30th May

Funny day. Sad but also happy. We have to pack our bags and get ready to fly back to our country, to our families, to our lives.

We leave District 1050 and have the best memories from our journey here. Many people we met, everybody was most friendly and all of our hosts were as hospitable as anyone can ever be. Never again had we received so much love and interest by people we previously did not know and this is something we can never forget. This month was absolutely helpful for us; we are just young professionals and the contact with colleagues was a unique experience.

Thank you all in District 1050, you have been best hosts and we certainly feel like friends now. All our wishes for the best in your life.

We would also like to thank our District 2481 for giving us the opportunity to be part of this programme. We cannot be thankful enough for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity you have offered us.

Panos
Vasilis
Zacharias

29th May

Today we visited Chatsworth, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Hugeeee. We loved the gardens, the maze, everything. Took us almost two hours to walk through the rooms and most of the gardens. I bet we could do better!

In the evening the team was hosted at Ian's and Liz Saunders. It was a warm and friendly night where among others District Governor was present.

28th May

Buxton Cottage Hospital (Berbyshire Health United - is that a Football Club???), small hospital with outpatient clinics and inpatient wards, would rather be a large health centre in my country. Digital xrays, plans to go on PACS, new facilities, the whole building has been recently refurbished. We then visited the Cavendish Hospital in Buxton. Rehabilitation for orthopaedic patients mainly and psychogeriatric ward for dementia patients. I then visited a private surgery of general practitioners. They sure make a lot of use of computers in archiving and communicating with other hospitals and other health professionals. In the evening we were transported back to where we started, Macclesfield. We attended the President's Evening, where the RC Macclesfield had invited many presidents of the district's clubs and the District Governor.

27th May

Handover to Buxton RC. Pavillion Gardens in the centre of the city, lunch with our new hosts, the DG and the Mayor of the city in his funny red robe. Guided tour of the city of Buxton, we saw the natural spa spring, hotels dating back to the medieval times and even older. In the evening it was the final presentation we gave, the farewell eveming meal in the district 1050. We saw a lot of good friends from our previous host clubs, we had the time to chat a little about what have we been doing the last few weeks. Members of the RC Macclesfield, Huslington, Congleton, Jodrell Bank, they were all there to say goodbye. It feels rather odd to realize that a whole month is almost over.

26th May

Vocational day with RC Ashton-under-Lyne. Visited the Psychiatric Department of Tameside Hospital. Dr Noronha showed me the most of the facilities and the way psychiatry is practised in the UK. I also visited drugs and alcohol misuse team where Simon Morton spent an hour explaining both advantages and disadvantages of the practices at present. Early intervention in psychosis team had a lot to share with me. Lots of differences in psychiatric services available between the two countries. Meal with our hosts and in the evening we actually went on a pub crawl (ok, just a small tiny one - two stops!)

25th May

Today we went to an agricultural show, that is the Great Harwood Agricultural show. Holidays combined with sites of vocational interest for one of us (Vas the vet). The others merely saw a sample of dogs and cows, rabbits and owls, pigeons and sheep, bulls and ponies. We had a sandwich and headed towards Lytham to see the windmill. We then went to Blackpool, the Vegas of the North (sic) to see the famous tower. Seagulls flying above our heads, droppings landing all around us, it was a walk on those piers we will not forget!!! We dinned in an italian restaurant and returned home literally exhausted.

24th May

Morning walk to the Bramhall Park in Stockport for Panos with his host. Beautiful peaceful places just a minute away from the city. These people are lucky to have such lovely escapes under their feet!

Afterwards the team was gathered and went to the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Manchester accompanied by the rotarian Kiriakos Pissarides. The church is actually one of the oldest greek churches in England, even before the one of London. It felt somewhat good to see all those greeks, completely strangers to me of course, smiling and wishing us well.

We then were handed over to RC Ashton-under-Lyne. Panos and Vasilis had a wonderful walk in the reservoirs of Dove Stone Peak District National Park. Hundreds of people out in the countryside, as the weather was exceptional and tomorrow is a national holiday for the UK (Bank Holiday).

23rd May

Final day with RC Hazel Grove and they decided to take us for a tour on a double decker of the past! We drove all the way from Stockport to Manchester city and went to the transport museum. A fine collection of ooooold buses it was!

In the afternoon Robert Cryer and I went to the Lyme Park where the "Pride and Prejudice" series was filmed. The forest there is owned by the National Trust, there is a protected area for red deers and I got to take a photo of some of them.

In the evening Aris Tsalikis gathered us all for a barbeque night at his place. It was fantastic and we had the chance to talk to a lot of people in a more relaxed atmosphere.

22nd May

The whole team was taken by many members of the RC Hazel Grove to the Blue John cavern in Castleton. Did you know that no John was ever involved in the naming of the mines? It is a misinterpreted french "blue yellow" (bleu jaune) because those french miners discovered the blue-yellowish rock in that mines some hundreds years ago. Afterwards we went to the largest reservoir of the area, Derwent reservoir at the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire. Unfortunately the skies were pouring down and we could not enjoy a walk by the lake (yes, the lovely photo is "fake", I was not prepared to get my camera soaking wet!!!)

At night we had some delicious dinner in a Mediterranean restaurant with many members of the RC Hazel Grove. I think that Mediterranean cuisine tastes somewhat different up here!!!

21st May

Vasilis had another vocational day @ Cheshire Pet Medical Holmes Chapel. Panos and Zac had slightly a different day! Beeston Castle, Peckforton Castle (hotel actually). We visited Port Sunlight with the exceptional Lady Lever Art Gallery - that Lever guy had an awful lot of money to make such gifts to his wife!!!

Yet the best of this day was the joint dinner meeting at Deanwater Hotel. Both the greek and the english teams gave their presentations to the RC Hazel Grove. We were most pleased to hear that the english team had a great time in our country and found the greek hospitality to be unique. Jon spotted quite right two main cultural differences: our driving skills and our relationship to food!!!

20th May

Liverpool tour by the RC Jodrell Bank. Beautiful city (sorry Manchesterians but it is true). We got onto the yellow duckmarine, for an amphibian tour of an hour!!! We wandered around a little, saw a few shops in the Albert Dock area. Visited an exhibition about ships, world wars, and even practised in identifying the criminals in a port (talking about interactive museums!!).

Lusitania disaster in 1915: "The German Government claimed that Lusitania was carrying military supplies and there is some evidence to support this". Strange how different nations and countries change roles in less than a century... (the States, the UK and the rest of the "coalition of the willing" indifferently whistle here)...

The Slavery Museum was astonishing, I was left speechless: "It tells how Europeans have benefited from slavery". Made me wonder whether contemporary people are free at all or is it that slavery still exists in a more diverse and entrenched form.

19th May

Vocational day. Vasilis visited Wilson MacWilliam's practice.He attended many operations and learnt a different technique in cruciate ligament's repair. I visited Tarporley Health Centre with Nicky Wallace who is a nurse practitioner, a profession non-existent in Greece. Afterwards I went to Warrington General Hospital where I met the Early Intervention in Psychosis Team, led by David Hindley. Andrew Wallace took me to some racing grounds, Oulton Park, where I saw some very fast racing motorbikes. In the evening we gave our presentation at the Rising Sun pub, the place where RC Tarporley attends their meetings. The room was overcrowded (I would say that our presentation has become very popular in the UK - we may start as well thinking of issuing tickets!!!) but everyone was very friendly and we had a great evening overall.

18th May

Tarporley. New RC for this week. We went to North Wales, passed the Bodnant Gardens and saw some different villages and places. Unfortunately the weather was not so good. The Great Orme must have been the most windiest place I have ever been and the altitude was just 207m above sea level. Great scenery but don't ask me what the names of the villages were, I could not even read it, let alone remember them... Ll's and dd's, it's all greek to me!!! Here we go: Aqueduct of Y Waun, Coedwig Gwydyr, Betws y Coed, Y Gogarth, Llandudno, Conwy. I hope I got it all down right!

15th-17th May

In the morning we had a guided tour to the city of Nantwich, the host city of the week. We then had lunch and departed for Chester, where we stayed in a 3-star hotel near the train station, no more than 5 minutes on foot from the centre of the city. Lovely city with nice shops. Vasilis and Panos paid their dues to the local market indeed! We had the time and weather permitting we walked all the way round the city on the walls (some parts from the roman period some parts quite new -17th century). Nightlife was much of a disappointment for the Greeks though. Rb's ("rosie's"), Watergate, Havana, Level 2, poor quality sound, very few people in the bars, lots of stoned youngsters in the streets. We thought that Cruise could be somewhat different, but unfortunately we weren't "smart enough" and did not pass the face control!!! Shame on you!

14th May

Today we left the country. We went to Wales!!! Bodnant Garden was the place we visited with some friends rotarians from RC Knutsford. Fascinating, gorgeous plants and landscapes. It all comes with the proper price though! We had to spend 5,5 hours in the car to get there and back!!! It was fun, Vasilis and Panos got the chance to sleep and rest a bit.