It was a hot, humid day on the Greek island Santorini, my grandmother, my brother, my mum and myself decided to go to a small restaurant just up the road from the hotel we were staying at. I remember seeing another family taking an alternate route up to the shopping village where the restaurant was, so I decided when it was time to leave for lunch to tell my mum and grandmother and take the alternate route.
As I walked further and further across the footpath I began to realise that I was nowhere near the restaurant, so I walked past a few houses but no one spoke English. I just got a bunch of odd sounding Greek responses I knew that I was in big trouble now, lost, no one speaking my language, on an island that I’ve been on for 3 days. I had no idea what to do!
After about 15-20 minutes of searching managed to find an American man who had bought a house on the island and was in his garden hanging up his washing, he seemed to have a lot of Basketball jerseys, there were too many to count! I asked him how to get to the shopping village he gave me very complex instructions, ‘You then turn to face north and walk in that direction then turn east.....’ I eventually then said, ‘Look man, I’m 11, I don’t what you are talking about! Can you use left and right rather?’ he then realised that I didn’t understand a thing that he had been saying and started all over again. Not a good idea, those directions were just as bad as the other ones, after he had finished talking and talking and talking about random things he suddenly asked me what my name was and where I came from, as it turns out he knew a lot about Sydney and he said that his father was born there.
After leaving the man to finish hanging up his washing I decided to try and find my own way there, as he was no help, I then came across a couple sitting on the rocks together and decided to ask them for directions, but once again language was an issue, well not really language, accent rather, couldn’t understand a word, their French accents were to strong and words like ‘up’ suddenly became extremely confusing. I kept on walking for at least another 10 minutes when I saw some shops, this was it I walked up a large flight of stairs only to find that I had the wrong restaurant, and once again there I stood, no phone, no food, no water, in the middle of nowhere. After another long period of walking I saw more stairs, and this more than just one building at the top, I thought to myself for a moment then realised that up there had to be the shopping village. I was so hot and tired, I didn’t know if I would make it up those stairs, so I counted as I went up ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7...’ until I reached 112 stairs, I met my mother at the top of the stairwell hoping for some sunburn cream and a bottle of water, or milk, or even baby formula! I needed fluid, and I needed it fast, I fell into her arms and stumbled into the restaurant, and god was right there, in the form of a freezing cold glass of coke.
After a delicious lunch and the most water I had ever had in my entire life, I finally got back to my hotel room and slept for the entire afternoon. I was so happy that I found a way to the restaurant, I almost felt lucky to be alive! All I know is that could’ve turned out much worse if I had just given up.
By Zac Zurnamer
No comments:
Post a Comment