A Greek Dream (Part 1!)

heart-to-heart (69)in #writing • 5 years ago

PART 1: Greek Dream

cece greece.jpg

After I graduated university by some miracle of a God-gifted, latent intelligence and super-human strength for triumphing the education system (everyone say AMEN to that!), I skipped the whole saga of showing up to walk across the stage in front of (who cares?) like some celebrity on Golden Globe day to pick up my degree and instead, I (carefully and very thoughtfully) packed an intentionally carry-on sized back pack and flew to Paris with my boyfriend at the time. (I still stick with that decision!)

The dream was to experience what would be our own version of the infamous 'Euro-trip' that is only too common nowadays. It felt like it needed to happen and with a slight bit of lucky coincidence, his friend had just moved abroad for an exchange. There it was. Booked and coming true.

I managed by bribing and pouting to get some time off from my very aggressively coveted bar-slot at a nightclub downtown Ottawa and got on that plane. I was pretty sure I'd come back and my prime-time shift would be overtaken by the next person through the door but I did not care one bit. Off I went.

At first, I freaked out landing in Paris. It was not at all what I was expecting (and/or wanting) IN ANY WAY. I hated it more than I could have ever imagined and I sat at a train station, sobbing and cursing myself for not paying better attention in French class. After some persuasion (because I desperately wanted to go back home) we stuck it out and carried on to the next location and only a couple of days into Portugal, I never wanted to go home again!

I had met these feisty, free, sarcastic-ridden Americans and they invited me to go to Greece with them. My heart lit up as I contemplated what it would be like to see the majestic islands I had always dreamed about but then BAM... life intervened when I remembered, I had booked EVERYTHING (and I mean EVERYTHING I could) in advance so I could pay for it ahead of time/budget accordingly.

I was devastated and that longing didn't go away even though years passed by as I returned back to my regular life and from then, ditched said regular life and began the one I am still on to this day. I still dreamed of going to Greece and it was relentless!

"Umm... but what about GREECEEEE?"

Screamed the little bratty Princess inside me. I've visited countless countries, sat on every color sand you could ever imagine and drank coconuts on deserted islands and still, all I could think of was Greece.

I'm not one to ever give up on a dream (have you noticed?) So, I waited for an opportunity to come to just sneak my dream destination into perhaps not without effort and certainly not without flaws, but finally the moment came and I was OVER THE MOON! A 15 hour bus for $25 was NOTHING to get me to that gold!

"You don't need to go to Greece this time." Came the reasonable and responsible voice... "Let's save it and do it right, during summer, when it's warm, another time..."

"Well, I could literally die tomorrow and am ONE country over so, ya, no thanks, we're going." Said the compass inside my mind. And so it was, I got on that bus and I arrived.