When my plane first landed in Athens, it was 11 PM, I spoke to the woman who was going to host him for a couple of nights about his arrival time, and she sent him her address with an explanation of how to arrive which showed that it would take him about an hour from the airport. I stepped out of the airport, took a deep breath as in to feel the new air that he’s about to inhale for the first time. “Nope, nothing different,” I thought. The hostess greeted me with such comfort, “please, call me Anna,” she said. “and you can call me Mosouka,” I replied. Her apartment was small but cozy, she lived with two other guys, one was a Kurdish rebel, and the other was an unemployed archeologist, they didn’t speak proper, so she translated what they were trying to say to me. The night was only coming to its beginning with us drinking and babbling about politics, and life. The economy in Greece back then had been collapsed, so unemployment was unavoidable for some. The next morning I got up early due to his excitement to see what is life like out there. So I roamed the streets of Athens for the whole day following any trace of street art which leads me to find a lot of unique spots around the city, I was in awe all that time just observing the style of the people, city, buildings and how they all come together and balance each other out. The sun was setting when I found an open sports center with multiple basketball courts, so I joined some group of locals, and they sweat, hustled, and had fun together till dawn. So I went home to Anna’s. Arriving at the apartment, I found them watching the movie Avatar because we were talking about it and the political explanations of the films regarding the war in Iraq, and another night of laughs and arguments came upon us. The next day I decided to visit the historic sites of the city, a thing that everyone does when they travel whether we like it or not. However, what intrigues me the most is how we never visit our historical sites as much as the tourists do. We only tour when we’re at a young age in school. I guess it’s what we all take for granted. So it was the night when I found some other travelers from social media who ware having dinner on a rooftop of a charming hotel restaurant, A “Latvian, a Chinese and a Turkish man, wow all these places on one table, that must be quite interesting” I thought. And interesting it was with every side bringing up their culture and personality upon the table. However, I was most fascinated by the Latvian lady; she was a graphic designer that worked as a freelancer and traveled all the time. “how can I become like you?” I asked. “you should sketch all the time, practice is what got me where I am, it’s what gets us to succeed and stand out amongst the crowd. practice and persistence.” “do you have a degree?” “why yes I do, but it’s not in graphic design, it’s in chemistry, although I’m not taking advantage of it because the work didn’t come to my expectations.” It was late, and I had purchased a train ticket to a lovely village that I wanted to visit, which was leaving soon. So we parted in our ways, and I got to the train station.
Retroveens 