Violetta came to Greece in 1994, following the love of her life – It wasn’t easy, but when you’re with the one you love, everything is more beautiful”
The cold has begun to pierce the clothes and become aggressive. Early December and the “naked” Grammos looks ready to face any “game” of the snow. The smell of hot coffee coming and a big smile soften the shiver.
Violeta, the only woman who lives permanently, nine out of the twelve months of the year, in the village of Grammos, will say “Welcome to them” and open her heart to us.
The historic village of Greece, which comes to life in the spring and summer with a handful of livestock farmers, but also walkers who want to see the ridges of the historic mountain and its alpine lakes.
For Violetta, the view of the mountain is what compensates her and the love of her husband is what keeps her happymakes her able to face all the difficult conditions of the “wild” mountain, even when she came face to face with bears.
Thirty years in the snowy Grammos
“I came to Grammos about 30 years ago. Back then we still lived in huts, next to the stables. It wasn’t easy, but when you are with the one you love, everything is more beautiful” she will say and turn the clock back to 1992, when she met her husband in Kortsa.
“He had come to Kortsa for a visit and I saw him, it was love at first sight,” Violetta will reveal, speaking to the Athenian/Macedonian News Agency.
From the city and the skiing she did then, at the age of 23, in Albania, Violeta Pinxa decided to leave everything behind and follow George, choosing to live, for most of the year, as a cattle breeder in his mountain village Grammos, at an altitude of 1380 meters. A village, which winter meets very early, with the snow many times even exceeding two meters.
“Snow never scared me, I remember seven years ago, it snowed so much, that to transport the animals (250 cows), we had to walk a lot in the snow. George was cool. We had a young employee who was very scared. He says: “now here we will stay”. I replied that this is not possible. “And how are we going to leave?” it tells me. George took the jeep and opened the road. I followed him a few kilometers on foot, walking through the snow, so that the animals, my little angels, would follow me. That’s how we do it. You open the way for them and they follow. They come to you with the smell and follow you,” says Violeta.
The meeting with the bears
The snow does not deter her, but neither do the wild animals of the mountain, even the bears she has encountered many times.
“If you see a bear, you don’t talk. You stay cool. You see it and it goes away, the living takes its course. Only if it has young can it become dangerous, if it fears that they are in danger. Many times we have seen bears and entire families, very close. The last time we were in the car and we weren’t scared, we stopped. He looks at you and leaves. She doesn’t do anything” says Violetta with complete composure, she is not afraid of the bears, nor the wolves, nor the other wild animals of the mountain, nor the loneliness that a woman who would not have a friend in a place where he lives. She has learned to live and manage a male-dominated settlement, as the only woman roaming within it.
“I don’t miss not having female company. In the summer, a woman comes to help me at the hostel, and sometimes the president of the settlement, who is also a cattle breeder, also comes here,” he says and adds: “I drink coffee and talk to my husband. In the summer we also have people, so the time passes quickly.”
In Greece for a better life
Violeta came permanently to Greece in 1994. The first years were not easy. In addition to the difficult working and weather conditions on the mountain, she also had to face the suspicion of the others who considered her, as she says, an “opportunist”.
“When I met George and decided to follow him, I discussed it with my family and explained to them how I felt. I followed him for a better life, not financially better as some thought, but a life with the man I loved. We have been here since 1995. George was a livestock farmer. I didn’t know much about animals, but I learned. If you feel like it, you learn everything and decide. We also had sheep back then. Every day I woke up at 5.00 in the morning, to feed them, to milk them and so on. I also had chickens. Everything is fine” he will say and remember when they had to transport the animals for many kilometers on foot, before they began to transport them entirely by trucks.
“From Parga, where we go for three to four months in the heavy winter, we now transport all the animals to Grammos by trucks, but once, 10-15 years ago, we traveled some distance by trucks and some distance on foot. We also stayed in a village near Eptachori, for two or three days, so that the animals could rest and then we started again”, Violeta, now 56, will remember.
Today, her life seems to be much easier. She helps her 69-year-old husband with everything he needs with the cows, but is more concerned with the guest house they built, as she says, stone by stone, with their own hands.
“It took us about twenty years to make the hostel. At the beginning we did the cafe which is also a grill together. Then we started the hostel. We were collecting the stones from the mountain. We finally made it. Today we have nine rooms” he says proudly.
“Grammos is my life”
After mid-December, Violeta Pinxa and Giorgos Sourlas will transport their animals to Parga. There they will be kept in pens until April, when they will return back to their beloved Grammos. “This is Switzerland” says Giorgos about Grammos, which for Violeta is life itself.
“This is life, my life,” the 56-year-old will typically say. “In the winter I find an opportunity and rest a little. I also go abroad, but my mind is back, it is here. I am in love with this mountain and I wish all women to live what I live” she concludes.
Source: Skai
I have worked as a journalist for over 10 years, and my work has been featured on many different news websites. I am also an author, and my work has been published in several books. I specialize in opinion writing, and I often write about current events and controversial topics. I am a very well-rounded writer, and I have a lot of experience in different areas of journalism. I am a very hard worker, and I am always willing to put in the extra effort to get the job done.
