Our Greek Odyssey

Everybody seems to have an opinion on Greece these days but instead of the usual comments about the weather and the scenery, we tend to get questioned more on the financial situation. People want to know what it is like living in Greece in these rather uncertain times. Obviously our experience is going to be different to a Greek family or expats who have retired here and have a pension from abroad. However, one thing we will all have in common is seeing the change around us. There are more beggars on the streets, more businesses closing down, prices going up and people struggling to make ends meet. We know people who haven’t been paid for months’ and others working 2 or 3 jobs just to be able to pay their bills.
And now, with the election over, what will the future government look like? Will they be able to form a government at all or will it be back to the polls again next month?
The sun may be shining and the sky may be blue but you can’t live on that can you?

The swallows are back in their nest just outside the door and are busy repairing any damage and warding off unwelcome guests. Unfortunately their frenetic flying resulted in an incursion in to hostile territory – well it’s hostile when you have 4 cats!

We were having lunch in the kitchen and I jokingly said that the swallows were so loud it sounded like they were in the living room! It appears they’d flown in the front door and couldn’t work out how to exit again. Sean opened the window and one flew straight out but the other appeared more interested in the wall than the outside. We just left it alone………and kept the cats away………….and eventually it flew back to its nest. We’re now keeping the doors closed

Took this yesterday on Easter Sunday in Kato Gatzea – it was certainly a wild one!

It didn’t however prevent Junior and myself from taking off shoes and socks and running through the waves. Sean didn’t join in as I think the cold would have been too much a shock to his system!

With the worlds economy in the state it is, it seems that more and more people in a host of different countries will spend the majority of their lives living in rented property, either through the inability to get on the housing ladder in the first place, or through losing their homes due to a change of circumstances.
We’ve rented property in England and Ireland without any problems and know of people who live happily in their rented homes for years without any disruptions. Greece however is a different matter. We’re in our fourth rented property and each one has been a nightmare in its own special way. This is not just peculiar to us, we’ve not just been spectacularly unlucky, we’ve heard tales from other people of their unreasonable landlords and sub standard houses. Whilst the owners of properties seem to be more than happy to take your money, they seem to be rather unwilling to pay out anything on upkeeping their property.
When we moved in to our current house there were no plug sockets in the kitchen. Not a single one. How can you put a kitchen in without any power points? Sean had an electrician friend come in and put some in as well as a point for the electric cooker. He then found that some of the other sockets weren’t even earthed and were therefore potentially dangerous. The electrics are, to put it kindly, mildly eccentric! If you put the washing machine on then you can’t have any other electrical appliance on otherwise it will trip a fuse. More than two heaters on at the same time? No chance. We have four UPSs connected so that our things don’t get fried when the power goes and then comes back on again. Madness.
When we chose this house it had just been renovated and so the garden was like a building site but we were assured it would all be sorted and made into a pleasant space for Junior and the animals. Nearly 2 years’ on and it still looks like a building site but they’ve planted some trees! Why would you plant some trees in the middle of a wasteland? When Sean mentioned the state of the garden last year they said they wondered why we hadn’t sorted it out! After explaining that it’s their house and we’re only here temporarily and therefore why on earth would we spend money on making a garden for their benefit they conceded that was a fair point but still nothing has been done to remedy the situation.
After the leaking roof and subsequent mold on the ceilings and walls they said the house would be redecorated at Easter………….last Easter………….still waiting. We know there is no point in asking for the things to be done, they’ve got no money.
Renting in Greece? No thanks.

Carnival has finished for another year and apart from dressing as a pirate for school on Friday, Junior didn’t seem so enamoured of it this year. We were going to go to the carnival procession in Volos on Sunday but she decided she didn’t want to be just watching and being ’static’ – her wording It’s probably a good job we didn’t go as we had a friend driving over from England and he had that many problems crossing borders and bribing officials that Sean was on the phone to him most of the day.
Clean Monday was an ideal kite flying day; windy and freezing. We headed to the beach and had our most successful kite flying expedition to date.

You can tell from the sky what the weather was like! Junior’s interest soon waned once the kite was flying and she instead turned her attention to collecting pebbles and building a sand cathedral. It seems a castle wasn’t enough – maybe she’s been too long in a Greek Orthodox school.
It didn’t take long for that threatening sky to turn into rain and so we beat a hasty retreat home for coffee and cake.
With the state of affairs in Greece at the moment, we’re always amazed that people continue to open new businesses. Competing with the empty premises up for rent in Volos are new coffee shops and places to eat. I guess they figure people will always want to eat and drink, and whilst they seem to be full when they first open (probably because of the novelty factor), I can’t see them remaining full for much longer. We’ll go out for a drink on Saturday but we don’t eat out as often, sometimes leaving it a few weeks before treating ourselves.
Another recent development is the proliferation of security signs on houses. Just walking Junior to school I’ve noticed quite a few places with new security firm signage on their gates. We’ve heard from other people that there has been a spate of burglaries in the area we live but of course they never target houses with dogs. I knew there had to be a plus side to the noise of constant barking!