Our time is quickly approaching as mom and I leave Ikaria on August 30th and begin our journey back to the U.S.
I am a little weepy as I read a few of my last entrances into my journal because so many of my family are no longer with us, including my mom. I am so grateful I documented this trip with her. I am grateful that we got to spend it with yiayia as this was her last trip back home. There was still one last Panayiri to attend so we headed to Mavrato around 7pm to see our family and friends one last time and as usual it was an all night celebration in the best possible way.
The first one we spotted was Thea Thespina so we sat with her. She asked me if I brought my pencil and paper for my lessons. I giggled because she knew I was fluent and could read and write. The story of Thea is that 13 years prior she came to the U.S. and lived with us. I was her teacher. We did our English lessons every morning and was always full of love and gratitude. Then we saw Thea Vaso. She had a beautiful face and so soft spoken. Needless to say the panayiri was packed. Don’t threaten a Greek with a good time because we all showed up! We stayed for quite some time and hitched a ride back down the mountain around midnight. We had a long day ahead on the 30th so we wanted to catch a little sleep.
It is the morning of the 30th and we wanted to swim one last time but the thalassa was very rough that morning so we sat on the rocks at Moustafa and stared out across the water at the Fourni islands. Our suitcases were ready to go and we headed down to the Platia one last time and have a few drinks and wish each other farewell. Some of the people there would also be leaving the island in the next week or so. We boarded the ferry boat around midnight and found other cousins on board so we sat together as we floated across the Aegean waters through the night and into the morning. When I tell you it was spectacular it was. We arrived in Piraeus and grabbed a taxi back the Theo Alexi’s house. We had some shopping to do before our flight back on Sept 1st. Athens is also a great way to assimilate back into chaos of a metropolitan life. LOL. We bought 6 bottles of liquor and then headed to the jewelry district. Gold for everyone in the family! It’s just what we do. After mom and I melted our credit cards we wrapped up the day with wood fired pizza and beer and that was at midnight. Talk about living every minute of every day!
Sept 1st and we are flying home through Zagreb with a 6 hour layover and then our final leg back to Cleveland.
My last entry in the journal reads “I’ve enjoyed writing in my journal and now I’m looking forward to reading it for years to come. So, good-bye for now and I’m signing off for my adventure to Greece. Goodnight! Antio!”
Thank you for reading and being here. I will continue to write and post but I am pushing myself to complete a book about the greatest love story I have ever seen. My parents.
#peace #love #happiness #myjourney #avoiceforwomen
A Voice For Women 