Favorites from Athens

My trip to Athens was filled with fun activities, interesting company visits, and beautiful sights; I could never choose a favorite experience!

When you think about Athens, the first thing you probably think of is the Acropolis and Parthenon. The Acropolis is absolutely beautiful, even more stunning with a clear blue sky. It is so impressive that the site has been preserved for so long, and we get to see such an important piece of the ancient Greek civilization.

Not only is Greece beautiful, it’s also delicious! Greek food is amazing, and I got to take part in a Greek cooking class to learn how to make gyros, dakos, and a cheesecake-like Greek dessert. I’m not much of a cook, but this class was so much fun, it was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

Over the weekend in Greece, my group took two day trips. One to Poseidon’s Temple on Cape Sounion, and one to Nafplio, the first capital of modern Greece, located in the Peloponnese. I spoke more about the Temple of Poseidon in another post, but the site has never been restored, so it is far more worn down than the Acropolis, and you can really tell just how old it is. Nafplio was also a lovely trip, I had a great time shopping, eating, and exploring the lively town with my friends.

My friends and I went shopping a lot during the trip. Our favorite spot was Monastiraki, a popular shopping destination with tons of restaurants, local shops, and a lively square. One of the major souvenirs in Athens is jewelry, especially evil eye pieces. I got a bracelet for myself, and brought home a few for my friends; hunting for the perfect pieces was so much fun.

Another one of my favorite experiences was going to the beach in the Glyfada region! As part of the program, we went after our visit to the Temple of Poseidon, and some of the group decided to go again on the last day of the trip.

On the last full day of the trip, we had a group dinner in the ancient town, Plaka, with live Greek music! The food and music were both amazing, and it was a great way to end our trip.

Lastly, a few of my personal little highlights:

• I absolutely love cats, so I was delighted by the number of cats on the street!
• The Metro! I love a good public transportation system, and it was really easy to get everywhere in Athens from our hotel in Omonia.
• Athens has a ton of really cool graffiti throughout the city! I love art, so that was a really cool part of the city for me. Plus, Greek graffiti artists are always respectful of history; there is no graffiti on any historical sites!

Growth in Athens

After some time home from Greece, I have had time to allow myself to think about my experience in the country and develop my feelings about my growth from the experience. Firstly, I have learned a lot about my own personality and how I interact with the world. I don’t think that my personality changed in any way from the trip, but the knowledge alone will help me move through life more easily, eventually. I have social anxiety, and this experience has shown me that I need to work on it so that I can more effectively communicate in a professional setting. I hardly asked any questions or talked to professionals during our company visits, and when I did, I was extremely nervous and really had to convince myself to be able to do it. Being able to communicate smoothly with professionals is an incredibly important component of a successful career in engineering, so working on my anxiety is integral to my career. The ease with which my peers communicated, asked questions, and held conversations with professionals amplified the fact that I struggle with speaking to people I do not know, especially in a large group. However, this was actually really inspiring to me, and is what made me want to work on it going forward.

In terms of my career, although the focus of the trip was supply chain, I found myself very interested in the sustainability practices and goals of the companies we spoke with. I was especially impressed by the vast solar farm on the site of the Athens International Airport, which fully powers the entire airport building. During our visit to Titan Cement, the chemical engineer shared that the cement plant uses renewable fuels such as dried sewage sludge and old tires, which I found intriguing. The sustainability aspects of the program have influenced me to want to add a sustainability certificate to my degree.

The trip also put a major travel bug in my head, which I specifically credit to my amazing tour guide, Dimitri. Alongside being incredibly knowledgeable in Greek history and culture, Dimitri has also given tours in other countries. He has been to over 100 countries and can speak multiple languages. Despite having a very different career path from his, I aspire to be as well-traveled and intelligent as Dimitri. Before parting with us for the last time during the trip, he talked to us about the importance of absorbing as much knowledge as possible, and the impact that knowing about other cultures and areas of study has on excelling in your own field. I hope to one day be able to travel and learn about other cultures and practices around the world, and implement them in my life to better myself and my career.

Advice for future study abroad students!

Finally, here are a few pieces of advice for future Plus3 Greece students, or anyone else studying abroad! First, travel can be crazy! My flights to and from Greece were a bit of a disaster. I was put on standby with a few people from my group for my layover from London to Athens, and was stuck in Heathrow Airport for an extra 7 hours. We ended up getting to the hotel at 4 AM, so I was very low on sleep and tired the first couple of days of the trip, but I did bond with the people I was stuck with. On the way home, the flight my entire group was supposed to take to London was cancelled the night before we left, just 8 hours before the flight was supposed to depart. We were all rescheduled, but the timing was different, and I ended up on a much longer flight to Toronto, Canada, before returning to Pittsburgh. The lesson here is, you’re going to have to go with the flow! Travel is unpredictable, especially with airlines, so you have to be adaptable.

Everyone has this advice, but seriously, pack lighter than you think you need! I had way more clothes than I needed, and didn’t wear everything I brought. I also bought quite a few souvenirs, so it was a tight fit in my suitcase coming home. It can also be fun to buy toiletries in a local pharmacy; you might find your new favorite soap!

My last piece of advice is this: push your boundaries, try new things, and say yes to doing things you wouldn’t normally do! You might not always want to do things, which happened to me at the beginning of the trip since I was so tired from my extra-long travel day, but I feel like I missed out on a lot of fun activities and bonding with the group. It’s okay to take time for yourself sometimes, and you shouldn’t do anything you’re uncomfortable with, but doing things with the group outside of scheduled activities can end up being your best memories! It’s also okay if you feel shy or awkward; people are a lot more welcoming of making friends and creating fun memories in a new environment. Put yourself out there! Someone on your trip might be your new best friend.