busy. dirty. never a dull moment. i must say i have fallen in “i really like you” with new york city.

most of my time there was spent with my lovely veronica going out, eating, dancing, shopping, relaxing, having a good time. i couldn’t have asked for more. it was such a fun and necessary trip. 

although when she was working/in class i was alone in the largest metropolitan area in the US. what’s one Bos to do in such a large city. 

there’s always something to do. and it’s overwhelming. you feel like you need to constantly be on the move, be rushed, doing something, otherwise you might as well be in Boston. I joke. But it’s no joke that New York City is tough to keep up with.

You look around you and it’s always hustling. This city truly never does sleep and it’s easy to fall into that trap, that warped mindset of always having to be on the go. losing sleep. for instance, wednesday evening when I arrived, we spent some time @ veronica’s place, it’d been two months since we last saw each other and quite honestly we needed to get over the surreal-ness of the moment. so around midnight we decided it’d be a good time to go out, grab a bite to eat and a drink. we’d both had long days, hadn’t eaten, and had an appetite. she took me to cafeteria. (i just googled their web site to link it up and it’s quite amazing. don’t let the soothing music take anything away from what i’m about to say). so we walk there and i’m expecting a chill 24 hour diner type place that will have ok food and a quiet tone to it. i mean it is a wednesday night and it’s past midnight.

we walk in, i felt like i had to be on a guest list to be seated. the place is bumping. packed. energy. life. music. very cool. posh. quite nice. the food was delicious. the drinks were great.  not what i expected at all for a place called cafeteria on a wednesday night. instantly it felt like a friday or saturday night and we had been out partying and going crazy. thinking back to this moment. it embodies everything i felt about new york city there after.

you don’t find these places anywhere else. you might. but i haven’t. i won’t. this was a first. but as i sat there gazing at my beautiful companion, eating away at my delicious fried chicken salad and sippin’ on my coco mojito, i found myself rushing to get through this because i felt like i had to quickly do something immediately after. woah! what a feeling. 

new york city doesn’t stop. and you can’t stop either. everything you do, everywhere you go, it’s packed and you need to know the way. people are moving, doing things incredible and terrible. always. always.

it’s overwhelming of course, but i feel like you need to own it. you need to make yourself own it. the city, the lifestyle. you need to grab it and make it your own. and that’s the beauty of it all i think. there’s no set path. they always say you if you make it in new york you can make it anywhere, and i think that’s left open for interpretation. i believe that if you make yourself in new york city, you can take that anywhere. in new york, you can make your own path in life, but you need to abide by their rules of the game. you can’t stop. if you’re up to it, you’ll be sitting high, if you’re not, prepare to be left in the dirty, dark, hard to breath dust and smog they call air.

i just got back from my vacation in greece. two and half weeks in limnos, four days in mykonos and two days in athens. 

i know exactly what you’re thinking…not enough time. maybe in mykonos. but overall, i could’ve done another week in limnos, maybe a few more nights in athens. there’s just so much to see, do and time to be had to relax. why was i in such a rush to get back to this life of online courses for the next few weeks? well, truth is, the family booked the tickets together and so we went and left together. 

it was good though. i got to see family, friends, foes, that i haven’t seen in more than seven years. eight to be exact. no foes, i kid. i swam in beautiful beaches, i ate delicious souvlaki, i smoked my brains out with cigarettes to maintain the mediterranean lifestyle, i partied on the craziest island in all of the motherland, and i got a crazy tan to enhance my olive tone.

how could i complain? i’m not! i’d do it all over again in a heartbeat and then some.

but when? before this trip it had been eight long years since i last visited. will it be another eight? i hope not. there’s people i want to see there, there’s people i want to take there. eight is too long. but with so much other beauty and mystery to see in this world, how could i fall into that trap that so many greek american’s fall into of going back year after year and then never see another coast, mountain, sunset, monument on this earth?

it’s sad that some of these people never get to see another part of this world because year after year they spend their summers in greece. visiting their grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. but wait is that sad? or is the fact that i hadn’t seen the people that love me and care for me in such a long time, sad?

you give and you take. life is about moderation and balance. of course it’s beautiful to see the world and experience different cultures, but you must not lose touch with your own. especially when that culture is so rich and beautiful and full of life. 

so maybe again next summer i’ll take a trip out to greece for a couple of weeks. but then am i holding myself back from seeing other beautiful parts of this world? 

of course not, there’s the EURO RAIL!