N.O.A. Rawle: Through the Eyes of a Stranger

*TRIGGER WARNING*  Discussion of exhumation, death, bodies and skeletons. Feel free to skip this post.  Dead and buried , laid to rest , phrases that in English imply the end, death, the matter is over and done with. Our very language tells us that death is the end of (the) matter and we have no need to revisit it. In Greece that is not the case.  The day dawned cool and cloudy with the odd shower, a portent of the coming winter and a very fitting atmosphere for my first task of the day. Today was a dear aunt's exhumation. Yes, you read that right, she was being dug up. Due to the lack of suitable ground (not too rocky, not prone too flooding, on the outskirts of town, but not too far out) graveyards are hot property in Greece. Here, your final resting place is actually just a port of call, (unless you're willing to pay luxury house prices that is). In Greece, graves are hollow pits, lined with cement blocks, somewhat reminiscent of a garage, and like cars are parked in a...

I've been living abroad - in Greece - half my lifetime come this October! In that time I haven't really talked about where I live or what it's like being a stranger, learning Greek or getting used to a different routine so I thought I'd post occasionally, on what I've come to love, live and learn here. The atmosphere here in Trikala has started to feel autumnal early this year, due to a plethora of thunder storms so strong that storm warnings were even issued and mobiles started buzzing all over the city. (Mine, having English as its prefered language, reads out the Greek as phonetic gobbledegook in an overtly strong American accent. This obviously diminishes the urgency or severity of any warning...) So with the drop in temperatures to a cool 22 degrees centigrade (at the time of writing) I'm in full-on autumn mode and thought I'd share five things that I enjoy at this time of year.  1. Autumn Leaves No list would be complete without enjoying the autu...