The Sunday Getaway - 24 09 2023 - Bacchanal

Would you ever consider swapping your modern life in the city for a more rustic and rural outpost? You know, the kind of question that always crops up when on vacation somewhere off your usual grid and witnessing locals tending to their slow-paced life. "Where would you go?" a friend asks as we bucolically devour a succulent piece of meat at this renowned taverna in the outskirts of Athens.

A few years back, a bunch of young buys?found ourselves on a quest on the Aegean grid hopping from one island to the next. We reach Amorgos and take the road up to Chora to meet a friend who works there for the summer season, his third in a row. It's still 2008 so the island has a rough and remote feel to it, much more pure than what it is today. Our friend, a full-time banker in London where some of us also live at the time, ditched a successful career abroad for a more simple life next to the sea. He comes out of the kitchen of this all-day café he works at,?catches his?breath from a busy, scorching August day shift and shares with us a quick coffee while standing.

We go on about our day, roaming around the mountainous slopes next to the deep blue sea, occasionally thinking about how life would be here.?At night, we go back to Jazzmin café which is already packed with a convivial crowd and loud music. Drinks are in order, we gradually meet the rest of the gang tending the bar and the night surely gives way to a more festive, bacchanal mood. Little do we care about London, a lucrative career and a fast-paced?life.

A thumping rhythm from the loudspeakers sometimes still buzzes at night when my mind travels back to those days. Not because of nostalgia, but of the different perspective that such experiences bring to your everyday life. And surely the elevated views from the mountainous slopes of Amorgos.This time I'm looking at them from afar in Ios,?as we're driving back from the beach occasionally looking east outside the?window.

A more downtempo thumping rhythm plays in the background and later on blows up to a full playlist - our Bacchanal playlist by Mnáome. A roadtrip soundtrack of two parts: an indolent, downtempo opening to a late summer's afternoon and a more deep, middle-eastern mix for the later hours.

Travel On.

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