Or, how does a Jewish girl from Skokie end up in a penthouse in Athens?

Who would have thought when I told my husband I wanted to buy a little pied-a-terre in his hometown, Athens, Greece, that I’d end up with the greatest accidental career of my life? Born and raised in Chicago, my love for travel was evident early on. Perhaps it was my arrival in the world, early one December morning, way quicker than my siblings had, in fact so quick we were still enroute to the hospital, and I still hold the title of youngest patient ever admitted to that north suburban hospital! (And thus, as a Sagittarius, characteristically smitten with wunderlust). I traveled my home country extensively with my family as a child, and was fortunate to have parents who encouraged us to study a second language young. While my language of choice as a child was French, my culture of choice was Greek. My earliest jobs were always in Chicago’s Greek diners, my university days filled with hours playing backgammon in the cafeteria with my Greek friends, and my Eurail passes always started and ended my European backpacking holidays in Greece.

Falling in Love

So no one was surprised when I met Basil, a romantic writer but practicing translator and linguist, born and bred in Athens, but transplanted to Chicago, fell in love, and married him. While our life in Chicago was full, rehabbing a warehouse we purchased to house ourselves, our son and our growing Greek translation agency, I longed to plant some roots for our family in Basil’s hometown. A small studio overlooking Mount Lykavittos was to be our Athens crash pad, but thanks to what seemed then an unfortunate turn of events, our home in Athens ended up being the beautiful Athens First Luxury Duplex. Larger than we had planned, offering it as a short term furnished rental seemed the logical way to afford it. Little did we realize that it would become so popular we’d be sleeping on friends’ couches rather than in our own Athens home!