My parents never intended on moving back home, as Australia had been their home since they migrated and were raising a family.
My dad, however, always longed for a holiday house and began building one on a waterfront block in the village of Agia Pelagia. My siblings and I considered ourselves privileged as we had been on holidays to Kythera several times as children.
"I was born and raised in Sydney by Greek parents who immigrated to Australia from the island of Kythera in the late 1960s.
In 1992, when we returned to spend Christmas with my grandparents, my dad stayed behind to finish the house when my mum, brother, sister and I returned to Australia.
As he continued the project, he was convinced that the building was too big for a house and that he should build a small hotel instead. And so he did, but then he couldn't imagine running a business from the other side of the world, so within a week, we all made a life-changing move to Greece. I had just finished the school year, and we arrived in Kythera on Christmas of 1994.
At 12, being on an island with all our grandparents and having fresh memories of holidays here, we couldn't find anything bad to say about moving to Kythera. But this time, we were here permanently and not on holidays, and reality began to sink in.
Life became difficult. When school began, I don't remember loving it much, as switching from English to Greek schooling full-time for all three of us was a challenge. We were used to a very different education system and felt we were thrown in the deep end. There were no extracurricular activities like sports and dancing, which we did back in Australia, and it was more difficult for us to strike up friendships.
In Australia in the 1980s and 1990s, we were proud to be ''wogs'' as we were amongst so many other nationalities who were also proud of their heritage. We fit in just fine as we were taught to respect being in a ''xeni hora'' (foreign land) by our parents, who weren't taken in so smoothly. We did it the Aussie way but also attended Greek school and Greek dancing etc and our parents spoke Greek at home as it was their mother language and that gave us the opportunity to be bilingual from a young age.
We had a massive circle of family and friends in Australia, and I think that was what we missed most when we moved here. And of course, the "system," as we say. You can never stop comparing the two countries. Everything in Australia is done the "right way," but in Greece, it is "who you know" that can help you get it done.
I must say that now, as an adult, I see things differently. I can see why my dad wanted us to ''live'' with our grandparents, to allow us to try flavours they had as kids (yiayia's cheese and voutirotsikouda).
Times have changed. I've been back to Sydney three or four times since we moved, and nothing is the same. People don't have much time for each other, and family gatherings are not like they used to be. Everyone is too busy working to pay off a house, which is nearly impossible to own anymore. So now I don't feel like I missed out.
Aside from my lifelong habit of comparing the two countries, I've never thought about returning to Australia to live. We own a business here, and I would find it difficult to pick up and go when we have put so much of ourselves into it. If it were to get to a point where we couldn't afford to maintain it, I may think of a different future for myself. Right now, my mum, dad, sister and I put a lot of work into running the place, and since tourism is the only thing supporting most of the Greek families, we can only hope things will get better.
Our family-run Pelagia Aphrodite Hotel is a waterfront hotel in one of the seaside villages of Kythera, Agia Pelagia. It initially opened in July 1995 as a 15-room hotel run by my parents and us three kids until we all finished school here on the island, and then each took our separate ways to study on the mainland throughout Greece (Athens, Larisa, Thessaloniki). I've always been chief! But in 2007, when I returned to Kythera after living in Athens for 5 years whilst completing my studies, I took full control.
In 2010, we were already in a crisis and had to decide if we would pull through with the building of the hotel extension. We sort of saw it as a one-way street and decided to go ahead with renovations and the new extension, which was launched in the summer of 2016.
Now, with 26 rooms, we're proud of our family-run business. It gives us great satisfaction to meet so many people worldwide and offer them true Greek hospitality with a touch of Australian perspective, as my parents have experienced the best of both worlds. We have visitors returning year after year and consider them true friends and family. They return to this place that has kept its purity for years and has so much to experience without resembling any other island.
Greece has changed a lot in the past 22 years since we arrived. The first 5-6 years were with the local currency of the drachma. Life was good, people had savings, travelled, went out, had a good quality of life. If you were into the whole economy readings, you were convinced that we lived in a bubble.
The euro came into our lives in 2001-2, and life became very expensive for the average Greek. Greece was a place where nearly everyone owned a roof over their heads, and now people are at risk of losing it all due to loans that were taken when their income was much higher. With the crisis, people just can't make ends meet.
I feel like I have two patrides, and I'm proud of both. But I wouldn't want my kids to be torn between two countries because I felt that way for most of my life. Always comparing. I'm glad I attended school in Australia as I received great foundations. But I will never change the ''filotimo'' which comes naturally, the hospitality and generosity as a Greek, and more specifically for my island; we have a very good quality of life. We eat straight from the land, and all food here has flavour! There is also the feeling of being safe...something you can rarely find anywhere.
I wish for Greece to finally get out of this crisis, which has affected most of the Greek population. I want to stop making the poor poorer and the few rich richer. If there were work opportunities here, ''ta paidia mas'' (our children) wouldn't be leaving. I want the average Greek to stand with his head tall again, with dignity.
