Well, it's been a very interesting 3 months so far. December came and brought the infamous youth uprisings in the major cities of Greece, the economic crisis gripped Europe and for a while I was teetering on the edge of picking up and leaving. But the laziness that comes with being settled in a place and making your nest comfortable (with all the costs involved in that) and getting to know people, made me decide to give it a go for just one more day. Each day I said the same thing: "Just one more day." I wasn't sure what I was waiting for. But suddenly it came. They needed help over at a frontistirio; just the sort of work I like too. So suddenly, I have a job. And it may continue till the end of the year with any luck. So it looks like I can prepare to stay for the summer.
Just to quickly note a few things that potential travellers to the island should know before they come here:
Some good places to eat in town are the cafe/restaurants called Friends and Mamma Mia. There you will find some absolutely wonderful people and food and a great atmosphere. I also had the best Greek food of my whole life in the restaurant called Olympia, which is located in the mountain village of Zia. It's worth visiting the village in the summer and taking a camera along because the views are amazing; you can see Turkey and some of the surrounding islands and the place is surrounded by pine trees (so I'm told; I went at night-time). For bikes, there are places in every town but most rent only for the summer, unless you're in Tigaki where there's a year-round place. Four-wheeler bikes are also popular and are seasonal. The best places for Internet access are e-Global (where I'm typing this post from) and Friends (free for adults with their coffee). These are the places that are open all year round and which the locals frequent. In the summer there will be many many more places open but they will be geared towards the tourists and so may be more expensive.
That's all for now. More soon!
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3 comments:
Hey, it's good to hear that you're fine and what you've been up to. Glad you found something and hung in there.
Thinking of you...wondering how you've been...
:)
Thank you both very much! I decided not to stay in the end. The job turned out to be really the boss's personal slave (provide free tutoring for her friend's kids, carry her shopping, go to her family functions on Saturday nights... yeh, you get my drift). I also realised the island's environment was adversely affecting my health; I suffered something similar to altitude sickness from lack of oxygen (winter, no evergreen trees), had bouts of hypothyroidism and was starting to develop asthma, which I've never had in my life. I also realised a lot of the people I met there were fake and not the most honest friends. So as soon as an opportunity for some reasonable work arose back home, I left. I wish I had done it earlier. Well, it was a real learning experience. And just for an update, coming back didn't prove that great either as I'm now unemployed and at the mercy of an oppressive family atmosphere. Life has its ups and downs I guess. The whole world is tightening its drawstrings at the moment so I don't feel guilty for this most recent of failures.
When disaster strikes there's nothing left to lose so I thought now would be a good time to try something different and go into acting. You never know.
Cheers and much love. XX
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