The last month has flown! When we got to Athens and began checking things off our sightseeing list, I thought, “We’re going to run out of things to do.” We’ve seen everything, even feeling like a month is too long for Athens, and yet, I feel like we’ve still come up short on time, and I’m not quite ready for this next step.
Despite some long afternoons on the beach, slow mornings with coffee and a book on our balcony, time to bake again, and evening walks, I’ve gone to bed most days feeling like I didn’t have enough hours of daylight.
I’ve written an article, done some tutoring, made big progress on my WIP (only the epilogue left!), kept up with my blogging pretty well (I have four posts pre-scheduled and a fifth almost done!), dealt with health insurance for our return to the States (though that’s an unfinished task), planned Athens day-by-day, organized a trip to Corinth, and finalized plans for our next (and final) destination.
The list of things accomplished is pretty impressive, but I had set my expectations for a month-long holiday/writing retreat. It proved anything but, and I’m exhausted. And I don’t expect to feel “on holiday” for a while yet, especially as we dive further into the never-ending and always discouraging rabbit hole of hunting for “real” jobs with a livable wage.
But besides this desire for a holiday, neither Tim nor I am sorry to tell Athens goodbye. Tim’s injury notwithstanding, we are of the mind that Athens is over-romanticized and not “worth” a month-long stay. It should get two weeks at most, but that might be pushing it as well. A tour of Greece, however, would be time well spent. That, however, was out of our budget, so here we stayed.
calentivay (n): the dedicated art of accomplishing your daily goal(s); winning the day
Don’t get me wrong, though. I am very glad we came to Athens. It was a privilege to see the Acropolis, to walk where famous philosophers, writers, and saints walked, to be immersed in another type of Mediterranean culture (because, seriously, the people in the Mediterranean know what it means to have a good life). It’s been good to have some more beach days – 8 in all – and it’s been wonderful to be in the thick of things, rather than a far-away suburb (not to mention the further from the Acropolis the more hit or miss it is on living somewhere sketchy). And I’ve gone out on my own at least half our days here (this is huge for me!). So being here, overall, has really allowed us, me especially, to accomplish some personal goals, for which I am thankful.
Now it’s time to say αντιο σας (I think it sounds like adios). Next stop: Ireland. Been there, done that, I know, but it’s a special place for us, and definitely worth the return. Besides, we promised Jean we’d see her again before returning to the States. 😊 However, this time, the trip will be a bit different.
We’ll be meeting my parents and sister in Dublin, renting a car, and heading out west. My mom and I have some genealogy-hunting to do, and everyone wants to take in the Irish countryside, because who doesn’t want to be immersed in all that green!? From the West, we’ll drive north to Armagh, introduce my family (and re-introduce my mom) to Jean and all her friends, and do some more exploring up there. I’ll be revisiting some sights from my 2019 travels of the Emerald Isle, and Tim and I will reacquaint ourselves with some spots from our time in Northern Ireland last year. But we’ll both be seeing new things, and everything will be new to my family, so “old” experiences will have a new joy. It’ll be exciting!
Of course, it’ll all end up on the blog – but it will be a while. Athens has hardly made it online, and family comes first – in Ireland and once we return home. I plan to try and stay on top of things as I have been, but… 🤷♀️ You know life.
Here’s to the last stage of our year abroad! It’s been a good one.
There aren’t many flavors to report here, but here they are:
The Logophile's Bookshelf 