Stop and Stare

After a long awaited two weeks, I finally went running! Thank goodness class was pushed an hour later than usual so my roommate and I had enough time to go out and about.

It was definitely one of the more interesting runs that I've ever gone on. First of all, I really had no idea were we were going. I just made sure to know what general direction the dorms were at (it worked last time we got lost!), second of all, there were a LOT of hills! You would think that after being here for about a week and a half I would have gotten used to walking on an incline, but it's an entirely different story when you're running (makes for a good workout, for sure). But the thing that bothered me the most was the stares!

Okay so I know people go running during the day on the sidewalks back in the US, and people will most likely check em out see what's up and stuff, I admit, I've done it once or twice. But here it's like they've never seen someone go running in their lives. For the most part I tried to stay on mainly the residential streets so I wouldn't have to worry to much about traffic, but as I was weaving in and out of the trees in the sidewalks, I would notice locals that were doing outdoor chores stop and give me weird looks. It got even worse when we passed the central gathering place, I literally saw people stop what they were doing and just stare. Thank goodness we went in the morning when not many people were up, I can't even imagine going during the evening when everything is crowded with customers.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever really seen any Greeks running around town. Every once in a while I get excited when I see someone jogging by, but it usually turns into a more temporary pace to cross the street or something. When it comes to any exercise here in Greece, I've mainly noticed walkers, for example when we hiked up the mountain the other day I saw quite a few older folks conquering the incline, but other than that I haven't seen much. But I plan on keeping an eye out for any runners, who knows maybe I'll find a Greek running buddy! (wishful thinking right there :P)

Since I went running this morning, I decided to treat myself for dinner (not that I wouldn't omnom without running...). As a group, we've been eyeing a nearby Crepe shop, but we can never figure out when it's open. After consulting our professors we realized it's open evenings! So can you guess what I had for dinner? Yummy Crepes! This place wasn't just a cute little french crepe truck you find on the side of the road, but a full on crepe place. They had everything from salty crepes with meat to chocolaty sweet crepes. It didn't take long for me decided I wanted some CHOCOLATE! I ended up ordering an interesting combination of chocolate, pineapple, and nuts (surprisingly delicious).

Overall I would say I had a pretty successful day today, I got my run in and I got yummy chocolate, what more could a girl ask for? Tomorrow we're planning a trip to Omonia to check out a popular meat market/ bazaar. It's also a slightly sketchier than downtown Athens so I'm very curious as to what we're going to find (don't worry Dr. Kaplan will be accompanying us). Wish me luck!