The princess and the pea

One of the sacrifices we made for this move was getting rid of our old bed. Now, this old bed was a king-sized Beautyrest mattress that had made its way from America on the boat with the rest of my stuff. When I lived in America, I swore by Beautyrest, and wouldn't buy any other type of mattress. They were all too hard, too soft, too lumpy, you name it.

When I moved from the States the mattress itself was in good condition, but the box springs had already taken a bit of a beating to the claws of three cats. Still, the bed was comfortable, it wasn't too old, and we decided we should move it.

It survived the overseas trip fairly well. When we moved from Athens to Kos, it was starting to look a bit run down. When we moved from Kos to Litochoro, we cringed when we saw the movers BEND THE MATTRESS IN HALF to fit it on the truck. I think at that point we knew it would be the end of that bed. We just hoped it would last us another year. A couple of the side wires had poked out, but it was still very comfortable.

I've had my trepidations about buying a mattress here in Greece. For one thing, if Beautyrest mattresses exist here, I don't know where you'd get one. For another, the beds in my in-laws house were so hard and uncomfortable I couldn't sleep there without having major back problems. This was worrisome to me. What if these were the only type of mattresses available in Greece? Whatever would I do? I couldn't be forced to spend the rest of my life sleeping on a hard, uncomfortable mattress.

When it was decided we would move into yiayia's apartment, my mother-in-law suggested we keep the bed. It is a queen-sized bed, made up of two of the thinner twin mattresses. Well, this was going to be the first hurdle. My husband and I were used to our king-sized bed. Our cats were used to the king-sized bed. I like plenty of room when I sleep. How would we deal with a smaller mattress? We didn't really have a choice, keep the bed or not, as the room is definitely too small for a king-sized bed.

The second issue, of course, was the hardness of the mattress. It isn't soft and pliable like our old mattress. It doesn't meld with our bodies.

The first night in the new bed wasn't a great one. We had to get used to the lack of space, the lack of springability, not to mention the reality of living in a new apartment. I suppose the mattress isn't hard enough to ruin my back, but I'm thinking we may still buy a new mattress, softer and more like we are used to.

Then again, I don't sleep in as late in this bed. Maybe that's a good thing.