FROM BOSTON TO ZITSA, DRIVEN BY LOVE
FROM BOSTON TO ZITSA, DRIVEN BY LOVE
Description
In 2009 Anna Ellis visited Zitsa, a small village in western Greece, while couch surfing with her sister. There she met their host Kostas, the village baker. The next 24 hours changed her life forever.
Tags
Credits
Field Reporter
- Giannis Koutroudis
Interviewee
- Anna Ellis
Interview by
- Sofia Papaioannou
Podcast Producer
- Maya Filippopoulou
Sound Designer
- Dimitris Patsaros
Sound Editor
- Spyros Lymperopoulos
- Kyriakos Chatzopoulos
Cinematographer
- Christos Andropoulos
I was born in Boston, Massachusetts. I never felt that I was supposed to be there, I never felt truly American, if that makes sense. I always imagined, I imagined I’ll be traveling my whole life, I was always from as old as I could, I mean, as young as I could, I started traveling and never, never, never expected to settle down anywhere, I never expected or wanted kids, never thought that I get married, just cause I didn’t see myself being able to be around one person so much. Just so much of what the culture seemed to value, I didn’t align with. I don’t care about clothes, or jewelry, or having a super nice house, or a car, or money, or yeah. It just seems to be so much energy and stress focused on things that to me didn’t really matter.
I had finished studying environmental law and so I was on my way to becoming an environmental lawyer in New York. I was in Europe for that conference and my sister in Israel and I said: “Hey, you want to come over for a week? We will travel together around Greece”. And she said: “Great”. And we just had this idea to drive up the west coast across and down the east coast. We didn't really know anything about Greece. I mean, to Americans Greece is Athens and Santorini. And came to Yannina and we were looking for a place to stay and we're looking for couch surfing, but it was around the holidays and all the people in Yannina who were hosting at that time were back home. And when we couldn’t find Yannina we looked further out to see what’s close to Yannina and we found Zitsa. It was just luck; it was just random. So, we found Kostas, Kostas was a host, and so that’s how we ended up here, in Zitsa.
We actually got extraordinarily lost; it took us 4 hours to get from Ioannina to Zitsa. We then, we learnt after, this was before we had like GPS phones and all that, but we were using a map and we learned after we got here that the logo for the car company, the rental company, was on top of Zitsa which is why we're having trouble finding it. It’s how I met him here, right here in the bakery, in Zitsa.
And it was December 29th so it was very busy for him in the bakery, he was making the “vasilopita'' and all this other stuff for New Years’, and we came around the time of lunchtime and his mom served, you know, meat and potatoes and my sister and I are both vegetarian and we were sitting across from each other and we did the sound communication of basically like: “We will eat it and then we'll deal with the consequences later”, because this is, you know, a traditional. You know, we don’t want to step up on any toes or anything. But then we saw that Costas wasn't served any meat and so I asked: “Why you are not having the meat?”. He said: “I am a vegetarian”. We were like: “Oh, so are we, this is great!”. And then we met up later that night and we went up to his brother's café-restaurant and it was very festive cause it was right before Christmas and yeah... We just, we sat around, and we were drinking and talking, and we both noticed he was so quick-witted and funny and sarcastic and it kind of fit in with us and it was, it was, very much of a surprise and yeah, and then, and then the next morning we left. That was it.
So, we left and then a week later, I was in Athens by myself and he said: “You didn't see much of the village, so if you wanna come back and really see the area, feel free”. And I was like: “I don’t know” and my sister was: “No, you should go, he was really cute”, and I was like: “He was?” Because of the time, he had this giant ugly beard, and I couldn't really see his face and I was like: “Oh, I don't know”. She said: “No, no, go, go!”, I was like: “Okay”. So, I came back, and it was just another 24 hours, and it was basically like and 24-hour date. It was very sweet.
And we met in Yannina, he picked me up. I was still wearing my same sort of like dirty travel clothes that I had been wearing before. He was dressed very nicely, and I was like: “Oh he's kind of, kind of handsome!” and then, yeah, we just went out and had a really nice night. We got back here at 4 and he said: “You can sleep in the house that I have for couch surfers, or, you know, if you want to sleep in the house here, you know, it's your choice”. And I was like, I was like: “Yeah, I don't feel like getting all my stuff out and my sleeping bag”. I was like: “Ok” and he was like: “Yeah, you know it’s like okay there's two beds in my room, like it’s, you know, it’s fine”. And he was very courteous about… like nothing inappropriate, no, not even like hugging, like nothing, just, you know, he is very physically distant. And so in the morning, he wanted to wake me up and I woke up to him snapping his fingers above my head and I was like: “Oh!” cause he didn't want to touch me, but he was like: “Come on, come on!”. So we went up and spent the day in Zagori, we went to the Theiogefyro before it fell and we just sat by the water, we talked, but then we also just sat in silence a lot and it was very comfortable, which is pretty rare with someone you don't really know. Yeah, we just had a great day and then again, it was back at midnight, I went back to the bus cause I had to fly out the next day. We hugged and said: “Okay, have a nice life”.
On the flight, I was sitting on the airplane from Copenhagen to Boston, we hadn't taken off yet and I got a text from him that said: “I'm looking for something blue. I look at the sky, but it's cloudy. I'm looking for the girl with blue eyes, but she's not here”. And I was like: “Oh…” So, I took a picture of the seat in front of me that was blue and sent it back to him and said something like: “Here's something blue for now!” or something I don't even remember. It was not nearly as romantic as what he said.
From that day, for eight months we kept in touch basically every single day. Starting by text and then chatting online and then phone call and then from afar we fell in love, unexpectedly. But it was very confusing for me, because I had this plan of finishing Law School and then going to New York and so I was very confused, like “What does this mean that I love this person in Greece”.
And then I came back here in mid-August. And he picked me up at the airport and he took me to the lakeside in Yannina, which I hadn't been to and we sat down and we had our first kiss and it was like… Partan, we already said “we love” to each other, so like to kiss somebody you already love was like just something I can't even describe, like… part of me wishes everybody could wait until they're actually in love to kiss, but I know that's not really realistic in today's world, which is fine, but it just, was so much better! It was just like such… I think my heart stopped! Like, it was just such this incredible moment. I remember when the bus pulled out but he was standing there and I was like: “Oh my God!” And I stayed here for two and a half weeks. I was helping in the bakery and all that and we went to Lefkada and while we were in Lefkada he said: “Do you think you could be happy here?”. And I was like: “Yeah!” And that was it. So, I decided to move here.
I moved here on December 31st, 2010. I was with the person that I loved, and it was total bliss, because it was like this is the best thing in the world for like two years. It was just, you know, ridiculous happiness. And then the culture shocks started to set in more. The language barrier was huge, I mean, I didn't know a single word when I moved here. It's a really hard language for English speakers to learn. There was a lot of tears. On Sunday mornings especially, it was very hard, it was the only day we didn't work, and I would wake up and just feel like I had nothing to do, and so we called them “sad Sundays” cause I would just wake up like crying on Sundays. But then I’ve really gotten into the village, I mean I really… I fell in love with someone from one of the most respected, hardworking, kind families so I think that has helped also with my intro in the village. I mean, everybody… I started working the day I moved here in the bakery with Kostas, and I couldn’t speak, but I could smile. And everybody said: "Oh you are so kind, and you smile, you are helpful…" And I was Kostas’ only assistant until the year we had our first kid.
My family was really shocked when I got pregnant with my first child because they knew my whole life I didn't want kids. I was, I was like I don't want kids. Yeah, it just seemed like such a burden in America, and I mean this is only my own personal view, I mean obviously there are plenty of people in America who have kids and they are very happy. But I didn't want that life where I felt like my partner and I would be working all the time and then you know the kids wouldn't come home until 5:00 or 6:00 and we would see them for dinner and put them to bed. And I felt stressed about money my whole life and I would imagine this would be passed on. The values here, the family, and the support, and the community, and the simplicity, that not everything is about money, yeah, I mean I just… I love it. I love being in nature first of all, I mean it’s just beautiful, and we have two daughters, and they just walk out the door and we don’t have to worry about everything.
It’s a really magical place. It’s hard to explain but almost everybody who comes here says they just feel the energy of the place. And we love to share our life with people, we’ve hosted over 2000 travelers from around the world and just sitting around having a meal, talking about our stories with each other, sharing learning... I love it.
The roots. You know, my kids no matter where they move, no matter where they go the rest of their life, they will be from Zitsa. And they will feel that, and they will always have a place here. I grew up and was raised in a town I don't feel a connection to it. And I feel I’m from Zitsa. When people say, if I go to America: “Oh, you are going home”, I’m like: “Not really…” I’m visiting my friends and family, but I really feel, I feel that this is my home.