During my 20s and my 30s I was a city boy. Living downtown and claiming that if you want to live in a town, the centre is the place to be. I considered suburbs a pathetic substitute and I didn’t see any point in living there. After all I knew first hand, I grew up in a suburb and I had very strong opinion about them. The chances of leaving the city were very slim, the concrete jungle was my kingdom and life was good to me.
Nevertheless I also used to say that if I ever wanted to leave the big city I would go to a village. Small towns seemed into the eyes of my younger version, as pathetic as the suburbs. Countryside meant small settlements with a few dozens or hundreds at the most, people. With one exception. I was sure that I would never, NEVER, move to my grandparent’s village. Any village in Greece would do but not the family ones.
Those were my thoughts many years ago. But then things changed. Living in the city wasn’t as fun anymore. Actually it was starting to be suffocating and depressing. The time for plan B had come. The time to leave the only city that I ever lived in, had come but were to?
NEVER SAY NEVER!
That’s a saying that is proving to be true more often that I would expect. And some times with a very loud and profound way. You may have guested it by now. The place that I moved to, was the one that I was eagerly claiming that I would never consider as a home, my grandparent’s village :)
I stayed there five years and another four to a village a few kilometres away which was practically the same. That move was made only for practical reasons. And even though my younger self, as well as my older self may disagree, I lived those nine years as the most natural thing in the world, as if there was no other place that I could live in!
But life kept moving. Have you noticed that it has this weird habit to only go forward?
And for one more time I felt the need to move. But were to, this time? The big city was not appealing any more and the life in the village had become less satisfactory. What’s left?
But of course a small town. The other big no, of my younger self :)
Which brings us to the present. And for one more time it looks as the only natural thing to do. With all the pros and cons, with all the new needs and ideas that I have as I get older, this new chapter seems the best idea.
For now!
Because who knows where I’ll be in the next decade. Right here, in Venezuela, or in South Africa? Or maybe in a city suburb? I have learned my lesson and I am not going to say never, in either scenario.
After all, life is so funny sometimes :)
The pictures are from the second village that I lived when I left the city of Athens and I took them last January, just before I move away.
This is my entry for the #monomad challenge.
All the pictures and the words are mine.
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
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