{"id":4122,"date":"2013-06-22T17:53:38","date_gmt":"2013-06-22T17:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=4122"},"modified":"2013-12-03T17:00:45","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T17:00:45","slug":"very-soon-i-must-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/?p=4122","title":{"rendered":"Very Soon I Must Leave"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"John,<\/a>

John, Costas, Me and Ray in Bar Spetsa<\/p><\/div>\n

We don’t talk about it, really.\u00a0 It’s not that I am worried … it’s more that I am unhappy knowing, once again, I must very soon leave this beautiful island and Costas to return to family and work in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

I will miss my daily walks to Agios\u00a0Mammas beach and my dose of sun and sea.\u00a0 On Sunday I had a bird’s-eye\u00a0view of the final day of yacht racing and this past week has been a scorcher!\u00a0\u00a0However, the\u00a0days have been windy … something of a relief actually when one is in the sun, but last weekend was when the wind was really needed for the Regatta.\u00a0 I will miss my nights out spent with friends\u00a0in Bar Spetsa\u00a0… the fun and laughter.\u00a0 One night this week, two girls (a South African and a Belgian) came in … it was their last night of two weeks holidays in Greece – they said it was the friendliest country they have ever visited and the best little Bar in the world.\u00a0 They certainly created a very lively atmosphere.\u00a0 All the people I have met here since my very first visit in May 2010 … some lucky enough to be living here permanently, many others who, like me, come to stay as often as they can.\u00a0 This week I have enjoyed time spent with Ian from London, Ray and Heather, John, Pavlos, Pantelis and many others.\u00a0 Friday night Helen arrived from Athens … it was so lovely to see her again and\u00a0 catch up with each other.<\/p>\n

I will miss all the wonderful Greek food, whether prepared at home or eaten out at a seaside\u00a0Restaurant.\u00a0 This week Costas\u00a0was given a bag of Vlita\u00a0(garden cultivated Horta) which I cooked and it was delicious.\u00a0 Nevermind the\u00a0 Tapsi\u00a0(large baking pan) of Briam\u00a0(roasted vegetable casserole) that I made and which we were happy to eat for three days.\u00a0 Costas\u00a0bought a watermelon … the best I have tasted since the early 1970’s when I lived in Lykavittos, Athens.\u00a0 There a vendor came around the streets selling them off the back of a truck.\u00a0 On Thursday night I was invited to a barbecue\u00a0at Ray and Heather’s … an English couple, Ray and Eileen should have been there, however, that afternoon whilst walking into the cave at Anargyri, Eileen had slipped, broken her collarbone and\u00a0dislocated her shoulder.\u00a0 She was instead in hospital in Navplio\u00a0and Ray and their daughter Michelle were with her.\u00a0 So, together with myself, Jerry and Marilyn, Ray and Eileen’s other daughter Niki and her husband John from Brisbane and their son Lee with his wife Sandy and their young son Ben, we enjoyed Ray and Heather’s\u00a0generosity\u00a0… a delicious meal and as is always to be expected in their home, a variety of alcoholic shots to follow.\u00a0 When we left, Jerry offered me a lift on his quad bike down to the Bar\u00a0… I was home by 0315 hours.\u00a0 That evening there had been a fire on the\u00a0island … as I left the Bar, the Police and two fire engines passed by.\u00a0 Costas enquired about the fire and thankfully they said it was out.<\/p>\n

This weekend should be a busy one as with all religious holidays in Greece, Pentecost is vigorously celebrated.\u00a0 It occurs on the seventh Sunday after Easter, or the fiftieth\u00a0day\u00a0and commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Last Saturday night the Bar was packed … I did not really enjoy sitting there watching Costas\u00a0work so hard and felt somewhat guilty, so tonight I will endeavour to go early, before it gets too busy and come home early if things go to plan – which, of course, they sometimes don’t.\u00a0 Like on Wednesday when I went to the office to buy my ticket for the hydrofoil\u00a0next Tuesday.\u00a0 To avoid leaving Spetses\u00a0and Costas\u00a0on the 0610 hours Flying Dolphin on Wednesday morning, with a subsequent lengthy wait at Athens Airport until my 1610 hours flight to Dubai, I made the decision to leave here on the 1820 hours hydrofoil on Tuesday.\u00a0 With nothing to gain by staying here that last\u00a0evening … I would need an early night, Costas would be\u00a0at the Bar from 2000 hours, he would be arriving home just as I was having to get up to leave and at such an uncivilized hour.\u00a0 Alas, I had left it\u00a0too late, the 1820 hours boat was already fully booked but fortunately, I did manage to get a seat on the 1355 hours hydrofoil.<\/p>\n

So, Tuesday night I will stay at the Triton Hotel in Piraeus … the following morning it will be easy to catch the bus to the Airport from the stop nearby.\u00a0 I can leave the hotel late morning, thereby avoiding\u00a0a long wait at the Airport.\u00a0 Once in Dubai, I have my hotel room compliments of Emirates … it will be a twelve-hour\u00a0stopover there for me, then the following day, the long haul flight on the 380-800 Airbus\u00a0to Auckland via Melbourne.\u00a0 The last leg of my journey with Air New Zealand to Wanganui … arriving at 1625 hours on Friday –\u00a0that is, if all goes according to plan.\u00a0 Naturally,\u00a0as always, I am really looking forward to seeing my family.\u00a0 Hopefully, I will have the weekend to recover and organise things at home before returning to work on Monday.<\/p>\n

Leaving the sun and returning to winter will not be fun.\u00a0 I will miss the island and my life here but most of all, I will miss Costas.\u00a0\u00a0However, I hope to be back in Greece on 25 October for another two months’ stay, then back to New Zealand just in\u00a0time to spend Christmas with my family.\u00a0 Such is my life living in two countries on opposite sides of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We don’t talk about it, really.\u00a0 It’s not that I am worried … it’s more that I am unhappy knowing, once again, I must very soon leave this beautiful island and Costas to return to family and work in New Zealand. I will miss my daily walks to Agios\u00a0Mammas beach and my dose of sun […]<\/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-4122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4122","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=4122"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4620,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4122\/revisions\/4620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itisallgreek2me.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}