Omonia Square

This morning for my Greek Key class we met at Omonia Square, which is this big hustle and bustle area that's kind of business central. The Greek Wall Street is right next to it and there's shopping stores lined up. So we walked around and it is just amazing how many people there are, just lounging around eating, talking. People of all ages. I mean, what do people do here during the day? There were lots of old people which was expected, but there were tons of young people too just shopping on a Monday morning. Don't they have work? I can't figure out how Greeks just have so much time on their hands. They all seem so relaxed and have all the time in the world. They have quiet hours everyday from 2:30-6pm where shops close, people go home and eat and take a nap then wake up again. So when people go out at night, they don't go out until midnight because they don't eat dinner until at least 8 or 9.

Then we walked through a fresh meat market. Everyone was lined up with fresh meat still on the bone hanging from their stands. Goat, lamb, rabit, and pig were popular, everything attached. We saw intestines, livers, stomaches, tongues, fully attached and hanging. It was pretty gross, but I guess it's fresh right? Then we passed through the fish market part of it and that was SMMMEEELLLLYYY. There was octopus everywhere, squid, all different types of fish, crab, clams. It's funny because you don't see a lot of women at these types of markets. Mainly just men and the vendors try to get you interested by flattering you and speaking English. It's pretty funny, they'll tell you how pretty you look and reach out for your hand. After that we walked through some streets that are basically on the outskirts of town. The atmosphere there was so different because they were mainly occupied by immigrants. There were lots of Pakistanis, a few Chinese people and stores, some Indian, and some Egyptian, all selling random things from leather shoes to curries and spices. But it was so different because it feels like they're exiled from society and they all live together. They were just staring at us as we were walking through, but it wasn't just a normal stare. It was piercing and almost full of judgment. That was pretty uncomfortable. I've noticed people here have no problem with staring. At home, if you catch someone staring, they look away, but here they just keep that eye contact. So that was an interesting experience...probably won't go back there by myself..or ever haha. Oh and apparently the area around Omonia is filled with drug addicts so they advise us to stay away from the place late at night haha. I just find it so amazing how within a few blocks the people and atmosphere just change. The street of immigrants was literally 4 blocks away from the Wall Street area of business men in suits with briefcases and 5 star hotels. It's mind boggling.

Well that's my 2 cents for the day. Hope everyone back home is doing well and being safe. I absolutely love it here and am having a blast. These next few months are going to FLY by, but I'm going to make the most of it. I just mailed out post cards to a bunch of people so expect those in a week or so! :) ADIO!