Tag: home

Some of Cyprus beauty

I’m back, back at my second home. For now. No idea what is going to happen after Brexit, I’ve heard so much my head hurts.

But anyway, a week back home definitely helped to clear my mind and decide what I want to do next. I’m still not feeling my best but I’m feeling better.

Thank you for all the lovely messages you sent me after my last post. I didn’t post to seek attention or make anyone feel sorry for me, I’d hate that.

At the end of the day living here on my own, away from my support network is my choice and I accept the consequences but pretending to be OK, happy and cheery all the time when I’m not, makes me feel much worse so I feel much better now that everything is out in the open.

I didn’t get to do a lot of sightseeing this time as I spent most of my time with my family and best friends (for more of my snaps of Cyprus check my insta https://www.instagram.com/eleni_zenonos or one of the many accounts I follow to remind me how beautiful my homecountry is https://www.instagram.com/heartcyprus

but here are some of the highlights:

-Laiki Geitonia- Old Nicosia- A traditional neighbourhood in the heart of Nicosia surrounded by traditional buildings, cafes, taverns and several souvenir stores.

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If you happen to  visit, make sure you walk down Ledras street for some nice food and go up the tallest building in Nicosia, on the Observatory where you get panoramic views of the city, including the occupied part (you can actually cross to the other side and see the other (occupied) half of the city and the rest of the island). Here’s a snap I took of the other half when I visited a while ago:

 

-Agios Iraklidios monastery in Politiko village. An old monastery (the church was originally built in 400AD, but the monastery was fully renovated in 1773) close to Nicosia. My mum’s favourite monastery, set in a peaceful, serene field with trees and flowers grown by the nuns there, who also make their infamous almond sweets. If you ever visit, you should definitely try them! And make sure you ask to visit the saint’s underground grave. It might feel a bit eerie if you are claustrophobic but how often do you get to walk around in a thousands years old underground cave?

If you go in the church to light a candle, turn to your right and go into the original part of the church. There is not much natural light but there are two small windows that let the sunshine in, it’s magical. I can’t describe the feeling but there is something special when you visit an old building that have been there for centuries, nurtured and loved by the nuns who are always smiling at you. You can see in their eyes how they’ve reached the higher levels of humility that fill their heart with peace and serenity.

In whatever mood you are, a visit will sooth your soul, regardless of any religion/non-religion views.

(Photos are not allowed inside the monastery, but if you want to see how it looks inside too, check Google images)

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-Panagia (Holly Mary) Chrisospilliotissa. A church/cave probably around since the 12th/13th century (there is not much information about it), built WITHIN a grand, imposing rock and covered in mural paintings inside.  Every time I visit I wonder how on earth they managed to build it!

If you enjoy a bit of history and architecture I definitely recommend it. There are no words to describe it really so here’s a snap:

-Finikoudes- Larnaca. A road full of palm trees, with a variety of restaurants to choose from on one side and Finikoudes beach and the beautiful, recently renovated marina on the other (there are many many more nice beaches and sightseeing in Larnaca).

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There’s much much more to this little but beautiful island which I can’t possibly fit in a post but these are the highlights from my most recent visit. More next time I visit, which will be summer!

Hope you enjoyed this 🙂

Love you all x

Eleni

Happy New Year !!!

Happy New Year everyone! I don’t have high expectations for 2017 but whatever happens, don’t allow anyone (a lot of as****** out there I know) or anything knock your confidence and self-belief. I hope 2017 is full of love and laughter, no matter what life throws at us.

I’m supposed to be packing as I’m moving at the weekend but it’s too cold and I’m too tired, first day back at work was exhausting, so I’ve written this instead 🙂

I don’t do New Year resolutions because I’ve tried it before and I find it pointless so I’ll try to tick off things on my bucket list instead. Much more fun! And one of the things I want to do is write/blog more often and I’ll try to post more regularly, I forgot how insightful and therapeutic it can be.

Christmas is over and it’s been amazing. After 8 years I surprised my family and had the most amazing week with my parents, sisters and dog, watching Christmas movies, snuggled up on the sofa with popcorn and chocolate.

I caught up with friends and family and spent Christmas day with my aunt and cousins like when we were kids.

And so happy to be there for my godson’s first Christmas!

AND I got to spent New Year’s eve in Edinburgh sending off 2016 whilst watching Paolo Nutini live (that’s ticked off the bucket list!) with my favourite!

New year is perfect for clean sheet/new beginnings/ new year new you, but one of the most important lessons I learnt is that you can change your life whenever you want to and life can change you when you least expect it, so if you want a new start do it now, your new life can start on the 3rd of January instead 🙂

So back to now. And now what? No idea! I’m moving in a couple of days. I don’t know where and a lot of you are asking and are worried, especially my family but don’t! Everything will work out fine. Absolutely no point in panicking and worrying. I’ll let you all know when I know.

My next post will be about my little sister, my little star, my little duckling, as I promised to her a while ago and then (OK she might not like it but) one for my second sister, our hero!

Here is a little preview of my little star, Anna x

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For now, I hope January blues are not too painful for any of us.

Love you all x

PS. I’ve just watched 24 hours in A&E and every time I do, I’m reminded how lucky I am I’m healthy and loved and a HUGE thank you to all doctors and nurses for working so hard to keep all of us safe and alive.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, let’s hope it’s a good one without any tears (well maybe some tears, mostly happy ones)

This is it! 2016 it’s almost over. And what a year it has been… The next few weeks will be very busy so this is the only chance I get to post before 2017 is upon us and I really wanted to so here it goes…

Many many lessons learned in 2016 that won’t fit in one post but if I have to choose the most important ones then they’ll have to be:

Trust yourself and be yourself. Self-confidence and believing in yourself is hard in this cruel world but it’s only one you and that’s what makes sou special, so trust your instincts and not be afraid to be you.

There are a lot of mean people out there, more than I thought (and fortunately a lot of nice and kindhearted, wonderful human beings), so you can’t be nice all the time and to everyone. I never really make any new year resolutions but I decided that this year I won’t let anyone spoil it for me anymore. Kick ass if I have to!

If something is too good to be true, then it probably is not.

And finally do whatever makes you happy! You see life is never easy, well not for all of us anyway, it’s hard as it is so don’t compromise, do whatever makes your heart beat faster.

All in all it’s been a fun year, full of laughter and I’m really happy I made new friends, became a godmother, tried new things, including starting this blog which helped me immensely with my confidence, getting over situations and making sense of life, done some silly things too but it has been rough at times. And I reached my breaking point more than once.

Apologies to my friends I haven’t seen for a while, it’s been tough couple of months but I promise I’ll make it up.

It’s been tough for a lot of us across the world with terrorist attacks, homophobic attacks, Brexit, Donald Trump elected as the US president, the crisis in Syria and many many more…

For me…

2016 found me starting my life from scratch, this time on my own, heartbroken, confidence at its lowest, in grief…

After 30 years I had to learn to live on my own and depend solely on myself. I never liked asking for help even from my other half or my family so it was a hell of a journey.

But I’m very proud of how far I come. I made mistakes, I took risks when I shouldn’t but I learned to trust and believe in myself and I know now that whatever happens, I can face it, however hard it might get.

And now it’s finally time for a little break, I’m going to have the most amazing Christmas and NYE and then new adventures await. I literally have no idea where I’ll be in a month’s time, but I hope everything will work out in the end. And if not, oh well I guess I’ll learn something new.

I never had much money and neither did my family. They still live in an old building which might collapse at any time.

But we learned to fight and do our best to provide for each other. We always cared more about each other than ourselves. We learned to live with little and appreciate the little things, we learned that it’s not important to get what you want, because it might not be possible, but we learned to always try our best with what we’ve got. We learned to love unconditionally.

We never needed the fanciest cars, the most expensive gifts or the newest phones to be happy.

We are the happiest when we are together having a laugh even at hard times, caring about each other, helping others, and that’s what it really matters. It’s always been about love and being grateful for what we have and I’m so happy and proud I was raised in such an amazing family. I wouldn’t change that for all the money in the world.

One day, if I have my own family, I’ll consider myself very lucky if I’m as half as a good parent as my parents are.

I have hundreds of Christmas wishes, my letter to Santa is quite long but if I only had one wish is for all of my loved ones to be happy, healthy and safe. If you are an expat or your family lives far away, you know exactly what I mean. It’s heartbreaking not to be able to be there whenever my sister or my dad has an accident or my aunt is sick or…

And one of my lifelong dreams is to one day be able to buy a house for my family (and build my own house exactly as I imagined it, but I don’t mind if that never happens) so I don’t have to worry about them. Which is wishing for the impossible but a girl can dream.

I never cared about having the most expensive clothes, bags or make-up. If you know me you probably know that. I’m not the prettiest or the fanciest dresser but I spend most of my money on bills (living on my own costs A LOT and sacrificing this won’t be easy), trips, gigs, experiences, spending time with friends, getting gifts for friends and family. And I wouldn’t change that for anything.

I sometimes worry about the future, it’s only natural but as long as I’m happy and do my best, I leave the rest to the universe.

I’ll leave you with this, which couldn’t be more true.

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Merry Christmas to all of you and your families.

I hope all your Christmas wishes come true!

I know one of mine will  🙂

And I hope 2017 is much better for all of us. Amen.

Love you all! x

My two homes…

If you are an expat (especially from Cyprus or Greece) ,you might relate to some of my thoughts and feelings about living abroad in your 30s.

For the first time for years, I’ve visited home feeling myself and eager to catch up with friends and people I haven’t seen for years (including the coolest lecturer I ever had and probably the best psychologist at least in Cyprus, if you live in Cyprus and need any advice or support, message me for details!), meet my little prince, my gorgeous godson and explore my homeland, something I haven’t done for years. And it felt amazing. I had the most amazing time (still one day left!) but I missed my second home too.

Millomeri waterfalls, at Platres, just stunning.

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If you live abroad, you probably know the feeling. Being back home feels amazing and sometimes I wonder whether I should move back at some point in my life. But then change my mind after a while and you probably understand why.

Being single in your 30s and living abroad is not easy for a small, close society to comprehend. Most of my friends are married and/or have kids and if you are not married you must have heard hundreds of times “You are getting older, you are almost 30, your cousin/sister/random people you don’t even remember/etc are married with kids, when are you getting married?”, “When are you moving back?”.

I’d like to have children at some point, but even if I get too old and that doesn’t happen, it’s not the end of the world. The most important thing in life is to be happy and enjoy life!

It’s difficult for others to accept that living abroad and having goals other than getting married and having a family is possible. And I understand that. This is the how they grew up and for them that is the ultimate goal.  But it can become frustrating being given ‘advice’ by everyone, even people who I don’t really know on what to do with my life.

After a week back home, I caught up with my best friends (sorry about the rest, I promise I will make it up next time!), met amazing people including probably the only 30 year old (ridiculously multitalented singer) who has a different mindset to most (guess what? he lived abroad for years!), spent quality time with family and even squeezed some time to go on day adventures. But it wasn’t enough. I could use another week or two. Then again, it never really feels enough. I will always miss my family and my friends.

On the other hand, I don’t think I can move back here permanently. I now have a second home which I miss dearly when I’m here. I miss my friends, my colleagues, my own space, my own life.

I now have no ties in Southampton or even the UK. I can move anywhere in the world, literally anywhere! And of course never say never. I have no idea how my life will evolve and where I might be this time next year.

But Southampton feels like home, even with all the changes in the last couple of months. And I can’t wait to go back and try new things, catch up with my friends, have my first mini holiday with Shebz (I missed you!!!) to initiate the celebrations of me becoming 30, make changes which I decided for once, and just have fun!

The lesson I’ve learned? Don’t get upset or take into serious consideration what other think is right for you. You know best, so trust yourself!

And the best advice I’ve received, from my 80 year old grandpa after I told him I broke up with my partner of 7 years (he easily forgets so he politely asked about him) “Are you happy? That’s all it matters!”

Love you all! x

 

 

We ‘ll go up, up, up…

A lot has happened since I came home and it’s only been 3 days! I won’t share all of it, because I’d like to keep some aspects of my personal life personal (but if we are friends on Facebook or Snapchat, I hope you are enjoying my updates!)

I recently shared the best picture I think I’ve ever taken so far.

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And I felt truly happy at that moment. Flying above the clouds, getting out of the routine, staring at the sun. Travelling towards the sun, what can top that, right?

And then I looked at the people next to me. A couple in their 60s, having wine and gin, laughing, talking about all sorts, holding hands…

At that very moment I thought, yes I am happy, being on a plane, going somewhere sunny. But it would made me even happier if I’d share that moment with someone special, like that lovely couple next to me, who looked like they ‘ve been with each other for years and years.

They now live in Cyprus permanently. I could imagine them having breakfast together in the sun in their pretty garden full of flowers, having a coffee and reading the newspaper, enjoying the silence and talking about random things and having a laugh every now and then.

I don’t need anyone else to be happy, you can be single and have all the fun in the world and after two breakups in 4 months, I think I had enough for now.

And I am not one of those people who thinks getting married and having kids is the ultimate goal in life, because for me it isn’t. 

But in the future, if I am lucky enough, I’d love to meet someone who makes me feel special and I make him feel special.

Someone who would be up for my crazy ideas and I’d be up for his. Who will love me for who I am and sticks with me even when life gets difficult and I’do the same for him.

Someone who I would share a special connection with and we will communicate with each other by just looking in each other’s eyes.

Go on trips and explore the world together, have fun and enjoy life together.

Sharing your life with someone special is beautiful and I haven’t had the chance to experience this special kind of love.

I won’t even mention my relationships in my early 20s, but my most recent ones  didn’t work out or ended too soon which made me wonder if I will ever find my Mr Sugar (thank you Cheryl Strayed for your awesome book, I highly recommend it!).

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If you found your Mr or Mrs Sugar, that special one, give them a special hug and a kiss today.

For now I am enjoying life with friends and family, living in the moment. Who knows what the future will bring?  Life is full of surprises!! And remember, never say never!

Love you all! X

PS. Special thank you to that one person who checks my blog every day 🙂