My Home, My Village

My Home, My Village 

A Village in a Greek District

When Greeks meet each other they will often ask each other where they are from. If Takis is asked where he is from he’ll probably say, ‘I’m a Greek from Alexandria,’ and then is questioned further he might say that his mother is from Lemnos and his father from Ioannina. If I’m there watching I’ll notice a look of warm affection cross the face of the listener as they respond. And then I listen while they tell their association with one or both places.

Ioannina, Northern Greece

Alexandria, Egypt

There are few large towns (Comopolis and Megaloupolis) in Greece and yet many, yet many small villages (Horios), plus hundreds of inhabited islands. The Greeks particularly enjoy village life and even though they may have moved to live in cities and each family has their ‘own’ village that they return to for Easter and for summer holidays. Because the village may not be know it is easier to identify the district in which the village lies, for instance, from the Peloponnese, Macedonia, Crete, Ioannina. Lemnos however, being the 8^th largest island will be known. So a neighbour might say, I come from Lemnos but my parents are from the Peloponnese.

English Counties

If I’m asked that question, ‘Where are you from?’ I’ll probably first say England and then add some of the counties I’ve lived in, ‘I was born in Kent but went to school in Surry, Hertfordshire and Hampshire, so I suppose I come generally from the South of England.’

Bournemouth in Hampshire

Canterbury in Kent

The county you come from is quite important to an English person and most counties are very distinctive, in dialect and history. (That is why it feels very disturbing to find out some have recently been realigned and renamed)

The definition of ‘village’ is very much about place, though often we do take the ‘cozy’, ‘secure’, ideas associated with village lifestyle and apply them to other situations.

Towns and Cities and Villages

 When is a town a village or a city a town? 

In England, that land where they call surgeons, ‘Mr’ not ‘Dr’ they often call the larger cities ‘towns’. Especially when living in a nearby small town, and talking about going into the city one often says that you are going ‘up to town for the day’. Probably indicating that you are going to the center, an area that was once the whole town, (and in many place once surrounded by a Roman wall), but now is this center will be surrounded by a greater area (e.g. Greater London).

And sometimes even if you live in a town you’ll affectionately call the center, where the main shops are located ‘the village’.

In Australia the term ‘village’ is often used in reference to small planned communities such as retirement communities, or shopping districts, and to tourist areas such as ski resorts, while small rural communities are usually called ‘townships’ and the larger settlements are know as ‘towns’.

I’m calling Myrina and Emerald ‘villages’, only because there are similarities, and the cities and towns in both Australia and Greece are much larger with more permanent facilities. However, while Myrina is known locally as a ‘town’ and the ‘capital’ of the island, and Emerald is called a ‘township’, in the Australian sense of that word by labeling both these places ‘villages’ I’m indicating they are not towns in the full modern sense of that world, neither are they hamlets.

Choosing Myrina, Lemnos, Greece

 

Lemnos is the 8^th largest island of Greece. It covers 477 square km. Myrina is its principle settlement.

Myrina population in the 2011 census was 5,711, but when outlying smaller hamlets of Kaspakas 792, Platy 785, Thanos 451 and Kornos 267 are added to the municipal unit this number swells to about 11,006.

 

In Myrina there was the appeal of the natal home for Takis, the familiarity of having visited family there previously. This was an important reason for taking up the project of renovating the house, to discover the basis of those memories and of those that had been passed on to him by his mother.

Some original hopes have been frustrated (like an original plan to turn the house into a small hotel) and some have been fulfilled, especially that of offering a yearly adventure, and the chance to see the world from another perspective,

Choosing Emerald, Victoria, Australia

 

The Dandenongs are home to over 100,000 residents and the area is popular with visitors, many of whom stay for the weekend at the various Bed & Breakfasts through the region. Emerald’s population in the 2011 census was 6,813, but when outlying smaller hamlets of Menzies Creek 1,300, Clematis, 3,800 are added this number swells to about 11,613.

 

The choice of Emerald accommodates our present needs, we live close enough to family that we can regularly entertain those living nearby, it has room for a garden I will see develop over the years. 

Emerald has become ‘home’ as it is now where we mostly live and increasingly it is where we can look after ourselves in old age. There are difficulties. Takis find it cold in winter (always four degrees cooler than Melbourne) and I question if I can cope with garden as I age. But it has opportunities, spaciousness, with old friends able to visit, plus new friends.