catching up with the present

To be honest, this blog is about 2 weeks late as I left Singapore on 19 Aug at 11pm, after 3 days of hastily settling last minute stuff and packing that huge backpack (27kg, as i found out eventually at the check in) that will be the bane of my existence for the next 1++ month of traveling. Took a 13hr flight to London Heathrow with a connecting flight to Athens the next morning, and met up with Shihui and the rest of the Maastricht gang in the afternoon. It wasn't my first time flying alone, but somehow this time it felt kinda destabilizing, maybe cos I didn't spend enough time preparing, or I was rushing around all the weeks before exchange, and never really had time to settle down and prepare, or I haven't spent so much time in solitude for a long while.

Anyway it did feel good to meet the rest, which had resounding implications, like, you can go pee without lugging the huge backpack with you.. haha.. thats really about it actually

Athens was nice. We stayed at Athens Backpackers which is a hostel really near the Acropolis, so most of the ruins of interest were within walking distance. I was a little more interested than the others as they had seen 2 weeks worth of ruins in Italy before I arrived and joined them, but nevertheless we endured the amazingly hot yet not humid greek sun and trudged through the Acropolis ruins and the Athenian streets. And the long postponed suntanning began for me too! YEAH