Guest post | A taste of life in Greece
Greece has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently. In this guest post, EFL teacher and travel blogger Rebecca Hall reveals how this beautiful country is still full of life.
“Pame!” I look up from my chocolate croissant and fresh orange, eaten on the balcony of my bedroom, to try and locate the source of the call.
“Pame” means ‘come’ in Greek. It must be a shepherd as the early morning stillness is interrupted by the jangling of goats’ bells obeying their master’s instructions. I can hear, but not see them on the hill opposite – it’s too densely covered in pine trees.
Ithaca, from Athens, is an 8 hour journey by bus and ferry via Kefalonia. Both are incredibly green. I was debating whether to bother with this Ionian island or go to an island nearer my adopted hometown of Athens: Poros, Aegina or Agastri. Yet I wanted to be inspired to write, and if Lord Byron could be inspired to wax lyrically by Ithaca and her beauty, why not me?
I’m lucky I live in Greece. Every summer I aim to visit a new island and with over 200 inhabited ones, there’re plenty to choose from! When people discover I live here I get mixed reactions ranging from “Oh you lucky devil!” to “Is it safe?” and one time “Should I bring toilet paper with me on holiday?” Er, OK, if you want to…and why not bring boiled sweets to throw to the children in the streets while you’re at it?
People see images of rioting Athenians and assume it’s like Belfast in the 1980s: constantly dodging Molotov’s and baton happy policemen (I don’t think Belfast was like that constantly anyway). But Athens is beautiful – she has so much to offer the visitor: from the Acropolis and the narrow streets of Plaka to the open air cinemas in the summertime.
The islands are a world away from the city. I love hopping onto a ferry to visit one or onto a bus to go to some random village on the mainland. This year, it was the island of Ithaca.
Sunday night and the village of Stavros on Ithaca is celebrating its NameDay: Each village has a certain day of the year that’s special to them, depending on their name. I can hear the music all the way down in the valley as I get ready!
10:30pm and the party’s only just begun. Buying a small cooked chicken, I sit at a table in the Square and happily munch away, watching people old and young dance. They’re drinking, but their enthusiasm to take part in the festivities isn’t alcohol driven – it comes from the Greek love of life, despite all she’s gone through in the past and is currently being put through economically.
I’m dragged up to dance by a ‘papo’ – grandfather. Joining the circle of people with what seems like the whole village, I dance uninhibited until dawn.
5am and I’m exhausted! Stumbling down the hill, I make it to my room and collapse into bed, smiling as the gentle knocking of those goats’ bells lulls me to sleep.
Rebecca Hall is an unconventional British girl with a degree in International Relations, the wrong side of 35 who finds herself living in the unconventional country of Greece. She’s travelled to, lived and taught in various places around the globe. All experiences have helped to shape who she is today. Not following any particular ‘isms’ or ‘ologys’ – she has her own thoughts and feelings and writes about them in her blog: www.leavingcairo.blogspot.com. Around her EFL teaching job in Athens, she is also writing a book and hopes 2012 will be the year it finally gets finished and, better still, published!
Travelling to Greece any time soon? Get low-cost travel insurance from www.world-first.co.uk.
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Tags: greece, guest post, rebecca hall
