The first thing you want to do post-Quarantine?
We’re in this unprecedented global position of: social distancing, quarantine realities, lockdown laws, while dealing with re-inventing our realities and managing anxiety on a mass scale. Athens Insider asked its social media community “What’s the first thing you want to do when all this over?” Elena Panayides compiles the dreams and desires for that post-quarantine first moment.
Kiss and Hug the Family
We used to complain, nag and pick at them, now family is the ultimate safe harbour, the ones we worry and care for the most, especially if separated by geography and social distancing. The only checking in we can now do, is checking up on our family and friends. According to our Athens Insider Poll, the number one wish amongst our social media followers was to kiss and hug their family members again (once it’s safe to do.) COVID-19’s eradication of contact has undeniably made us appreciate, like never before, the importance of touch and sharing our feelings with those we love and cherish.
Go Out
Unsurprisingly the restrictions on our movement and daily interactions have made us crave getting out of the house and doing what we love to do in the fresh air. Many of our respondents expressed the wish for a long and lazy coffee with friends, a beautiful bike ride, a chance to go to a concert, dance, drink, go shopping and generally be sociable again. One of our readers even wanted to sign up to the gym, clearly those home workouts aren’t doing it for her! Three of you are desperate for haircuts, having seen many failed attempts at home hairdressing, we recommend you wait it out before taking the clippers to your head!
Go to the Beach & Swim
We are a sea and beach-loving nation and our sense of freedom, summer and good times is inextricably linked for many with sand and water-related activities. By Easter, we usually have hit our first Greek island and the brave are in the water trying to entice us in by saying the water is ‘loukoumi’ aka like a Greek delight. One of our follower’s dreams of going ‘somewhere where the sun shines, the sand sparkles and the sea has a greenish blue colour.’
See Friends
We’re learning new ways of connecting with our friends where in is the new out, virtual is the new real, facetime has replaced, well, face time! But there’s only so many digital drinks, DJ nights in bedrooms and cocoon cook clubs we’ll be able to digest, before we crave the joy of speaking in a group without the confused camera switching from person to person, dancing the night away in something other than our pyjamas and having a delicious dinner that doesn’t involve us cooking, cleaning and having to plan the next meal in a few hours. Quite a few of you expressed the plan to stay home for a week post-quarantine end, to see how people react and if all is safe before venturing out yourselves. One person wrote that he wants to stay home and watch movies, as he’s a creature of habit!
Take a Trip
Our travel plans have all been postponed and the only voyages happening are flights of the imagination, but that never stops us from dreaming and planning future escapes. Our fifth most popular response, one of taking a trip makes total sense at a time of #staying home where there’s only armchair inspiration for stuck at home travellers. We can look back at trips and have plenty of time to plan our future journeys, as the travel dream never ends. Thankfully, to fuel our wanderlust we can continue to explore countries, landmarks, culture and experiences virtually and so many ingenious artists are sharing their cultural worlds with us, direct from their living rooms. Some of you expressed the wish to return to Greece, we too can’t wait for our worlds to collide again and until then we’ll keep in close contact with all of you, having these discussions and sharing your and our stories.
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