Why Should You Do A Season Abroad?

I'm feeling so nostalgic this week. This time last year, exactly to the day, I was wondering along the strip in Sidari for the first time, tucking into my first prawn and mussel carbonara and spending the evening watching the beautiful sunset.

And where am I today? I've been at work and spinning.





It's really easy to get graduation goggles when reminiscing about something, but it really was an incredible experience that I would recommend to everyone. Even when I was beyond hungover having to go around and work, or couldn't deal with moving in the 35+ degree heat, it still was the best decision I ever made. And also, doing the summer led me on to doing Lapland, which was my aim all along.

I have written before about what I did during my stay, but as I was feeling so blooming nostalgic today I wanted to write a wee post about why you should do it.

- Whilst you don't really gain any money from doing a season (summer in particular) you're travelling around for free. In this day and age everyone and their dog seems to want to travel, so you may as well do it for free, right? I got my flights paid for, in Greece some of my accommodation came out of my wages, but it was like a chunk, and I still got paid a reasonable amount that was basically enough to live on. I also got given a car (if you can call it that) that I was allowed to use, petrol reimbursed and to go on most of the trips we had to sell. If this isn't a great experience I don't know what is to be honest. How many other times in my life am I going to get the chance to go to Albania?



- You will meet SO many different people from so many different walks of life that you wouldn't meet in England. I know when you go to Uni you meet different people, but the majority of those are going to be people that are, well, at Uni. When you're taken to a different country, you meet so many people with different backstories - gone to Uni, didn't go to Uni, moved to Greece 14 years ago, lived all over the world, touring in a band, originally from Greece... the list could go on! It's great to meet people that you wouldn't normally be forced to live/work/party with in a normal life.



- You will have a ridiculous amount of fun. Like crazy fun. And not always involving alcohol, though lets be honest it often is. When I decided I wanted to do a season I knew I didn't want to do it in a place like Kavos, Magaluf or Malia etc etc. I just wanted to have some fun, look after people that weren't always teenagers on their first holiday abroad but still make sure they had a great time. Sure, don't get me wrong I've heard from other people that party seasons are great fun - it's just not what I wanted. But I still had a great time! Going out on the strip always ended up doing something different, meeting different people and invariably ended up with me eating a lot of chips from the local chippy (aka my local haunt). I did flyfish, doughnuts and the weird sitty down thing watersports, went paragliding, drove in a foreign country, went to Aqualand, went on boat cruises and had an interesting night out in Kavos. I wouldn't have got to do any of these things otherwise.



- You get to visit different places too. Most of the people on my training went to somewhere either in Spain or Greece, and to be honest I was so happy I got sent to Greece as I'd never been before. I originally got told I would be going to Parga but got moved to Corfu last minute, and I'd never really heard much about it before. But I didn't just stay in Corfu for the 5 months. I went to Albania, Parga and Paxos. I also went to some really lovely beach in mainland Greece that I cannot remember the name of, it begins with an 's'? I also explored the whole of the island and found the gem that is Paleokastristas - Google it.



- You learn different skills. Aside from the obvious driving abroad, before I left I had never sold anything, I'm not gonna lie and say that when I finished I was a sales pro, but it's good to know I can do it if I have to. I also learnt a very little bit of Greek: Kalimera, tikkanis? and grew in confidence so much. I flew from Southampton to Edinburgh just before I left and I was absolutely terrified. After flying to and from Corfu twice and flying from Gatwick to Helsinki and Helsinki to Kittila and returning I am much more confident with flying. Also much more confident with meeting strangers at airports and starting new adventures with them haha.


So that's it! I cannot put into words how much I would recommend it (and how bitter I am that I'm not doing it this year) even if just for one year. I did it once I'd finished Uni for a bit of a break before settling down and I'm so glad I did. Not only did it get me out of London - which I desperately needed at the time - it got me to be so much more adventurous.



If you have any questions comment, tweet, email me, whatever!