Our Greek Odyssey

Greece on the ground

Mon, 07 May 2012 18:09:42 +0000

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?

Surprise guests

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:01:59 +0000

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

Greek Easter

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:22:40 +0000

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!

Renting in Greece

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 06:34:46 +0000

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.

March already

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:03:24 +0000

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!

What next?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:23:36 +0000

Says it better than I can

http://ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite3_1_13/02/2012_427392

Deep and crisp and even

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:15:45 +0000

I took Junior to school yesterday, regardless of the snow, as I figured she’d be warmer there than she would be at home! Unfortunately not many parents had had the same idea and 2 hours’ later I got a phone call to tell me they were shutting the school because only about 30 children had turned up! Oh well we got a nice walk through the snow and Junior watched a film whilst at school.
This morning I woke up before 7 as usual but after one peek out of the bedroom window I knew they’d be no school. Junior wanted to get out into the snow so we took the dogs for a romp.

I love the way the snow muffles the sound of everything, it was like we were the only people around. Of course the dogs didn’t remain very quiet as they just found it all too exciting.

Junior insisted I take this picture as she thinks the tangerines look like they’re wearing hats.

Sean didn’t get to see any of this snow because, unfortunately, he was on his way to Switzerland by car and so got to see a whole lot more in Italy! After some treacherous driving conditions he’s now safely ensconced in Geneva for the next couple of days.

Winter’s here

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:49:54 +0000

I wish the heating was working

Dark days

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:03:02 +0000

People seem very interested in Greece right now. It used to be that when you mentioned Greece to someone they immediately thought of holidays, sun and beaches, nowadays people tend to ask more about the economic situation and the prospect of the country being able to recover from the mess it’s in at the moment. Well, I don’t have a crystal ball so I really don’t know how things will unfold for this country but I can’t see things getting any better any time soon.
Sunday marked 4 years’ in Greece for us and I remembered that our main factor in moving over here was for a better quality of life for Junior, for her to have more of a childhood. She does remain blissfully unaware of ‘celebrity culture’ and doesn’t long to be ‘famous’ when she grows up (unless it’s because she’s discovered a new species of animal) but her childhood should also include a decent education. She reads voraciously, is fiercely intelligent and is bored beyond words at school. What does this country hold for her future, for the future of any of the children at her school? Where will the jobs be? Will they have the skills to go abroad and search for work elsewhere?
We must hear every week of people who are leaving the country, who can’t cope anymore and don’t see things improving. We’ve also noticed that the supermarkets we visit aren’t as well stocked as usual, imported goods seem to be fewer on the shelves. Heating oil continues to rise in price and people are choosing instead to fit wood burners. We would if we had any room for one but we’re making do with electric heaters. Fortunately the weather has been warmer the past week or so, especially fortunate since electricity went up by 12.2% on 1st January.
The new property tax didn’t effect us as we rent and the tax is the responsibility of the landlord. What does effect us though is car tax. You pay your tax for the whole year and we’ve always done this at the beginning or middle of January. Sean went to pay the other week only to be told that because he didn’t pay at the end of the December for the following year, the price was now double!! It wasn’t the bloke in the tax office’s fault, he admitted that previously it had been fine to pay during January but because they’re so desperate to raise money wherever they can they’d enacted this little piece of legislation to drag in the euros. It seems to be take, take, take at the moment and no sign of any giving.

Wandering animals

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:41:19 +0000

Well it’s only the 9th day of the New Year but Greece has already had its first strikes and I’ve already found my first abandoned animal! Junior and I were out walking the dogs and we were followed the entire way by a very small, very cute puppy who obviously had no idea where he was or where he had come from. I had to tell Sean that we had been followed home (yet again) by a stray dog as Junior refused to tell him in case he shouted. Obviously another dog – no matter how cute – is not practical and so Sean phoned our friendly neighbourhood vet/pet shop and they said we could take it down to them and they’d look after it until it found a home. We went to get some pet food on Saturday and the little thing was still there but at least he’s being looked after and is not wandering the streets all alone.
I find the Greek way with animals very hard to stomach and the atrocities you hear about are enough to make your blood boil, but even the every day manner, not necessarily cruelty, is difficult to understand. A case in point is our next door neighbour. Colin, the dog that followed us home initially, has sort of adopted next door as her home and although she comes over to ours to play with the dogs and get treats, she chooses to sleep outside next doors. We told them that we had no problem with that as Colin was a bit of a free spirit anyway and would do as she liked. So far, so fine. However, we’ve been feeding a small cat for months, who we believed to be a stray. Turns out it ‘belongs’ to the neighbours. We know this because the said neighbour kept coming out and shouting for the kitten (this after we’ve been letting it in and feeding it for a good few months’) and giving our house dirty looks. He finally asked Sean not to feed the cat or let it in our house, to which Sean replied that we didn’t realise it was his cat and we’d stop looking after it. This seemed to sort things until before Christmas when he shouted across to Sean that we were practically kidnapping his cat and he was fed up with it. Well……..if you know Sean you’ll know that he seldom loses his temper, but when he does……..stand well back. He marched across to the blokes house, who on seeing Sean coming suddenly ceased to be all brave and shouty and instead hid behind his front door, and Sean practically dragged him over to our place and showed him that we leave a window open for our cats every night so that they can get in and out whilst we’re sleeping and that if ‘his’ cat was getting in then that was how she was doing it. Now, here’s the most ludicrous part, he accused us of ‘training’ his cat to jump up onto the boiler house roof and then through the window into the house!! I don’t think he’s ever had a cat before if he thinks you can train one. The annoying thing is that he won’t let the cat into his house, he expects it to sit on his doorstep come rain or shine so that he can come out and stroke it when he wants! The icing on the cake of this whole story is that just before New Year he went on holiday………for 8 days………..leaving the cat and Colin…………and not once did anyone call in to check on them or put any food whatsoever out for them. When an animal is used to getting their food from a particular place they’re not suddenly going to realise that they have to fend for themselves because that food source has gone on holiday! The lack of thought and compassion of some people just makes my mind boggle……….