Kalimera! It has been a month since I last posted. Almost 7 weeks we have lived in Corfu. There goes my promise of weekly updates (laughs at self). Ever so busy. Tons of problems. Even more blessings. Today I am just catching up my breath and writing a general update on our new lives in Corfu.

Our oldest son has been settling in to school and we are all excited to have him home for the Christmas holidays. The baby has started crawling and finally has 2 teeth peeking through is gums – a huge relief for him and us. He’s been teething badly since he was born.

We all made friends and many acquaintances in our little village, which is so so lovely. Everyone talks to each other and tries to talk to us – not always easy due to the very small greek from us and very small english of many in the village – but so good to try to talk. In many days where problems were piling up, it absolutely made a difference in being part of a supportive community that helps each other. We have been to Church and even though we are not religious, we have thoroughly enjoyed the peace of the service and the communion of the people after the service, sharing food and good vibes together.

Our car broke down, and that day will remain as one the most terrifying days in all of our lives, but looking back, the gratitude of being well – alive after it all – is such a fantastic feeling, so I am very glad for it. As we speak, the car is still in the mechanic and we are hoping it will be ready tomorrow, just in time for Christmas errands. I am yet to buy the kids their gifts. But we are receiving the rest of our things and their toys from UK on Christmas eve – so that will be the best gift for them and us.

With no car, we have made the best of staying put – spent needed time as a family – instead of running around like mad trying to do everything else – explored more of the village and local walks around – and learned to use the few buses to get by for food shopping. Tiago has been going every Monday to Corfu Town with a neighbor and coming back via bus and it suits us just fine. I am also glad to have him out of the house for a bit and have mama and baby time while he is away.

We decided to put off for the time being – residency, banks, phones, everything bureaucratic and keep using our UK numbers and bank until we are settled and sorted financially, which at the time, is still a balancing act. Tiago hopes to work in the season in hospitality and I am preparing my mindfulness local guide services. But for now there is no income coming in – we get by with what we saved previously and a little help from family – so we both spend our evenings and baby naps looking up remote freelance working opportunities that we can do from home. Not an easy life – but totally worth it to now worry about money from our quaint simple living village surrounded by cypress and olive trees.

We also are taking an interest in keeping our island green and gorgeous, and helping as we can, with clean ups, recycling and activism. It has been the absolute best to do this as a family. We have taken part in an organized beach clean up, joined the Fridays for Future Climate Strike on Nov 29th in Corfu Town, helped sort our village rubbish dump site and we regularly collect rubbish every time we go for a walk. I have volunteered in a recycling center while the boys went for a beach walk, and cannot wait to go back, as soon as our car comes back too – i mean we have our own recycling center at the back of the house now and while it makes me proud to see how much we are saving from landfill – it has to go.

Oh and I almost forgot – we have adopted the two best kittens ever – Grey and Teepee – daughters of a stray cat.

Wishing you all a merry peaceful Christmas,

Love from us 🙂

Kalimera

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken. – Oscar Wilde

My name is Marta and I was born in Portugal. In 2010 I met Tiago, my partner and we moved to the UK where we had our 2 boys, Xavi who is 6, and Santiago who is 6 months old. In 2017, we made the decision we would like to escape the rat race and the capitalistic lifestyle as much as possible and we started planning how we would do it. We had no idea back then where we wanted to go.

We knew we wanted to be by the seaside and live in a rural setting as much as possible. In 2018 we booked our first trip abroad and our Xavi chose on a budget holiday website, between Italy, Spain and Greece. Guess what he choose 🙂

And this is how we ended up travelling to one of the most magical places on Earth, the village and resort of Agios Gordios in the beautiful Corfu. Until this day we always saw Greece through the social media posts of friends and we thought it was a completely inaccessible place for us (financially). We were very very wrong!

After our very short first visit, we were hooked by Corfu’s beauty and the its kind and warm people. The decision was made. We visited twice more and in November 2019, we made the move and I am now writing this from my sunny balcony in one of the most traditional villages of our beautiful island.

As we are settling in, I often asked for help and shared our happiness with like minded people in person and in social media and many said, they would like us to keep sharing our gorgeous new life. I love writing and more even, I love having a positive impact in our world, so voila, the blog is up and running.

If you want to know more, subscribe and stay tuned to our posts. I will aim to write a weekly update of our life along side one-off posts on specific themes, such as, schooling, health, activities, nature and conservationism, recycling and waste management, among many many more

Thank you for joining us! Welcome to our family 🙂