I woke up with the sound of rain falling on the silent scenery. It took me a while to figure out where I was. The room was familiar but I haven't slept here for years. The picture of my grandfather on the wall left me with no doubts about my location and awoke me for good. Outside the house there was the scent of the blooming oregano and a bunch of cats craving for attention or food, I don't really know. Their intense meowing wasn't enough to disrupt the crisp serenity of the morning though.
My relation with this village has changed many times over the course of my life.
During my childhood it was the place to visit my grandparents and spend my summer vacation. As a teenager and during the first years of adulthood, it was a place that I avoided, choosing other, more intriguing places to spend my summers. In my mid-twenties it was a retreat, a place to gather my thoughts and make big decisions about my life (that I never kept). And in my forties, the big surprise, the thing that no-one in the world, including me, would ever expect. I moved here for five years! Which is great if you are a cat but a rather controversial decision if you are an urban dweller!
I have lived most of my life in Athens, the capital of Greece, first in the suburbs and then downtown. I loved my city and I never thought that I would like to move away. But as they say "never say never" and the day came that I desperately need to live somewhere else and suddenly this tiny settlement, in the middle of nowhere, sounded like a good idea.
With hardly fifty inhabitants, away from touristic areas and totally charming, looked ideal to host my desire for a tranquil life, close to nature. The city that I once loved so much, wasn't fun any more or maybe I just needed something different as I grew older. Either way I was eager to move away from the urban lifestyle. The abandoned farm land around the village looked, in my eyes, as one more advantage of the area, in align with my plans to dive into natural farming, in free of chemicals soil.
Do you ever wish you lived somewhere else?
My answer is more than once and every time I went to live there until a new somewhere else arise and move again to the new promise land! Since I left this village I have changed my residency twice and who knows how many more times in the future. Because I have promised to myself that I'll stay in a place only if I really want to and if not, I'll just move to the next one. And every time with the same enthusiasm and inquiring urge for whatever new lies ahead :)
All the pictures and the words are mine.
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
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