Travelling back in history

Motto
Every day is a journey,and the journey itself is home
Matshuo Batsho

If there is one thing I want to never forget the slightness thing about it ...that would be my
adventure from Greece three years ago.
It was on a normal afternoon at the end of May when I found that I am to go to Greece at the
beginning of June as a supervisor. I was so excited that day because I have never have been in
Greece and it felt almost like a dream come true. For the next few weeks I started making
arrangements for the trip. I googled for some info about the routes that I was to take to Greece,
the journey seemed prety interesting from the pictures ...I was to take the bus from my town to
Bucharest...from there the others colleagues of mine and me will chose on what way of transport
we will have to take on. So while I was occupying my mind with these sort of thoughts the time
flew by me very quick and before I knew it the big day of departure came .
I remember being very stressed out that morning ...I even left home with the feeling that I had
forgotten something back home but couldn't figure out what exactly. So I got in the buss ... the
road to Bucharest only took about five hours or so ...it was nice because i fell asleep a big part of
the road.....what can I say I was pretty tired ..and the adrenaline took it's effect on me.
In Bucharest I had a lot of fun even though it was only for a few hours before our buss arrive and
took us all to the destination in Athens. I met my old buddies from The Greek Community....let's
see there were ten of them who were departing just like me to take care of the young ones there.
There was this guy Marius who could say the greatest jokes ...let's see who else...my beloved
girls Maria
and Ioana again have a great sense of humor and always ready to party.....we had Bogdan
Anagstasopol the smarted....and the rest of them well they are all the same together we share a
strong bond ...a bond that will remain forever untouched by the flow of time ....or wherever the
life will take us.
We left Bucharest at last and we were all exited to arrive in Greece. We had a few stops on the
way there in cities like Sofia or Skobje but in the end we finally reached Athens. When we
stepped out of the buss we were truly amazed by the view. The mountains the sea the city itself
were shining in way I've never seen before. I really felt like I was a part of Homers precious

odyssey Iliada. Our superiors took us from the Buss-station to Thessaloniki a beautiful holyday
destination . The city itself is the second in size in all Greece, is the capital of Macedonia and the
Northern Greece. Fond in 316 before Christ it was the land of Alexander the Great and named
Thessaloniki after the name of his sister. Even though is one of the oldest cities of Europe
Thesaloniki is today a very modern city even more beautiful then Athens. Surrounded by hills ,
on the shores of the Edge Sea the town is always animated by a large number of tourists and
locals . I read once that the whole town was destroyed once due to a big fire back in the 1917
and then rebuilt. Because is situated in a dangerous area where a lot of earthquakes took place
Thessalonikis buildings are not very high a thing which provide a very specific and beautiful
view of the city. The most important tourist attractions are represented by the Eleftheria Market
and Aristotelus Market , both situated close to the sea and animated by the huge number of bars,
boutiques cafs and restaurants .
Once we arrived there we were told that we can spend some time visiting the city but in two
hours we must be at the holyday camp for dinner . We all laugh and said two hours of pure
freedom is more than enough to have some really good fun. The first place o visit was Eleftheria
Market.
It was a beautiful afternoon and the market was full of people , friendly people and any where
you look at it was something that you wanted to buy or eat. I told my friend that we really should
grab a quite bite somewhere. So we went to a caf nearby and called for a menu. Even thought
we were going to eat back in the camp we chose to buy some Greek Late and some desert called
galactoburiko which were a real delight of taste. As we were staying there admiring the view
of the city we started to make plans for the whole holyday. We were supposed to take care of kids
most of the time which meant that we will have some spare time to relax after dinner when most
of them will go to sleep very soon. We scouted the city and the market and we found out that
there were many cafes close to the sea the perfect places to relax after a day of work , also they
had two malls , three cinemas and a bunch of bars and clubs also great places for partying in
Friday nights and Saturday nights . With all our talk the time flew very quick and it was almost
time to go. We went to the bus station and waited for our ride to come .
In the end we reached Kalivas the name of our camp in time for dinner as promised. We received
a warm welcome from the organizers and we were given a list of activities that we were going to
do while we were staying there and also and some information about the camp . Each of us was
sent to a different bungalow each of was handed a list of names of the children we were going to
take care of. Luckily for us the bungalows werent that far one from another and after the meal
we regrouped and discussed a little bit before we went to bed. From the information Kalivas was
the greatest holyday camp in all Greece. It was situated in Metamorfosi a village in Halkidiki on
the shores of the beautiful Edge Sea. It was written there that the camp had four football fields,
two basketball fields, one volley field, one tennis field, pool well a very big one olympic size if
you would like to put it that way, two cinemas, three discos, and several other places specially

created in way that kids would have a great time there. As for the activities list we had a glance
on it too. The most interesting ones we considered the full tour of Salonic, the cruse to Mont
Athos, the trip to Petralona cave , and trip to Mount Olympus.
We all agreed that we are not going to leave the camp anymore for other adventures because we
had everything right there waiting for us to go and enjoy it. After the discussion we went to bed
excited for the day that was almost there, The grand opening the day we will meet our pupils. I
wondered how well Ill manage to keep an eye on them .
In the morning we woke up very early just in time to see the new down. It was marvelous. We
clean our beds and gathered all outside. We went to the camp kitchen and ate a quick breakfast.
We had coffee, tea, milk, fry bread, ham, eggs, salted cheese that only in Greece you can have it,
and a variety of salaams and mixed salads. Only tasted a bit of coffee and some fry bread with
honey and then got in line with the whole welcoming committee and waited for the buses to
arrive.
At 9 o clock they arrived. Ten of them full of excited kids between ten and sixteen years , all
hoping for the best to happen in this holyday.
They stepped out of them and each of them were dispatched to one of us until ten groups were
formed. Then all of the team leaders headed to their bungalows . I received my team and I was
very glad to see how cooperative they were. I led the way to our bungalows and dispatched their
beds. Then after they were all set up, I started to make the presence one more time to remember
them correctly and also to get to know each other. Few of them were from Romania , others from
UK, few from Bulgaria and also some of them were from Germany. Such a diversity of
languages and customs in one place. The youngest of all was Tommy a kid from UK who was
about ten years and a half. I remember him being very shy and scared in our very first meet and
it kind of resembled with me when I was his age. Like him when I saw myself hundred miles
apart of my family , among strangers I was so afraid that I wanted to go home as soon as
possible. Tommys cry woke me up from my daydream and I went to him and I tried to make
him feel better. I told him: Now ,now young man theres no need for you to cry ? You are going
to spend the most incredible holyday of your life here why are you so afraid of? .He replied: I
miss my mom and dad, I am so far away from home. Look son look around you and tell me
what do you see?.: StrangersNo that is not correct you heard their name already didnt you
so they are not strangers anymore to you, they are your new friends, they are all like you , they
all have families and they are all a little bit upset because of that but they have found a way to
not think about that and do you want to know the big secret? Yes Sir Dont Sir me I already
told you my name, Sam will do just fine, the secret young Tommy is that the whole trip is for
you to grow up a little bit , to learn how to do things by yourselves without the help of yours
parents, away from the worries of home, and they all acknowledged that because they all know
their parents wanted them to have as much fun as possible and dont think of them for a moment

and they know that, your parents wanted this for you too so show me a happy face look up and
meet your brothers and prepare for the holyday of your dream.. I understand.Sir. .pardon
Sam, Ill do that.
Ok everyone now that we have our Tommy ready for fun I should start reading you the list with
the activities , and trips we will make together, also the program for each day will be announced
each day after the camp fire. As I was reading them all that list I saw with how much curiosity
they were listening, they all looked happy and full of joy. I told them o unpack and meet up in a
half an hour on the football field.
We had a lot of great time together, I loved those kids , for the first time in my life I really felt
like a real adult. The whole holyday was like a spiritual journey for me in which I learned how is
to feel like a parent. I watched over those kids like they were my little brothers I stood by them
were they felt lonely or sad I made them happy , I showed them how to have a good time and I
really found the departure hard. I hope Ill see them again sometime in a distant future , I would
like to know in witch type of persons they have turned into later on in life.