TWO YEARS IN GREECE : FINDING MY FOOTING ( FINALLY )

The Honeymoon Phase

When I wrote «  When Life Gives You Olives « , I’d only been in Greece for 10 months.

Everything was new and shiny — the sunsets, the food, even my morning freddo espresso felt like a glamorous ritual. I was still in the Honeymoon stage with my new life.

I thought I’d had it all figured out quickly.

Six months ? A year at most ? I’d be settled, fluent in Greek, running an online business, and casual hopping between islands, like it was nothing.

Spoiler alert : not exactly

The Silence

Those first months, I was living in the center of Athens.

On paper it sounded exciting — history on every corner, bustling streets, everything within walking distance.

In reality ?

At night, when the city quieted down, the silence inside my apartment felt deafening.

I wasn’t used to being this alone.

I filled the quiet with long walks, 8-10K a day, endless coffees, and let’s be honest, way too much overthinking.

Google probably thought I was writing a PhD on, how to start over later in life.

My First Christmas

I’ll never forget that first Christmas here.

My kids had come to visit for a few days, but flew back on the 24th.

While the rest of Athens sparkled with lights and celebrations, I felt my Christmas tree was mocking me, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, I didn’t leave my sofa. Curtains drawn, candles lit, and me binging Christmas movies on Netflix, and crying, like it was a survival strategy.

My only friend was abroad for the holidays, and I remember thinking : Well…this is festive.

It wasn’t pretty, but even that lonely Christmas was part of the process. It forced me to face the silence I’d been avoiding — and eventually, to make peace with it.

The Messy Middle

The months that followed weren’t a straight line.

Some days I felt excited and full of possibility, other days I wondered what on earth I was doing. It didn’t help that I was living in Airbnbs and furnished apartments.

They were practical, sure, but they never felt like mine.

It’s hard to put down roots when the sofa belongs to someone else and the art on the walls has no story to do with you.

That in-between life left me feeling unsettled, like I was a guest in my own story.

It wasn’t wasted time — though it often felt like it.

Looking back, those «  floating «  months were just part of the process : the slow, frustrating work of laying down roots, on my own this time, this was my second move abroad, but the first time I was with my family.

Finally Finding My Footing

The first real shift came when I got my own apartment.

Even though it was sparse at the beginning — a sofa and a tv — but it was mine.

My key, my furniture, my space by the sea.

That’s when independence started to feel real.

The second shift didn’t come until much later — only a few weeks ago in fact.

I hired a business coach who gave me an exact layout, to build my online business, and motivation to nail it.

A wedding trip to Chalkidiki, with my kids, and precious old friends, catching up, and just hanging out by the pool. Followed by a wedding trip to Brussels, with the same group of friends, and my kids.

All of this reminded me how far I’d come.

And finding a new kind of balance with my ex-husband gave me something I didn’t expect : peace.

Now with my daughters wedding just around the corner and days of family time waiting for me, I feel deeply grateful. Not that everything is perfect — it isn’t — but because I can finally see how much I have.

My kids, my family, my own space, my life by sea, and the prospect of a new found balance.

Closing

It’s taken almost two years, but I’ve found my footing.

Slowly, imperfectly, and in my own time.

Starting over is never quick or glamorous —. It’s messy, lonely at times, and full of second- guessing.

But one day, you wake up, look around, and realise : this isn’t temporary anymore, it’s home.

And if life gives you olives… sometimes it takes a couple of years to figure out what to do with them. 😉

From Athens with love

Kati💙