For my first post of 2008 I have chosen to talk about the 6.5 earthquake that hit Greece on Sunday morning. Many people I know were woken up in their beds by the major aftershock that reached Athens.
And me? I was sound asleep. I slept through an earthquake and only learnt about it when we watched the news. I've been living in Athens for 1.5 years now, and every single time there is a minor rumble I just happen to be away.
The only time I have experienced a tremor happened to me in Cardiff of all places. It was a calm evening and I was sitting on my bed in my university halls writing in my diary. I had my 'mood lighting' on and the wardrobe doors open. For some reason I could never sleep with them closed.
All of a sudden there was a creaking sound and I noticed the wardrobe doors swaying. Then my bed began to gently rock from side to side. It was so bizarre that my mind tried to find a solution to what was happening and came up with: "It must be the wind." About 5 seconds later, all was calm again.
The next morning the news confirmed that indeed a small tremor had hit the previous night and my Californian friend commented that it was just like being back home.
That was it. While many people were awake and scared by the Athens tremors, I was sound asleep. The strange thing is not a single thing was out of place when I woke up, not even the tube of lip balm that I keep standing on the edge of a shelf. Nothing fell over. Not even a drop of water splashed out of my fish's bowl.
A 6.5 richter earthquake hit Greece and there was minimal damage... gotta love that earthquake proof housing!
ps: Reading around, it seems that everyone else in the blog world felt the tremor. I am officially the laziest Athenian blogger. Yay!
2 comments:
You slept through it! That's hilarious. The kid slept through it too. He was mightily miffed that he missed it whereas I wished I had.
I was here during the BIG ONE in 2002 (?) That was really scary. I always experience them with sound. I don't know if anyone else has experienced that. It's like an extremely low whooshing. A second before the tremor Maybe it's just me :-O
I'm so glad your lip balm was ok! lol
I slept through it too...
i'm located on/in the basement level that is built into a hill... i have rock walls.... I think i'm supposed to feel the tremors... or am i? but being in a building/ house that is more than 50 years old should make me feel more secure i guess....zzzzz
:)
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