Greek. Chemical engineering student. Ballet dancer(?!). Struggling to get out of my little comfort zone. Travel-lover. It's really hard to define myself but I'll never let anyone do it for me...
It’s been two weeks since I returned back to Greece from USA. It’s been two weeks and now that the jet-lag starts to wither (yeah it took me so long) the melancholy knocked my door. Pffffff!
It’s just the thing that, there, I was meeting so many new people every day, I was visiting different places every day, I was out all day long. And now that I am back I have classes in the morning till the afternoon and then I go home or to my ballet class and that’s it. End of the day. Sleep. Wake up. Here we go again. Repeat.
When I got the hint that I was getting melancholic (It happens to me all the time. It can be triggered by just listening to a song that is somehow connected to a bitter memory of mine! haha) I decided to start going out more. But for some reason this doesn’t satisfy me at all.
I’ve decided to fight it back! So:
-I bought a new book (yayyyy)! It’s called “Confiteor by Jaume Cabre” and so far it is so addictive! I won’t say much now because I haven’t finished reading it but stay tuned 😛
-I have ballet classes almost every day! ❤
-I dyed my hair (silver-blue)! I love them! Even if before seeing the result I was soooo nervous! hahah
-I try not to think about him
P.S 1:Music I keep listening to these days (probably doesn’t help much) :
Clutch/ Red Hot Chili Peppers/ Nirvana/ Radiohead / The Killers/ Arctic Monkeys/ Ben Howard etc
P.S 2: If you have any recommendation feel free to tell me! need help here! 😛 😀
It begun as a simple visit to NYC last Tuesday. Our goal was to just walk around basically in the southern part of the city and see the 9/11 memorial. The day was pretty sunny and warm and the city was full of life as always.
The journey begun at the World trade center where we visited the memorial and got a glimpse of the breathtaking and pretty disturbing view of the fountains. It was really moving…just the thought of those people in the twin towers just gave us chills.
After that we walked to the Battery Park in order to see the Statue of Liberty from distance and take some photos of the view. They even offered us a ride to the statue of liberty…by helicopter (lol)!
The walking continued to Wall Street where we were astonished by the size of the buildings, especially the skyscrapers!!! We then discovered a little alley where the shops had tables outside on the road and you could grab some lunch or drink some coffee. All tables were full, no kidding! There were soooo many people! It was amazing because I guess it’s something you can’t find very easily in such a big city. It kind of reminded me Greece <3.
We wanted to see Brooklyn bridge and we decided to have a walk there too. We took some pictures there too because the scenery and the lighting were great. There were so many people, I guess tourists, walking on the bridge! After having walked on half of the bridge we returned back and headed towards Chinatown.
I had never been to Chinatown and I was shocked to see and especially smell the region 😛 . There were shops selling tortoises…as food! We then continued to Soho and Little Italy as we were trying to find a little coffeehouse or something like that. Our feet were already on fire (haha). We ended up to a coffee shop called ‘Maman’ where the place was really cute and the coffee pretty tasty. The thing that seems strange to us is that no matter in which cafeteria we go there are always people studying or being on their laptops.
Kind Request: ‘When you go out for coffee with friends please disconnect from your laptop or phone and just talk to each other!’ Please, please, please…
After coffee time we decided to walk towards Madison square park and maybe find a place to have a bite. My friend and company to this trip to NYC, is really into Japanese as well as Korean culture so we figured that we should try Ramen soup. We found a place in ‘Yelp’ and walked there. Ramen were really great and had a very distinctive taste. I mean that’s the good thing about a multicultural city like NYC. You can try so many different things from other cultures that it’s almost like truly visiting different countries.
In Madison square park there was something like a festival and there would be many stands with street food like hotdogs and tacos…some guys were playing live music and everyone was gathering around. So there were food and live music, what else could anyone ask for ?!
The journey ended in the Penn train station were we got on the train to go back home. Did I mention that at the start of our trip we had activated a pedometer? Yeah that’s right! We were on the train when we decided to have a look at the number of the steps we made. We were rather surprised when we saw that we had walked for 21 km :O
My feet still hurt when I see the number (lol)
The truth is that you can’t stop talking about NYC, so there will probably be another post about it as I plan to visit again while I’m here.
Guys did I tell you? This past week I am in the USA and more specifically in New York! I am soooo excited I can’t even describe it.
I want to apologize though for not writing in more than 7 days but I wanted to gather photos from all the places I’ve been so far, so I could share them with you..
Well it all started when my brother asked me if I wanted to visit him in the United States (he is studying here) and of course I said yes without a second thought! The classes back in Greece don’t start till the first week of October, so that made the decision even easier.
The flight was about 10:30 hours long and the seat really uncomfortable but I enjoyed the trip, probably because I was very excited. I watched 3 movies and I tried to get some sleep too but it was impossible.
First impression:
-The sky was much more dull than in Greece and it even had a grey-ish colour
-The guy in the passport control was very friendly and he even chit-chatted with us
-The buildings are enormously big and bulky
-The air-condition was on in every building that we got into and I was FREEZING!
-It all seemed so strange and different in comparison to what I was used to (but in a good way!!)
-The trucks as well as the cars here are very big! Also, the gasoline is pretty inexpensive.
So we headed to my brother’s house in New Brunswick. We got there by UBER (first time I used that too and it was really convenient). I noticed that in each region the houses were similar to each other. That made it uniform and formed some kind of a community. Also, you can’t miss the numerous malls and shops across the road. The supermarkets are another story!(I can just be lost there.!Again very big and with such a variety of food, especially sweets!)
New Brunswick is a little city which is full of students because of the university of Rutgers. There are plenty of coffee shops, multicultural cuisines and pubs. The first thing that caught my eye were the fraternities and sororities. It was just like we see it in the movies. Actually most of the things that you see in an american movie is possibly true.
The next day I visited the Busch campus of Rutgers university and had a walk around. I even went to the chemical engineering department to see what I am missing (lol). There were many junior students walking around in the campus because they had something like an orientation day and they were all wearing red t-shirts with a big R in the middle. I was pretty jealous and I wanted a hoodie with Rutgers written on it, so I went to the student center where there was a Rutgers shop. I was really surprised to see that it was really really expensive though, so I haven’t got one yet. But i’ll come to terms with the price (haha)
That day I tasted my very first american burger! It was really great! The american ones can’t be compared to the European style. I guess it’s all about the size here! You even get to the supermarket and you see these enormous party-sized chips or the gallons of milk in the fridges. I am still very impressed by the size of all things here..
So far I’ve visited New York, Princeton, Philadelphia and New Brunswick. I have to tell you everything that I have seen in every on of them.
So keep reading….
P.S: I’m staying till the first week of October (yayyyy!)
So let me tell you something about me. I really love ballet and I’ve been taking classes of the Russian system (Vaganova) since I was little. The thing is that this year (in June) we had examinations and an old prima ballerina from Bulgaria, miss Bogoeva, would come to Greece in order to examinate us and hopefully let us pass to the next level. Truth be told those exams are pretty hard and she is very strict, so our theacher had prepared us for the worst.
I was pretty anxious back then but tried to keep it under control. And the day of the examination came, all was rolling fine and I had a good vibe because I was dancing and it felt good! When our program was over I left not knowing the result, and prepared for a low mark because ms.Bogoeva has the reputation of being really strict.
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The same night we would all meet at a roof bar for a kind of after-exams-gala (lol :D). So my teacher came to me and she told me that I got 10/10 and that ms. Bogoeva suggested that I should go to her academy in Varna, Bulgaria for summer-courses. And it came out of the blue, just like that! An opportunity to travel abroad!
The thing was that it would be my first trip on my very own!! I had to plan everything from scratch and I couldn’t spend much either. So I searched and searched on the net and I chose to stay in a youth hostel which was new and pretty inexpensive. My parents were a little preoccupied but they let me go on one condition- that I would leave the moment that something went wrong. I was a little worried too because I would sleep in an 8-people mixed dorm but I saw it as a great experience and a good way to meet new people.
And there I was on a plane to Sofia, Bulgaria and then on a bus to Varna (6 hours distance) where I would stay for 13 days! Then I had planned to visit Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria) for a day and a night before heading back to Greece.
Flying to Sofia..
flying to Sofia..
The journey from Sofia to Varna by bus was soooo tiring! Thank God a Belgian girl that I met in the hostel recommended another bus-brand which was much better, inexpensive and it had air-conditioning! So I chose this brand when I was returning back in Sofia. (You can message me if you need more information on travelling to Varna or Sofia).
When I arrived in Varna I decided to have the first meet with the city and I walked to the city-centre. I was amazed!! The centre was all pedestrianised, full of colourful flowers and it all seemed so well-cared. The main pedestrianised road which was full of places to eat, beautiful bars and hotels, would take you to the sea coast, the so called Black Sea. On the coast there was a very big park, called “the sea gardens” which included a dilphinarium, a zoo-park, a planetarium and the palace of culture and sports. I just loved the sea-gardens and I would go walking almost every day before class. There you would see everyone riding a bike or a roller skate, having picnics, playing music or even balancing on a rope (yes I saw that! lol)
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Varna view- from the highest hotelSea GardensSea GardensFountain next to Varna’s opera house
Black-Sea
The Bulgarian food I tasted there, their hospitality and the people I met at the hostel, I will never forget! It was such a great experience, the ones that you get once in a lifetime I guess.
little coffeeshop
little bio-shop inside a coffeeshop
With this post I want to try to convince you that travelling solo can be great! I really need to let you know that, because I needed someone to say it to me too. I know it’s a big decision to make and a lot to think about but it’s totally worth it.
I’ll agree to what they say…”outside your comfort zone is where the magic happens”!
P.S 1: I think my next post should be about my experience from staying in a hostel.
P.S 2: If you want more about how the ballet intensives were, let me know 😛
As you’ll have already guessed that’s my first blog post. So, my name is Dena, I’m a chemical engineering student and I love to travel. This is my first attempt on making a travel blog that I hope will inspire you or even persuade you to explore places that you’ve never been to.
Places that are next to you or places that you always wanted to visit but you kept putting it back. I can’t even begin to describe you my surprise when I realized that the island that I was visiting every summer since I was born had so many places to see and I had only been to one of them. 20 whole years in just one part of it. And even if driving to the next village doesn’t sound to you like travelling, I have come to the conclusion that travelling isn’t about distance. It’s about making yours, new images, different senses, even scents and meeting new people or hearing other idioms of your own language.
That’s why I decided this year to visit new places in Crete, the Greek island that I come from and have yet to know.
Crete is the biggest Greek island and the fifth largest island of the Mediterranean sea. Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits (such as its own poetry and music). It was once the centre of the Minoan civilization(c. 2700–1420 BC), which is currently regarded as the earliest recorded civilization in Europe.
Crete, Greece
I come from a village in the western part of the island, called Voulgaro, which is close to Chania the second one of the principal cities and one of the most beautiful and picturesque.
One of the best walks in Chania is at the old port. The lights, the colourful old buildings, the people’s voices and just getting lost inside the little alleys make Chania my perfect summer destination.
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You can never say that you have seen all of it and that’s why I keep going back there every summer. Meeting new people, especially locals who will make it sure that you’ll get to know their culture and traditions is one of the best experience.
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I think I want to keep my first post small and you in suspense (lol :D) so….
Annoying Mosquito 