The Gilletts Abroad: The Last Post

It is now 1 week short of 3 months since we left Turkey, and here is our next, and last blog post. I actually can't quite believe that the months have gone by so quickly, and that just 2 days ago we'd left Europe exactly 2 months ago. Yikes.
And why write now? Because I couldn't leave this blog unfinished, and writing this last post has been on my to-do list for weeks.
So here we are where we left off, Harry and I about to go to Greece to harvest olives.

GREECE

At the Acropolis, Athens

We went to Greece to harvest olives and it was an amazing experience! As I think back through our experiences of the past year+ spent abroad, this one experience definitely stands out. We book-ended our stay in Greece with a few nights in Athens, days which were quickly filled with seeing the great ruins (including the Acropolis, the Olympic stadium, the temple of Olympian Zeus and so many Greek-Roman busts and statues of emperors and gods in the Archaeological Museum). We even managed to be in Athens on a national holiday that annually starts with a demonstration and ends in a riot! We then headed south-west to the Peloponnese region to work for room/board harvesting olives for olive oil with WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). On the beautiful, quiet coast of Kyparissia, we harvested olives for 9 of our 14 day stay on the farm. The harvesting is done by whacking the trees with a 3-pronged trident, knocking the olives onto nets, then collecting and sorting out the leaves from olives, and finally, taking sacks of olives to the local press to be turned into olive oil. But, thankfully, the process was aided with some very useful machinery: the 'tickler' (a metal stick with a generator on one end and rotating, soft rubber projections on the other), and the 'masseuse' (a large metal frame around a set of rubber, rotating projections, on which branches full of olives could be laid, to be separated from the leaves and stripped of their olives). For me, having not done physical labour like this, the work was intense. But I grew to really enjoy the physical movement and the chance to focus on a single thing with a clear goal for the end of the day. In our days and evenings off, our wonderful hosts showed us some of the nearby sites, some of the beautiful beaches and provided us with some stellar meals. A huge shout-out and thank-you to our hosts for making us feel so welcome, treating us like family and providing great food and a beautiful place to sleep! We loved our time in Greece, and would one day love to go back, to either partake in a harvest again, or to travel up and down the coast camping on the many, many beaches and enjoying the delicious, fresh Greek food and wine.

The beautiful Kyparissian Coast

Christi using the 'Tickler'

Harry and our co-WWOOFer Kuba with the 'Masseuse'

The real boss, Googles

The company we worked for, Honest Toil Olive Oil, a family owned and run farm, selling (the best) organically grown, unfiltered, olive oil in the UK.

After Greece we spent 2 days in Austria for some difficult goodbyes and to pick up our luggage, and then we left Europe!

A quick visit to the Christmas Market in Vienna

CANADA
We flew to Montreal for a few days with Molly and Sam, and then we all drove to Ontario where we spent a really wonderful 2 weeks for Christmas with family and friends. Then on to Kelowna for New Years and then to Kamloops, where we are now.

From a very cold stay in Montreal

A visit to the Toronto Christmas Market with good friends

We were pleased with our slow transition back, seeing some new things along the way, spending time of the farm for Christmas- in Canada but still a haven from real life- catching up with family and friends, and slowly (physically) getting closer to Kamloops; quite literally inching into 'reality' as we acquired a few responsibilities in Kelowna, in the form of a truck, and in doing all the necessary paperwork/payments of settling into life in B.C. Once in Kamloops, we gratefully stayed with my sister and her family for the first couple of weeks. It was so great to see them and build that special relationship with my nephews! And suddenly- about 10 days after arriving back in Kamloops, we had confirmed a job for me, a job for Harry and an apartment we could move into mid-month!

We moved, got settled, and now we are here to stay-- for a little while at least.

The year abroad truly went by so quickly, and though very difficult at times, the experiences and memories that go with it are incredibly, incredibly valuable-- we have gained so much; for ourselves, as a couple, in relationship with others and in understanding of cultures and people around us (...just to name a few things).
We are so grateful for having had this opportunity.
And we are so grateful to all of you who have read this blog, prayed for us, kept in touch, who visited us, and to those of you who are now welcoming us back as we settle in Kamloops.