Synopsis

The events described in the following pages of this composition are an actual account of our journey from the outset of booking our first holiday abroad and subsequent trips to Thassos.
     The purchase of our land and build of our Olive Tree House, to the actual time where our move from England to Thassos in Greece becomes a reality.
     We began at the outset looking forward to a great first holiday abroad with a view of visiting other places in various countries over the coming years of our lives. We were not to know that we were going to fall in love with such a wonderful island housing many wonderful people with unassuming and friendly natures.
     We visited places including the Greek islands of Rhodes and Zakynthos, Athens and the Spanish Balearic island of Menorca. Although we enjoyed ourselves in all of these places with all of them having their own beauty and interests, we always had the pull back to the charm and special beauty of Thassos. In our view, it really is the Jewel of the Aegean Sea.
     In the early days, we came back from Thassos with the anticipation of eagerly awaiting our next visit. We would arrive back in England to prepare for our back to normal, every day type lives again accepting that this what everyone does after a holiday. After each trip, the time to leave became more difficult and we would count the days down to when we could return in what some could call an obsession with the island of Thassos.
     We realised that a lot of people return from a holiday with brilliant memories, as we had done ourselves before after holidaying in England in the past.
     We would be the first to admit that those English holidays were very special too for varying reasons, especially as these involved the growing up and progress through life of our children who we hold very dear to our hearts.
     Nothing though could have prepared us for the feelings we were to have for Thassos and the relaxed, stress free and idyllic lifestyle it had to offer.
     This is why I would say that obsession is not necessarily true but rather a simple love affair with the place and the way of life it offers.
     It is well documented that many people return with affectionate memories and with time these fade to just that memories, so that preparations can be made for the yearly trip to somewhere else next time, but for us this was different. Yes, this is easy to say but time had proved that it is different and not just the obsession as mentioned earlier.
     So, we started to re-evaluate what our own country of England has to offer.
    I mentioned before that our children are most important to us above anything else, but, they do grow up. As they have grown older they have proven to us that they do need us, but not necessarily on the everyday basis that they used to. We are proud parents after all and parents are supposed to be there for their children when needed. This will always be the case, but as they grow older this need is not as often as in adolescence. Their future needs can therefore normally be dealt with through a four hour trip back to England if necessary. We have five daughters you see, and they are also always there for each other too.
     With that important subject dealt with through our own discussion and soul searching, what else besides family members is there to keep someone in England today? According to our research, not a lot!
     We see our country with rising crime, high taxes, high prices, lowering standards of education and the very undesirable state of the health service to name but a few. We struggled to think of many positives except that England is our roots and there is nothing we can do about that, but in many ways the ’proud to be British’ slogan has lost its appeal somewhat.
     To this end, when we can eventually make our move to Greece, it will be a happy and sad day to be sure. One thing is certain and that is it will be the right move for us, no doubt.
    
     The words to come are extracted from diaries I have made on each and every trip to Thassos.
    
     Hundreds of photographs are also available, as is endless documentation of our holidays, itineraries, flights, places of interest and of our house build from land searching to completion of the build.

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