Yesterday and Tomorrow

140 × 210 SPINE: 12 FLAPS: 80

DIMITRIS KOTZIAS

I

n a time of rapid political change and social unrest in Greece in the early sixties, a young man leaves Athens to study in Germany. He leaves the people and places he loves in search of something new, something different in a world unknown to him. The bond to his loved ones and the place where he grew up is so strong that there is no doubt about his decision after reaching his goal, namely to return back home.

DIMITRIS KOTZIAS

And yet things take a different turn ....

Vatatzi 55, 114 73 Athen ΤEL. : +30210 6431108 E-MAIL: ekdoseis.ocelotos@gmail.com www.ocelotos.gr

0_cover_yesterday.indd 1

Yesterday and Tomorrow

ISBN 978-960-564-800-8

Yesterday

and

Tomorrow NOVEL

Dimitris Kotzias was born in Athens in 1946. He studied chemistry at the University of Bonn where he did his doctoral dissertation. He worked at the Institute of Ecological Chemistry at the Helmholtz Centre for Environment and Health in Munich and then at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, initially at the Institute of the Environment and later at the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection. Founding member and for many years President of the Mediterranean Scientific Association of Environmental Protection (MESAEP). He has published about 250 papers and reports in scientific journals.

In the last five years Dimitris Kotzias has written three books (novels). Days left, Days to come (in Greek and German, 2013, 2016), The Ideal Candidate (in Greek, 2015). His last novel Days in September has been published in both Greek (2017) and under the title Days in Autumn in English (2018). The present book, entitled Yesterday and Tomorrow, is the translation of his first book, Days left, Days to come.

All his works are published by Ocelotos Editions (www.ocelotos.gr, Athens).

ο c ε lotο ς Ε D I TI O N S

e-mail: dkotzias10@gmail.com

7/1/2019 11:12:14 AM

DIMITRIS KOTZIAS

Yesterday and

Tomorrow

Title Yesterday and Tomorrow Translation From The Greek Edition Μέρες που έφυγαν, μέρες που έρχονται

Author Dimitris Kotzias

Translation - Correction Jacqueline Ryder Layout - Design Myrtilo, Lena Pantopoulou

Copyright© 2019 Dimitris Kotzias

First Edition Athens, July 2019 ISBN 978-960-564-800-8

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of the author and of Ocelotos Publications.

Vatatzi 55, 114 73 Athen ΤEL.

: +30210 6431108

E-MAIL:

ekdoseis.ocelotos@gmail.com

www.ocelotos.gr

In memory of my parents

Unforgettable days, some happy, others full of sadness. Stages of life that resemble fickle winds, leaving indelible, fateful tracks in the past, determining the present and the future.

Part one 1

“H

ow are you, Jorgos?” His father’s voice sounded strange on the phone. A mixture of interest and curiosity. “Have you finished everything? Is it cold there?” A cold shower hit him suddenly. It was the first phone call with his family after arriving in Germany. He immediately thought of the moment of departure at Athens train station where he had boarded the train to Bonn three days earlier.

This image would stay in his mind forever. His father had hugged him tightly and pressed him to his chest with all his strength. He had not wanted to let him go, as if he would never see him again. Farther back, his mother had waited a bit impatiently to say goodbye to him, while at the age of twelve Takis, his little brother, had been almost casually following the “spectacle” that was offered to him.

His aunt Kati and her cousin Angelika had been the most upset of all, considering the tears that sometimes ran down their aged faces - they were already over seventy. They had been talking to each other about their fears over the great journey of “little Jorgos” - he was only eighteen years old. Without children, despite their efforts, and without men, since they had died several years ago, Jorgos was their pride and joy. A beautiful child and a good student who they needed to chat with while playing cards with their girlfriends. The last in the small 9

“society” had been his friend Antonis, who was like a brother to him, always together in good and bad times.

“Jorgos, are you still there?” His father’s voice tore him out of his thoughts. Quickly and without superfluous words he said that he was well, that it was cold and that he had found a good room with the help of his friend from Greece. At the end he wanted to talk to his mother. “Be careful, it’s a foreign land” were his father’s last words before he passed the phone to his wife Elefteria. She asked Jorgos immediately “if everything was alright with his clothes” and asked him to buy a warmer sweater so he would not get cold. On his mother’s last words the line fell, something “which often happens with connections to Greece”, the postal worker later told him. He hung up the phone. “Terrible these connections”, he thought and slowly came out of the phone booth. It was about ten in the evening and it was bitterly cold. Only a few people were still on the street at this hour.

He pulled the zip of his jacket up to his neck and made his way to his room in an old three-storey house in the Old Town. The area was fairly quiet and mostly inhabited by workers and clerical staff. Simple people, uncomplicated and also very helpful to foreigners. In Greece he had heard and read a great deal about the Germans; that they were unfriendly and that they regarded strangers, especially those who came from southern Europe, as people who were unable to adapt to their society and the demands of a life largely based on rules and regulations. Still, his first experiences with these simple people in his area were very positive. On the second afternoon after his arrival in Bonn, the woman from the upper floor invited him for coffee and cake and asked him if he needed anything.

Mrs. Maria was about fifty years old and her husband, a worker in a factory outside Bonn, was of the same age. They had two children who were already married and lived in a small village about an hour from the city. Of course, he talked with 10

Mrs. Maria and her husband about Greece. “There is certainly not enough work in Greece, so many Greeks are coming to work here”, said Mrs. Maria. Her husband agreed, saying that there were many Greeks in the factory where he is employed, that they were hardworking and learned to speak German quickly, even though the language was not very easy.

These thoughts and images went through his mind as he approached the Old Town. He stopped at the door of the house for a few seconds and searched for the keys in his pockets. Just at that moment the door suddenly opened and a young lady with short blond hair came out, mumbling hurriedly “Good evening” and disappearing with fast steps in the dim light of the street. He hardly saw her face in the hurry. He went in and quickly climbed the stairs to the three-room apartment he was sharing with two other students, a Turk and a German, on the second floor. The kitchen and toilet were in common. There was no bath. Fortunately, the communal bath facility, where one could have a shower for the price of one mark, was close by, about five minutes from the house, as the apartment owner told him, very convincingly praising the “prime” location of the room.

11

2

T

he building for the enrollment of new students at Bonn University was located in the city centre. Jorgos felt a bit embarrassed as he passed through the large entrance of the neo-classical building and paused for a minute at the beginning of the long corridor with offices on one side and a succession of windows facing the street on the other. A throng of young people with papers in their hands went into the offices and came out again, others argued with each other, gesticulating in one direction or the other. “They’re also ‘freshmen’ like me”, he realised. He saw an elderly woman coming out of one of the offices and quickly asked her where the foreign students enrollment office was. “Office No. 10”, she answered.

He went to office No. 10. “For foreigners” and the name “Mr. Günther” were on the sign on the door. He knocked softly and waited a few seconds until he heard a voice, obviously from Mr. Günther, asking him to come in. Mr. Günther, about fifty-five years old, slowly lifted his head from some papers, put his glasses aside and asked him with a smile what he wanted.

He explained that he had just arrived from Greece, that he wanted to study chemistry and that he had all the necessary documents with him. Mr. Günther asked politely where he had learned German so well and if he had attended the German Gymnasium. Jorgos informed him that he had attended several courses at the German school and at various private institutes in Athens. He handed him the high school diploma 12

from the Greek Gymnasium, which had already been translated into German and certified.

Mr. Günther pointed to a small sofa opposite his desk and asked him to sit down there. He put his glasses back on and began to carefully review both the high school diploma and the German translation. Jorgos waited apathetically for the result of this procedure. “Basically”, he thought, “I know what he’s going to tell me. That the Greek Abitur is not recognised by the university, and that I have to have additional lessons at a German high school for some time to end up with a high school diploma equivalent to the German one”. He had already learned all this in Athens and felt that what was happening in that office was a waste of time. Nevertheless, he knew that this procedure was usually necessary.

When he left Mr. Günther’s office, he felt very satisfied. He had done all the necessary papers in Athens, even his father’s certificate for the financial coverage of his study costs, so there would be “no difficulties for his enrollment in the pre-university courses”, as Mr Günther assured him.

Jorgos walked towards the city centre and then into a small café where one could stand at the counter to drink a coffee cheaply. There were many cafés of this kind where housewives, students and staff from the surrounding shops met for a few minutes to drink coffee and quickly exchange a few words. He found it unusual to drink coffee “quickly” and leave immediately. It could not be compared with cafés in Athens, like Giannis’ café in Plaka or Antoniadis’ café on Syntagma Square, where he went every Sunday morning with his father. “The people here”, he thought, “have different habits, a different culture even when drinking coffee”.

It was about half past ten and the city centre was full of people. He liked the crowd. He enjoyed watching people, probably because he was still alone; he had not found any Greeks in Bonn yet. When he finished his coffee as fast as the others, he 13

140 × 210 SPINE: 12 FLAPS: 80

DIMITRIS KOTZIAS

I

n a time of rapid political change and social unrest in Greece in the early sixties, a young man leaves Athens to study in Germany. He leaves the people and places he loves in search of something new, something different in a world unknown to him. The bond to his loved ones and the place where he grew up is so strong that there is no doubt about his decision after reaching his goal, namely to return back home.

DIMITRIS KOTZIAS

And yet things take a different turn ....

Vatatzi 55, 114 73 Athen ΤEL. : +30210 6431108 E-MAIL: ekdoseis.ocelotos@gmail.com www.ocelotos.gr

0_cover_yesterday.indd 1

Yesterday and Tomorrow

ISBN 978-960-564-800-8

Yesterday

and

Tomorrow NOVEL

Dimitris Kotzias was born in Athens in 1946. He studied chemistry at the University of Bonn where he did his doctoral dissertation. He worked at the Institute of Ecological Chemistry at the Helmholtz Centre for Environment and Health in Munich and then at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, initially at the Institute of the Environment and later at the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection. Founding member and for many years President of the Mediterranean Scientific Association of Environmental Protection (MESAEP). He has published about 250 papers and reports in scientific journals.

In the last five years Dimitris Kotzias has written three books (novels). Days left, Days to come (in Greek and German, 2013, 2016), The Ideal Candidate (in Greek, 2015). His last novel Days in September has been published in both Greek (2017) and under the title Days in Autumn in English (2018). The present book, entitled Yesterday and Tomorrow, is the translation of his first book, Days left, Days to come.

All his works are published by Ocelotos Editions (www.ocelotos.gr, Athens).

ο c ε lotο ς Ε D I TI O N S

e-mail: dkotzias10@gmail.com

7/1/2019 11:12:14 AM