THE
DAYLIFE
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The "Erasmus food"
The food in Thessaloniki is
good and rather inexpensive if compared to most of Europe.
Greek people likes strong tastes and they prefer meat to
vegetables.
As
a student you will find that the food of the mensa of the
Aristotelio University is the best. The food is not the best
in terms of quality (the best quality is Makedonia) but it
is the best simply because it is FREE. In the old tradition
of Greek inefficiency there are no controls in the
university restaurant and anybody can go in and eat for free
as many dishes as wanted. Actually looks like the policy of
the Aristotelio University is to waste as much as possible.
Of course Erasmus students exploit this flaw and are used to
get 3 to 4 meals at the time.
On
the other hand (and on the other side of the street) the
university of Macedonia has a much better restaurant that
serves 3 daily meals at registered students for the price of
1,8 €. Once you paid you can take as much food as you
want (legally).
Unfortunately
I don't know about the TEITH mainly because the mensa is in
Sindos (10Km West of Thessaloniki)
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Radical Sports : Cooking
in Vassilisis Olgas
If you feel like doing so you
can eat in the residence. This happens when you have been
clubbing so much that you don't feel like going to the
university restaurant for food or when you have got so much
to study that you do not have time to do so or even when you
don't like at all the food served there.
The
Kitchen of Vassilisis Olgas is "terrible". I mean, the place
is not bad, but after a couple of days without cleaning you
can have a really awful time looking for clean dishes and so
on. Also in Greece there are not Gas kitchens so you have to
adapt yourself to electric cooking (VERY slow). In the
photo below is depicted the hygiene of the Kitchen on a
Sunday evening (without cleaning for two full days). If you
want you can enlarge the bin...
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Radical
Sports: Eating Gyro-Pita everyday
A good friend of the erasmus students is the Gyro shop. These are small
and medium fast foods that operate on the street. The food served is typical
Greek. Unlike the Turks here in Greece you can have a gyros made of
pork meat (very tasty!!!). The price of one good big gyro-pitta is
450~500Drx (1,5 €). They serve usually also fried potatoes and other
kind of meat. This kind of food has to be very unhealthy because it is
very fat but it is so good that you have to taste to believe. The photo
below is taken in my favorite gyro-pita pusher, it is located in
Alexandrou Svolou Road at the corner with Aggelaki street; he deals
with bigger portions with a very good price.
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The lessons
Unless you're not extremely
proficient in talking Greek language then you wont be asked
to follow the lectures. Usually a Erasmus students receives
a written job or a group job do do at home. There are
however a couple of exception to this rule:
- Some
students attending a technical faculty might be asked to
conduct a "project on the field" and this actually means
"to work for free". In 1999-2000 this has happened to
some people studying bio-chemistry and astrophysics.
- The
students might be asked to attend lectures where as they
are specifically technical and language independent
(Mathematics, Informatics) or just when the teacher likes
having Erasmus students at his lesson...
- Finally,
just in some cases, you might discover that being a
erasmus student doesn't give you any bonus versus the
other students. Actually you might be asked to work more
than normal Greek students do... This happened to the
students of Architecture and to myself also (thought just
in some exams).
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Going to the Bar for a
coffee
Here in Thessaloniki one
coffee at the bar takes a long time. Greek students love to
sit down in front of the table and spend a lot of time
talking with friends and playing "Tavli" or backgammon as
many of us call it.
Thus
the city hosts also a lot of these typical cafes on every
road but specially in the center. Just like the clubs also
for coffees there is a number of places that show a special
concentration. The best coffees are on the "beach" (paralia)
and they extend from the center of the city (Platia
Aritotelous) towards the west. On all the street looking
from the Aristotelous square towards the white tower all you
can see is a long row of coffees (and the sea of
course).
Many
people chooses the coffees as a alternative to the Clubs at
night, some others use them as a "pre party" before clubbing
and some other just ignore them. But for the vast majority
of the locals there is nothing better than a afternoon of
relax in the coffee.
If you're Italian you will find the coffee a bit expensive here, a cup
of coffee is around 3€ and is usually served at the table. If you're
looking for cheap coffee you'll better do if yourself in the comfort of
your home.
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