I am just about to finish my second term as an Erasmus ambassador, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to contemplate a little about what had happened to me, how awesome I became, and how this has changes my life entirely.
My story
In the midst of a cold December day in 2010 I made possibly the best decision of my life. I opted to apply for a 1 semester Erasmus internship in Greece, starting from February 2011.
Back then I was an immature, pathetic and wannabe guy, who was basically famous for drinking by far the most during the nights to impress the buddies, and throwing up next day in grandma’s garden after the family lunch. Life was not going anywhere. A few months earlier I even had to spend one night in jail after bringing partying to a too high level.
Then I started to Thessaloniki, and the rest became history.
It’s going to start slow and miserable …
My plane landed on a breezy day in February in the second largest city of Greece. I only had 2 luggages and the address of my future accommodation written in a piece of paper. I was abandoned on a pretty big airport, and the cab drivers lacked any knowledge of English. I flashed them my note with the street name on it, but they had absolutely no clue what I wanted. Can you please give me a fucking ride? I thought. Okay, it’s not supposed to be easy, but I should be able to get myself transferred to the centre without being kidnapped or tricked. Finally one mate understood what I want, and took me to my place for 20 euros. The clock was only showing 17, but I was cold and happy to get out of the car eventually.
I made a reservation online for the first month, so I had to stay there at least until the end of February. The flat was okay, but the neighborhood resembled to a screen in Slumdog Millionaire rather then what I previously had in mind about what my flat would look like in Greece. I excepted a great view to the sea with pretty girls living next door, walking naked all day. What I actually got was something like a refugee camp, and street cats trying to be too friendly with me. Furthermore the street names were written in greek letters, so usually I spent half of my days trying to get home from shopping.
I don’t want to bother you with unnecessary details, but I have to mention one more thing before we get to the good part. The spring semester was postponed because of some strikes, and they put a massive chain to the main entrance of the school. Basically I was there for 3 weeks without knowing anybody except the street cats. My only salvation was one friend back in Hungary I had the privilege to talk on Skype with, a very decent serbian guy called Nicola, and his mother, and the gym I found on the third day.
Meeting the Romanians…
Then I came across two of my future classmates from Romania. Fitiu a.k.a. John, and Daniel a.k.a. the Troy watcher. (Sorry about this joke Mr. Bota.) They had some really dangerous alcohol beverage called Rakia, and although as I mentioned above, I knew how to drink, to say the least, but that one, man was strong as hell. And John was using a tea cup to drink it from. So one thing you have to keep in mind for the rest of your life: even though you might think you are an experienced drinker, beware of the romanians when it comes to preparing yourself for the night. 
This should have been the moment to realize, that this is not going to be an ordinary 4 month period. From that point we spent the waiting for the semester start by playing Age of Empires 2. Yes, I know, I don’t have to go to Greece to play this game, but it was so good to be humiliated by John every time. And finally school started …
I don’t know if you realize, so probably I should emphasize it a bit more. I was WAITING for the school to start. Of course I was not so much keen on learning, but finally after 3 weeks, I got the chance to meet with my classmates from all over Europe, and hopefully the “let the party begin” sign will wait for us on the board as we enter our first class.
The first school experience indicated just like that. The greek language teacher came 20 minutes late, and instead of saying sorry I was late on the first day, she declared she will be late every time, so don’t even bother coming on time either. So maybe this explains to you why from that point I only saw the school 2 times per week.
What NOT to drink in Thess…
The other reason was probably the typical greek drink called Ouzo. The problems started when me and John discovered that it only costs 12 euros in the nearby store, and for that prize they gave us 2 liters of this blue disgusting booze. If you have tried it before, I advise you not to drink is so often as we did. The other funny thing we found was Retsina, I very cheap and super super low quality white wine. This deadly combination caused us so many hangovers; it pains me even now to think about it. But it also made our nights out pretty amazing.
Meeting with the Bulgarians…
After the first month, I moved to another flat, because I needed to save money to buy more Ouzo, and I had the chance to acquire two flat mates, which seemed to be a good idea at the beginning. Later on I realized it was not a good idea. It was the best. And this was the point where things got totally out of control. With Zhivko and Andrei we quickly became really good friends, we had our ups and downs and fights, but I couldn’t ask for better guys to live with.
Basically from that point we were awesome – ing around Thessaloniki, attending all the possible parties, and having more fun than ever before. During the semester we had at least 3 parties per week, during the exam period we were lying on the beach, posting ridiculous pictures to our jealous friends on Facebook. We enjoyed life to the fullest. Our only problem was figuring out where the next party will take place.
Meeting with the Czechs…
The time passed quickly, and the spring holiday emerged. It was Greek style, so we had 2 weeks off school. What a revelation! We planned a 2 day trip to an island called Thassos, and again, we wanted to save money for Ouzo, so we decided to hitchhike, which, as we realized later on, was not such a good idea. Main point, we made it there, but since we didn’t book any accommodation, we slept in the forest. The island was completely abandoned, but we had a really great time. We built a “house” in the beach for the second day to sleep in against the cold. Have you ever wondered how it actually feels to wake up in the sands of a greek beach at 8.am, because the sun is burning your face? Something like this.
This is where I met with the 4 czech girls, and Zdenka became my girlfriend later on. They came 30 minutes later for the first morning, and were stinky from whisky from the previous night. This was for sure not the moment I fell in love with them. It turned out that they live just 2 blocks away where my place was with the Bulgarians, so everything was perfect. One sentence just popped into my mind right now, which I used the other day to encourage one of one friend, who just got accepted to Poland for Erasmus. I think it’s clearly demonstrated my view of this experience: The two best thing, which can happen to you during University time, is Erasmus and love. I was lucky to have both at the same time.
This post is getting to be long enough, and I didn’t add even one percent of the awesomeness I experienced. Since then I had the chance to regularly visit Prague, I was working in Corfu, and now I am in London. What else can you ask from a single Erasmus semester? But these latter ones are for next time.
Sorry, I am erasmus ... 