In times of Corona
“Odyssey’s” Katerina Sakelliou has been keeping us company with her blog “Katerina’s Kouzina” since October 2014. Now, six years later, Katheti selects and presents parts of two of her articles “Odyssey in times of Corona Part 1 and 2” in one article. We believe that the feelings and experiences it conveys are representative of the local communities’ feelings and experiences in these difficult circumstances. Acknowledging and overcoming anxiety and fear, staying positive and grateful for the good things, trying to keep our smile in times of Corona.
Preparations on hold and celebrations cancelled
In a short time, all of our lives have been turned upside down because of Corona virus. Our daily programmes have dramatically changed; we are trying to cope with this new reality and nobody can tell what the near future is going to bring. Every day we hear something new that we did not think of the day before. At Odyssey we should right now be preparing the building and finishing the refurbishing of the rooms. We should be cleaning with family and staff, getting ready for Easter and anxiously await the first customers’ arrivals and our season to start. […] Instead, all we can do is follow the instructions and stay at home.
[…] In 2020 we are actually celebrating the 25-year anniversary of Odyssey. In the upcoming weeks we were supposed to be having the first celebrations that we prepared with love and fun. Twenty-five years of hard work, fun, happiness, some problems and difficulties as well, which we overcame to bring us to where we are today. We had planned some parties and beautiful moments for this summer. A party with some presents for all our friends and our extended ‘Odyssey family’ members who all those years believed in us and supported us with their presence and their return visits. But that too is on hold this year.
Taking care of each other
We should not complain of course as we have each other (via the telephone) and we are in a small paradise where even looking out of our windows in those beautiful and glorious days can lift up our spirits.
We will take care of our family and extended Odyssey family. We will take care of the rest of the people by staying at home. We will take care of our garden so in the Summer we can cook with our own harvest and pick our olives in October. We will passionately wait for the moment that we can welcome our guests, friends and family again at Odyssey. Like all problems we had in the past, small and big, this too will pass. We will remember it and talk about it with a nice glass of wine and some fabulous food and music.
After a lonely summer…
Right now, the summer season of 2020 is ending. A summer that I have never experienced before and hopefully will never experience again. Basically, nothing went as planned, or expected, at the beginning of the year. […]
Reopening
Most of our guests and friends who had planned their holidays with us this year had to cancel their booking because they were not able to come. For a while in May we thought that both Odyssey apartments and our glamping should not open this year. Eventually we did not want to give up that easily and decided to make the best of it and opened at the end of June. We received several friends and guests, for instance from Athens, who gradually started coming to Poros. First in the weekends of June, later in July and the beginning of August. At that time, all COVID measures were relatively mild for all of Greece as our daily cases were extremely low.
An empty Poros
Unfortunately, that changed; at a certain point in August there was a high prevalence of Corona cases on Poros and the island got higher restriction measures. This situation got a lot of exposure in the Greek and foreign media, only they reported that Poros had a full lockdown that we did not have at all. The result was that all of our guests left from one day to the other and the guests who had booked for the remaining time in August all cancelled. It was unreal to see Poros without any visitors and tourists in the middle of August. Unreal to close Odyssey for the first time in 25 years in the busiest Summer month. […]
A new year coming up
So far 2020 has not been very kind to us and to the world, but life goes on and we hope that 2021 will be much better; A year of fun, lots of cooking and happy evenings with music and joy. We are looking forward to (hopefully) see you then! […]
Read also Fay Orfanidou’s article “Summer on Poros” about the past Corona-free summers on our beloved island.
