Departures & Arrivals
I have found this bit of my blog the most difficult to write as it stirs up lots of emotions for me about how I felt on the day I left the UK to start my new life in Greece. I will keep it brief for now and elaborate more on my journey and feelings when I am more settled in to my new way of life. I thought leaving the UK would be easy, but it was quite the opposite, and it evoked plenty of thoughts and emotions that I did not realise I held within me.
Our long over-cooked plan took us to Athens for a week from 10 - 17 January, and then we planned to travel with some of his family the following week on the long journey from Athens to Kefalonia. One smooth ride, courtesy of Easyjet, we arrived at Athens airport, and made the journey by underground/metro to his district of Athens. I had only visited Athens once before in the previous November, so it still felt strange and alien to me. However, the apartment there is modern and spacious and has everything that we need to make it feel like home. On arrival to our home in Athens, we were overjoyed to discover that after a long day travelling, his cousin had been to the house and cooked dinner for us which was warming in the oven, and in the fridge was a welcome back to Greece present - a huge home made cake! It was a lovely, heart-warming touch, and restored my faith in my decision to move to the continent somewhat. I don't think any of my family would have thought to do that - the Greek way of life is definitely all about family - in a different kind of way to that in England.
We spent the week being tourists, meeting up with his friends and family there in Athens, and making the most of the shopping malls and brand name shops, a luxury Kefalonia cannot offer! The week sped by at a rate of knots and we were soon packing up the car to make the 5 hour journey from Athens to his home island of Kefalonia. On the morning of our departure, I nearly put a dampener on the whole trip as I thought that I had left my purse at the apartment in Athens, Greek people are very superstitious, and one of his strong beliefs is that you cannot return back home once you have left as it brings bad luck. Apparently if you sit down and count to 7 if you do go back, this will wipe out the bad luck, but I don't think he wants to rely on it. Anyway, after pulling over on the side of the road, we found my purse, and after a few choice curses in Greek, we began our adventure across the Greek mainland to Kylinni for our hour and half ferry crossing into Poros, a small harbour town in Kefalonia.
The adventure was all I had hoped - so much so, it deserves a post all of it's very own! I will regale you with all of the details in a post later this week. For now, I am about to go and sit outside on the balcony and enjoy Kefalonia's winter sunshine!
Our long over-cooked plan took us to Athens for a week from 10 - 17 January, and then we planned to travel with some of his family the following week on the long journey from Athens to Kefalonia. One smooth ride, courtesy of Easyjet, we arrived at Athens airport, and made the journey by underground/metro to his district of Athens. I had only visited Athens once before in the previous November, so it still felt strange and alien to me. However, the apartment there is modern and spacious and has everything that we need to make it feel like home. On arrival to our home in Athens, we were overjoyed to discover that after a long day travelling, his cousin had been to the house and cooked dinner for us which was warming in the oven, and in the fridge was a welcome back to Greece present - a huge home made cake! It was a lovely, heart-warming touch, and restored my faith in my decision to move to the continent somewhat. I don't think any of my family would have thought to do that - the Greek way of life is definitely all about family - in a different kind of way to that in England.
We spent the week being tourists, meeting up with his friends and family there in Athens, and making the most of the shopping malls and brand name shops, a luxury Kefalonia cannot offer! The week sped by at a rate of knots and we were soon packing up the car to make the 5 hour journey from Athens to his home island of Kefalonia. On the morning of our departure, I nearly put a dampener on the whole trip as I thought that I had left my purse at the apartment in Athens, Greek people are very superstitious, and one of his strong beliefs is that you cannot return back home once you have left as it brings bad luck. Apparently if you sit down and count to 7 if you do go back, this will wipe out the bad luck, but I don't think he wants to rely on it. Anyway, after pulling over on the side of the road, we found my purse, and after a few choice curses in Greek, we began our adventure across the Greek mainland to Kylinni for our hour and half ferry crossing into Poros, a small harbour town in Kefalonia.
The adventure was all I had hoped - so much so, it deserves a post all of it's very own! I will regale you with all of the details in a post later this week. For now, I am about to go and sit outside on the balcony and enjoy Kefalonia's winter sunshine!
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