Taxi, Boat, Train, Bus, and 3 Airplanes

Wow... that was a crazy 5 hours. I called north west airlines at 1:30 pm. By 2 pm they told me that basically I had to leave the next day out of Athens or have to wait till at least Tuesday to come home which just wouldn’t really cut it. So, I said lets do it. I said yes to the flight without even knowing for sure I could find a way to get to Athens by 10 in the morning to make my flight… in hind sight that probably wasn’t a great decision but it worked out. I went directly from the restaurant I was using the internet at, to the ferry ticket office with every possible finger, toe, eye, piece of skin I could cross crossed praying that there was a ferry tonight I could get on so I could make it to Athens in the morning. Sure enough, there was a ferry leaving Kos at 8 pm that would arrive in Athens at around 6 AM which would give me plenty of time to make it to the airport from the port in time to catch my flight. Every thing has just kept falling in to place thus far. So by this time it was 2:30 and I needed to be at the port at 7:30 to catch my ferry. I had 5 hours to pack; inform work, my roommate, and all of the other great friends I’ve made since I’ve been here in Greece that I was leaving; I needed to work something out for my roommate so she didn’t get hung out to dry by my very money hungry Greek landlords which didn’t really work too well, I felt really bad they said since I was leaving and the agreements were all made through me that she had a week to find a new place to live, which didn’t make any sense to me since they were getting the same amount of money from her as they would me, but I think they were just looking for a way to get the room back so they could make more money off of tourists rather than rent it to us. Oh well… I tried my best but it was just another situation where for Greeks making money takes all precedence over actually caring about a person.  My parting with work wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be they were very understanding but I still felt like a real jerk for not being able to give them any notice about it. But they still were like come back next year! I told them I’d definitely keep it as an option but I didn’t want to do it unless I had a friend come with me, so, applications are still open for next summer and will be evaluated at a later date haha. Saying goodbye was hard and it was sad because I didn’t really get a chance to say goodbye to half of my good friends, I didn’t get to have a “last night out” or anything like that it was just like hey… I’m leaving in an hour and have to go home, take a shower, and finish packing. So… good luck and have fun and you should come visit me!  And now I’m here in the middle of the Agean Sea again on my ferry to Athens writing this blog. I’m not going to make this a final thought blog or anything of the sorts because, especially now, I’m in such a daze pretty much by what has all happened in the 5 hours that I can’t really be asked to sit and reflect. All I know right now is I am on my way home to go see my nephew and its totally worth doing at this point. We better have some fun together me and Samuel seeing how just in order to see him I am giving up half my trip to Greece, by the end of this trip home will have taken a taxi, a ferry, a bus, a train, another bus, and 3 airplanes totaling over 30 hours of travel.  But the funny thing is I haven’t doubted it for a second. I know I’ve made the right decision to come home. So to all of my friends everywhere I’ll be home Thursday night, I have a week with my nephew then he leaves for Alaska, after that its time for me to catch up with the ones I care so dearly about. Which means I’m gonna need some cell phone numbers and a replacement phone pronto!

 

Much love guys, This is going to be my last post while actually in Greece. I’m sure there will be a couple reflection posts afterwards

 

Stayin classy on my 30 hour trip home,

 

Evan 

Nephew

WOW… do I have a lot to talk about.

 

First things first, I am now a very proud Uncle of by far the coolest nephew ever.

 

My Sister (Christa) and her Husband (Gastin) have adopted a little boy from Liberia. They got him from a family that had originally adopted him from there, but he just wasn’t fitting in with the family that had originally taken him in. So, my sister and her husband who had known they wanted to adopt since before they were married went and met him and fell in love with the little guy. His name is Samuel and he turns 6 in September. They officially got to take him home on the 21^st of July, which also happened to be their 2 year anniversary. It’s a pretty sweet story.

 

But now here comes the tricky part. They are moving to Alaska on July 30^th with Samuel and have no plans of coming home for Christmas or anything as of yet. So I’m in a pickle, if I don’t change my flight and come home in like a few days so I can spend a few days being the coolest uncle in the world so its not a whole year until I meet him. I’m writing this blog while I sit and wait for the customer service for northwest airlines to open up in 2 hours, so I’m not sure what is going to happen as of yet.

 

I know this for sure though, if I can come home I will. And its not at all because I don’t like it here or that I want to leave this place. But if being here this past month has taught me anything its that even if you can make friends quickly like I can it’s a totally different ball game to have people that you really are close to and would do anything for. Obviously my family and new nephew fit into that category as well as many of my friends back home in Ohio, Florida, and around the world from CAJ.  I have made great friends here but none that I share a bond with like I do people like Yosh Morita, Drew Lord or Stephanie Devine to just name a few from different areas. I came into this trip knowing that I wanted to get an experience of a life time, and I can say that even now with my trip only half way over that I truly have gotten that experience, but what I didn’t expect was to learn how important it is to be able to share those life changing experiences with people that you truly love. I have gotten plenty of awesome experiences up till now, but now that I’m getting more settled in to life here its beginning to be just more of the same experiences rather than new ones. 

 

I think the hardest thing about leaving early is going to be explaining to the Captain and crew my situation and why I need to leave in their broken English. I’m really worried they won’t understand and will think I’ve basically played them by telling them I was going to be here till the end of August since I got here now all of the sudden I’m up and leaving. I really need to find a way to get it through to them that this wasn’t in mine or anyone’s plans its just kind of happened, I’m thrilled it has, but it wasn’t what I had planned on. Also, I’m going to leaving my roommate hanging, with no roommate and rent due in like 3 days. I’ve saved up enough to give her a little bit of my extra money to help buy her time, but its not gonna help much.

 

If I do come home early its not going to be easy, I’m going to have to find a new job quickly, and its going to be even more difficult because I really want to find a job where I can gain some office experience rather than just a laborer job. And with this economy, that’s not going to be easy. But I feel like at this point if my flight change goes smoothly I’m making the right decision, so in the end it’ll work out I’m sure of it. 

My least favorite part about Greek Culture

So the worst part of my job is not getting told things ever until the last minute, like today for instance, I came to work in the morning having booked 15 people for the trip knowing that we usually have a tour group of about 50 people on Fridays so that meant there was plenty of space on a boat that holds around 100. Once I got to work, I was told oh yeah, you need to take all the people you booked for today for the boat to a different smaller inferior boat cause we got another tour group and we have 105 people on the boat for the tour groups. So I get to be the bearer of bad news to these people, who are all on vacation and have their days all pretty much planned out, and tell them basically that even though yesterday or the day before, I talked to them and told them we never have more than about 70 people on the boat and not to expect much more than even 60 people on the boat for their trip. That not only would the boat now have more than 100 people on the boat, but the reservation that they made, didn’t even really matter because my bosses booked the boat like they didn’t even exist.  So I have to try to deal with them calling me a liar and yelling at me for ruining their day while still trying to convince them to take this different crappier boat. It makes for a wonderful morning.

 

This is just one example of this, stuff like this happens at least once a week here. I mean as much as I like the guys that I work with, the Greeks in general way of doing business is absolutely ruthless they could care less about pleasing people or customer service if there is a bit of money to be made. They don’t care that they are ruining these peoples days, its all about their money. I mean I understand its business, but it’s the tourist industry as well which is all service, you would think that they would at least have some heart or compassion for the people who they are inconveniencing. But then again they don’t really care because they have their friendly American boy to smooth things over with the people. ARGH. Today I had a lady who was furious with me be like “You know, you’ve been here too long. We knew that Greeks and Turks are all liars and will say what ever you want to hear to make a dollar but we didn’t expect to get it from you, an American.” All I can say is the truth that I never get told anything and that if I had know that I would have been honest with them and told them that the boat was full. But it doesn’t usually help.

 

Oh well, I can just add it to my experiences here. I’m sure its helping me to build skills in customer service and dealing with upset people from all around the world. So I guess some good might come from this experience even though it sucks real bad when it happens. Don’t get me wrong, I still love it here, I like the guys I work for, I just hate the way that business is so heartless here. There is just no sense of integrity with anyone here in business.

 

I’ll keep stayin classy and putting on the charm for the angry tourists if you do!

 

Evan

 

4th and beyond update.

Wow…. Where do I start. I feel like I’ve posted consistently, but I havn’t been able to actually tell you all what I’ve been up to since like before the 4^th of July. So lets start there,

 

The 4^th for me was initially a very big disappointment. I had my whole day planned out, I was gonna go on the boat and grill steaks, have a good time. But I got to work in the morning, and was informed the boat wasn’t going out so not only would there be no grilling, but I would need to work from 9-2 then from 5:30-Midnight. Needless to say I was thrilled… but I didn’t have much choice, put off the steaks for another day and went on with the day. Worked the afternoon went home, slept a bit, then went back to work at 5:30 and worked… but around like 8:00 I started having people coming up to me and being like hey… we are here for the party cruise tonight. I turned people away saying I knew nothing of any party cruise on the boat tonight since no one had told me about it. More and more people started showing up saying that they were there for the cruise, none of my bosses were there either, so I figured people must have been told the wrong place. Finally at 9 2 girls from the GOGO travel agency came with a large group of people and were like why were you turning people away from your party cruise? My boss who had just arrived comes running off the boat and was like oh hey guys! I forgot about the cruise, come on aboard! He forgot about scheduling this cruise with the travel agency which meant he forgot to tell me about it as well. Within 15 min we had the boat full of gorgeous Dutch girls with a few guys mixed in. I came with the boat, my boss let me just act like one of the tourists and have a good time. So it ended up being a fairly good end to the 4^th just getting to have some fun instead of work all night. Then randomly the next night there were fireworks for no in particular reason but I was happy to see them!

 

Alright… what has happened since then… um, I met 2 Finnish girls here who were on vacation, hung out with them the past week they were pretty cool. I think they are the only two girls from Finland who aren’t blond haha.  They got me an awesome spiderman watch as a parting gift because I always keep my alarm clock with me for my way to tell time because since my blackberry got stolen and I forgot my watch in the states its all I’ve got and I’m too cheap to buy a real watch. Its pretty sweet… even though the watch doesn’t fit around my wrist… haha.

 

Oh! I have a roommate now! Lauren from England. (to all of you interested, she is not a love interest in any sense of the word. Just a good friend I’ve made here that needed a place to stay, and I needed a roommate so its just kinda worked out that she should move in with me) She is pretty cool though, really laid back but still girly haha. So needless to say the one closet in the apartment has been taken over by her, oh well. I’m enjoying it though its nice to have someone to talk to and not be alone all the time. As you all know I’m not the type of person that is really like oh I need my alone time, I’m definitely an extrovert.

 

The pictures above are of Lauren and I and some from the Boat trip that I sell.

 

That’s about all I’ve got for now, I pay my rent in 8 days and I’ve already got enough money saved up for it, so I think I might start trying to save so I can travel a bit the last couple weeks of my stay here in Europe.

 

Stay Classy as always!

 

Evan 

quickly a small world moment.

How about this for international/small world experience. I just met a Brazilian guy who lived most of his life in England, who works for Jonathan Cook?  And has been to Japan, not only has he been to Japan but he went to visit his buddy in Utsunomia which is 2 hours north of Tokyo and also happens to be where my parents live?! We talked for a bit and he talked about like these specific restaurants that I knew of in the city my parents live and talked about how good they were and everything! How incredibly small is this world!? He went to a city that really isn’t on the tourist map in Japan and we talked about specifics of a city that I am very familiar with. This all with a Brazilian guy who mostly grew up in England, and oh… don’t forget that this conversation took place in Kos, Greece!? Whaaaaaat?! I love small world findings! 

Questions from Mom

I recieved an email from my mom asking... mom questions... but i figured the answers of her questions might be of interest to the rest of you so I'm answering her email via blog for you all to read as well! 

 

I have some questions that I thought of that may be interesting to touch on while you are in Greece...

 

What is the perception of Americans, vs, Austrailian, English, etc.? Most everyone I talk to that isn't from an english speaking country thinks I'm English so one of my favorite past times is having people guess where I'm from. But there is no beef or anything between the 3 english speaking countries, every one is really cool with each other especially since we all share a language. 

 

What kinds of food do folks usually eat...I know that the roast and "peanuts" really sounded good! What kinds of food do YOU eat on a normal day--got any recipes you'll be "bringing back"?

Just because I have 2 pots and 1 burner I'm kind of limited on what I can cook at home. I make a lot of pasta with canned sauce just because its really cheap and easy. I also make like potato's ext. nothing extravagant here just because I don't want to buy all of the ingredients and more importantly spices. But I'm surviving here just fine! If I ever want like a snack they have gyros which can be used for a meal for only like 2 bucks so those are my fail safe option for food. 

Is the weather ALWAYS sunny?  That seems to be all I see--brilliant blue skies...do you get storms?

I haven't seen a cloud in 4 days and that is no joke. I think of the almost 3 weeks I've been on this island now I've seen maybe 6 days with clouds and never had a drop of rain. Its consistently about 90 with a slight brees coming off of the water. 

Do you have bothersome mosquitoes or bugs like cockroaches or hoppers? 

Mosquitoes are bad here but they have these things you plug into your outlets and put this little pad thing inside of it and no mosquito comes near it. It's pretty awesome! No other bugs or anything though. Some roaches on the boat every once in a while, but I mean... its a boat... 

 

Has the economy "taken a hit" there too?

The Economy here has taken a big hit here! Its pretty bad actually, everyone has been telling me stories of the amounts of people here like 3 years ago and how this seems like a ghost town comparably, I personally feel like there are LOTS of tourists here but evidently in comparison to before its not much at all. I guess its since there are so many British tourists that used to come and since their economy has been hit almost as bad as Americas its kept lots of people home this summer. 

 

Do you have a good place to "wash your clothes"  Ok that's a "mom's question"  just wondering if they hang stuff like here to dry or use dryers?  Do they have large washing machines or small ones like here, 

Its pretty sweet actually... I pay like 6 bucks and take all of my laundry to this place in a bag, then come back the next day its all clean and folded and ready to roll. :) 

and Oh...do Greek women shave? :-) Someone here asked me that and I didn't know the answer...I'm guessing you do!

I think that the whole rest of the world has finally gotten on the band wagon with shaving to be honest, I haven't seen one single lady with hairy pits same goes for the legs. 

 

Now that you've lived for a bit on 30 euros a day...will you be able to save enough to pay for your next months rent?

Yep! and I won't be paying 300 next month I'm either making my land lord let me get a roommate for 300 total or moving to a place where its 250 a month for 2 people and that includes AC. So I shouldn't be paying more than 150 for an apartment next month.

 

Do you think you will have enough money to stay until Sept....how long is the tourist season?

Absolutely, I haven't touched my ATM cards since I've started my job, and don't intend to until I fly home on September 9th. Unless I decide to travel a little bit at the end of my trip, which is a possibility, but you better believe I'm going to be saving up to do that so no worries. 

 

Is there anything from here (Japan) that you think would make for a nice "thank you" gift that we could send in appreciation for your boss and "crew"? (not real expensive!)

I think the crew is alright, its still a job with people telling you what to do and having to be on time ext. I've never given a boss a gift before for letting me work for him... And greeks aren't really sentimental... at all actually. 

 

Ok that's all for now...wouldn't mind another skpe session...

 

Oh, and too bad the Americans couldn't pull off the win in the Ferderation Cup but it was still a good ride!

There ya go guys, I'll write another blog hopefully today or tomorrow bout the fourth and what I've been doing since, I just needed to get this out before my Mother shoots me! 

Stay classy! 

Evan

Job offer for next year.

Alrighty, Things are getting better daily here not that it was bad before, but its just getting easier daily. The people I’ve met are turning into true friendships, both with the Greek crew I work with and the other foreign workers I have met out and about. I can’t wait to see how good of friends I’ll have by the end of the summer here and how hooked up I’ll be for a Europe trip in the future! Haha.

 

So yesterday I found out some interesting information, the guy who I thought was the first mate Manoly who is also my favorite member of the crew… is actually the owner of the boat as well as the owner of the boat that we partner with. He really has taken a liking to me as well which is quite nice for job security here haha. Yesterday he told me he thought of all of the people selling tickets on the port he thought I was doing the best job, and Greeks aren’t really the type of people to just throw out compliments so I knew he meant it which was really cool. Then he asked me how long I’d be here on the island for and when I told him through the end of August he got excited then said he wanted me to come back and work next year! AND OFFERED TO PAY FOR MY TRIP HERE NEXT SUMMER IF I COME BACK TO WORK AND PAY ME MORE!  Needless to say that has sparked my interest greatly in returning for next summer!

 

But here is some stuff I need to figure out before I commit to anything, I know I need to get an internship eventually if I want to really land a decent job after college, but I could perhaps do that in Columbus while I go to school, or really since I’m not in any huge rush to finish school, I could take a quarter off to go for an internship else where during the school year then work back here next summer. My other dillema is that there is so much of the world I want to see and there are so many summer jobs available that I could go to a different country and work there and experience a new culture different from this one. I guess it would all kind of depend on money, like if I could come here and actually make money that I could save for later instead of just enough to survive, especially getting paid in Euros (I know that next summer is a long way away and the currencies could be completely different, but I’ll cross that bridge when it comes.) I mean I get paid 30 euros a day now and that’s not commissioned or anything, what I’d probably work on doing is switching to a commission based salary where I get a base pay of like 20 euros a day then 2 euros per person I book for the trips. Then say I can book an average of like 12 people a day that would be 44 euros a day I’d be able to get a cheaper apartment than the one I’m living in now hopefully a roommate as well so it would be less than 200 euros a month for an apartment then being quite generous say I spend an average of 20 euros a day on food and drink. I’ve still got almost 20 Euros a day to save. So if I could save 20 euros a day for lets say 70 days of work for the summer I’d save 1400 euros which would be right around 2000 US dollars if the exchange rate is around the same as it is now.

 

But even so, if I decide to do this again, I don’t think I’d do it alone again, as easy as it is to make friends and meet people and everything here, it would just be better to have like a solid buddy with me for this trip. So I guess that means I’m taking applications for next summer! Haha! 

The Crew!

I’m writing this blog away from the internet so its going to be posted a day late!

 

Okay, time for a blog. So the past couple days I’ve been getting to know all of the Greek sailors I work with and its been absolutely lovely. ( absolutely lovely is one of the many phrases I’ve been picking up after going out with English and Australians in the evenings. Haha I’ll have a whole new vocabulary by the time I get home, but still with the American accent, as I’ve made sure to keep it cause it definitely sets me apart from everyone here.)  One thing I’ve learned about the greek culture is that while they always appear to be serious almost all the time they really aren’t. Their humor is just kind of hard to understand I think if you aren’t Greek or you don’t speak the language fluently its just really hard to pick up on when they are joking or when they are serious.

 

There are 5 Greek men that I work with on the Poseidon (the boat I work on) the Captain is Themolie (I’m almost positive that’s spelled horribly wrong!) if you saw him you would immediately know he was a man in charge he’s a big beefy guy that definitely wouldn’t take any crap from anyone. He speaks the best English out of all of the guys that I work with as well. He has lived in loads of different countries as a sailor England and Italy to name a couple. He is a really nice guy to me when he speaks in English, but you can tell when he is speaking in Greek to the other workers he is barking out orders to clean or do something productive, and everyone listens. Wow… so I’m realizing as I’m writing this that he sounds like he is almost strait out of a movie or something, like someone you would read about in a pirate book, but he really is a good guy and is a fair boss with a love for his family, which he boasts about frequently. His wife is around a lot as well… I don’t remember her name… But she speaks even better English then he does, perfect English actually with an British accent so I think she must have lived there for longer than Themolie did perhaps as a kid? But she is super nice and is always friendly and happy to talk with me when she is around.

 

From what I’ve gathered the 2^nd in command or first mate is a guy named Manoly. He is my favorite of the 5, he’s really laid back, loves to laugh, speaks okay English but I definitely need to speak slowly for him to understand. He has worked as a Sailor for 35 years and has been to nearly every port of call in the world. I’m sad he doesn’t speak English quite well enough for me to get some stories of his travels out of him cause I’m sure he has some awesome tales to tell! He has a wife that is around every evening that is an absolute doll, she is super nice and spunky she speaks great English and always has a smile on her face. Today the boat stayed at port so that means I have to work a longer day from 9-2 then 5:30 to midnight, while I was working around like 11 I walked on the boat from my post just in front of it trying to sell tickets to the smell of a glorious pot roast I commented on it and Manoly said it was Greek peanuts roasting in beef he said he would have some for me when it was ready. So I was like sweet I get to try some traditional Greek peanuts that are roasted in beef broth of all things. A couple hours later he waves me on to the boat with a full plate of green beans, zucchini, and big chunks of beef roast, he hands me a piece of bread and says eat. I was totally put off by this kind of thinking this isn’t peanuts… but I eat it anyways it was awesome, as I’m eating I slowly put things together I think he mixed up peanuts and green beans in English and then the beef obviously wasn’t just a broth haha. Oh well it was delicious. This simple act of being able to share a meal with Manoly today made me feel like I was finally really accepted totally by him and the other guys as we all ate together. The meal itself was quite quiet but I didn’t mind it was just kind of like a moment of understood respect from them. It was pretty cool.

 

The other three guys are deck hands and to be honest… I don’t know their names. One of them told me to call him Bill, the other is a short balding guy with the hair he has left pulled back into a pony tail, and the other doesn’t talk to me or really to the rest of the crew much he is just kinda out there. Its funny though Bill and we’ll call the long haired guy Bob  always give me advise with the ladies or try to get me to go talk to large groups of Norwegian women its pretty funny.

 

Tonight is the Confederation cup final and the US is in it playing Brazil! It’s the first time the US has made a Fifa Final so Themolie is letting me get off early so I can go watch it tonight! I’m pretty excited I’ve told everyone I know about it so hopefully we will get a pretty good turn out to have everyone watch! Gonna go to a local Irish pub that has huge TV’ s and a HUGE rack of ribs that’s only 10 euros and have a jolly good time and watch it. 

Update

Wow, so I’ve been here 14 of my 89 days. It feels like its been much  longer than that though. Like all of the things I’ve done since I’ve been here and all of the people I’ve met through this whole experience. Its like every new day thus far has brought new uncharted territory for which I can gain a story or experience from. But today, is the first day I sit alone in my apartment without really anything special to do, without plans for anything, just sittin, chillin, watching a movie on my laptop just relaxing till work. I’ll probably go to the beach then to the local town square that supposedly has free WIFI there. I’m sitting here worried about getting bored this summer here doing this, I mean now I’m not bored really just… relaxed more or less. Living without guidelines for every moment of my day. Its cool now, but who knows it could get old. Even if it does though, I mean how many days in Ohio do I sit at home bored in the summer. I can’t even imagine how sick of it I would get. So I guess if I put it all into perspective, who cares if I get bored really. I have a job, I’m living, I’m surviving, I’m learning about a culture, I’m making connections with people around the world, I’m relaxing. What more should I be asking for? My teacher Miss Petit (now Mrs. Potter) once told me boredom is only your own fault, and she really is right. If I start to get bored here I just need to get off my butt and go do something! There are new people that come here every single day, young and old, and every one of them has stories to tell and things I can learn from them. Like yesterday, I met a girl named Becky from England who works at a Cafe here but she used to work on a NATO base doing event planning for them! How cool is that? I’ve met so many people with crazy stories or with interesting jobs where they are from its just incredible.

 

Sorry to ramble on about this, I’m afraid this is what my blog might be turning into now that I’m kinda settled in here. Now the trip isn’t quite as much about seeing the sights and reporting back about them but gaining an experience from this whole adventure and recording my thoughts on this blog while I’m at it.

 

On a much more awesome note, Being here in Europe while the US is tearing it up in the confederation cup is absolutely awesome. I can’t believe we beat Spain last night to make it to the final. I have immediate bragging rights now for the next couple days, even over the English and Italians I meet as they have already been knocked out of the tournament. Its so awesome to finally be good at soccer! Go USA!

 

 

Finally a bit of a routine

Alrighty folks,

 

Time for an update. The job is working out swimmingly, I am the only foreigner there besides Harry the Australian, who is actually Greek. My job consists of standing in the harbor amongst probably 20 other day trip boats and trying to convince the passerby’s that the boat that I work for in particularly is better than the others and that they should take mine… its… special… I get to heckle people all day about going on our three island cruise and giving them all of the features of the cruise. But there are rules to this as its very cut throat since all of the boats do virtually the same thing. I can’t talk to anyone until they come into my “area” in front of the boat, if I talk to someone before that zone it pisses off everyone else on the harbor. So its interesting. I talk to every single person I see pass me, whether they speak English or not. I’ve learned to talk a lot slower to try to explain the cruise better to people who don’t speak English very well. But in all reality it’s a pretty sweet job, especially since I’ve got the chance to work with all Greeks and get a bit of culture that way. And I’m getting paid 30 euros a day so I’ve got enough money to pay for my apartment as well as have money to spend while I’m here.

 

Basically my daily schedule for the next month at least should look something like this:

 

9-10 AM Work until the boat leaves.

 

10- 6 ( in no particular order)  Nap, Beach, explore the island, hang out with friends I’ve made here, and what ever else I feel like doing to stay busy.

 

6-12 (midnight) Work, Time goes by pretty slowly… but oh well I get paid.

 

12- 2AM I’ve got lots of options, I can go to a pub if I’d like, I can go chill and relax at a local taverna (restaurant café), I can go back to the apartment and call it an early night or make some food with leftovers for the next day. Lots of options…

 

That’s about it… it’s a pretty strenuous life here let me tell you haha!

 

I’ll have more about the people on this island both Greeks and Tourists soon. I think I want to do a personality rating for all of the different races I deal with. Guess who doesn’t rate very high… The French go figure! But for now I’m out expect something in a couple days!

 

Stay Classy,

 

Evan

Wow… that was easy.

I’m in Kos now, yesterday I had my first sense of being alone after getting up in my private room that I got for 25 euros after getting off of the boat at 5 am. I went strait to sleep cause I didn’t sleep on the boat at all because I was worried about missing my stop. After I got some sleep I headed to the beach which was right across the street and hung out there a while. It was pretty lonely there since I knew no one and everyone there was a tourist that had come together with friends or family. I sat, read, recovered, and tried to figure out what my game plan for finding a job and apartment would be. While I was sitting around the sun beds all around me started to fill up with young Australians that seemed to know their way around the place pretty comfortably, so talkative me strikes up a conversation with them and wouldn’t you know it, they were all workers on the island. I talked with them a bit about where to find jobs and apartments, they almost all worked at bars on what here is called bar street. (basically and ally filled with loads of bars) They said that jobs were easy to come by but pretty much good luck with finding an apartment. We hung out a bit more, then I went to get a clock (needed a way to tell time now that my blackberry is gone L ) Got it, the clock was small and only cost 5 euros… buut  I had to get a pack of 4 batteries because they don’t sell anything in smaller packs here and it cost me 5 euros on its own. That’s just the way it works huh. I made plans to go to one of the bars this english guy who was with the group worked at. His bar was off of bar street and evidently was a lot more relaxed compared to bar street. Plus he said his boss might have vacancies in his apartments there. Went there around 10 it was pretty sweet. They had live Irish folk music and while it wasn’t very busy the people there were really cool. I hung out there, had dinner, and waited around for this guy to show up… but he never did. It was alright though I talked to more people there that had jobs and they all said that if I could I should avoid working at a bar on bar street at all costs because the hours are from 9 till like 6 or 7 in the morning every night and you only get paid 30 euros a night. I finished up at the pub and headed back to the hotel so I could get up earlier and try to get a job at a restaurant or something and work hard to find an apartment.

 

I got up and headed out, I had to walk past the port to get to where most of the restaurants were on the way there I got stopped by Harry a Greek Australian trying to get me to take his boat excursion I told him my situation and that I was looking for a job for the next 2 months and basically that I didn’t want to do the excursion.  As soon as I told him I was here for 2 months and was looking for a job his eyes perked up and he said he needed a worker. He offered me a job on the spot to stand out in front of his boat and try to convince people to take his excursion trips around the island and to neighboring islands near by. He offered my 30 Euros a day to do this, and I said yes please! So I’ll get paid the same amount of money as working my butt off at a bar for like 10 hours all night except I’ll be out in the harbor just talking to passerby’s convincing them to come out on a huge boat around the island. I set up a meeting with him to come talk after he got back from his excursion today at 5:30 it is 3:00 now so I’ve got a little bit till I go meet him.

 

But wait there’s more!

 

After I got the job which everyone told me would be the easier part of surviving here I went out on a quest for an apartment. I was told that all of the small mini marts underneath of apartment buildings were all run by the people who owned or at least worked in the apartments above, so I went on a tour of all of the mini marts I could find to try to find an apartment. On about the 4^th mini mart I walked in asked the lady if there was any apartments available, she said no, but there was another lady there checking out and she was really nice and asked me where I was from and what not, then she said her cousin had apartments here, so she called her up right then for me. She was speaking in Greek on the phone but I could definitely tell the word American which she used multiple times and judging by her tone of voice she was convincing her cousin to give me an apartment since I had come all this way on my own. She talked for a few minutes hung up and was like alright walk down two blocks and meet my cousins husband he’ll pick you up in a Mercedes and take you to the apartment. I was so happy! But I still didn’t know how much this was going to cost me or anything but it was definitely worth a look. I met the guy down there after my 10 min wait turned into 25 typical Greek but its all good. I jumped in the car with him, he spoke great English and took me to the apartment complex. On the way he informed me that he also owned a 5 star resort on the other side of the island and a couple travel agencies here. We pulled up to the apartment he showed me a place, pretty big with 2 beds, 2 burners a fridge and a balcony. He said 300 euros a month and that included electric and water. I had heard about average for apartments was like 225, but the place is big enough so I can try to find a roommate and he said if I got one more person rent would go up to 450 but that’s still only 225 a person so I said for the second time today, YES PLEASE! I went got my stuff, got cash out to pay for the first months rent, and moved in! Oh did I mention its across the street from the beach as well and there are a bunch of gorgeous Scandinavian women living 2 doors down? Yah…. Its gonna be a rough summer!

 

I’m off to iron out the details for work then Karaoke afterwards!

 

Stay Classy,

 

Evan

The worst 4 hours of the trip... but i made the ferry!

So I’m writing this blog about 4 hours after my last post, but I’m on the ship so it could be a while till it actually gets on the blog. And it’s a shame, cause it’s a good one.

(found internet on the boat!)

 

So I’ve had the most crazy/ not good four hours of my travels thus far here in Greece just now. It starts out with me having my giant 60 lbs pack on my back with my smaller backpack with my laptop and books on my front and trying to ride the metro here at rush hour for an hour to get to the port. Not only is my pack huge mind you, its got an extra 6 inches on either side of its normal width because of my tent and sleeping bag being strapped to it. I cram on to the metro and start talking to this nice greek guy in his early 30’s who was telling me about the islands and asking me about my plans and everything. Turned out he worked in the hotel industry and gave me his email for me to email him and he said he would probably be able to find me a pretty good job paying at least 600 euros a month out on the islands as an internship. I put his email address in my blackberry then put it in my pocket. In the mean time 2 younger guys 18-22 get on and come in on either side of me. I’m still talking to this greek guy though so I just try to keep my pack out of their way and let that be that. Well while I’m talking to him I feel something hitting my pocket but the guy next to me had a bag so I figured that was it and didn’t think anything of it. I felt it again, put my hand down and my camera was still in my pocket so I thought nothing of it. The next stop I back out of the door to let people out and I see the one dude kind of slap hands with his buddy while his friend left. I kept talking to the nice greek dude promising me a potential job and warning me of the Albanians. He leaves, I promise him to email him right as soon as I can find internet again. I am on the train for a couple more stops.

            I get off at the port see gate E6 and E5 and assume well I’ll just keep walking down and catch E1 cause obviously they just count down. Plus the friendly Greek guy had told me that there was WIFI everywhere down there so I figured I was plenty early so I could just stop off at a coffee shop for a bit and get the ball rolling with him I walk… and I walk… and I don’t see a coffee shop so I plop down in front of an office building to see if I could fins some WIFI there to send my email. I couldn’t get and so I continued to walk… and finally get to gate E4. I walk some more and get to E3 so I figure well this is taking a while but I’ve got time so no worries I’ll just keep walking to my boat. I started getting curious as to what time it was, stuck my hand in my pocket to check my blackberry for the time, but came up empty. I stopped on the side walk checked my entire packs both of them, then decided it could have fallen out back at where I had stopped to check the WIFI, deep down really knowing that those two guys on the train had taken it right out of my pocket. But I had to go out and check anyways, so I did.. I walked ALL the way back… and found nothing… by this time I knew it was getting late and I needed to hustle to catch my ferry but my cell phone was my only way to tell time here as I left my watch at home. My cell phone also had the guys email address and it was one of those emails with about 20 characters as it was just his full Greek name that I now can’t remember for the life of me what it was so I went from being super excited about all of this to being totally bummed out by it. I have figured out why I felt the pick pocket happen and didn’t realize what was going on, I usually have my phone in one front pocket and my cell phone in another,  well after I typed down the nice greek guys name I must have put my phone in the same pocket as my camera was in, so when I felt it happen I reached down and still felt my camera not thinking that my phone should have been in that pocket as well.

            But back to the story. After me coming to the harsh conclusion that my phone, with emails and every phone number I’ve gotten since my senior year of high school in it, was indeed gone. I focused on getting to a bus of some sort to get me to the port cause I knew by this time I didn’t have enough time to walk. So I ask someone find out where a bus stop is supposed to be. I start walking at a good clip then hit a curb wrong, rolled my ankle (thank God I brought my brace) and took the tumble of a lifetime, thank you extra 70lbs total of weight added to me! Skinned my knee really good had to pick up all of my stuff throw it on my back and continue on with blood running down my leg. I go to what I think is a bus stop, I mean there was an awning with people with suitcases and a lit bored in the general area someone pointed. I see the bus coming… aaannnnd not stop. Then I see a guy running after it come up to me, I ask him the time and he tells me 6:45 so then it’s a track race with this bus when it finally stops about 150 meters ahead I catch up to it. Trying my best to sprint with 70lbs and a newly rolled ankle but I was movin! I catch the bus, except it is super crowded with French people up to the door. I try to get on, but with my giant pack they were all like no get off, while they all had plenty of room to squish. And I was very politely like I am getting on this I’m going to miss my ferry if I don’t so I just kinda push my way on. Take my pack squeeze it in jam the door shut, and thoroughly piss off the French… so much for helping the US/ French relationship, but they were positively rude and not helpful at all. I mean they saw me sprint to the bus with blood running down my leg hobbling the whole way the least they could have done was try to help. I made the bus though, and got to the boat after they had already pulled up the gate for walking passengers and had to walk up the car entrance to the ferry. And now here I am sitting on the ferry, didn’t get here early enough to get a bench to sleep on so I’m on the very windy top deck just trying to make it work up here. Its getting cold quick though so we’ll see what I think of all of this in a little while.

 

I’ll still stay classy if you all do.

 

An exasperated but not overly up set,

 

Evan

 

 

Last 3 days in Athens

Alrighty eh, (as my canadian friends I've made here would say) 

Yesterday I went to the National Archeological Museum here in Athens. It was pretty awesome I went with two other guys from the hostel one from Georgia that goes to UF and an Emergency Room Doctor that works in NYC. Had a lot of fun with them, and the museum was awesome as well. Got to see the Zeus/ Poseidon bronze statue from 460 BC it was an incredible sight. The rest of the museum was cool as well it was filled with loads and loads of statues. Which got a little bit redundant cause they all are ancient and marble. There was also lots and lots of vases and pots as well. After the Museum we headed back to the hostel to hang for a bit then went to go get tickets to watch an Opera at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus which is right at the Acropolis. We got tickets for only 10 Euros a piece as a student ticket price. After that, we took food up to the Rock hill next to the acropolis (I can't remember its name and am too lazy to go back to look for it, here its simply known as the Rock.) It was fun we hung out up there with 2 other German guys that were also at our hostel. After we ate up there we headed to the Odeon for the Opera. We got there about 30 minutes early went in, and ended up meeting up with two other english girls from our hostel that we had told about it. The show was absolutely incredible, we were expecting like a traditional symphony but it was actually a really upbeat modern music with a drum set, guitars, violins, horns, everything! it was called L'Orchestra and was in multiple languages as well. BY FAR THE OPERA WAS THE BEST 10 EURO'S I'VE SPENT IN ATHENS THUS FAR. Not only was the show cool, but it was incredible to be in the Odeon, watching music at a place where music and plays have been performed for 2500 years. incredible... After the Opera, Me and my two other american friends that I was traveling with and the 2 English girls that we were with as well went out and had some fun. (sadly no pictures available of the Opera itself cause we weren't allowed to take pictures.)

Then today, I got up had some breakfast and met up with my two canadian lady friends here that I had already gone to the acropolis with, we headed together to the Greece Academy, Athens University, and Athens Library they were all really interesting to go into, all built around the 1800's they still were in pristine condition and it was even more insightful to know that these things were originally founded by Plato and Socrates. (no photo's of these either as I left my battery for my camera in my charger) After that we headed to another ruin... more rocks really... and then back home. Its been blistering hot all day today which has made travel around athens a whole lot of fun.

Now after a bit I'll be heading to the port to catch my 11 hour ferry to Kos Island, to really start my summer, and go find work! the Vacation is over really once I get there. I'll be camping there at first, but hearing from others I've talked to a lot of jobs have apartments for their workers as well as food then they just pay you about 10 euros a day. which is fine with me if I can have free room and board. Looking forward to it! more to come about athens, but my battery is about to die so I need to post this blog before it does!

Stay classy! 

Evan

2nd full day in Athens: Acropolis and Other sites.

Went to the Acropolis yesterday and yes it was absolutely as awesome as all of the pictures show. I didn’t really realize how much stuff was all the way around it though till we got there. There were tons of ancient ruins that were labeled as random temples of this or that all the way around the acropolis. We saw both theaters first then climbed the hill to finally get to see the big show temples. The Parthenon was absolutely incredible its size was daunting and what little sculptures were left on it were incredible. I think the most crazy thing to think about was that those huge rocks its made of  had to be brought up that hill from somewhere else. I got pictures of myself reading Plato’s Republic in front of the Parthenon, and even though it was crowded up there we didn’t really have too much trouble getting shots of the historical building without having 300 other people in the frame. Speaking of cameras however my camera died right after I took my last shot of the Parthenon and went to move on to see the rest of the stuff at the top. There was an awesome lookout point from the top of the acropolis with a huge Greece flag flying from it, it was an incredible view of the city from there. Athens, for being by far the biggest city in Greece has no real tall sky scrappers nothing really goes around about 10 stories I would say which made the view a little more dull as it was just a sea of averagely tall buildings.

 

After the Acropolis we headed to Ancient Agora to see what was around there. There was a large monument there that was the only ancient building I’ve seen still standing with all of its columns and roof still on it. While it was much smaller proportionally to the Parthenon it was  cool to see and know that’s the same general idea as the Parthenon was built like. Also at the Ancient Agora was the ruins of the prison where Socrates was forced to drink poison and die. That was really awesome to think that we were definitely standing at a place where Socrates, this great thinker that helped shape human philosophy, was killed at. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

 

We also went up and sat on the Areopagus Hill which is this natural marble hill just beside the Acropolis. It was so nice up there, an awesome slight wind with the best view of the city I had yet to see. It was also where the apostle Paul gave his famous “sermon to an Unknown God” and ancient murder trials were held. Pretty awesome place to hang out on.

 

It might be worth noting I went on this little journey around ancient Athens with 4 other people who I met at the hostel. All awesome fun Canadians it was a great time!

 

After the Acropolis, Agora and the Hill, we headed back to the hostel. I threw my camera on the charger then we went to get some lunch. Got back, grabbed my patially charged camera and headed to the temple of Zeus. I think that by far the temple of Zeus was my absolute favorite thing that I’ve see thus far on this trip. While the Parthenon was incredible the Temple of Zeus was simply daunting. The 12 collumns still standing at this site stand probably 60 ft. high and were absolutely incredible. The history behind it was also just as impressive. The thing took over 300 years to build because they kept starting and stopping it to work on other projects and they would even take the stones meant for the pillars of the temple and add it to walls else where that needed stones to fill it with. Then at the sight there is one pillar that has fallen over and the irony of it is it got struck by lightning in a gale force wind storm.

 

Finally the last big thing I did today was to go see the changing of the guard ceremony in front of the Greek Parliament Building. It was pretty interesting to say the least, their costumes, heal clicking, and “goose walking” performed with exact precision was really a true art form.

 

The evening was topped off by one of my favorite activities of all time Karaoke at an irish pub not too far from the hostel. Good times.

 

Tomorrow, (Monday here) I am going as absolutely cheap as possible trying to save some money. I’m thinking I’m going to hit up a few different free sites then really perhaps head back to the Areopagus Hill with a book, perhaps the Republic and read from a sight were it is very likely Plato spent a lot of time hanging out thinking and being part of the trials of murder cases, that helped him to develop his ideas as far as his book is concerned.

 

Stay Classy,  And I’ll try too ;)

 

Evan

Wow, what a 24 hours I’ve just had! 

 

My flights were all fine and dandy, I flew from Columbus to Detroit, got delayed at the gate in Detroit ran to go catch my plane from Detroit to Amsterdam. Sat next to this older fellow who owns his own company in the construction industry and was on his way to Saudi Arabia to  try to get their business in this rough economy. After that flight I went through customs in Amsterdam and just caught my flight to Athens. The flight to Athens was absolutely wonderful. They served delicious crepes and beer for free, the best part of all though was going through the swiss alps and seeing all of the beautiful snow capped mountains. No pictures of that though… my apologies.

 

When I got to Athens I walked off the plane grabbed my pack, which was the first one off,  slung all 60 lbs of it over my shoulder and headed to catch my bus to the hostel. Everything worked like clockwork, I caught the bus right away, rode the hour on the bus, hopped off the bus, walked down to the metro took it one stop and walked strait to the hostel! Hooray for planning this all out ahead of time!

 

I checked into my hostel at around 7 pm in Athens, headed up to their rooftop bar for happy hour to this sight.

 

I had a drink then went with someone I met up there to go get a gyros for dinner. They are the best budget food ever here! Only 1.90 Euros for one and its pretty good size. Headed back up to the bar and spent the night getting to know my fellow travelers here at the hostel.

 

There was an awesome group of Irish people who were a lot of fun, they were the only other people I’ve met here planning to go out to the islands to find work. Something I’ve been really surprised by though is the amount of Americans I’ve seen here. I’d say that last night Americans were the majority of the people on the roof. But not just Americans I met 10 people all from big 10 schools. People from Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and myself from Ohio State. Felt good to be the only one to have the bragging rights of dominating the conference haha.

 

Went to bed, woke up and headed out for my day trip to Delphi (the Navel of the World) it was absolutely incredible! The drive up took forever, over 3 hours, but it was really cool to see the countryside of Greece. We even passed a bunch of Goats! It was awesome! To be honest I really don’t have much I can say about Delphi other than it was absolutely incredible on every level. I’ll let my pictures paint the picture for you much better than I ever could. I will say though the most impressive thing about it to me was the fact that these huge ruins that are all huge pieces of cut rock absolutely blew my mind. Like how could someone in 100 BC cut a rock perfectly strait?

 

After Delphi we stopped in the little village near by there that is on the side of the mountains there. It was pretty cool to walk through, a little touristy but that was alright. The valley beneath the village had tons and tons of olive trees, and supposedly was the second largest producer for olives in all of Greece. There are picture of the village as well!

 

Tomorrow is the Acropolis and the Parthenon its going to be pretty cool!

 

Stay Classy.

 

Evan 

GREECE TOMORROW!

Alright, tomorrow is the day! I can't wait! 

I've got everything packed here is the tally for clothes I'm taking with me and I'm prayin I'm taking enough stuff. 

2 pairs of pants 

3 long sleeve shirts 

1 fleece

5 pairs of shorts

6 t-shirts

4 polos 

3 collared shirts 

boat shoes

flip flops 

and new balance tennis shoes. 

I've got my huge pack all packed up, my tent and sleeping bag in a garbage bag duct taped up, and am ready to go, its interesting to think that I am attempting to put everything I for 3 entire months into a bag that I wear on my back. It's kind of liberating really. 

This trip is still feeling kind of surreal to me,  it doesn't feel like this time tomorrow I'll be sitting on a plane on my way to Greece. Or that this time two days from now I'll be sitting in my hostel drinking a beer meeting people from all around the world... wow... I'm so ready for this adventure. 

stay classy,

Evan

5 days till I leave, writing down my to do list.

wow... 5 days till I leave and still so much to do! 

I'm a man of lists so this blog post is an excuse to make a list of the things I still need to do before I leave for Greece! 

1. (and most important) finish up school! I need to study like crazy for my two exams and then finish an essay about the America losing its identity as a "Christian" country. 

2. I will be moving into a new house right near Ohio State the day after I get back from Greece so I need to work on packing all of my stuff up so that when I get back I'll be ready to roll. 

3. Laundry, and complete my checklist of things that I need to make sure that I take with me to Greece. Including all of the essentials like little bottles of laundry detergent, shampoo, new socks ext. 

4. Finish things up at work, take in all of my work clothes turn in my key card ext ext. 

5. Get as much money as possible! Sell my text books, sell anything of any value that I never use anymore, and cash in the change bucket that I've been keeping since this dream started. 

6. Cancel my cell phone before I leave so I don't have 3 months of cell phone bills for no reason. 

okay, so while as of right now I only have 6 things to "do" on my list these are all very big things to do! I'm really happy after monday I'll be done with school so I'll be able to focus on the other big things that need to get done! 

Good Quoate

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. 

- Mark Twain

Ready to GO!

I'm so ready to just get on the move! 

I've been shopping and gettin ready for a while. Just bought some books for reading when I get there. 

Including: The Republic by Plato, 

Ancient Athens on 5 Draghmans a Day

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

The Lonely Planet, Greece. 

I'm not a big reader so I think that should do me in for the summer! 

You know its interesting when I tell my friends about my plans for the summer everyone is almost always like oh wow that is so awesome I totally would love to do that some day. And it always gets me, like you know if its something you really want to do, why don't you do it. Thats my thing, if you have something that you've always wanted to do, no amount of money or lack of timing should keep you from just going out and doing it. Life is way to short to put things off, people have told me that I should just wait till I get older to travel, and my answer is why on earth would I want to do that when I can go now when I'm in the prime of my life now!? Its now I can go explore and not have to worry about how many steps a place has or if I'll tire out before the trip is over. 

So a word from me to everyone, What on earth are you waiting on?! You could get hit by a car and be paralyzed tomorrow and never get an opportunity to go do the things that you've always wanted to do. I don't care if its that you've always wanted to write a book or that your like me and have always wanted to go someplace, just DO IT. Don't wait! I know that when I'm laying on my death bed I want to be able to look back and think that I did absolutely all I could while I'm alive on this earth and thats my plan! 

Stay Classy,

Evan

Greece in 3 weeks, Can't WAIT!

Alright, its still 3 weeks till I hop on a plane for the biggest adventure of my life. I have a very very long list of things to do before I leave, but the one thing that I cannot put on the back burner is school. I've got 1 more calculus and 1 more economics exam due before finals start and its so hard to focus on school now, my mind is already in Greece. 

I'm working on the rest of my list of things to do as well. As of now I have to:

Get my International Drivers License

Get a digital camera

Make sure I have ample clothing and everything

I am going to be moving into my house on campus as soon as I get back so there is a lot of planning and what not for that before I go.  

I'm still just more than excited about this and the end of the year needs to hurry up!

Evan