Greece

There is not a single summer of my life when I have not been in Greece; even when I was just a baby I spent two weeks of the summer under the oleander trees.

Last summer we went to Crete (as so many summers before). Being in Greece is my definition of the word ”relaxing”. It is like a dream, and not just because it is wonderful and amazing (because I assure you it is), it is literally like a dream; the colors are almost fuzzy because they are so light and neutral and everything is so different from Sweden that it almost seems unreal. The older I get, the more I appreciate being there and the more I want to discover! It is not enough with just bathing and tanning. Last summer I went cycling in the mountains with my mother. It was a sight that was not of this world. The mountains, the olive- lemon- and orange trees, the enormous blue sea and sky. You could not even see the horizon, it was just a huge, light blue mass. The feeling you get when you stand there on the top of a mountain and look out over all this cannot be described. It is total freedom.


The nights were amazing as well. In fact, they were even better than the days. The Greek nights are so different from the Swedish ones; it is as warm as if it was the hottest of summer days and as dark as in the darkest winter night. It is a fantastic feeling. Some nights I went out with my newfound friends that I had met at the hotel and played some volleyball with, but mostly I went to idyllic Greek restaurants with my family. Our favorite restaurant is in a beautiful garden at the bottom of a mountain, where you sit surrounded by white roses and the most exquisite, exotic flowers that I do not know the name of. I wish I did, though.

At first, I thought it was weird that all the staff recognized us, but now, years later it would have been weird of they did not. The owner of the restaurant is probably the happiest man I have ever seen. The people who serves are his two daughters husbands, his son and two of his best friends. His daughters, his wife, his sons wife and his mother (who by the way is about 90 years old!?) are, from my research, the best cooks in the world. Their moussaka is reason enough to take the first flight you can get on to Crete. The owner’s grandchildren are the cutest girls I have ever seen, they are twins, and he carries them around, showing them off to every guest at the restaurant, wherever he goes (while he smiles like he is the happiest man on earth). To be greeted with a recognizing and extremely happy: ”Hello! We where just wondering when you would show up!”, Raki, watermelon and smalltalk, as if we were members in the family, looking up at the stars in the sky and hearing the distant sound of waves; that is how relaxing it will ever get.