To be honest, I still have no Idea why and am often left wondering at times, but all I know now is that its home.
Prior to me leaving I was nearly bound for Austria, I was waiting on sorting out relocation with a Company in the Games sector however they were dragging their feet and I couldn’t stand being in the UK any longer.
Don’t get me wrong, the UK has lots to offer (I just hate it), but I always felt the need to discover my own part of the world that made me feel like it was MY home. Canada was always somewhere I considered home due to me living there when I was younger. I still do in many ways however I needed a change and somewhere different.
Greece is certainly different. Its only comparable to discovering a new world whereby there is some semblance to things you used to know and recognise, they just don’t work the same, and everything leaves you wondering about what you thought you knew…
I’d lived previously in Belgium, Antwerp and flitted between Holland for a work Contract and no disrespect to Belgians but it sucked, Holland was great, too good. I’d have considered living there but I would have died by now, and not through overwork! As for Belgium, the place absolutely stank in the summer and the weather was worse than in the UK, something I didn’t think ever possible. There were many other factors but that’s subject for another note.
After that I found myself in Germany for a while till the unfortunate Death of my Granddad took me back to the UK for a while due to the greed of one of my uncles. I was staying with him briefly till he realised that he could soon destroy the family home, liquidise everything in it and bury my Granddad and all that he’d been taught about respect and values alongside him.
After Greed took over, and him threatening to kill my Cats and throwing me and my Girlfriend out that day, I discovered what a piece of sh*t he truly was. I had to drive from Germany to the UK blind through tears and anger only to watch him rape all that my family had left of my Grandparents. Sadly since, I only await the inevitable phone call that enables me to close that whole chapter of life and remove all thoughts of that disturbing time and the actions of someone who I once respected so much.
That whole period taught me a lot about family and values and subsequently pushed me to want to leave the UK at the first opportunity. My grandparents were something special in life, something that I won’t ever replace or come across again, there won’t ever be anyone remotely similar to them in my life in any way. They epitomised everything good in Life and all the knowledge, compassion and dignity they had shared with us all growing up was wasted on so many of the people they raised when they died.
As my nan often said to me, ‘you can’t chose your family’. Now I consider myself as only sharing a name with many and am embarrassed to even be associated to some, however this did push me seek new boundaries within my life, to find my little world.
So far, this little world is Greece.
I had been lucky to live in an area of Derbyshire called Matlock for a number of years which bizarrely does have a large Greek population, however I never knew its significance at the time. It was only as time went on that I would relate to maybe why I was partly drawn here.
I’d met a few friends online in Greece before I decided to come and one who later became one of the greatest friends I could ever have hoped to know in life. It was her that randomly suggested coming, if nothing else than for a bit of holiday work on the Islands, get a tan, get drunk and probably go back shortly afterwards sunburnt and broke.
As you’ll discover in time, neither was to be…
Since I have met some fantastic people who have restored my faith in mankind, as similarly I have met some real scum along the way. People are people, there are good and bad in all, it’s not where you are or where people are from that determines what they are like, it’s what they’ve learnt that defines them.
Those who go through life deliberately causing pain and suffering to others though need dealing with. They aren’t needed by society and having them around only causes more misery to others so it’s in everyone’s interest to be proactive in fighting for your rights.
I learnt this more than ever in Greece.
The world according to fckdup athens. 
So, you grew up in the UK? I can see why you might want to move to better climes. But I do not think the Mediterrenean lifestyles is a long-term solution for you. I’d suggest a more temperate climate. Perhaps somewhere in France, but hang on -you’re a pom so that’s probably not on. Let me see, how about Stockholm or Berlin. Berlin has the creativity to boot, and nice weather. Stockholm has a cold climate but is a brilliant city.
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Lol, I guess I’m a half pom… The Med’s great though even if a little mental. In Greece nothing works admittedly, no one cares that nothing works but at least we have the weather, the beautiful women, the food and the way of life. I do like France even though its full of French people, contrary to my English upbringing and Germany was great too, just too strict and not being able to mention ‘ze war’ in a Monty Python stylee when drunk would probably get me into a spot of trouble every now and again.
Once you come to Greece its hard to leave, I was told that if I could survive the first year I’d never leave, so far it sounds about right in some ways, plus as time has gone on I’ve sacrificed so much fighting the system here that to give up and leave just yet would be a regret… For now its home, even though its like an Asylum…
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Yes, the women indeed!
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