Every year is different. This year is no exception. We have never been to Greece with our children before.
Their imagination had been ignited by the Mama Mia Movies.
So much excitement had brewed and the lid was about to blow.
Just the very sign of a blue and white flag called for distant looks and misty eyes. For weeks before the conversations were all captivated by stories of past travels and what would we see and hear.
Thankfully this trip didn’t let us down. The Greek weather was perfect.
Clear skies and warm days spent by the sea. The sweet smell of sunscreen and happy lazy afternoons full of swimming dips and bit bat by the waters edge.
Before we arrived we knew that things had changed in Greece because of the financial restrictions that had been placed on the country by the European union. So we were not expecting anything good to have come from the pain the country had been through recently. But we were surprised. The country seems to have been through the worst of it and now are heading to a better place.
What a welcome surprise it was. Two things seemed to have passed. Athens is an old city, but it no longer is holding onto the past. The past is now history. The future is what they have in their eyes.
This doesn’t mean that they have thrown away their culture. In some ways it seems that economic restraints have tightened and brought the people closer together and brought their cultural history more to the surface than ever before.
The second is that the attitude of the old times has gone.
Now people seem to have quickening steps rather than the lax attitude of the old days. These changes brought a refreshing change to being in Greece. Now its more like a modern city finding its way rather than a relic lost in the past.
A new and good kind of different.
