E-VITA

May 1993

My first holiday abroad…..going to Greece…

 

I booked a package deal with my friend who lives next door, 1week to Kos a small island in the Dodekanissos…..blue see, waving palm trees and relaxing beaches… at least that is what the brouchures were telling us. Finally the airplane is taking off from the Airport in Amsterdam a few hours late but as we already were supposed to arrive at night we don’t care too much about it.

Curiously we look around when we enter the apartment that is supposed to be our house for the coming week. It looks white, crisp and most important clean.

We decide to stay in as we both are so tired and just relax a bit on the balcony.

 

Next day, we are awaken by strange sounds, an incredibe blue sky and a blazing sun, we instantly decide to grasp our stuff and head off to the beach.

On our way to the beach we buy these funny plastic sun beds and as true tourists we stroll along the harbour to grasp our part of sunshine. After a day of sunbathing and getting used to the heat and having some nice food and drinks we are heading of to the bar street , also called barakia here. Every bar has to have their own kamarki, or with other words a nice guy or girl who will try to get you in their bar. How..by simply offer you a shot with some horrible alcohol inside it, called a sfinakia.

The effects are quickly noticable….slowly we do feel a nice buzz and the world is getting a bit nicer.

Soon we have walked pass the last bar in the barakia, and are making an u-turn to go into the other street, I pass a nice Greek kamarki again. I noticed that this partculair guy is not offering us a seat or a free drink. Jokingly I ask him why we are not getting a seat from him, and imagine my suprise when he says in a harsh voice that he isn’t as we are only here for the free booze, as we are. What!!!!Who is this yerk and what is he thinking!!! I really get off and call him an idiot and suddenly there is a great change in his appereance….he doesn’t know how quickly he has to get us a seat and is all over me. So this is they way I like it…And the atmosphere is getting friendly from here onwards. So friendly in fact that as a true tourist we end up the evening kissing and snagging on a back chair in the barstreet. So from now on every night we are going to this bar…where we close off kissing and hugging.

 

But something strange happened with me…it was not the guy I fell in love with in the first place, no it was the island. The smells, the rough nature, the kindness of the people outside the tourist place. This, combines with a nice guy, with a great smile and some funky sideburns, made me not wanting to leave the island. Some conversations further with my holiday love left me with the simple descision to make, if I wanted to stay on the island. The descision is quikly made; I’m still studying so I can miss a period. It is more difficult to bring the news to my family; since my mother passed away, my brother and sister are acting more as a parent then as a sibling. As expected my sister went ballistic, but as I am a legal grown up there is noting she can do and so my adventure starts in Kos.

 

Finally, I spend more then 3 years on my beloved island.

 

I started to work in a restaurant working and managing the bar area…never worked before in a place were the temperature could grow easlity to 35 degrees!

But before I could start, I was one of the lucky girls who needed to do a job interview. My boyfriend arranged to get me a job for the same boss as he was working for, he just started a new restaraunt and needed someone who could manage the bar area. So it was arranged that I was sitting in a chair in the burning sun on one afternoon waiting for the boss to arrive. And waiting I was doing…in the understanding that it was a quick interview I left my house with no money as it was just around the corner, as times passed by I got hotter hotter and hotter and thirstier and thirstier, slowly the sweat was dripping from my body and at one point I seriously got a afraid that a pool of sweat was surrounding my stool!

After 10 minutes I was ready to leave but pure sturdiness was keeping me on my chair. After 1 hour I was incredible pissed off so I decided that even if I have to sit on that chair for 4 days…..that guy WAS going to talk to me!

Finally the guy arrived on his scooter just to pass my chair and start talking to somebody behind me, after 10 minutes or so he stood up ,cassually walked around the table………………………….and left!!!!!!!

I was furious, what was going on, suddenly another man of the restaurant appeared next to my table introduced himself as Lazaros and being the manager of the restaurant. He was instructed by Vlasis the boss to have a talk with me for the job.

After 10 minutes and finally a drink I got the position and was able to start my adventure.

 

But starting to work in Kos was not that easy as it sounds. To be working in a bar or a restaurant you needed to get first your “green” card and a health certificate. So we started with the health card. First we had to go to the hospital, no clue what we were doing there as communication was difficult, my boss was speaking some english but not great, the staff in the hospital spoke limited or no english and everything had to go via hands and feed.

It became clear that we needed first to give some money, then we get a litlle book with some stuff inside and we were hurdeld back into the waiting room,

After half anhour or so, as time is not an object in Greece, we were ushered into a small room where they were start drawing blood, no explenation was given, later on we found out that we were tested for contaminational deceases, and again were guided back to the waiting room. Again a nice wait for another hour and off we went again to the x-ray room, there a thorax foto was taken, this was done (again this I found out later) to check if we didn’t any tbc which we could spread around.

After that it was said that we needed to come back in 2 hours for the result.

Well 2 hours became 3 and became 4 but finally I was proven to be healthy and got my litlle book. Without it you were not allowed to work in a bar and if found out if you didn’t had it, ment deportation out of Greece.

Now the second step was to get my papers to work, although we were in Europe we still needed to get clearance to do so.

This was another day trip on itself.

First I had to go to the police to register myself, this ment given all your information, your passport was taken…that of course ment a waiting game on itself, and I was even lucky that my boss went with me so he could speak to the head of police as otherwise this first step was taken much much longer. Whatever was discussed in that room I have no idea as of course I had to wait outside. Then after a while they got out of the room and the chase around Kos was starting.

The game was to get 3 stamps and 3 autographs from different organisations which were spread around the village, on my own I probably would be still looking for this offices as it was never clear to me what they were or clearly visible. Normally you would think that this was an easy thing to do…clearly not. When you finally where able to get a stamp and you were able to locate the next office, it always seems that they were just closed or on a break.

So after a real hunt at the end of the day we were able to get all the documents that were needed.

We finally headed back to the police station and filed all the paperwork, it was then told that all was going to be send to Athens and to Rhodos so they were able to check if I didn’t had a criminal record and that it would take up to 3 weeks, furthermore an alternative check was going to be done to see if I did’t had any outstanding debts..eh well luckelyl as I didn’t stop my study yet, that didn’t show up on my record

After 3 weeks the official okay finally came in and I was good to go.

This sometimes gave later on funny situations as not all bosses did this for their staff as it is a time consuming matter and a lot of time, their barstaff has a high turnover

Even after a while I was no longer working in the bar I sometimes visited my old boss in the barstreet, and occassionaly it happend that he came running up to me, asking if I had my papers with me.

And as I was used after so many years to have them with me as this was mandatory, I still have them al the time in my purse, I could tell him that I did.

So then I had to quickly run behind the bar, while the girls with no papers where ushered outside on the street, because a police raid was going on and all the bars were warned, suddenly you saw a lot of bar staff running around the barstreet having fun as they were not allowed to work till the raid was over.

 

Keeping in touch with your relatives, friends and other people was also quit different as that we know it today in our mobile community.

It was very simpel you didn’t had a mobile or a landline, if you wanted to have a phone of course you could apply for it, but to get it you had to wait for 1 ½ year, as this was the waiting list to get a phone, it was crazy!

And of course as you were working in a low paid job you didn’t either had the money to get this at all.

So like most Greeks we had to rely on telephone cards, for many years we kept on collecting these cards as they were most of the time very pretty!

You would buy a card for 1000 drachmes which would be the equivalent of 4 euro and with that you could call home for about 15 minutes.

The phone booths where spread around the city but not as many as you liked. If you had the luck that some hostess needed to call home, a lot of time they called collect and you could be waiting there for hours!

So if you wanted to visit someone to have a cup of coffee you would simply go to their house, if they were there, that was gread otherwise you would simply go home and try again.The bars normally would have a telephone so this was the emergency number you could give to family, of course you were not allowed to use it for private calls.

 

After that summer I went back home and starting studying again. But oh what was I missing my island, so after a winter of doing exams getting enough study points not to be in risk of paying back my study loan yet, I decided to go back to my island.

My, at that time, boyfriend had to join the army and was localized in the Special Forces at Athens, when he heard about my plans to return he went mad, me alone on an island with all these men, no, that was unthinkable! So he decided some change of plans for himself; by pulling some strings he got transferred to the e Special Forces unit on the island. Only this was localized on the other part of the island. And so we were reunited again, only now we were not able to see each other every day sometimes there was a 6 week waiting period in between!

However, very often he was able to sneak out of the camp, well apperently not very obviously as he was caught numerous times which caused him another month of service in total as punishment! It caused me many midnight trips to the other side of the island looking at the disappearing backlight of the taxi not even knowing at that time if he was able to sneak out of the camp at all!

 Luckely it did work every time as I would have no idea how I would have gone back as calling a cab was not even possible!

 

In the meantime I’m indulging myself in the Greek lifestyle, my watch which I was carefully wearing all day slowly starts disappearing in a drawer to finally never to appear again. I learned not to be alarmed by hissing noises out of cars from bikes or pedestrians as this is the nation’s way to say “I like you”.

I loved my friendships and the ease that we were taking care of each other. Living in a small social community did mean that everybody was watching you, but was also taking care of you. In case I was visiting a bar where a friend was working and a tourist dared to approach me, he quickly was instructed to leave me alone as I was “taken”… Yes it might feel medieval but at the same time it was like being part of a big family.

 

After 1 ½ year we were able to be together again…it was a hard time but finally we were able to be together, no more army no more long distance…no all the things we had to gave up where coming back together.

And how little did I know, the army in there is different then as we had it in the Netherlands, especially for a guy who doesn’t believe in law and obeying them.

So when he finally was set free, he went free, the result….a crushing heartbreaking break up as running free and having a relationship do not go well together. And there I was left everything behind to be in a country which I loved being with a man I adored to lose everything I had in a heartbeat.

To say that I felt lost would be an understatement, I went to see friends, trying not to be alone and tried to figure out what I was supposed to do next. And in the midst of all the turmoil I met a friend, a friend who was a foreigner to the country just like me, English though. A kind and foremost funny man, and we talked for hours and hours and hours. And as time progressed not expected even not wanting, I was falling in love again…………

The summer was rapidly coming to an end and no promises were made.

So at a certain time my new friend and companion was asking me to join him to go to Austria… I took some time to think it over, as I already turned down his request to join him to go to Denmark for 8 weeks as I needed to go home, arrange my financials…my studies I had given up at that time.

Again I decided that going would be a nice opportunity, foremost as I would like to spend more time with him, I met some of his Austrian friends already in Kos and they were real nice. I was not particularly interested in mountains snow and skiing, but it was a nice opportunity. Also because the money was way better than in Greece.

So off I went……again but now to a complete different culture and different people. Was I finally used to all the outrageous emotions that the Greeks showed openly, now I had to get adjusted to the “keep it all inside” and keep it cool mentality from my new Austrian colleagues. Now we live in a snowy world where everything is about skiing…and there I was, more interested in sunbathing and swimming than in skiing…due to some accident I also was not really good in skiing and was a bit afraid to really improve a lot.

Unfortunately my relationship was not holding up to the subzero temperatures and after numerous tries we had to give up…..after that the mountains and the ice became a real hostile environment.

Normally when I wanted to think I needed to have space around me, now the only space I could find was when I would walk up a mountain in the snow. Needles to say that I was incredibly happy that finally I could go home to my own country to my own friends and my own habits where stuff finally was starting to make sense.

However I would never trade my experiences, I have learned so much and met so many special people that I still carry in my heart.

I worked now with so many different cultures and different habits that in my job in an international company I’m very at ease with all the different people I have to deal with.

 

And my foreign loves….?

Well the Englishman moved to my country after Austria and through very very strange encounters every few years……15 years later we start dating again.

So who knows?

 

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