Life is empty without love and friendship; therefore I can say that mine has been quite full.

I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t decided to follow my boyfriend who pursued his dream in the UK. What would have happened if I had said “no” to my first night out at a Greek live gig in Nottingham, where I met Tonia, my first friend in the UK.

Then I wouldn’t have lived four fantastic years in Nottingham with a group of special friends, each of them adding their own unique colour to my life. This book is a tribute to Nikos, Tonia, Panos, Thomas, Lefteris, Eliza, Sophia and Joseph, who every one of them provided me with beautiful memories full of joy, squeals and laughter.

The beginning of this exceptional world had been set one grey, rainy afternoon at Panos’s and Tonia’s house, when we decided to play the popular game “The night falls in Palermo”. It was that moment when while drinking coffee and eating homemade cherry pie, I saw my friends transforming into a story’s protagonists.

Yet, you must be wondering, why did Kouramades was chosen as the location where the game would take place? It’s a small, traditional village of Corfu that is almost unknown to the world, apart from the island’s residents. The reason behind this is the countless nights with Lefteris and Eliza in out little hideout, where they used to recount their childhood stories, with the residents of the village and themselves being the main characters. This is when I realised that I began to picture, but also feel familiar with a place that I have never visited, not even for holidays!

Every single of their stories was so crazy that one would start to consider this place as a piece of their imagination, although it was as real as it could get. So, not much was needed for a coexisting world to start developing in my mind, with people that I know as the main protagonists. Therefore, during my last melancholic May in Nottingham, I decided to give myself a present. I started to travel every night through the pages of my book and create an ostensibly “scary” world, where each of us would meets their limits, become winners within a journey of roleplay, whilst relationships would grow stronger or completely break apart due to the difficulties.

So in real life, we might be fighting every day, but in our own way, we always end up as winners, and for me, my friends are the true winners.