus experience in Greece and my friends there. I am really hoping to go for Erasmus exchange again because Erasmus was the best thing that happened to me. It gave me so nice and unforgettable memories. I feel myself to be a very lucky person as I had the chance to go for Erasmus exchange. Erasmus wasn’t just 5 months in my life, it was my life in those 5 months.

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