Twenty Years Ago

Level Four Lockdown: Day Forty-Four

Curfew. 9 p.m 

Mood:  Fair - a bit headachy - nothing a couple of panadol won't sort out. 

Black and White Photo Challenge: Day Fifteen

Twenty years ago I was in Greece. I was staying at the Hotel Vencia on Mykonos. I remember this because today, of all days, they were remembering the opening of the Sydney Olympics, and I had taken myself over to Greece and England for a few weeks to avoid the palaver. Mind you, this was all happening in Sydney, not Melbourne and I knew I wanted to get away from the palaver of the Olympic. So I missed Roy and HG, I missed the Awesome Foursome, Andrew Gaze and Cathy Freeman. 

I took myself to Greece after being back in Australia for a year because I was homesick. Homesick for England and I fell in love with Greece the year before. I missed the life, missed travelling, missed all sorts of things.

But that was twenty years ago, and I see the re-runs of the Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony and I know I was on Mykonos, lapping up the sun, enjoying the infinity pool, meeting the other nice people at the hotel, traipsing down the hill to get dinner on the waterfront, ordering my yiros from the stall near the windmills, getting lost amongst the laneways.

Little did I know I'd return three years later to Mykonos, this time for a few months. I'd learn a lot more on that trip, things like how to be resourcful, how to get around in a strange land with a strange language, how to dance the night away and how to make first name friends, who you love for a season and never see again. I got to see the best of island life, which I will always cherish - for islands, off season, are strange and formidable places full of characters and compromises. They are wondrous strange. 

I was made for island life. Something I'd forgotten. 

Today's Song: