I woke up around four or so to friends gathered around telling me I’d been snoring - but on top of that, I’d actually fallen asleep ‘mid-sit-up’ - as in my hands held my head slightly elevated off the floor. Apparently it only lasted for a few minutes but perhaps it spoke both to m absolute exhaustion coupled with my deep desire to connect and engage with friends. I shifted to my bed to finish up the night in a bit more comfort.
Come morning I set to work cleaning up and organizing the site. The wind had again shifted from the south (it had been primarily northerly all week except for the second or third day of the workshop, when it came from the south). Gradually our extended ‘family’ arose and we tidied things up all around. It was a leisure-filled start to the day and I was reminded again that we were on Greek time.
We worked hard to make the incredible desserts (cherry cheesecake and banana crumble-something) disappear and by two or so, we were off. A few stayed behind on the island to explore and camp, but Alex, Stamatina, Hermes, Anna and I all made our way back to Athens.
I was exhausted and found myself fading in and out of consciousness. About half way, we stopped at a sweet little taverna for souvlaki and beer. It was a very nice break along the way. Across the street, next to the community spring, sat a few strawberry farmers, and I recalled my desire to buy some the week before on the way into Lefkada. I picked up 3 kg for 5 Euros and we were back off.
Alex made relatively short work of the rest of the trip. I’ve grown much more comfortable with his driving and our occasional stints of 180 km/h. We arrived in Athens just as the sun began to go down. We all retreated into our own spaces to relax, reconnect and resume our recently forgotten personal lives. I spent hours catching up on the e-mail backlog now nearly two weeks old. I was sound asleep sometime between three and four am.
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