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Mary Irvine’s Blog: Moving to Greece

Moving to Greece

Before leaving for my year’s sojourn in Greece I had fixed up temporary accommodation in Piraeus. A garconerie belonging to the grandmother of some friends who lived in Perama – Anna and Vassilis, their daughters, Rania and Natasha, and their son Simos. They owned a taverna and I had met them through a gentleman friend called Artemis. His mother and Anna had been at school together.

I had also secured a job, with flat, through an advert in the T.E. S. However, on trying to contact the lady in question the result was zilch. Didn’t know at the time that everyone who could left Athens for their country/island houses in August. By the time she did contact me I had found a p/t job in Athens – 2 1/2 days per week. I had quite a few private pupils – all men in mid/late twenties –don’t ask. OK then ask but I’ll answer later, or maybe not. And, yes, I am aware that I have still to regale you with kamakia stories.

Where was I? Quite, jobs. It was whilst looking for jobs that I realised qualifications counted far more than experience. Bits of paper, even if μαϊμού (lit monkey, ie false) were valuable. I even had offers of money to falsify qualifications for people but I won’t go into that at the moment. Three interviews had resulted in three job offers at Frontistiria –private language schools. For various reasons – one being the state of the toilet – I turned down all three.

Chios

 My diary informs me that it was at this point I decided to take a w/e trip to the island of Chios to visit Anna and co who were working there for the summer. I boarded the ferry from Piraeus on the Friday at 5.30 pm and found a corner where I could stretch out and sleep. Don’t laugh! Deck space for sleeping was at a premium and I’d been lucky to find a space inside. The ferry sailed at 6pm. I remember the crossing as it was very rough, long, and noisy with hordes of fractious children.

We arrived about 4am Saturday. Rania met me but the w/e is a total blank. My diary informs me that I went swimming and spent the afternoon on the beach. In the evening I went to the night-club where all the family worked. A cryptic note says’ Dutch woman in bar’ – obviously meant to create a re-call. It fails! I think we went home around 5am Sunday. The rest of the day is a mystery. For some strange reason I can remember the ferry leaving at 8pm. It was crowded but I sat on the floor of the general salon, propped up against the wall. A crew member informed me I wasn’t allowed to sit on the floor and re-arranged a seating area to free up a seat which wasn’t nearly as comfy as the floor.

Still I’d been to Crete and Corfu and now I could tick off Chios.

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