Efi Georgia dared to “fly” from her to and do what thousands of inhabitants of large cities dream of, escape from cement and live in nature. The steps of the search, as he says, led her from Athens for the first time in Gavdos in 2003. At the southernmost end of Europe, where you feel that something is ending and something else begins, she found the place of her dreams, which she dared to make and place the family she created. Ephe Georgaka is a young woman, mother, companion, worker, who experiences a daily life very different, away from modern standards based on a materialistic intake of life. She was born and raised in Athens and decided to live permanently with her Gaudiotis husband on the island in 2008. Speaking to the RES-APR describing her life on this small piece of land, she says that only there did she manage to find herself, after she first consciously needed to leave everything else. “My search led me to the southernmost end of Greece and all of Europe. I got here and got into another dimension. My soul that was so full was of all these useless material goods, which impose and make us believe that they are necessary for our happiness, flew off her from the very first moments of my stay in this place, the useless and unnecessary burden of the material goods that I carried as a burden, without knowing it,” said Mrs. Georgaka, who today almost 16 years since she settled in Gavdos, has had a family with three children. Nicola 14, Kelly 13 and little Damoulis 7 years old. Having a different life in Gavdos, Efi Georgaika on the day of World Women’s Day, may not have had the choice to participate in a social event or a party with friends, however that she managed to spend some hours alone in nature, walking towards the Drill which is her favorite point, gave her the feeling of absolute power and freedom that made her remember as she stressed, because she chose this place to build her life. “Every year this day for me is a day of reckoning and thinking. Learning to live without having what I once considered necessary to feel happy, my everyday life, although it has many difficulties, seems simpler and yet I feel that it has more moments of happiness,” said Efi Georgakas who, although she loved as Athens says, now is only a place for a few days’ visit. “In Gavdos time doesn’t make you nervous, everything moves differently. The simplicity is everywhere, in our homes, in our cars, in our clothes, in the visits we will trade with friends. Gavdos is not fashionable, but she has a style of her own, which is unique,” Efi Georgaka said, adding that in this place freedom is felt in every breath of yours. The daily life of the 46-year-old woman also has its intense difficulties, associated with the fact that there is no daily ferry connection on the island in the winter mainly, due to the weather and the prohibitions. “While we are not deeply concerned if there are some days that we will be left without any goods, however our anxiety is great if there is a need for medicines that our practice does not have, or if someone needs hospital care,” says Efi Georgakas who has had to face the need to transport her child to a hospital in Crete, amid a ban and other difficulties. “You learn to live and be calm, to be proactive and to try to be ready in front of every difficulty,” Mrs. Georgakas, who stated happy that her steps led her to this place, in which she managed to build a new personality, become another woman and try to become the mother she always wanted to be. “I work hard in the house, help the animals we have, in the tavern we keep, I work in the edition of ferry tickets and I like to deal with the public through the Cultural Association. I’m not saying it’s a restful and useless life and because our homes don’t have any extra luxury, often fatigue is intense,” she says, adding that as many times as members of her family or friends from Athens have visited her, even if they can’t understand how she decided to change her life, in the end they manage to realize, that there she found her personal happiness. Woman, mother, partner, worker, Efi Georgaka knows well that the choice of her life was this place, which in some may seem like isolation especially in winter, but for her very place, the place she did the greatest for her, revolution. “The biggest revolution that could happen today is that each of us can change their way of life. To leave beyond all unnecessary and return to nature. Man today has a great lack of contact with nature and this makes them all sick,” said Efi Georgaka, who this year on the World Women’s Day, made her report and wrote in her diary that “in this place, a sunny day can warm up and illuminate, whatever cold and dark thought, every woman who dares to believe in herself and live with courage.”
46 year old left Athens for Gavdos and feels he is “in another dimension”
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in Greece