Coming to an End

Ashley Bruce

Blog #8

16 April 2013

Coming to an End

            It is bitter sweet sitting here writing this blog knowing that this is my last week in Athens. This 3 month journey is finally coming two an end with only one week in Athens which I call home, and one week on the beautiful islands of Santorini and Naxos. I am extremely privileged for being able to come here and this trip has made me realize who I really am.

On Tuesday April 16^th, we had class at ten am. I sure am going to miss sleeping in every morning and getting to walk in the beautiful Athens spring weather. I have decided to stop at a bakery every morning this week because I will not be able to do that every morning when I am back in Rindge for my senior year. This morning I got Bougatsa. I chose this because it was in one of our short stories, and I never got the chance to get one on the island of Crete. Bougatsa is a pastry filled with creamy milk custard with cinnamon sugar poured on top of it. Right when you take a bite your mouth is in heaven and you just can’t get enough of it. You can find it in pretty much every bakery in Greece!

After class I decided to do more work on our final paper. Hayley and I decided to partner up and write the paper together. We researched on what to write for a few hours and began writing the paper. We got off to a pretty good start until our GA walked down the stairs to serve us dinner. He made breakfast for dinner. You can never go wrong with that! He made us scrambled eggs with the choice of peppers, onions, or plain, home fries, toast, and bacon served with you choice of juice or milk. The aroma off all the food hit my nose senses and I couldn’t help to wait to dig in. it was so mouthwatering I ate it like I was a vacuum. I ended up having 2 servings!

After dinner, the girls and I decided to hike Mt. Lycabettus one final time to watch the sunset. We took a different way up the mountain than usual. Personally I thought that the new way we went was a lot harder. Instead of going up the front of the mountain we headed up the back. There was a lot more stairs and it was a lot steeper.  My breathing got heavier and deeper the higher I got. I took a couple breaks to take in the view, but kept going knowing once I was at the top the sun would finally be setting and I would be able to see everything.

I finally reached the top. Since we went up the back of the mountain we had to walk through the outdoor café. It was a little awkward walking through the café because there were people standing outside of it having drinks. The ladies were wearing dresses and had heals on, and the men were in dress pants with shirts and ties. Then there we were us, in sweat pants and sweatshirts! We walked through them and they all stared. It didn’t bother me though because I would rather be comfy walking up that mountain while taking the beautiful view in than riding up in a taxi looking at the beautiful views through a window.  It was cold on top of the mountain and the winds were blowing, but it was worth the watch. We made it just in time. The sky was a bit cloudy, but I thought that it made the sunset ten times better. The brightness of the sun would peak through the clouds shining on certain parts of the city. As it was getting lower and to the mountain level the sun fully popped out from behind the clouds. The sun was a bright shade of red. The sailor’s sky made the perfect sunset. I was catching one of the prettiest sunsets I’ve seen through my lenses. It brought me so much peace sitting there and taking it all in. It’s moments like these that make me want to stay here forever.