A true path follows no plan…

I’m flying out of Athens tomorrow, to Heathrow, then the train up to Durham. The job interview in Spain never materialised, the lady has been pretty vague with her responses and info and this time just hasn’t bothered to confirm when the interview would be….hey ho! I have booked the next flight back home which suited me.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time away. It as been a bit quiet and slightly lonely at some points, and the weather was hit and miss towards the end, but it is Autumn / beginning of Winter so it’s to be expected. I feel relaxed and happy, and a little closer to knowing where I’d like to be headed and what I’d like to be doing, although not 100% sure, but are we ever?!

If I could have a little, white washed Mediterranean style house, with the warm sunshine and beautiful beaches, somewhere very close to my Aussie friends and UK friends and family, that would be perfect. With the food, and siesta time, and 3 hour long lunches, 10pm dinners, lazy ways and music playing everywhere…….hmmmmmm.

Athens has been very cold, and very windy. I went from Pireus in to Athens town today, jumped on the tour bus, after getting completely lost with the reception girls directions, and headed off. It was an easy and cheap way to get around. I stopped at the Acropolis, but didn’t even venture up to the top as it was blowing a gale and was freezing! I went down to the National Gardens and Zappio to walk around the ruins there. It was lovely, and slightly bizarre to be standing in the middle of a pretty large, internationally known city with ruins thousands of years old just dotted around in the middle of everything!

I walked down to Syndagma from here and found the retail area…well I had to take shelter from the cold! I was very good and only bought a jumper in the sale! I grabbed a sandwich from the chain Everest and as I was sat munching away I noticed a very frail, timid, slow walking lady hovering. I could tell by her clothes and her too skinny frame she was either homeless or homeless and an addict maybe….she had that hungry look in her eye and a drawn, tired, giving up look about her. I noticed her before she’d noticed me, but it wasn’t long til she looked my way and I atomatically smiled, that’s just me most of the time, and it’s sometimes taken in several wrongs way! Sure enough she came over. It was hard to say how old she was,but she was painfully thin, she looked freezing and a bit grubby. She asked, first in Greek, then in English, quite good English, and very politely if I could spare some change or possibly buy her a hot drink. Aha! Not just cash……I have met a lot of homeless people who turn out to be well known to the community and are not actually homeless, but are addicts, hard stuff, drugs, crack and smack, and when you dare to offer them a hot cup of coffee or tea or a pie they insult you with some nonsensical verbal crap and insist on money. This lady was different. I asked how she came to be on the street. She said she had no family and lost her job and couldn’t afford to live on in her home….who knows if it was true, but it was cold and she looked like she needed a hot cuppa. I got up and bought her a large coffee, the lady next to me in the queue got chatting to me and she offered to buy her a cake as I was getting the coffee,and I also went and picked up a €1.20 sausage roll. Something else warm to fill her up, and not breaking the bank. The homeless lady, who’s name I didn’t quite understand when I asked her what is was, was so grateful, and she gave me this broad,thankful smile from her gaunt, sad face. My good deed for the day. I just hope she stays safe and warm and dry over winter.

So I wandered back to the tour bus stop, found my way back to Pireus, got off at my stop and got lost, again! Eventually making my way back to the hotel, dinner and a wine and now bed, ready for the 5am wake up call.

I am looking forward to catching up with my family, and seeing friends. I have 2 big birthday celebrations coming up in the family and a friend who I’ve known since my early hospitality days is getting married. I am invited to the evening reception and cant wait to see her and meet her hubby. And then it will be Christmas. Looks like January will be the time to make a move further on….

I have learnt some things along the way of this little journey, the main one is quite simply put in the image below – weirdly enough I saw it last night……it is painted on the wall of the hotel restaurant………the last place I will have visited on my wonderful Greek Island adventure.