Homesick, but for what?

In the three years I have lived in Greece we have lived in four different places, thanks to my husband being an Army physician. It has been both good and bad having such varied experiences in such a short time, the best part of it being that I got to experience life in Greece from a view different viewpoints.

We started off in Athens, which was probably the best city to start off in as an American getting used to living overseas. Athens has a little bit of everything, so it was easy to acclimate. Still, after nearly a year there I was quite ready to leave. My thoughts on Athens may be fodder for another post someday, but not this one. Let’s just leave it that I hope I never have to live in Athens again, and move on.

From Athens we moved to the island of Kos, near Rhodes and close to Turkey. It was fortunate that I had a chance to experience island life, even for a short time. Living full-time on an island ain’t easy, I’ll tell you that (again, perhaps fodder for another post). But having spent most of my life landlocked in Nashville, I couldn’t get over driving across the island and seeing sea all around me. It was spectacular. Island life is all about tourism, and not being part of the tourist industry or a tourist, it was a bit strange. At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave the island, even though it was inevitable. Now, I’m happy we didn’t spend another year there.

From Kos we went to the wonderful little village of Litochoro, on the side of Mt. Olympus, about 15 minutes from Katerini. Let me tell you, the minute we arrived, it felt like home. I’d always been fond of the mountains and the sea, and this village sported the majestic Mt. Olympus to the West and the beautiful sea to the East. I experienced my first real Greek snow in our year in Litochoro. The village was a bit difficult to navigate (well, it WAS on somewhat of a slant, after all) but it was scenic, the villagers were friendly, and the local cuisine was delicious. We even found a pizza place that made New York style pizza! And it was just a few minutes to Katerini and only an hour to Thessaloniki, so big city life wasn’t too far away when we needed it. Sure, you couldn’t get everything in this little village. But we had a good life there, aside from the demands of my husband’s work.

And so here I am, just a couple of months after moving to Thessaloniki from Litochoro, finding myself homesick for that mountain hamlet I barely lived in long enough to find it’s character. It is a weird feeling, being homesick for a place that was home for just a year, a place I knew was temporary. I find myself in a state of some opprobrium for feeling this way – I should be enjoying life in Thessaloniki, my husband’s hometown, and not missing Litochoro so much.

I do like Thessaloniki. It is not a vile city like Athens, smaller, more manageable for sure. It is scenic, and there are a lot of conveniences, especially being close to my in-laws. But in Litochoro I felt the comfort of the gods, the blessings of the muses. The wind there was magical, as if made up of some angel dust, and the trees spoke to the world in the gentle breezes, as if telling the stories of thousands of years of life, love, and loss on this quiet mountain.

Thankfully, it is close enough to visit now and then, and maybe someday we can live there, at least part-time, again. For now, my life there still returns in dreams, and I think I can hear Zeus calling me…calling me home.