Ever caught yourself scrolling Greek property listings, wondering what it would be like to trade your commute for cobblestones, donkeys and Aegean light? In this episode of A Grown Up’s Gap Year – The Podcast, I sit down with award-winning artist Desiree Prinsloo, who divides her time between Sydney and the Greek island of Hydra. After her husband died and an 'untangling' unspooled in the aftermath, she reached a point where nothing was really holding her back. One night, browsing houses in Greece and Italy, she thought, why not? – and left Australia soon after. A few years on Desiree has restored a small hillside house (no cars, everything by mule), keeping it simple – raw wood, whitewashed walls, island light – and built a life that looks suspiciously like the fantasy most of us reserve for 'someday'. Her term for this season? Middle-youth. We talk about what really sits behind a “Greek island reset”: the grief, the paperwork, the budgets and the bravery; daily swims, mountain herbs and the hillside steps that “if they don’t kill me, keep me alive”; plus her best practical advice if you’re dreaming of “a house somewhere else” but don’t know where to start. Perfect if you’re mid-life, mildly exhausted, and secretly googling “Greek island house for sale” between Zoom calls.

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