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Travel Greece - Our personal journey -
Encounters with the Greek islands
To travel Greece and the Greek islands was our dream. So looking for
Greece flights from Dealchecker
came to mind naturally. Sabine is an Austrian from Vienna, Ilias is Greek and has been raised in Athens. Coming from massive urban centres as we do, the Greek Islands were definitely the place to change our tempo and find some peace from our everyday lives. We went there to find employment opportunities for ourselves, which worked out quite quickly and finally even opened our own shop. We are seen as an Austrian/Greek fusion from the moment we met in a Fira, Santorini. On the Greek islands we both work in the field of tourism.
We live on the green island of Skopelos now in the Greek Sporades group, where pine forests stretch until down to the blue sea, beaches and bays framed with white washed cliffs. Skiathos and Alonissos islands are our close neighbors.
To travel Greece with the endless amount of villages with narrow, cobbled streets and old houses with thick, white washed walls and wooden shutters in natural colors, the Bougainvilleas and the scent of the Night Flowers and the clearest blue of the sea, the laid-back Mediterranean mentality of the people, makes you feel the breath of bygone days. To travel Greece and the Greek islands is just mystical!
SANTORINI ISLAND
One night we took a walk by the sea and found an old, small boat on Perivolos beach to sit down for a while and enjoy the island's atmosphere. For several minutes we were watching a boat sailing towards us with a huge, full orange foresail. But there was no wind! The sail seemed so bright, it looked like there was an open fire on board! Could it be? We were watching closely,... then we got it. It was the moon! What an intensive color. The moon looked so close and was sitting literally just above the water, it seemed just 100 meters away from us. A spectacular sight really.
We found a simple, but just wonderfully romantic house to rent, with a court yard just off Karterados village, the old pirate refuge, where first Mum Fani from Athens came to visit us, then, later in the season, my parents from Austria, which also found it a good idea to travel Greece. There was literally no space in our little first one bedroom home, but we always found a place somewhere on a mattress on the floor. There was no way a washing machine could fit anywhere, so all the laundry we did by hand. Ok, admitted, this was the less romantic part.
PAROS ISLAND
After our first summer season together on a Greek island, we went to Athens for the winter months. On the way there, the ship stopped in the harbor of Paroikia on the island of Paros just for a few minutes - enough to make both of us curious about the island.
People who travel Greece tend to go straight for the touristic places, but I would suggest to first search the places off the beaten track for the real gems. It was the end of November, and there was still magic in the air! We promised each other to find out more about Paros as soon as possible, which turned out to be a good idea some months later.
When we came there in April, the island was not sleeping at all, even off-season. If you travel Greece, you will find that many islands seem somewhat deserted during the winter months, when the shop owners are from Athens or Thessaloniki, they will go home for the colder period.
On other islands, like on Skopelos, the shops are owned by locals, so sure they stay. In those small societies, even if the shop is closed, someone will open for you. If not today, it will be tomorrow. In Paros many people stay for the winter - they are not depending on summer tourism only. We discovered green valleys off season, which are not easy to find really in the Cyclades, many open shops and cafes.
THE WEDDING
We even loved Paros so much, that we made the decision to marry there and fixed the date for June 8, 2000, exactly one year after we had been watching this incredible, orange moon on Santorini island. We chose Kostas, who had introduced us in Santorini, to be our Best Man; he also translated the wedding, as naturally we had guests from Austria to travel to Greece.
We found some lovely studios in Naoussa for our guests to stay for a week, and for us a comfortable and spacious traditional suite with modern elements.
The wedding took place on June 8, 2000. As you can imagine, it was very romantic. Make up a picture in your mind of a warm night at a decent restaurant with natural stone decoration at the edge of a Greek town, tables around a windmill that stands on a rough cliff plunging into the sea, candle-light, a slight summer breeze...
Later in August we came back for ten days for our honeymoon. We enjoyed the island's magic again, and this time also found the beautiful village of Lefkes. To spend an afternoon at the cafe on the lovely main square in the shade of huge trees really adds to your life. We continued to travel Greece and finally discovered our island in the sun:
SKOPELOS
Meanwhile we live on Skopelos, the green gem of the Aegean Sea in the Sporadic islands, to which a big part of this website is dedicated. We came to travel Greece of course, but mainly to work for the season, Sabine as Guest Relations Officer for a villa rental company and a Ilias for a hotel pool bar in 2003, and meanwhile have a house, a shop and a life in a great natural environment close to some traditional settlements and the best beaches of Skopelos. If you travel Greece frequently, you can about imagine the picture.
DIFFICULTIES
Financially our path is somewhat hard, though. The Greek job market is
* not specifically steady,
* salaries are low,
* prices high,
* working hours long and
* many jobs are only available for the summer months and
* 7 days a week!
Our shop for presents, accessories and articles of daily use also staid open for the colder season, but with limited opening hours as there is less demand in winter. One of us had to have an additional full-time job to survive as many months of the year as possible.
THE SOLUTION
English is our second language, and in our case it would have been really good to have additional possibilities of earning money with a Web site.
Life is enjoyable, and Santorini, Paros and Skopelos are just a few of the magnificent Greek islands, where this is quite easy to believe! Sure living in an atmosphere full with colors, sun and scents helps to write and create Web sites. Maybe you would like to travel Greece and write about it?
Luckily I stumbled over an offer of SBI! - Site Build it. And now I knew how to spend the winter! And I knew how to promote the apartment we rent. That really sounded like a solution. It is what I am doing now, and it is FUN!
If you have the possibility to live wherever you like, would you not? One of my most beloved sayings is:
Liberty is the right to choose,
Freedom is the result of the right choice.
With this in mind I gave it a try and I enjoy building so much since I started. It is not always easy to find the time to write new pages every day, but if it is totally on you, how many hours to spend on building, there is no miracle about it. Just take the time you want to spend to create the site you have a passion for. Write a Web site about the places you love, have been or live!
There is no secret, just the right mind set, passion and tools. If you think, you could be interested in building your own website, give yourself some minutes to get to know more about the way of SBI!
You do not need to know anything about web designing at all, you will be taken by the hand, one easy step follows the other. There is free support all the way in the Forums, full of engaged people and fans, who are meanwhile building their websites as well. Would you like to travel Greece as well? The Caribbean Seas? You might want to invest 30 minutes for your future. This free tour will make you understand exactly how Site Build It! can help you building the business of your dreams.
Click the Video Tour button to get an idea how you can build your new Web site or take the Quick Tour for a complete introduction to the Side Built It! process.
Maybe you are next to
travel Greece? Would you like to get to know Skopelos island first?
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