i'm nearly back people! it's really only just starting to hit home now. this time next week i'll have already slept in my own bed twice for the first time in almost 11 months, i'll have indulged in noodles with tofu, i'll have gone for a drive, i'll have seen my brother, fran, jackie and mark, i'll have eaten at home, i'll have sat on the couch and watched neighbours and home and away, i'll have read the herald sun, i'll have gone thru all the shopping that i sent to myself from overseas. all by this time next week! en shalla! hehe!

 

to my last few days in greece...not much has happened that's been worth writing home about, and that's why i haven't.

 

i went to a local concert with my family that was pretty good. it brought back memories of the time fran and i went to a concert in cesky krumlov, except this one wasn't in a monastery, i wasn't in the czech republic, it wasn't snowing, my feet weren't frozen, my breath wasn't forming cold clouds, they were singing in a language i could understand, and there was no free beer at the end. but still, everything else was pretty similar...

 

another night we went to a ylendi (a festival type thing) in the village where my dad grew up in before he moved to the village where i spent two and a half years. when the music started playing, my grandmother was the first one up. she went and sang a couple of songs with the singer and by the time she finished, everyone at our table, and the table next to ours, was crying. so sentimental...! they were moved by the sight of an old lady getting up and shaking her fragile booty to music that was part of the soundtrack of her life, while two of her sons and her granddaughter were propping her up so she wouldn't fall. another unforgettable night to add to the collection.

 

hmmm...what else. i've been back at the net a few times, as most of you would've guessed from all the forwards i've sent you.

 

on saturday night my cousins organised a kinda 'goingaway' party for me at a local greek club. my cousins john and george where there with a couple of their mates, as well as my cousin andrea and his girlfriend marina. i had an awesome night. we danced, we sang, we talked religion and politics, we hung shit on each other, we drank, we laughed, we cried, i made them promise that we'd keep in touch, they made me promise that i would visit them again in a couple of years, and then we called it a night.

 

the next day i went for a drive to the beach with john. jacs, i was cursing that you weren't there! you would've loooooved it! every 5 minutes i kept saying "dahab!", until my cousin got annoyed and asked me what the hell a 'dahab' was. i explained to him that the place reminded me of a town in egypt. this place was unreal. same kinda set-up as dahab, with bars and cafes lined up along the water, with warm weather, clear waters, mountains, bamboo umbrellas on the sand and loud music pumping into the air. we stopped at one bar which was unlike anything i've been to before. everyone was hanging around in their bikinis and board shorts, drinking, dancing. it reminded me of a pool party without the pool. the bar was set in the middle, lower that the deck, and there were sunken podiums that looked like pools without water and they were full of yummy greek boys dancing around topless to missy elliot and dale don dale. heaven i tell ya! we hung around for one drink and then had to scoot cos my grandmother refused to stay home on her own and since a club like that is not really the scene for a 96 year old woman, we had to leave her in the car while we went on a perving spree for half an hour.

 

yesterday we got up early and my uncle took me and my parents on a loooong long drive to the other side of greece. we drove thru some of the most amazing scenery, up into the mountains, thru charming little greek villages and along the coast. i'm spewing that when fran was here we didn't venture out that far cos yesterday i saw a piece of greece that i'd never seen before, the greece that you see in the travel brochures, the greece that jacs imagined before she came here. remote whitewashed villages scattered in amongst the mountains, wrinkled old women walking around with scarves on their heads, orthodox priests with their neatly trimmed beards and their long black dresses walking around the cobble stoned streets waving to the old-timers and stopping to say a quick hello to the youngens, old men sitting around in the kafenia drinking bitter greek coffee and twirling their komboloi with precision while talking about the good old days, when they were young studs and could've had any girl in the village...

 

we drove thru scenery that would give the swiss alps a run for their money. we visited a beautiful gorge that made it into the guiness book of world records for being the deepest gorge in the world, hidden away amongst some of the greenest mountains i've seen, with a clear blue river gushing thru it at the bottom. we stopped for coffee at a little cafe, with a panoramic view of the amazing scenery we had just driven thru, we drove down roads that defy gravity, with their almost 180 degree turns and 30 degree inclines, we saw villages that have 5 houses, a small shop, and the ever present church, villages that still have no phone, no life and no internet cafes, villages where the young kids get to stay young for that little bit longer, playing in the mud and making their own fun instead of sitting in front of screens thru the best years of their life...

 

and the highlight of this loooong long drive?...i touched snow again! i grabbed a handful of snow that the summer sun forgot to melt, and i mashed it and squished it between my fingers!! after the winter we just spent in europe, where i couldn't wait to get to warmer weather and do away with my wooly mammoth jacket, it thought i'd never wana see snow again for as long as i lived. but no! i got all misty eyed when i saw the snow. it brought back so many good memories, and it was a great indicator that, although i'm coming home in a few days, i'm still in europe for now! i'm still overseas, where snow falls on mountains and stays there for months after because it's that cold! i'm still living the dream! i'm still living the dream...i haven't woken up in reality yet! so, thank you to my uncle for giving me the opportunity to hold on to this for that little bit longer, thank you to the mountains for keeping that snow frozen, and thank you to the snow for standing up to the sun! life is good.

 

when the sun went down, we were still a good 5 hours away from larisa. we still had a few hundred k's of winding roads to drive thru before we arrived home. most times the road was good, other times the road was not so good, sometimes the road was paved, other times the road was not so paved, and we finally made it home at 2am.

 

this morning i slept in while my parents and my uncle went off to sign some papers to make some unofficial farm exchange legal, and i went and had a coffee with my cousin before heading to the lawyers' as well, to sign some other legal documents for the farms too.

 

soon i'll be going to my aunties house where i have my suitcase, to sort out my stuff and get it ready for saturday. we have to share the weight out between the 3 suitcases so we don't pay extra luggage charges at the airport. i'm over the limit for sure, so i gotta see what i can cram in to my parents suitcases. i can't believe this is it. last time i packed that suitcase, i was in a frenzy cos i was due to be at the airport in 30mins and my suitcase was still empty. in order to avoid the chaos again on the way back, i'm guna pack it and get it ready tonight, 3 days in advance. i've finally learnt the value of forward planning...

 

once again from larisa,

 

loadsalove to all,

 

emy

xxx