This wasn’t the plan: how travelling to Greece changed my life

AKA a story about life changing events that simply happen and turn everything upside down, and why the only constant is change.

I never planned to move to Greece, but life has a funny way of rearranging things for you

“Why Greece? Why Rhodes?” – that’s by far the question I’ve been getting the most from everyone in the last three years.

People assume I moved to Greece after years of dreaming about sunsets over the Aegean, feta at every meal, dancing sirtaki barefoot on a terrace somewhere, or because I met a Greek guy during a holiday.
Cute, yes, romantic, but… not true.
(Spoiler alert: there might be a Greek guy involved to an extent at some point, but that’s not the reason I ended up here.)

As much as I’ve always loved Greece – my high school obsession was to be a reincarnated ancient Greek princess – I didn’t come here searching for a forever home. I came for a month, maybe two. Just like I’d done for years in Southeast Asia – especially in Bali, my second home and my base as a digital nomad.

My life was already full and fluid back then, changing constantly, shifting as I shifted. I thought Greece would just be another stop, not a life changing event.

But then again, life change rarely asks for permission.
And that’s probably the best part of it: to evolve, we don’t need perfect plans. Just the courage to stay open.

The first Greek chapter: Crete, lockdowns and unfinished business

After COVID, I wanted to stay a little closer to home than Asia – you know, just in case the world flipped upside down again. So in Autumn 2020 I spent a few months in Crete, and I wish I could tell you I spent them swimming daily, island hopping, exploring every corner of the towns I lived in.

Well, I did that for the first half… but the second half was all indoors. Lockdown, again. Curfew. Closed cafés and shops. Rain. Empty streets. Definitely a quieter experience than I expected.

Something inside me started whispering:
You’ll come back properly, one day.
And I did.

An unexpected turning point

Fast-forward to the beginning of 2022.

After spending a few more months in Bali, I went back to Italy to close an energy-draining life chapter and I immediately started thinking where I should go next. Bali would have been the easy choice, but I kept hearing that whisper inside that told me I should go back to Greece. I finally chose to follow the mantra I know so well: the only constant is change.

I decided to pick up where I left off in Crete, but flights for the Spring were ridiculously expensive. So I did something extremely rational and scientific (that you will totally understand if you’re a digital nomad or just an avid traveller): I opened Skyscanner – flights to Greece, and filtered by lowest price.

And there was my destination.

Rhodes: 8€ flight.
Apartment: 300€ for a month.

I booked it in less time than it takes to eat a gluten free pita.

“I’ll stay a month and see how I feel”, I told myself.

I stayed three. And it was only the beginning.

Rhodes: the island I didn’t choose, but chose me

During those first months, I discovered that Rhodes was more than beaches and hotels full of tourists. It was a place with potential, especially for people who worked remotely. A place with a big expat community, a multifaceted destination that could spark creativity and inspiration. The perfect ground for a multipotentialite like me, always ready to grab the chance that could change my life (whether I want it or not).

So during the summer, from Italy, I proposed a project to a hotel in Rhodes, dedicated to digital nomads.
They said yes.
And just like that, I returned that autumn to spend the winter here.

Life was rearranging the map, gently but steadily.

Then Athens, and the unforeseen turn of the heart

In April 2023, I visited Athens for a solo weekend. The plan? Visit as much as I could, climb up the Acropolis (a lifelong dream coming true), eat gluten free Greek food as if there’s no tomorrow, and basically follow my feet around the city.

Little did I know that during that trip I would have met Nikos (thank you Tinder!), who made his way to my heart thanks to the best-planned-first-date ever: a glass of an amazing Greek wine drunk from a bar overlooking the Acropolis. No wonder that he is my partner in life since then (and business too).

Timing is strange, isn’t it? One weekend, a few months of long distance relationship, and suddenly I was thinking of moving to Athens, not Rhodes, even though at the time I was considering the idea of opening a coworking space on the island.

But the Universe had one more plot twist ready.

A new business, a new life

During our first Christmas together, while working on our vision board for the following year, an idea landed between Nikos and I – simple but strong:

There is no 100% gluten free place in Rhodes.
And I am intolerant to gluten.
So… why don’t we build it?

And that was it – like lightning clarity.
Sometimes you just need a spark, right?

Within just a few months, everything flipped again:
instead of me moving to Athens, it was Nikos who moved to Rhodes. We built a business from scratch, and in May 2024 we opened Rhodes Gluten Free, our 100% gluten free cafe.

Our first home together. Our first business together. A whole new chapter: fast, intense, beautiful, terrifying and absolutely right.

From digital nomad to expat entrepreneur.
From roaming to rooted.
From copywriter to baker, barista, manager and everything in between. (And by the way, I’m still a copywriter too.)

My life changed all over again, because sometimes you don’t change your life.
You just follow the path, and it changes for you.

If you look back, didn’t you have the same experience at least once in your life?

So how did I end up in Greece?

Not by planning.
Not by searching.
But by saying yes – to the cheap flight, to the unexpected island, to the man I met by chance, to the business idea that arrived like a spark, to this strange and wonderful belief that life changes you when you let it.

Moving to Greece wasn’t the goal, but it became the story.

And now I’m here, building a life, a business, a home.
Connecting with local and expat community, learning every day, living abroad with a chronic condition (yes, that too), sharing my story to let you know that you’re not alone, rediscovering myself constantly.

Because honestly? This is what happens when you trust change instead of fearing it.
The only constant is change.
And thank goodness for that.

p.s. if you want to know why I said that my life changed again… well, let me know in the comments and I will tell you that story too!