At Home in Greece - The Good Life in Greece

Are you dreaming of being at home in Greece? On a gray and wet morning in another country, life in Greece undoubtedly seems like the good life. You probably have wonderful memories of your holidays here: long, lazy days, eternal sunshine, outdoor living and time to be. And of course it’s these experiences and memories that makes you long for a place of your own here, whether to live here a great part of the year or even permanently. It's safe to live here, that feels good. But I think one of the main attractions to the Mediterranean life style is time. A more simple life, where you work less, have less stress, run less, have less obligations and more time to be with family, friends and – not to forget – your self. Have you paid attention to how there’s always a chair or two in the local shops in Greece? It’s so that the customer can sit down and wait for his turn or sit down and have a chat with the shop owner while he or she is working. There’s no fast service here – and that’s part of the good life image.

Actually nothing here goes fast. When we started building our guesthouse and restaurant we intended to be ready to receive guests a year before we actually did – and this was actually our third building project - earlier building project even became a novel so we should have known better! This time it was the carpenter that delayed us for months. “What can you do to make him show up?” someone (not a Greek, of course) asked me. Yes, I could probably put a gun at his head. If only I could find him, as he’d gone to Athens. “But there are other carpenters?” Yes, but this one has already done a great part of the job, besides – is there any guarantee that the next one will be any better? At least this one, when he works, did a great job. So what to do? Shrug your shoulders, go for a walk by the beach or sit down in the sun with a good book and a glass of chilled retsina.

A friend, another foreigner, recently was going to sign up for public Greek classes. She had to go and deliver an application at the county administration. “And then I’ll finally start learning Greek,” she said. Yeah, sure. You can bet that if they take the applications in February no classes will start until September, the earliest. If they start at all.

We’ve waited for more than two years to have our land divided into plots.

A friend has waited for almost a year for the permission he needs from Ministry of Defense to buy a plot here in the village – foreigners from outside the Europe Union need this permission to buy house or land in this area.

That’s also a part of the good life image.

I’m not writing this to scare people off, because I do believe you can really live the good life in Greece. I sure do! But it’s important to realize that the medal has a back side, too – and this is very often the things that you can’t change. Greek toilets is as famous as Acropolis. And the bureaucracy! You can’t make the bureaucrats speed up just because they do it ten times faster where you come from. You might want to open a restaurant and find the rule about needing to have five sinks ridiculous – after all you do have a dish washer (which is not required). Well, you can beat yourself up about things like these or you can simply accept them.

My dad was here for Christmas once. On the 24th, as we were going to do the final cleaning and start cooking , the water supply was cut off. I can’t believe how stressed he got about this! Stress doesn’t bring the water back. All your “how can it be possible!” and “how can they just cut it out without a warning!” won’t bring it back, either. Actually, most likely there even was a warning, as when there is a planned water supply cut off, someone from the municipality will drive through the village and announce it in megaphones. I hadn’t heard it and if my dad hadn’t understood it. So how come it wasn’t announced in the paper, like back home? Because, this is not back home!

I’ve seen so many foreigners come – and leave. We all carry with us ideas about things being done the way it’s done back home - and it can be a major frustration when you discover that the good life means sacrificing so much of what you always took for granted: good television, Indian restaurants, the sport shop where they check your running style when you’re buying new shoes to find the right fit, the public indoor swimming pool, second hand shops, charities, being able to find casting sugar and proper tea in the shops…You name it!

But you wanted a more simple life, didn’t you?

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