The Long Lost Puente: Part 2

So... I've been sitting on this half-finished post for a while... and by a while I mean over half a year now (yikes). But with my new-found dedication, I've finished it... a bit hastily, but it is done. In a week or so, I will pre-date it. In the meantime, here's the last installment of the December puente adventure:

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A blog post a day keeps the procrastination away...

Right. If only that was all it took. A blog a day does, however, keep us plugging right along in recounting my long-neglected-but-soon-to-be-over tale of the December puente.
If you've kept up with my last 3 posts (and really, by now you've had plenty of time ;) ), you already know that the day after my birthday, I boarded a very early flight from Bergamo, Italy to Thessaloniki, Greece, where I would be dancing the weekend away...

[more flashback, Wayne's World sound effects...]

You can see Thessaloniki near the top of the map, in the middle, on the coast. [source]

View of the Alps from the plane! One positive thing of flying at 7am.

I may have said this already, but RyanAir, I think you should buy this photo from me.

Once in Thessaloniki, I wandered around... a LOT. Note for next time: there are luggage lockers in the trainstation... that way, you don't have to lug your backpack all over the second largest city in Greece for 5 hours.
Anyway, after navigating the streets whose names I could barely read (I should have paid more attention to the

Kicking off December with a bang...

I've only gone a little bit past my self-allotted one week between posts, and yet, so much has happened! It's been a whirlwind of working, trip-planning, moving and thinking. Here are the highlights:

1. I have moved!
After returning from Santander to an apartment where:

• The internet was down, 
• a particular 19 year-old Spanish roommate STILL hadn't cleaned up dishes that had already been in the sink one week before I left, 
• the kitchen faucet was still dripping, and 
• aside from him mentioned in #2, there is not a native Spanish speaker in sight, 

I decided it was time to look for something new. And I lucked out on the first try! As I write this, I'm sitting in my lovely (full!) bed in my new room on Saturnino Ulargui. The street name doesn't have quite the allure as Avenida de la Paz, and sadly, I no longer have my own balcony, but to be honest, I wasn't using it anyway-- too cold! 

Blue dot is my new home, red is the old. Click for better detail :)

Anyway, this place is CLEAN, there are no smokers, the kitchen is immaculate and my room is nice and bright. It's on the 5th (and top) floor, so no more street noise. I'm a lot closer to Casco Antiguo (old town) and yet, it will probably work out to be less expensive here. All in all, I'm very much looking forward to living here and my only regret is that I had to leave 2 lovely roommates behind, Emma and Martin. I will miss them, but I probably left just in the nick of time, as a fifth room was just let. That would've been 5 people sharing one bathroom and a tiny kitchen! Here, I live with two nice Spanish girls... one's a pharmacist, the other, a psychologist... with the potential of a third moving in in the next couple of weeks. The two don't speak any English so here's hoping my Spanish improves tenfold! But talking extensively with them will have to be put off for about a week because on Monday...

2. I'm going to Italy... and later, to Greece! This coming week we have a puente from Tuesday through the end of the week. And guess who doesn't work on Monday's :) So, with a solid week of free time, I thought it'd be the perfect opportunity to go someplace a little farther away. In searching, I decided to google "european swing exchanges" and guess what?! There's a Lindy Hop exchange in Thessaloniki, Greece from December 9-11. And guess what?! Thessaloniki just happens to be one of the cities RyanAir flies to. 

Swingalonica!!!

The one downside: no flights there from Spain. Oh well... guess I'll just have to fly to MILAN first!!! :) 

The Duomo! [source]