Hello! My name is Duarte Correia. I’m 17 years old and I’m from Quarteira, Portugal. This is my blog about my Erasmus internship in Greece.

Before I talk about the internship, I’ll share a little bit about myself — not too much, I promise.

I was born and raised in Portugal so i was 100% made in Portugal, and I study programming at Loulé Secondary School.

I’m very excited about this trip because Greece is famous for so many things — from its philosophers and historical buildings to its alphabet and mythology. It has so much culture and history.

I’m also excited because this is my second time going on Erasmus, and it will probably be ten times better. I hope I won’t make the same mistakes as last time…

So we arrived at the airport at around 5:20 a.m.. Sadly, most people were late, so we only started the actual “Erasmus” trip at around 5:40. We did the usual things: put our luggage on the conveyor belts, went through security, checked one or two stores, and then boarded the airplane.

Sadly, Antonio was separated from us since he was in row 18, so he had to board through the back entrance. Poor Antonio was all alone. 😭

So I was lucky to have one of my buddies on my side, Alex. There was also another person sitting in seat 6F who was watching F1. Alex started talking to him, and before we knew it we were playing video games and chatting—at least until they both fell asleep. 

We finally arrived in Nuremberg, and the city’s vibe was really nice. We started by using the lockers at the airport to store our luggage, and then we went out to see the city. We visited a medieval area, walked along some of the main streets, and saw a big cathedral.

Then we got separated into two groups: everyone else, and me with the teachers. The others were lazy and hungry, so they went back to the station. Meanwhile, we visited the inside of a big church and also went to the castle, which was at the top of the city.

After that, I went back to the station and played Gringo, which is a card game, and Sueca, another card game, at KFC. At 4:45, we went to Lidl to meet up and then headed back to the airport.

We did the usual stuff—grabbed the luggage from the lockers and went through security and all that boring process. After that, Antonio and I went to check out the stores to pass the time so we wouldn’t be bored. We found a nice place with two power outlets! This was really rare because all the others were already being used. So we stayed there, and that’s where I worked a little on this blog. :D 

The apartment was amazing it was even better them my house.
It had good wifi witch in like one of the requiremnts for me since i use my pc a lot for work etc

Me and david played rock paper scissor to see who would sleep on the sofa and ofc i won :) and so i went immidly to my room organized a 

We met at the old, empty courthouse square.
We finally met the person responsible for us, Kostis, who was super nice and made me feel at ease.

We also met Yorgos, our boss, but we didn’t have much time to talk to him since he had to leave.

Once the rest of the group arrived, we started the tour. There was another man with Kostis, but he kept his identity a secret as a surprise for later.

This is a very important place in Veria, which is why I have a story to tell about it.

The story behind this site comes from Acts 17:10–12. After Paul was essentially run out of Thessaloniki by a riot, he fled about 75 km west to Veria (then called Berea).

The Bible gives the locals here a major compliment, calling them “more noble” than those in Thessaloniki. Why? Because they didn’t just take Paul’s word for it—they sat down with him every day and fact-checked his claims against their own scriptures.

We got a city tour from Kostis and Thomas, and it was really nice. We took lots of photos, and they taught us a little bit of Greek, which was definitely nice. 

Well, this place was where the Jewish community lived—it was like their neighborhood. At night, they would close off the area by shutting the gates and raising the drawbridge so that no one could get in or out. So that was a fun little Easter egg. 

We went to see an old cathedral, and it was quite surprising because it was around 950 years old—so yeah, definitely dinosaur-era stuff.

Fun fact: at one point, the city had around 80 churches.

For breakfast/lunch, we went to 813, a shop that sells sandwiches. The owner was very nice and offered us a large sandwich cut into slices. Everyone had one piece—some had two—but Iara couldn’t have any because she is allergic to milk. So we went to a conveniance store and bought some stuff for her

Speaking of allergies, David is also allergic—though to pollen—which meant he was sneezing nonstop like a machine gun, since it’s spring.

Well, after lunch, I was kind of forced to go with Iara so she could eat something, since she was allergic to almost everything at 813. So we went on a bit of a “city exploring simulator.”

We walked along the main streets and saw bakeries. We also found a small arcade, and after a little more walking, we came across a 24/7 vending machine area—a good spot to go when everything else is closed.

Finally, we went to a mini market, where she found something she both wanted and could eat.

For dinner, we went to Στάσου Μύγδαλα. I have no idea what the name means, but the food was very good—so good, in fact, that I was only able to take photos after the plates were empty.

Since it was our first time there, we ordered one of everything and two burgers because they were kind of small. Not everyone was able to try everything the first time, including me.

Once again, we went to explore the city since we wanted to go for a walk anyway. So me, Antonio, David, Inês, and Iara went to the bar area. There wasn’t much to see, but after everyone else left, it was just me and Iara. We walked a little further and found an arcade, though we didn’t play since we had no money.

We walked a bit more and found a small park, where we played for a little while before heading all the way back home to sleep.

My morning started at around 10 a.m.—yes, very, very early. I just got dressed, worked a little on the website, and went grocery shopping since we all needed it. David and Inês had to go to work. The supermarket was called My Market, and it had a little bit of everything. Sadly, we didn’t find any hygiene products because, as we discovered later, there is a second floor that’s quite hidden. So we only bought some basic items. 

We were very, very hungry, and since we wanted to eat close to the workplace, we decided to try Goody’s, a very famous fast-food chain in Greece.

I ordered a combo, and to be honest, I didn’t like it very much. But Iara got some nuggets, and honestly, they were the best nuggets I’ve ever had from any fast-food chain.

Also, sorry for not including a photo—I was so hungry that I forgot to take one—but here’s what it looks like.

Well, this wasn’t exactly the first day of work since we didn’t do any actual work, but we did a lot of things. We finally got to talk with Yorgos, the person who will be mentoring us.

We started by talking about the schedule we would have, the tasks we would do, and the teams.

After that, we went to see the library. I don’t want to sound nerdy, but this library was filled to the brim with cool tech. They had a small music studio, a workshop area for Legos, offices with some very good PCs, and five floors in total. The library stored about 180,000 documents—not including the digital collection—and they even had a mobile library.

It was really cool, and on top of that, Yorgos clearly loves his job, which makes it so much better to work with him.

For dinner, we went to the same restaurant, and I got the burger. It was very, very good—it had BBQ sauce, bacon, lettuce, cheese, and one meat patty, so yeah, a very solid choice. Not to mention, it came with a side of fries as well. 

So finally we did visit the arcade and let me tell you it was dupe we played bascket ball and i got bet by iara badly and them we played air hookey and we had no coins left so we just went back home to sleep

Yeah, there’s basically no morning, because I got dressed and started working almost immediately. I woke up at 8:15 and had to be at work by 9:00, so this is literally the first photo of the day. 

At work, we started by organizing things and gathering more information about each project, as well as some testing materials we needed.

Iara and I were assigned to develop an OCR pipeline, which means we had to create software that takes an input folder full of images of book pages, extracts the text, and saves it into an XML file along with the coordinates for each and every word.

We managed to finish a prototype, which was pretty cool. Yorgos said he would test it later, and he told us we could leave about 15 minutes earlier—not much, but hey, I’m not complaining.

So yeah, we went to Lidl—and I say “exploring” because it’s about a 30-minute walk from our house. Not to mention, it’s all downhill, which means we had to walk all the way back up later.

But apart from that, it was amazing. We got a full view of Veria, and we finally found a supermarket we could actually familiarize ourselves with, since it’s one we already know. We bought a lot of things, including strawberries from a street vendor nearby.

Then we headed back, and the whole trip took about two hours, so yeah—it was really tiring.

For dinner, we had a starter—it was like cream cheese with oregano or some kind of greens. After that, I got smoked pork with a side of fries, and it was really good—I ate it down to the bone.

After we paid for the meals for the rest of the month, we went back home because I wanted to work, and Iara was still tired.

So in the morning i dident do much except this delecius and gorgeous loking bacon sandwitch and it was quite good only bad part is that i had to clean all the dishes.

So, today we started work at around 2 pm and, as you can see, yes, I was playing a video game. But wait, this is part of the work! We started working with a Raspberry Pi and we were checking where the settings, CMD, etc., were.

We found a small tab dedicated to games, and Minecraft (or MinePi) was one of them. It’s based on a very old version of Minecraft—around 13 years old—so that was fun and nostalgic. After that, we tried to do our actual work, but for some reason, the installation was always corrupted, so we made zero progress.

Right after work we just went for dinner but this time on a difrent restaurant since the other one closes on wendenesday.

I ate a big clube sandwitch and it was quite good it was the first time i was trying it but the mixture or the ham chesse etc was really really good.

This will be ussuall starting the day with work.

So today we tried to debug once again the rasberry pi and we did a lot of progress until ... antonio broke the instalation by acident witch made me a litle annoyied but oh well it happens :P

So, after work, we went for lunch. It was around 3:10 p.m. when we ordered, and we only started eating at 3:30 p.m., so yeah—it was a little late. But hey, I got some good food.

I had tempura, which is actually traditional Portuguese food, along with something that reminded me of fajitas and some fries—because yes, this was at Goody’s. And fun fact: they also have pasta at this fast-food chain, which is really not common, but yeah.

So, Antonio, Iara, and I didn’t want to go home just yet, so we took David back home because he was hungry and wanted to eat. Then we went to a café, where Antonio enjoyed a little cappuccino. After that, we went to the supermarket because Antonio needed something. We took him home, and then we went home ourselves and relaxed until dinner. 

So, for dinner, I had something similar to lunch, but in my opinion, it was a little tastier—not to mention the salad, as always. It was like a club sandwich with pork and fajitas used as the bread, so it was really interesting and nice. 

So, for lunch, we went to this supermarket, and it was quite big because it had three floors, even though only two were open. But yeah, that’s still pretty big, since in Portugal supermarkets usually only have one large floor. 

Ye we did skip to dinner sence i was sleeping in the afternoon but good news is that i ate those club fajita sandwitchs with pork again so i was quite happy about that.

So today was a special day since it was officially the end of the first week of this incredible Erasmus experience. Today, we went to Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece.

We went to the bus station at around 10:30, but the next bus was only at 11, so we had to wait. Around 12:15, we arrived in Thessaloniki.

So we started by buying a bus ticket, which was only €0.60, which is very cheap for me since a bus ticket just to get to school costs around €5 😭. 

This is the heart of Thessaloniki. It’s one of the most famous squares in Greece, and for good reason. It’s not just a patch of pavement; it’s a massive, open “balcony” that overlooks the Thermaic Gulf.

The view is beautiful, and there is also a statue of one of the most famous Greeks, Aristotle, who was a student of Plato, who in turn was a student of Socrates. They are known as the three great Greek philosophers.

Another fun fact: Aristotle was also the mentor of Alexander the Great, the most powerful king of Macedonia. 

So as i saied tha platio witch is square in greek as a beutifal view to the golf and this is it.

So this was a “surprise.” Well, I say surprise because I actually had to arrange it, so it wasn’t an actual surprise. Anyway, this is my friend H1—yes, H1, that’s the nickname. Actually, his full nickname is H1team_XD, but we just call him H1. He’s not just Greek; he’s also from Thessaloniki, and I really wanted to meet him. He came to us and was very kind to act as our tour guide, and it was really nice. 

Yeah, that’s me, going back to the arcades as always.

I think I’ve developed an addiction to having a good time! So we went to the arcade and played basketball, air hockey, Flappy Bird, and some other games. It was really fun, and we spent about €10 total just on the arcade. 

Yeah, I have absolutely no idea what the name of this square or park is, but all I know is that there was a big statue of Alexander the Great. I thought it was really impressive. 

When we finally left the park, it was around 3 p.m., and we were very hungry. So we went to a restaurant that H1 had recommended. DAMN—sorry for the big word—but the food was much bigger than what we had in Veria. It was better and cheaper, even in such a big city. And we had a view of the seaside—like, come on! I codent ask anything better.

So we went to the ilusion Museum and it was very nicce we had loads of phots and elusion stuff so we had a really good time only bad part is that we paied like 11€ each xd but that aside it was very nicce.

After the museum, Iara wanted to go shopping—because, of course, that’s what you do when you visit another city in another country, for some reason.
I didn’t take any photos since there were only clothing shops and similar stores. After we left, H1 was already tired, so we told him to go home to rest—and that’s exactly what he did: he went home to relax and sleep.

After H1 left, guess what— Iara was hungry! Luckily, there was a KFC nearby, so we went in. She ordered something, ate it, and then it was time to go back to Veria. 

In the morning, I took a shower and went to pay some bills, since the teacher told us to do so. I also got a Calippo, orange flavor, so yeah—it was a quite relaxing morning. 

For dinner, since it was Sunday and almost everything was closed, I went to a small place whose name I don’t know—only the location. I got some pita, which is a kind of bread with something like kebab meat inside, along with fries. I don’t know, but I have to tell you— it was only about €3.50, and for that price, I would eat there every day. The food was good and very filling. I’ll probably be back here. 

So yeah, I had brunch—aka I didn’t want to eat breakfast, so I just skipped it. For lunch, I went to Goddys and got a nice deal: two burgers with some really good meat and about 800 ml of Coca-Cola. So yeah, I was quite full after that. 

After brunch, we went to work. I was mostly working on the website since I was a bit late. Right after that, I went back to the OCR pipeline to add documents, translate everything into English, and, well… all the usual boring programmer stuff. 

Iara and I left work, and finally, there was an H&M right next door. Of course, she wanted to go in, so we did. We found two cute dinosaur plushies and bought them. I named mine Bino because he’s a “Binosaur,” and she named hers Bolotas (which means “acorn”). So yeah, there was that. 

So for dinner i had a burger so ye i think today i was really hungry for some meat and it even lokked a bit bigger them the normal one idk if i was hungry or just hallucinating from the work

As I promised, I went back to the same restaurant I visited on Sunday. I didn't think twice before ordering the same thing again because it’s so good. I never used to like this kind of food much, but now, with that juice—I don't know, I can't describe it—it’s just incredible. I promise I will eat here again tomorrow.

Also, since I just ate the same thing, I will show you the variety of items they have—otherwise known as showing off the menu.

In the afternoon, we decided to watch a movie called Ghost Rider from Marvel. It was quite boring, so midway through, we just started scrolling on Instagram; it was better than watching the movie.

The movie wasn't bad; it was just that neither of us wanted to watch a Marvel movie. To be honest, I was already lost after just 15 minutes of watching it, so yeah.

So, for dinner, I had this beautiful pork with fajitas and fries again. You know something is good when you order it a second time, and that is exactly what I did.

As we could see, people actually started to order different stuff too. That was nice since that way you get a colorful table instead of everyone ordering burgers like the first time.

Finally, we got home. I tried connecting my PC to the TV so that I could mirror it and watch a movie from my computer. But of course, that was not possible, so we went to the dark corners of Netflix and were able to find a horror movie. It was... malevolent. We didn't finish it, though, because we were too tired, and I might have fallen asleep mid-film. 

So, in the morning, I just ate cereal with milk and slept. We also got ready to watch the parade, since today is a very special day in Greece because it's Independence Day. There will be a military parade on the main street, and we are going to check it out. 

So the paride was very very nicce and there was so much stuff turns out it was not just military and so there was a lot of people and so much stuff to take photos of and them what happend was i just gave up and asked my frined antonio who as a photografy camera and knowladge to take the photos and so here is the full drive with them.

Also thx to Antonio that gathered and took most of the photos ❤️.

link

So, I was going to get chicken for the first time because I finally thought the shop was open, but it was closed. Instead, I went to my 'guardian angel' and just ate the same delicious gyro and yes i am going to keep ordering the same thing with no exceptions. 

So, we decided to watch a movie since we had just finished lunch. Sorry for the blurriness of the image; I tried to take a good photo, but out of all seven, this was the best one. 

So, we weren't supposed to have dinner here today since the restaurant closes on Wednesdays. However, the owner decided to open today and close tomorrow instead. So yeah, we had dinner here, and for today, I chose to eat some chicken nuggets. They weren't very good; they were dry and almost flavorless. But oh well, next time I know what I'm not ordering. 

After dinner, we had a meeting at around 10 pm with our teacher so they could check on us and more. Since everything was going well with all of us—including our work, the accommodations, etc.—we were quick to finish the meeting. 

Anyway, after the meeting, we went to play some cards. Everyone except Alex and David Costa joined, because they were hungry and wanted to grab food, so they just left right after the meeting. We started playing a game called 'Gringo'—just me, Iara, and Ines. But after about 20 minutes, they all wanted to join in, so we switched the game to 'President,' which is a game that can accommodate up to 10 players, so it is very nice.

Today at work was fun and different. As you can see from the picture, there are electric components that neither you nor I have any idea about! These components make up a weather station. Why am I showing you this? Because Iara and I are building a web app that displays all the information from these devices, including a Raspberry Pi hidden in the basement that detects earthquakes. So yeah, a lot of work for us.

So, for lunch, we finally got chicken! Sadly, we had to walk about 20 minutes, and the chicken was not cut—but at least we got a whole chicken and some really nice fries. 

So, I was feeling kind of sick, so I didn't do much after lunch. I did go back and eat more chicken, and that’s it. I basically slept and stayed in bed trying to get better. 

Today was a research day. Since we had around 10 places to get information from, we decided to compile them all into a single API. That way, we could get all the info 10 times easier.
Iara was working on the api in the meantime meanwhile i was trying to learn hot to get the info.

I can only describe this as one thing: nostalgia. Iara and I left work and went straight to a bakery to buy a big loaf of sourdough. When we got home, we remembered the chicken we had—and yes, I stuffed it into the bread.

Why am I calling this nostalgic? Because in Portugal, at least for me, it was very common for my mom or grandma to make this as a snack or even lunch, served with mayonnaise and fries. This takes me right back home.

Dinner was fun...... We started out by ordering, and one of the options was meatballs. I ordered them and they were very good; the only issue was they arrived about 15 minutes after everyone else had already finished their meal....... It was especially frustrating because Antonio and Francisco also ordered meatballs, yet theirs arrived 30 minutes before mine. But oh well, I did finally get my food, and it was quite nice and worth the wait. 

Since everyone had finished their food while I was still waiting for mine, they just left. Yes, very, very friendly! At least Iara, Antonio, and Francisco stayed behind to keep me company. Afterward, we all went to a supermarket at around 10 pm—you know, normal teenager activity. 

So today we went to the underworld nah, I’m just kidding, well... kind of.

Today we visited the tomb of Philip II. Who is that, some of you may wonder? That is the king of Macedonia and the father of Alexander the Great. Yes, the big prodigy kid from Macedonia! So yeah, a good "dad and son" combo, in my opinion.

The tomb is located under a hill—yes, directly under it—so it was safe from tomb robbers and the like. It also contained a lot of artifacts because it was so well hidden. It was only around 1977 that an archaeologist (sorry, I don't remember the name!) found this archaeological site near the biggest river in Greece. 

After we visited the tomb, we said goodbye to our guides—in this case, our beloved Kostis and Dimitri, who is a friend of Kostis. He studied in Lisbon, so he knew a little Portuguese! Anyway, we headed home and had some difficulty opening the door. When we finally got it open, we decided to order food using the eFood app. I ordered two pizzas, and in the meantime, Iara and I went to buy some groceries. We bought a load of stuff—about two bags weighing 10 kg combined, probably because we had 6L of Coke.

Anyway, we got back to the house and guess who we found? Exactly, the delivery driver, right on cue! So I took the order and was going to eat my pizza happily, but guess what... the door was out of power. I say this because to enter our house, we need a keycard and it opens using an electric motor on the inside. So, we were stuck outside for about 10 minutes since the motor had no battery left. I had to call Kostis to ask for the owner's number, and the owner opened the door. We had never talked before, but he seemed like a very, very friendly person and spoke good English. He fixed the issue, and we were good to go.

Also, I did eat my pizza outside because I was too hungry and didn't want it to get cold.

Well i dident tell you but i ordered 2 pizzas and so i ate this one for dinner. Also i did drink like 1l of coke becuase i swear me and Iara already finished 1 bottle.

I saied gridding becuase i was not just working but playing at the same time as you can see i am a very produtive person i did this until around 11pm since today the time changes :O so it goes from 3 am to 4 am So i gotta get ready

Today we were going to visit a very special place called Meteora. We had to wake up at 7:30 to get ready since we had a ride to catch at around 8:30, and we all wanted to at least use the bathroom before leaving. When we arrived at the pickup location, I went to buy some water. It only took about 30 seconds, but that was enough time for everyone else to get there and for me to be the last one. 

So today, we were going to visit a very special place called Meteora. We had to wake up at 7:30 because we had a ride to catch at around 8:30, and we all wanted to at least use the bathroom before leaving. We arrived at the pickup location and I went to buy some water. It only took about 30 seconds, but that was enough time for everyone else to arrive, leaving me as the last one there. 

Apparently, we were supposed to go to two monasteries, but we got there a little late, so we only went to one. First of all, the view was incredible! It was like I was inside Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings with those magical landscapes—or even Star Wars, because it was really unique and different.

As for the monastery itself, it was quite small but very pretty. Sadly, they only had two or three rooms open at most, so there wasn’t much to see. Also, we couldn’t take photos inside, so it felt very small, but the architecture in such a high and beautiful place is still incredible.

Also, this photo from far away is from Google, but it’s way better than mine. This way, you can actually see the beauty. 

We stayed for around one hour in the monastery, and afterward, we went to the city in that photo called Kalambaka. We did find a nice place to eat, but we didn't have enough time, so we just ate some gyros. We also got some drinks; Iara got a Coca-Cola and I got a strawberry and banana juice. It was quite nice and chill. 

We also explored the city and found that some people have a direct view of the mountains. It's like—crazy good! 

After we had lunch, we headed back home. It was quite sad since we took a 7-hour trip just to be there for not even 2 hours, but oh well. Also, I think Iara will wake up with a stiff neck. 

So for dinner, I just had some cereal, but of course, I am not going to post a picture of that or talk about it. Instead, I am going to talk about the movie we saw, which was Smile 2. It was a quite nice movie, but there was too much gross stuff in it, which sadly made me a little uncomfortable to watch. But yeah!

As you might remember, last week Iara and I were assigned to make a weather app. That is exactly what we tried to do—and I say "tried" because there were so many problems.

This is very technical, but I will try to explain it in a simple way. Think of it like paying taxes to the IRS: you don't know exactly how much you owe them, so you have to figure it out yourself, even though they already know exactly what the number is. You can't just easily access all the records.

My situation is similar: I can't access the old records from the weather station. Because of this, I have to build a whole new backend system from scratch. It will probably take me until the end of my Erasmus just to make this "little" thing work!

So after work, we went to H&M because Iara wanted to. There was a new collection of some sort, and guess what? Yes, she made me a slave to get the clothes she wanted! I had to go up and down the three floors of H&M—it was not cool. ;-; 

While we were at H&M, I ordered a pizza via e-food. By the time I got home, the delivery guy was already there! I took my pizza and went inside. Fun fact: I think this was the cheapest pizza I have ever eaten because it cost me only 5€ on e-food. It was also quite big, so it kept me full for the rest of the evening. 

First of all, I didn't notice I took a restaurant-level photo! Second of all, I didn't know I was only going to be served mushrooms. We were ordering, and I was still quite full from the pizza, so I decided to just ask for something light. They offered mushrooms, and I was thinking, "Oh nice, it’s probably mushrooms with a little beef, like Chinese food." No—it was only mushrooms! It was still pretty good, though. 

So, Iara, Francisco, Antonio, and I decided to walk around. Why? Because during dinner, we were talking about a big supermarket nearby called Green, and Antonio got excited and wanted to check it out. That is exactly what we did—well, that was supposed to be it, but no. We walked for around 2 to 3 hours! We stopped at the 24/7 vending machines and then headed home. So yeah, we did a lot of stuff. Sadly, I took all the photos with the other guys, so check out their blogs! It’s very nice that way because you can see each person's point of view as well. 

Today, I started a chat with Gemini to figure out what the architecture would look like and all that technical, boring stuff. I also worked a little on the blog, since my Wi-Fi was a bit bad during the weekend, sadly. I was forced to postpone it until today because yesterday I was too focused on the weather web app. 

So for lunch, I only ate this and some more junk food. I wasn't feeling like cooking, and I wasn't feeling like ordering, so I just ate whatever was there. Also, I went to sleep right after. I guess I was just really tired today. 

Right when I woke up, I remembered we had another meeting with the teachers. As always, Teacher Duarte was asking us how we are doing and if everything is okay—you know, the normal stuff. Afterward, Teacher Elisabete was giving out our blog grades. Yes, we get graded here! It’s crazy, right? 

After the meeting, most of us just stayed there talking and playing video games or cards—you name it. After some time, I just got tired and went right back to sleep. Fun fact: we were socializing by watching those videos where people build houses in the middle of nowhere. Here is the link:  youtube

So today, we went on a helicopter ride and it was really nice; everyone enjoyed it. April Fools! Yes, that was an obvious lie, but it was just to commemorate the day and get into the spirit of April Fools'. 

Today was raining very badly in the morning and Me and Iara have no umbrealla and since we are working with APIs we thought mmmm maybe our boss Yorgos lets us do remote work just for today and he accepted and so i went back to sleep.

When I woke up, I ordered food—in this case, a gyro—and you know, it was as good as always. 

Fun fact: I asked for extra pitas because I thought it would come with more food, but nope, it doesn't! I had to eat a pita with nothing on it, so I don't recommend trying to be a "smarty." 

For work, I started programming the web app using Cursor. Oh man, it was taking so long because of the API errors! Thankfully, once I am done with this, there will be zero API errors—at least, I hope so. 

For dinner, I had meatballs. I was quite hungry when I got them, so I burned my mouth—but it was worth it! 

Pro tip: If you have leftover sauce, ask for a slice of bread to dip it in because it is amazing. 

I was craving something sweet, so Iara and I went to the 24/7 vending machines. I got this beautiful Milka chocolate bar for 1.70€—it was very worth it! 

In the morning, I went straight to work on the blog. I didn't even take a picture because I really just wanted to finish it so I could have time for the weather web app in the afternoon, especially since I still needed to get or order lunch. 

For lunch, I got this beautiful pizza. I ate it in like 10 minutes and went straight back to work. I did this because I was actually focused; I was being productive and didn't want to waste the opportunity. 

So, for dinner, I had meatballs. There was nothing really special or different about it, aside from the fact that we were approached by two different people asking for money. But other than that, it was a normal Thursday. 

Yeah, there is no lunch today, mainly because I forgot to eat. In other words, I wasn't hungry; I had a stomachache and was feeling a little bit sick. 

For dinner, I thought of ordering a wrap since it’s usually a light meal. Well, not this one—it had BBQ sauce, bacon, pork, pepper, and everything needed to make my stomachache even worse. It was very yummy, though. 

The only thing I actually did was order some burgers from Goody's and eat them; that was it.

Today we went to Thessaloniki once again because, after all, it is the biggest city near us. So, Antonio, Iara, David, Ines, and I decided it would be nice to go there. 

Yeah, so we got there around 12:00 PM. We took the number 12 bus toward the center, which had a stop just two meters away from the shopping mall. Iara and I went straight ahead and ordered some KFC because McDonald's was too full; it had about 30 orders waiting. 

After that, we had no idea what to do, so we just checked out some stores. We still couldn't decide on an activity until I thought, "Why don't we try an escape room?" That is exactly what we did. We caught a bus and headed to Aristotelous Square to go to The MindTrap. It is very famous and has about nine different escape rooms. When we arrived, there weren't many available, but two caught our eye: The Shadows of Nevermore, based on Wednesday, and Motel No. 18, which was their own original creation, if I am correct. We decided to go to Motel No. 18 because it had a spookier, scarier vibe. We had one hour to complete it and made it to the last room, but the audio for the clues took about ten minutes, and we only had five minutes left. It was very cool, though; I would recommend trying an escape room with friends if you can. 

After that, we went to Cosmos. What is Cosmos? Well, it’s the biggest shopping center in Northern Greece. It is a very large mall located on the opposite side of town. We took a bus and stayed on it for about 40 minutes, then had a 20-30 minute walk. 

After the shopping trip, we went straight to the bus station using line 45 or 45B and waited for our bus to go back to Veria. 

Yeah, we were hungry, so we got some food. In this case, I still had the burger from yesterday, and Iara went to Giannis to have dinner. I just accompanied her so she wouldn't have to go alone. 

Of course, this wouldn't be my weekend if I didn't play a game or watch a movie. In this case, I was watching Iara play House Flipper on my PC. 

Finally, after many attempts, versions, and structural changes, I was able to get the weather web app to work. Well, it "kind of" worked, but the data was incorrect, so that was quite annoying. 

Well, today I had an idea to go buy bread. I asked Iara to come with me, and although she initially said no, she changed her mind as soon as I mentioned the bread and joined me on my adventure. 

Afterward, we went to the market to get some meat and made a sandwich for lunch. I forgot to take a photo of it, but after that, I played some Minecraft to pass the time until dinner. 

So today I tried—guess what?—pork pancetta. It was nice, but it was also really fatty. In the image, there were some greens on it, which I think were onions and lettuce, but as you can see, there were none on my plate. So yeah, there was that. 

Since everything was working yesterday, I decided to make some improvements, such as adding auto-updating data via WebSockets and a few other features. That is exactly what I did; I am just trying to improve things to make the experience better for the user. 

Well, guess what? Once again, I wasn't feeling very well in my stomach, so I skipped lunch. What did I do with all that free time? I took a nap, and it was delightful. 

For dinner, I wanted something filling that wasn't too fatty, so I asked for meatballs since they are essentially just meat, tomato sauce, and bread. 

Afterward, Iara and I went for a walk up the mountain. We passed three military bases and several abandoned houses, and we saw lots and lots of dogs. 

Yeah, so I kind of overslept, but it’s fine since we only have work at 2:00 today. Funnily enough, Iara and I woke up at almost the same time, so we decided that we had to order food to make it on time, and that is exactly what we did. 

I ordered a club sandwich and she ordered some nuggets; we just ate and went straight to work. 

Well, since today was my last day of work, I wanted to finish everything. That is exactly what I did; I upgraded everything I could and made the software ready to be deployed.

After having some issues with WeTransfer, I was finally able to send everything to Yorgos. Hopefully, it will help him.

So today dinner was popcorn. We just went home to eat the remaining food we had, so we just ate random stuff we found and watched TV until it was 10 pm because, once again, we had a meeting. 

So we finally had our last meeting with the teachers, and we just talked about how the journey back was going to be and discussed grades. There was not much else to it; afterward, we just went to sleep since we were tired. 

Well, I want to say finally done with work, but I was quite sad to say goodbye to the library. Even though I had many troubles there with rasberry pi, with python and even more with the weather app, I also had many wins in terms of programming. Most of all, I will miss the people and the place itself; after all, how often do you get a smile and a good morning every day from someone you basically do not know?

Anyway, we had to say our goodbyes, so we took a picture with our boss, Yorgos, and had a little talk about our experience. He also went to the trouble of giving us a gift. It was some flyers, but there was also a very traditional snack that reminded me of those sticks you put in ice cream. Anyway, we finally said our goodbyes and walked out of the library door one last time.

Well, for lunch, Iara and I finally went to a restaurant we had wanted to check out for a long time. The name was Black Sheep. It served food that reminded us of Portuguese home cooking, so we wanted to have a taste before going back home. I ordered a pasta with meat, which was quite good and more different than I expected, but my plate was almost perfectly clean, so I have no complaints about that. 

For dinner, I didn't even say anything and the waiter already knew my order, which was fun. He guessed I was going to eat meatballs, and so I did. They were good as always and left me quite full. I ate and then went home almost immediately to sleep since we have a special guest tomorrow. 

So today in the morning, we went to meet the teacher who was going to take us back home, in this case, Teacher Ines.

Just a heads up, we did so much stuff that I took almost no photos because I was too focused on what to do next.

So for starters, we went to the plateia (square) with the old courthouse, and from there we did the same route as the first day. We went to see the place where Saint Paul used to give lectures and then we went to the Jewish district. We walked around that area and went to the very old church, and then the teacher was a little hungry, so Iara and I took her to eat some gyros because, to be honest, if you come to Greece and don't try gyros, I don't know what you came here to do.

As always, we went to Gianis and, funnily enough, we had never eaten inside there, but that is what we did. We went upstairs, chose a table, sat down, and talked for a very long time.

Afterwards, we went to the archaeology museum, and for this one, I did remember to take photos, so I have a drive just for you guys. 

HERE COMES THE LINKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK:

link

Anyway, afterwards we wanted to go back home for a bit since we had already walked a good number of kilometers. We went back home and decided to play some cards that we bought here; in this case, we played a game called Gringo. We also taught the teacher how to play it since she didn't know.

Afterwards, we finally went for a coffee and talked for another hour, and after that, we finally let the teacher be free and went back home.

Well, I think this was one of the best plates I had at this restaurant, and it is so basic.

Today I decided to try the chicken fillet, and damn, it was good—like, really good. I quite enjoyed it because it was grilled and had that grill flavor with a fragrance of charcoal, so that was very nice.

Well, after we were done with dinner, we saw the great Good Friday procession. In Veria, as in the rest of Greece, this is a very solemn day. We saw the Epitaphios, which is a wooden bier decorated with many flowers that represents the tomb of Christ.

The people carried it through the streets while everyone held dark-colored candles and the church bells rang a mournful toll. It was a very moving experience to see the whole community walking together in silence or singing hymns. Not to mention that about two to three thousand people passed by us, so yes, there were a lot of people.

After that, we just went home and packed our stuff and, of course, went to sleep.