This Saturday, we will take a short flight from Ioannina to Athens to begin our journey back to the US. We've been in the Ioannina apartment since March 12th, and for much of that time we've been sheltered in the apartment. We've spent lots of time in this pleasant space, and it has come to feel like home, and we're sad to leave. We'll be in Athens for a few days before we fly back to the States on June 4th. We don't want to travel, but Greek visa extensions are delegated to the local police office and they are not interested in letting foreigners stay. They told us that unless it's impossible to travel to the US then we must depart. Because other countries aren't taking in foreigners quite yet, we don't have any options other than heading to the US. We'd planned to spend the summer in the Balkans since time in several Balkan countries doesn't count against Schengen visa limitations such as we're up against in Greece. But obviously normal life is a challenge across the globe now, and any kind of travel is even more challenging.
We were only supposed to stay in this apartment for a month (and then spend a month in France and a month Italy--that didn't happen, of course), but here we are departing after almost 3 months. Because of all the uncertainty when the lockdown began, we didn't know how long we would need to stay or even if we could stay for an extended period. Thankfully the woman who owns the apartment (but lives in Athens) kindly reassured us that we could stay as long as we needed to. She also told us we were now part of her family and she felt entrusted with guarding our wellbeing. Over the months we've been here, we've befriended her and her best friend who lives in Ioannina and helps her with running the rental apartment. Sam has frequent conference calls with them and swaps text messages with these two nice people. When we're in Athens we'll stay at a house that our landlady owns there, so we have a safe place to be while there. The local friend called us unexpectedly a little bit ago saying she wanted to swing by. She came to the door with mask on, of course, and gave Sam a gift of a lovely traditional Greek necklace. We chatted for a bit and upon leaving, she told us multiple times that she loves us, she would never forget us, and wiped tears as she departed. We had spent much of the day packing and it's been a somber day as we don't want to leave and worry about what's next. But yet again we got reminded--and touched--by relationships with Greek people.
Lucky for us we have great friends back in the States offering to smooth our unexpected return. It's somewhat surreal that the city we moved from is where we'll fly into. We are very thankful that Beth and Mike will give us a safe place to stay for a couple nights before we drive to up to Maine to spend the summer. Bella, Robert, and Kai offered to cook an arrival meal for us. And Irene and Steve will re-gift us a couple of items that we gave them back in September from our old DC kitchen. After a couple of days in DC and a two week quarantine in Maine, we'll see what unfolds in the coming weeks, like everyone else.
Lucky for us we have great friends back in the States offering to smooth our unexpected return. It's somewhat surreal that the city we moved from is where we'll fly into. We are very thankful that Beth and Mike will give us a safe place to stay for a couple nights before we drive to up to Maine to spend the summer. Bella, Robert, and Kai offered to cook an arrival meal for us. And Irene and Steve will re-gift us a couple of items that we gave them back in September from our old DC kitchen. After a couple of days in DC and a two week quarantine in Maine, we'll see what unfolds in the coming weeks, like everyone else.
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| Sunset from the balcony of our Ioannina apartment |