I fell in love with a Greek waiter on holiday who poured shots in my mouth - now we live together and couldn't be happier

Daily Mail​

8 hours ago

A woman's family holiday became a 'Mamma Mia story' when she found love with the Greek waiter who poured shots in her mouth - and now they've moved in together.
Beth Winstone, 21, from Birmingham, jetted off to Zakynthos, Greece, with her mother and grandma in August 2023 and visited the restaurant her family had gone to every year.
She said she was not looking to find love after coming out of a 'bad' relationship just months earlier, but met Gabriel Alia, 25, while he worked as a waiter at his uncle's restaurant.
Beth said Gabriel took her out for a drink on the third night of her holiday, and she fell in love instantly, meeting with him every day for the remainder of the trip.
But when Beth returned to the UK, she said she got a flight back to Greece only two weeks later to see Gabriel because she didn't want to be apart from him.
The Greek waiter 'asked Beth to be his girlfriend', and the two have been inseparable since, with Beth claiming she has found true love and that Greek men are 'different' to British men.
The content creator said Gabriel bought her drinks and danced with her, helping her to 'get out of her shell' after her breakup.
Beth said: 'In August 2023, my grandad died and my gran had already booked to go to Zante and I booked at the last minute, a month before we were meant to go.
When Beth first met Gabriel, she said she wasn't looking for love because she had just come out a 'bad' relationship
'We went back to [a] restaurant [that the family liked to visit] and that's when we met. I was previously in a relationship, it ended and it mentally destroyed me, it was really bad.
'I had absolutely no expectations in my head, I didn't want to speak to anyone ever again and then that happened.
'When we were in the restaurant, I just sat there oblivious because I wasn't looking for anything.
'He kept trying to speak to me and asked if I ever smiled because apparently I had a moody face.
'It just went from there, he took me out on the third night of the holiday for a drink. After that, we'd see each other every day of the holiday, in the night after he finished work.
'When I got back home, two weeks later I flew back out on my own for five days, because he was still working.
'I came home and two days later at 2am in the morning I bought tickets for a flight from Manchester to Zante at 6am. I surprised him, he didn't know I was going.
'The first time I went back after two weeks he asked me to be his girlfriend, but I was still a bit unsure because of the long distance. But I said yes, obviously.
'It's the way he was with me, he'd make me laugh and stuff and take me out, not what most men do nowadays, he wanted to get to know me and meet my family and stuff, they loved him. It was meant to be.
'Greek men are different from English men, let me tell you that. I definitely had a Mamma Mia story, that's what all my friends said.
'The relationship is getting better and better, we haven't been apart a day since we met. He is the love of my life.'
After going back and forth between Zakynthos and Birmingham, the couple now live together in the UK with Gabriel working for Beth's dad at his scaffolding business.
Beth said: 'I went back to Greece in October with my mum and nan, I quit my job as a waitress and then moved there for a whole week.
'Once summer season finished in Greece he flew back to England with me to meet my dad.
'We moved back to Greece in November, we got a house in Zante, and then after Christmas we decided to move back to the UK because it was really hard for me to find a job there in the winter.
'We tried both and we decided we like it here more. I moved over there just after two months of meeting him but I knew it was something, and it was.
After Christmas, the pair decided to move back to the UK because it was 'really hard' for Beth to find a job in Greece in the winter
Beth said she 'didn't expect to be with a Greek man' - and just thought she was going on holiday with her family
'I absolutely didn't expect to be with a Greek man at all, I was just going on holiday with my mum and gran and my cousin, it all just happened so fast.'
Beth explained that she had been visiting Zante with her family since 2012 and had met Gabriel before when she was younger, but had not recognised him.
Beth posted her and Gabriel's story on social media, in a video that has gathered more than 500,000 views.
One commenter said: 'Greek men are built differently, you'll be together forever.' Another said: 'Marry him and move back to Greece.' A third added: 'I witnessed a true love story.'
It comes after a woman who fell 'madly in love' with a holiday rep during a girls' trip to Turkey moved 2,000 miles to start a new life with him - and now they're planning their wedding.
Erin Milton, 21, was won over by holiday entertainer, Aymen Boudjouraf, 24, during a love-struck trip in September 2022.
Love blossomed after the club rep invited Erin and a pal on a disco bar crawl around the popular southern coastal resort of Antalya on the first day of their trip.
They spent the rest of the holiday together and after returning home 'heartbroken', Erin made the spontaneous decision to quit her university court and move to Turkey just two months later.
After a whirlwind romance, Beth and Gabriel (pictured with Beth's friend) now live together in the UK
The loved up pair are now engaged and living together in Tunisia, Africa. Erin, from Birmingham, said: 'There was an instant connection between me and Aymen. As soon as I got back to the UK, I just didn't feel happy and I just knew that I wanted to be over there with him.
'Now we're engaged and can't wait to start the rest of our lives together.'
After returning home from her £1,000, seven-day holiday, Erin felt 'lost' without her new boyfriend.
The pair spent hours each day on the phone to each other but after two months of separation, Erin, an online English teacher, decided to drop out of her Birmingham City University course.
She plucked up the courage to tell her parents and bought a £70 one-way plane ticket to Turkey, departing 48 hours later.
After Erin arrived in Turkey, the couple spent a week living in a hotel before moving into a £150-a-month apartment, but it was during the first three weeks that she began to feel 'lonely'.
She said: 'Aymen took the first two days off work to show me around the area and to teach me the basics of the Turkish language.
'But after that, he was working seven days a week, and although the neighbours would often come over, I felt lonely being in the apartment all day on my own.'
Four months later the couple uprooted again and settled in Guzeloba, Turkey.
Erin said: 'We were so happy there because it was a lovely area and the community were great.
'But in February 2023, my work applied for a residency visa for me and I had a text two months later to say that this was declined.
'I felt my whole come crashing down, and I cried for days because I was scared we were going to be separated.
'I had to move back to England at the end of April for three months whilst I waited for my tourist visa to renew.'
Three months later, in August 2023, she was reunited with Aymen - only to find his residency in Turkey had been declined after three years of living in the country.
The pair had just 10 days to find somewhere else to live but 'complications' forced them to overstay their visas for four months.
'We had so much to sort out in such a short time and it was impossible to do in 10 days,' Erin said.
'As Aymen has an Algerian passport, there were a lot of countries that were already off the list but we were not going to let this break us.
'After days of searching, we discovered that Tunisia was there best option, and even though neither of us had visited the country before, we were determined to make it work.'
On 11 September 2023, Aymen, who now works as translator, proposed to Erin after renting out a private beach. A month later they moved to Tunisia to start their new life together.