Getting in touch in nature

I grew up in a small Greek town by the sea, at the northern part of the country, with population of around 65,000. The size of the city, according to my standards, is perfect. It is small enough to have a neighborhood, safe, environment outside the city centre for the children but also means of escape for the adolescents. It is built amphitheatrically overlooking the sea and a very picturesque older area. However, what it greatly lacks is green areas!

The surrounding mountains of the city, the small availability of land, the lack of proper city planning and people’s greed forced my hometown to rise much higher than other cities of the same size consuming almost every bit of open space. Apart from some conserved (thank god) older structures, most buildings are 5 to 6 floors high, creating a forest of grey with no traces of green. To give you an idea, there is one designated area called ‘the park’ and another called ‘the garden’! That’s it.

What’s generally saves the picture is the sea! Almost any town or city by the sea can be beautiful! There are so many places, small cafes, cosy tavernas or romantic spots in my town overlooking that ever changing blue that makes it one of the loveliest towns of the country. There are also so many amazing beaches in such a close proximity that made my childhood’s summers unforgettable! I’ve spent hundreds of hours every year by the sea swimming, fishing, sun bathing, playing summer sports etc.

When I moved to London all this changed. There is no sea close by with warm blue waters to go swimming. Still, nature’s all beautifully around in my everyday life. Even in such a vast metropolis of about 8 million habitats, there are so many large parks, commons, forests, open spaces, rivers and animals. Every time I go to my local supermarket, I walk next to a small river surrounded by trees with ducks, some swans or the occasional heron. I spot squirrels and foxes on that footpath so frequently that I never thought possible in such a large city! I’m not delusional; I can see the pollution and the garbage. I’m not denying that. However, I choose to ignore it, focus on the green surroundings and try to escape to a large park when no building can be seen or a car heard when possible.

 a heron?

 relaxing ducks

 walking around the river

sleeping in the back garden

Isn't it ironic?

1. …that England’s officially in drought that might last for months but it’s been raining so much the last few days?
2. …that France and Germany still put pressure on Greece to keep on buying their expensive military equipment but demand more austerity measures from the public? The biggest market of Germany’s arms exports in Europe is Greece. Interesting read here.
3. …that Africa is actually sitting on big reserves of water?
4. …that Samsung Electronics is now the main manufacturer of ipad retina screens?
5. …that Anders Behring Breivik claims he acted in self-defense and he’s not a racist? (and it’s not even funny)

 

Yoga class and Easter weekend

So, last Friday afternoon I left work a bit early to go meet my friends for my very first yoga class. Working in a stupidly male predominant, geeky, antisocial, sexist IT environment, I did hear some comments about that session. Someone even mentioned that I would leave my genitalia in the locker room and start growing a vagina (ha ha)! That was his attempt at being funny! I didn’t even feel like it deserved a reply. This is a big serious discussion I’m not going to comment on now. Some people are simply really ignorantly stupid!

Anyhow, I met my friends and we headed to their ‘health centre’. As I mentioned before, I was going to use a free pass to go with them so that I’d lose my yoga virginity with friends and not alone. Apparently, a ‘health centre’ is the posh way to say gym! I didn’t see any difference between that and my gym. The receptionist was very polite though.

After changing into simple shorts and t-shirt we moved to the class room. There was only one girl already there and I thought that it would be an almost private session. However, other people arrived soon afterwards. Overall, there were around 9 of us excluding the teacher, 4 guys and 5 girls. The majority of people were young and looked like they belonged to the class. Then the yogi (?) came. He was tall, very thin and looked to be in his late 30s. He talked in a soft voice, prolonging all words in calmness. He did say gooooooood many times during the hour that followed. At first I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but then I got used to his soft low voice and we started by telling us to gather helping blocks and belts and by asking who’s new at yoga (me, me!).

At first I felt a bit lost. The yogi wasn’t actually doing everything he wanted us to do as I thought he would at least at the beginning, but he simply gave us instructions. However, for an inexperienced ear like mine, I couldn’t follow him. He was also using yoga terminology that I was completely unaware of. What’s the warrior 1 or warrior 2 position? What’s the fish? Cobra? Huh???? So, I decided to start looking what other people were doing and mimic them. It’s not that simple to observe other people, try to link it with the instructions and keep the difficult positions at the same time. I fought some building frustration and decided to go with the flow.

Soon I was really enjoying it. I sweated a lot which I took as a very good sign. The yogi was walking around us, fixing our posture (which translated in feeling more pain), saying things like ‘gooooooood and ‘breeeeeeathe through the stiffness’. He was generally nice with us, the newcomers. He explained how we could use the blocks or belt to do some exercises better or explained how to add a little bit more difficulty to the experienced yoga goers. Overall, I enjoyed my class a lot. Yoga would be something I’ll gladly try again. As a matter of fact, I’ll try Ashtanga yoga tomorrow. Let’s see how this turns out.

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Changing the topic, last weekend was the Christian Orthodox Easter. Apart from talking to family and friends about it on whatsapp and on the phone, I didn’t do remotely anything about it. On Saturday evening I had sushi for dinner, a DVD for company and stayed in, which as you can imagine is not very traditionally Greek. All the people I know in Greece went to church around midnight and had magiritsa (μαγειρίτσα) for dinner afterwards. On Sunday during the day when the whole nation has lamb spit roasts I had healthy vegetable stir fry and I even managed to burn my hand. I poured boiling water over it, a moment I am not very proud of. I don’t even like  μαγειρίτσα (it stinks) and I do feel bored at the family gatherings, but with the pain of my burnt hand I did feel a bit homesick.  My hand’s a bit red still, but hopefully it will heal soon. I’m also going to Greece beginning next month, so I’m fine now. It was just a weak moment that passed.