{"id":3826,"date":"2013-05-08T09:18:46","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T09:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=3826"},"modified":"2013-12-03T16:51:17","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T16:51:17","slug":"first-days-back-in-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=3826","title":{"rendered":"First Days Back in Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Table<\/a>

Table laid at Vanna and Roma’s<\/p><\/div>\n

My physical being left Greece on 5 December 2012, however, my heart remained in Ellada.\u00a0 I travelled back to New Zealand, to family and work, the time passing slowly until Costas\u00a0arrived in February\u00a0to spend two weeks with me downunder … an amazing time together with family and friends.\u00a0 After his departure I began counting down the weeks until once again I was on my way back to my adopted home.<\/p>\n

The usual sad and difficult farewell to family at Wanganui Airport … approximately one hour later arriving in Auckland.\u00a0 With my trolleycase\u00a0checked in, I filled in time until my dear friend Vivienne arrived, sharing a bottle of wine as we usually do.\u00a0 When I reserved my seat on the 380-800, I was too late to secure 50A –\u00a0chose 65A\u00a0… not wise!\u00a0 It was exactly by a toilet and anyone who has travelled on a big ‘bird’ will know how loud is the flush – it sounds like it is swallowing up the entire world!\u00a0 The bonus, however, was three seats all to myself as far as Melbourne, enabling me to put my\u00a0feet up.\u00a0\u00a0From Melbourne to Dubai, almost a full plane.\u00a0 The usual shopping spree in Dubai filling in time as best as one can, then onwards to Athens.\u00a0 With very little time to\u00a0spare I made it on to my Aegean Air flight to Hania, collecting my case from the carousel, only to find that the Greek\u00a0baggage handling staff had broken the handle making it difficult to navigate my walk to Antonia’s house, once off the bus I had taken into the Centre.\u00a0 40 hours door-to-door, the final leg walking in 29 degrees C heat – I was exhausted!<\/p>\n

Saturday morning, Antonia and I went to the beach … a spot of sunbathing, followed by my first swim\u00a0in\u00a0a relatively warm sea.\u00a0 Back at the house, Antonia and Vassiles\u00a0son Bill, together with his wife Rena and their\u00a0two year\u00a0old twins, Maria and Vasilakes\u00a0joined us for lunch.\u00a0 Late in the evening Antonia went to church, returning with her lit candle.\u00a0 Last year I had gone with her but this year, I felt too tired.\u00a0 By 0830 hours on Sunday morning, we were on our way to Kastelli.<\/p>\n

A warm welcome from the family … the weather glorious and what is more, it was Easter Sunday.\u00a0 Not long before the goat was roasting on the spit … the day would be a day for family and friends, food, wine and much merriment.\u00a0 When I finally made it upstairs to\u00a0my bed at 2230 hours,\u00a0I\u00a0had a 10 hour sleep, the likes of which I\u00a0generally can only dream of.\u00a0 The following morning I walked down to Kastelli\u00a0beach, an hour in the sun, another swim then back to the house where Vanna and Roma had come to see me.\u00a0 Lunch, followed by an afternoon siesta, then with Vassiles, Katina and Anna, we went to Vanna and Roma’s for coffee.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, we stayed on … Roma spit roasted chicken, Vanna made pilaf\u00a0and salads … a feast was laid on the table for family and friends\u00a0… a ten year old wine just the icing on the cake.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I was back at the beach for another dose of sun and sea … home in time for lunch and a meal of Horta … delicious.\u00a0 The weather has changed a little, this morning being slightly overcast and so I walked to Vanna’s to write my first Blog, publish Images and contemplate how I will cope today without the sun and the sea.\u00a0 It is, however, an opportunity to write and this trip I must walk to Vanna’s to do so as there is no longer WiFi connection at the family home.<\/p>\n

Only five more sleeps until I move on to Spetses\u00a0and Costas.\u00a0 Although I could never come to Greece and not visit my Cretan family,\u00a0Costas\u00a0is the main reason I return now twice every year for a stay of two months duration.\u00a0 Having first stepped foot on Greek soil in 1973, it was during my six month stay in 2010\u00a0and meeting Costas that changed the path of my life forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My physical being left Greece on 5 December 2012, however, my heart remained in Ellada.\u00a0 I travelled back to New Zealand, to family and work, the time passing slowly until Costas\u00a0arrived in February\u00a0to spend two weeks with me downunder … an amazing time together with family and friends.\u00a0 After his departure I began counting down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3826"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3830,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826\/revisions\/3830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}