We buy a house!

On Tuesday, we finally became the owners of a house in Greece but more of that later.

Earlier in the week, we were invited to join Hans, Hanneke, Peter, Hidde, Michali and Inge for a picnic in the hills above Myrtos. Everyone contributed some food and drink and although the weather was still warm at the coast, we were warned to wrap up warm because we were going up to a plateau at 1,300 metres – roughly the height of Ben Nevis.

The climb up (in the car!) took the best part of an hour and the last part was on dirt roads so we were glad that three additional folk had pulled out at the last minute and we did not have to take our little car.

Finally, we arrived in a dry hollow in the hills with a small church and a barbecue place and precious little else except an incongruous sprinklered field where some sort of green vegetable or herb was being grown – no not that sort of herb!

Apparently, Michali’s father had built the church back in the 1960’s when working on a water irrigation project.

Wood was collected from under the trees and a fire was soon going in the barbecue pit and before long we were tucking into sausages, pork steaks, salad and baked potatoes. Delicious!

But the sun, which had been shining brightly when we arrived, was soon hidden behind a thick veil of cloud and the temperature dropped dramatically, to the extent that every stitch of additional clothing that we had brought was hastily donned.

Games were suggested and there were takers for both bat and ball and frisby!

It was a great place and we had a lovely time but we were glad to get down to a village and have a warming coffee on their terrace back in the sun!

So Wednesday arrived and we duly trotted off to the bank to get the money. This was a somewhat shambolic occasion as we met Maria, an elderly lady who runs one of the tavernas in Kavousi. She was keen to know when we were moving and when we explained (in Greek) that we were buying the house that very day, she got quite excited and insisted on following us around whilst she gabbled away. Eventually as we were trying to sign the bank cheques, she found someone who could speak English and it became apparent that what she was trying to do was to invite us for a coffee to celebrate! We haven’t been yet but we will.

Then it was off to Agios Nikolaos to meet our lawyer and the notary for the signing of the contract. In fact, there were quite a number of folk gathered there as the vendors; lawyer was there together with someone who had their power of attourney and Yiannis from the Estate Agency. It soon became clear that nearly everyone was there on grounds of self-interest. After the formalities, they would be paid – in cash!

We had turned up clutching two cheques ( two complicated to explain why) plus a bundle of cash, like E7,000. We had already taken over E6,200 in cash for purchase tax the week before. Everyone wants to be paid in cash so it does not go through their books and therefore they do not pay tax on it! If the notary and the lawyers are all playing the same game, what hope for the Greek economy?

Still, they had to wait whilst the notary droned through the contract which was conveyed to us from her laptop to giant screens on the walls of the room – very hi-tech and very un-Greek! Then George, our lawyer, translated it into English for our benefit and finally we signed it, with a round of congratulations from one and all.

Then, they got round to doling out the dosh. At one stage there were four of them all counting out 50 and 100 euro notes as they divi-ed up our cash between them! Given the skill and speed with which the counting was carried out, this was clearly something which was not new to any of them!

We were knackered but we owned a house – so we went and had a look at it!

The next day, bright and early, we met Heidi and Manu who are going to paint the inside for us before we move in.

Manu had decided that the ceiling, in what will be our bedroom, needs to come down because it is unstable. He was hoping that this would be relatively simple. It wasn’t! Two hours later it seemed to us, as though the day before we had bought a house and now, we were demolishing it!

A day further on, you can appreciate the wisdom of what he was suggesting but the place is still a mess, full of dust and no painting has yet been done!

Still, the plumber has been and the kitchen sink works and we have a new tap and except for the fact that I had to fish a dead rat out of the loo, otherwise all seems to be well!

And last night, Hans and Hanneke came over to Kato Spiti to celebrate with champagne etc.

Today at the new house, we had a visit from an English neighbour (an art historian) who introduced us to two Americans (who may be in archaeology), so clearly there are other English speakers in the village. In a way this is good but we want to improve our Greek! Still, our closest neighbour is a Greek lady aged 91 so she told me (in Greek) yesterday and she seems happy to chat away to me in Greek all day, so perhaps it might work. I offered to teach her English in return which amused her no end!

For you animal lovers out there, we have become the official guardians of a mother cat and her four kittens. Rather belatedly, we have got to know some German neighbours at the end of our lane and when they returned home at the end of last week, they asked us if we would feed the family of cats! Well, we have been diligently doing so for the last week but although the food is generally being eaten, we now see nothing of the mother or her kittens! Still they were very sweet when they were there and no, Bonnie has been nowhere near them!

I am now ratting out of the house re-furbishment process with a long-arranged trip to Scotland and England for nine days, leaving poor Sheila to deal with builders, neighbours and a kleptomaniac Greek  – more on this in a future posting perhaps,

John

Pastures new

In the last few weeks, we have had good friends to stay and have used the opportunity to visit some of our favourite spots such as Gournia and Spinalonga. But during this time, we went to some places I have never been to before. Matala and Agia Galini  are tourist resorts on the south coast of Crete and Itanos is an ancient city in the north east of the island.

Annie, Gideon and I decided to have a couple of days away from Ferma, leaving John and Bonnie at home.  Our programme was a mixture of visiting ancient sites such as Phaestos and Gortys, taking in Matala to find out if the hippies are still there and then stay in Agia Galini which had been recommended by friends. Phaestos and Gortys were as wonderful as I remember them.

John told me I had been to Matala before but I have no recollection of the visit!!!  So it was with some interest that I drove down the very smart road to the small village.  I was very shocked by the number of cars there and the obvious signs of tourism and found myself first backing out of a shopping area which had clearly no parking and then trying to get into a car park that had no spaces and finally having to retreat to parking on the road some distance from the beach. Not a great start! However once out of the car, I enjoyed my visit immensely.

We laughed a lot at the various signs of ‘hippie’ history

and we thought it a hoot that one of the tavernas was called Akuna Matata.  That needed a photograph!

Then there was the shopping.  There was some nice, local stuff. but not all.

Annie asked about the origin of a particular pair of shoes. She was told by the shop assistant in a very resigned voice that it was ‘China, like everything else’.  Annie didn’t buy them! There were a group of older people with long hair and a guitar, sitting on the beach. But my overall picture of Matela is of a lovely beach, with many tourists and fantastic caves.

I could understand why it was and is such an attraction.  And now for a brief interlude to listen to Joni Mitchell!

We drove on to Agia Galini.  Γαληνη means calm and quiet and I think that would have been the case fifty years ago.  But now, even at the beginning of October, it was quite busy and again, the first impression was of unmitigated tourism and a mild panic that I wouldn’t be able to park the car.  The town is built on a hill and when we finally reached the bottom of it,  I saw with some relief that there was nowhere else to go but to a public car park beside the harbour.

Hans and Hanneke had recommended the Hotel Akteon and we looked up the hill and there it was.  While it was pretty basic, it had a wonderful view of the harbour and the best Greek breakfast you could ever wish for, consisting of thick yoghurt, honey, the freshest bread you can get, great coffee and orange juice.

The first thing we did was to have a beer at a taverna which looked over the harbour.

The waiter gave Annie and Gideon a typed sheet of words to learn in Greek and Gideon speedily replied by teaching the waiter a few words of Swahili. I think the learning and cultural exchange went well because a raki swiftly followed!

Annie’s ‘Rough Guide to Crete’ came up trumps as she chose a recommended restaurant, Omar,

and I ate the best fish souvlaki, enjoyed a wonderful view and discussed the state of the Greek economy with my friends!

In the morning we admired  the sandy beach and investigated a new statue and a public area where there might be small events.  The statue was of Daedelus and Icarus and it appeared that this was the spot where Icarus started his ill fated flight to escape from King Minos and the labyrinth but the information very limited.

I looked on websites when I came back to see if I could find out the background to this new tourist attraction but failed dismally.  But there were great views from it.

We wandered round the town in the evening and the morning and although I would have hated to be there in August, I liked the harbour, the beach, the friendly tavernas and the hotel.

I was also just amazed by how the town was fitted into a small area on a hill and felt that there must have been an organised approached to its development. It was with some reluctance I left there and hope to go back someday.

Mairi and Norman arrived in Heraklion from Edinburgh and then stayed in Agios Nikolaos for a couple of days. We picked them up from there last Monday. Before we drove here we enjoyed a coffee and a spectacular view.

Their visit is recorded on a film, produced by Mairi to the sound track of Zorba the Greek.  It is a great reminder of their trip. I haven’t yet had any offers to appear in any other film yet but early days!

We had a day out to the north east tip of the island.  First we went to Toplou monastery, then carried onto Vai beach which is surrounded by palm trees and known as the setting for a ‘Bounty’ advert. The sand and setting are very beautiful and again at this time of year it is not so crowded. But still, when we went there last week we were charged for parking which is rare!

We carried on to itanos which is 3 kms to the north of Vai.  It has three wonderful beaches and is the site of a settlement that goes back to Minoan times, through the Hellenistic years, the Byzantine era and finally was destroyed in the 15th century, after attacks by pirates.

To begin with, it was in conflict with its neighbours, Praisos and Ieraptera over a dispute about who owned the temple of Zeus in the nearby town of Paleokastro but Praisos was defeated and then Itanos started to trade with Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Libya and surrounding towns. and prospered.

The site of Itanos covers more than 16,000 square metres.  Frederico Halberr, the Italian archaeologist, who excavated the palace at Phaistos also started unearthing this settlement, built on 3 hills and for the past 7 years a coalition of European researchers have been studying the site but excavation is still pretty limited and clearly much still could be found.  On one of the hills there is a small necropolis where ancient graves were found and artifacts found there are now in Siteia museum.  On another hill, we looked at a basilica from Dorian times with many fallen columns and we found a stone base marked with circular motifs.

Interestingly, I read that the west of Crete is slowly elevating upwards, while the east of the island is slowly sinking (6-8 metres in the last 200 years) due to earth quakes and that the harbor of itanos has now sunk into the sea. There are stones from the ancient town, even on the beach and in the sea.

It is a beautiful and isolated spot and it is hard to believe that there was a thriving city there for so many years.  I just loved it. We drove on towards the very northeastern tip, passing some vans parked on beautiful isolated beaches (hippies from Matala?)

but eventually turned back because there was a sign saying we could go no further.

On a more practical note, given the information above, you will be glad to know that John has found earthquake insurance cover for our new house. I will not go into detail on this except to say that it wasn’t easy to get it!    And more good news is that it looks like we could be proud owners of the house in Kavousi by a week on Wednesday and will be moving to pastures new!  So I am beginning to get excited about this and hope to have more news in the next posting.

Sheila

Back on the bikes!

The weather turned somewhat colder a day or so ago, so we decided to dust off the bikes, pump up the tyres and take to the road – well in this case the Motorway (as we call the dirt road skirting the base of the hill behind our house).

Bonnie ran along beside us as usual but we now go very slowly because she is beginning to show her age and we also don’t go as far as we used to with her. So although we made slow progress, it was good to be back in the saddle and as always up there, the views of Ferma were stunning.

We said goodbye to Annie and Gid on Sunday. They headed off to Heraklion for a few days sightseeing before the complicated journey back to Tanzania.

 I see that Annie was online this morning, so assume they made it! We had a great time with them, they were model guests and it was fun being able to show them how we live our new life. They were very adventurous as regards exploring Ierapetra on their own and even managed to ferret out probably the only Swahili speaking Greek in this part of Crete!

Sheila will be writing a separate post on the trip she took to Agia Galini with them and having had a sneak preview of the pictures, you so have a real treat to look forward to, especially if you were a hippy in the ’60’s!

On their last night, they took us to the fish restaurant in Koutsounari where we shared a giant plate of ‘mixed fish’. It defeated us in the end but was an amazing combination of taste, texture and shape. It was somewhere we have been meaning to go to for ages and definitely did not disappoint.

On Sunday, Peter (looking down in the photo below) and Hidde took us (and the extended gang) on a walk around Myrtos. It was extremely hot but the views from the top of the hill were well worth the effort and the swim afterwards was both cooling and we thought, well-deserved!

Sheila finally managed to organise a tennis doubles match with Hans, Brigitte and Jens making up the numbers. In the event, it did not prove to be entirely successful because Hans injured his elbow but it did reinforce Sheila’s views that she would like to get a regular doubles group together here.

Our new Greek lessons are proving both interesting and stimulating and at last, we are being forced into speaking more, asking questions and responding to questions being asked of us. We are also learning lots of new vocabulary (because we are effectively tested on it each lesson), which is good and we now belatedly have the course books which look interesting. The group is beginning to come together (three German, one Dutch and ourselves) and as we are all at roughly the same stage, no one is bored or feeling left behind, which is good. Maria, our teacher is not so interested as Nikos, in correcting mistakes – she just wants you to speak (and write) and providing she can understand you, then she is happy, just picking up on obvious mistakes and where she does not understand.

We have also said goodbye this week, to Walter and Brigitte and their friends Jens, Annie and Willi, who returned to Germany today. It is rather sad because we will not see Walter and Brigitte again until April by which time of course, we will hopefully be in our new house. So, we will no longer be neighbours and life will be different but we have had fun times together this summer and many memories to treasure. To celebrate their last evening, the usual gang joined them at Captain Yianni’s in Monasteraki for supper and a good time was had by all.

We seem finally to be making some progress on the house purchase. There was a hitch last week when there seemed to be a problem over access but this appears now to have been resolved in a classic Greek way by agreeing that if it has not been a problem in the known past, then it is unlikely to be one in the future! Now we have a new problem relating to earthquake insurance (pretty important here in Crete) but I won’t even begin to bore you with the details! We are hoping that everything will be resolved by the end of the month and that Manu and Heidi can paint the inside and sort out the ceiling in the main bedroom, which will allow us to move in after I get back from the UK in late November.

Now, we look forward to the arrival of Mairi and Norman who will be in Crete next week and with us for a few days. Mairi is one of our regular Blog readers and regularly comments on anything which she finds of interest in our ramblings. She has already let us know that she hopes we will continue with it after our year is up in November. The jury is still out on this but my view is that these things have a natural shelf life and that it might be good to call a halt once we are in our new home and take it from there. In the meantime, there is Greek to learn and the sea is still warm enough to enjoy and of course, much needs to be organised regarding the move to Kavousi.

So, we are busy but the tourists are gradually disappearing and it’s time to get out the jumpers! And to get back on the bikes.

John

A Tanzanian Tango

Annie and Gideon arrived from Tanzania for their much-anticipated visit, ten days or so ago and we have been busily engaged showing them the sights, having fun and celebrating Sheila’s birthday in the meantime. Today they have all gone off for a two-day trip along the South Coast to Agia Galini, leaving me free to catch up on blog postings (which have been sadly lacking of late), cleaning the house and looking after Bonnie, although all I have done so far is to soak up the late summer sun on the terrace!

For the week or so before Annie and Gid’s arrival, Sheila had been busy arranging her trip to Argentina to see Rosie early in the New Year. For various reasons (mainly to do with Bonnie), I decided a while ago that I would not go, so Sheila is going out with our friend, Jane, from London. The itinerary has now expanded to include Chile (north and south) as well as Rio in Brazil, so I am beginning to regret my decision!

Also of course, it would have been good to see Rosie but it sounds like she may be back in Europe soon after anyway, so hopefully, I will see her either here or in London. It was her birthday last weekend and although we never did get to Skype, she sounds in good form, had a fine party by all accounts and is continuing to enjoy her job.

The weather held up very nicely for the first few days of A and G’s stay and we were able to enjoy a walk in the hills and trips to the beach and swimming in the still warm sea. The visit to the Green Beach at Makrigialos, followed by a late lunch at the taverna there, was particularly good.

However, it was a bit of a surprise to find that Gid does not like being out in the sun, which we pallid white folk might find a tad odd for a man from Africa!

So he took up residence under the shade of a strategically placed beachside tree, while the rest of us took in the rays!

In the evening, Walter, who is back from Germany for a short stay, came over for a drink with his friend Willi and the raki and gin bottles took a bit of a hammering!

Later in the week we went to Siteia to visit the archaeological museum which was surprisingly good, even though information is sadly lacking on a number of the exhibits and we took the opportunity to visit the local branch of Dixon’s to look at vacuum cleaners (!) and also took a tour round the Venetian Fortress before having lunch on the prom.

Sadly, the weather then took a turn for the worse with an unseasonal taste of winter accompanied by a cold, north wind, grey skies and with temperatures falling by about ten degrees! Still, it was good weather to visit Spinalonga, which we did last Friday and as usual, it was a moving experience. It was interesting to see how much refurbishment work has been carried out over the summer and whilst the toilets have now been opened (pretty necessary given the numbers who visit – thousands each day), the café is still not finished. It’s hard to fathom as this is bound to be a gold mine and would surely finance the rebuilding, without further assistance from the hard-pressed Greek Treasury. That’s Greece for you!

Fortunately, the weather has now returned to normal with wall to wall blue sky and wonderful warm sunshine just in time for Sheila’s birthday on Sunday. After a champagne breakfast, we went to Xerokambos for the day, taking A & G with us as well as Hans and Hanneke.

After a visit to the historic village of Etia on the way …..

we then had a walk to our favourite beach (no time to swim).

Then, it was off to the Dolphin taverna for goat roasted on a spit, which we had ordered specially in Gid’s honour.

As it turned out, Michali had only been able to get a lamb but that was fine and the meat was wonderful, served up with chips and beer. We ate with our fingers, Tanzanian style and a great time was had by all.

Eleni then served up ice cream and cake with some sparklers, to celebrate the great day and we wound our way back to Ferma, well-fed and happy after a day to remember.

But the celebrations did not end there because later in the evening, Walter and Brigitta (who had arrived from Germany with three more friends on Friday), came over for a celebratory drink with Walter and all the friends in tow as well, plus another bottle of champagne. It made nine in our small sitting room but we managed and again the gin and raki bottles took another hammering!

Yesterday, we took A & G over to see the house in Kavousi. Walter and Brigitta wanted to see it too, so they came as well with their guests. The purpose of the visit was also to show Manu (who is going to do some work on the house for us), what needed to be done. He duly turned up with his girlfriend, Heidi, so all together some eleven of us walked through the door, much to the surprise of the agent, Wanda! It looks as though we will take possession early in November but we will probably continue to rent here until December to give us time to have the place painted and for our belongings to arrive from Scotland.

Then we went to the plateia for a coffee where Sofia was very pleased to see us and made mezedes which sort of did for lunch. We then showed A & G ‘our’ new beach at Tholos and went on to the Minoan site at Gournia because we thought they had not had an archaeological ‘fix’ for a few days!

While all this has been going on, we have started our new Greek lessons. These are funded by the EU (so they are free to us) and we go twice a week for three hours per session. This being Greece, however, nothing is quite what it seems. The organiser, Manolis, did not have enough numbers to run both a beginners’ and an improvers’ course, so he has signed everyone up as improvers but split the class and the time between the two groups. This is good for us because our group of improvers is small (six) and we can more easily manage two sessions, what with visitors and house buying, to say nothing of tennis! We are part of the plot, so to speak because we have to sign that we have been to all the classes but it works for everyone, so who cares? Our teacher is a young Greek woman, Maria, who is taking us back through basic grammar whilst encouraging conversation and writing and so far it is meeting our needs and we are enjoying it.

So it continues to be a tough life here but we struggle on!

John

Back in the groove

   

View of the sea from our house in Kavousi

Two weeks have seemingly flown by since we came back from Scotland. Yet it has been quite a busy period although perhaps not compared to previous years, when a return from holiday meant a constant juggling of family, work and leisure.  Now a few meetings, a visit from a friend, a couple of Greek classes, a vague attempt to read a book on the Cyprus issue, some tennis and swimming all combine to make me feel as if I have been pretty occupied!  And of course there is the phenomenon of doing things a bit more slowly.

The house purchase has now risen to a high priority for us. Before we went to Scotland we had put in an offer on a house, added a lawyer to our list of professional support and just hoped things would progress. So in the first week back, we arranged to see a tax adviser, the lawyer and visit the house to look at the contents which are being sold with the house. 

When we arrived in Crete in November, we had a rash of financial and health issues and documentation to deal with and now, buying a house feels like we are starting another ‘serious’ step involving money, responsibility and possessions.

Hans and Hanneke had found a new tax adviser and we made an appointment.  The tax adviser, Despina, had little English herself but one of her staff, Alexei, operated as the translator and they were both relaxed and charming.  Our main question was that now that we were going to buy a house in Crete, should we pay tax here?  At present, we pay tax in the UK.  It seemed to us that there was a big argument for paying taxes here as we were using services provided by the Greek State. However, we quickly heard that this was not something that was recommended by Greek tax advisers.  They told us that we would have to pay more than in the UK mainly because personal allowances have now been phased out here so tax is paid from the first euro. As such, they could not recommend having to pay more to the Greek government than we currently pay in the UK. 

We now have to get certificates from the Inland Revenue to show that we are paying tax in the UK and make sure that we have evidence of the money we brought in here but otherwise, everything can continue as it is.  That suits us in terms of the ‘hassle factor’ and if our consciences do sometimes rear to the surface, we can say that we are contributing to the Greek economy by spending our hard earned pensions here! 

Next day we met our lawyer, George, in Agios Nikolaos.  He, in fact, did not have much to say as a representative from the Estate Agents, Yiannis, miraculously appeared.  Somebody must have arranged that but it definitely wasn’t us!  We had only met Yiannis’s partner, Wanda (who is English), before and John and I agreed that they make a great partnership in terms of selling houses to British people.  Wanda showed us the house, gave us lots of time and space to think about it, didn’t pressurise, answered any questions and did the negotiation with the seller very competently.  She seemed very laid back.  Yiannis, on the other hand, took control of the meeting, talked very quickly, commended our choice of lawyer and made sure that we knew everything was in hand. He stressed that the process was simple, that if we wanted some more reasssurance about something, he would get the mayor of the town to sign something, dealt with money issues, when we might hope to move in etc, etc. Of course we liked to take time about making a decision to buy the house but now we want things happening quickly and efficiently.  So we were pretty impressed.  The only thing that we had to do was to get a deposit of 10,000 euros in our lawyer’s hands as quickly as possible. 

George’s main contribution was to try and reduce his bill.  John wanted to clarify whether the figure we had from the estate agent of the lawyer’s fees was accurate.  In the UK, you would never expect that the lawyer himself would try to reduce his bill.  George told us that 800 euros of his bill would go to the Greek Union of Lawyers, if we paid over a certain amount for the house. But he didn’t think we would want to pay this so there was a way round it which of course would mean that the Union did not get their money. And our cost could be reduced if we didn’t need a receit for another part of the bill because he would not need to issue a VAT receipt!!!!!

So after transferring 10,000 Euros for the deposit into our Greek account, I was ready the next day to have it transferred to George’s account.  Clutching the information about his account, I saw another ‘nice man’ at our ATE bank and he politely and efficiently transferred the money.  No problem.  What a relief!  John is now in the process of working out how to transfer the rest of the money and is looking anxiously at exchange rates etc.

We also went to see the house.  Everytime we go, we like it more.  This time we went with Hans and Hanneke and carried out an inventory of all the contents.  The couple, who are selling the house, do not want to come back to the house and so we are the beneficiaries of furniture, kitchen equipment and other bits and pieces.  I made a list of all the stuff, agreed with Hanneke that some would need to be thrown out, that, the place needed a good clean (no-one has lived in it for 2 years) and putting some white paint on a number of walls would be worth doing before we moved in.

John and I are now trying to work out what we need to have sent out from our possessions languishing in the furniture store of McBurnie’s of Dumfries. We do have a list of what we have there but unfortunately it is the detail that is important and the labelling of the boxes is not really adequate for us trying to decide what we want out here.  Still we have decided on some of the boxes to come here and the rest will be sent to a small flat in Scotland which we will buy next year 

Anyway it is all looking good on the house front and while all this was going on, we have had the pleasure for the last week of seeing our friend, Barbara.

Last Thursday on our 30th wedding anniversary, we walked down Zakros Gorge in very hot conditions, passing large amounts of grapes, drying on a roof,

some wonderful scenery,

 a goat amongst other things.

and had a lovely meal in the evening with Hans and Hanneke. 

I wore my new silver earrings and necklace which John bought for me in a shop in Linlithgow, my home town.  They are lovely. 

We walked around Ierapetra with Barbara, as well as going to Sitia where we watched the ferry from Rhodes come in and go out again very quickly on its way to Heraklion and then Piraeus.  We showed her our new house after a swim at our new beach in Tholos. 

At the house, we met a new neighbour and enjoyed visiting the plateia where people have begun to be very friendly to us.

Barbara and I went for a nice walk in the hills, (you can just see the little col where we stopped for a rest)

and we took the opportunity to eat at a number of tavernas over the week.  She went off on Tuesday to Hania for a trip down memory lane and then was flying back home yesterday. It was really good to see her and she experienced the first rain for 4 months on Monday night but we have had no more as yet!

Sheila

What a palaver!

Kavousi from the beach at Tholos

We are looking forward to welcoming Annie and Gideon to Crete next month but because they live in Tanzania, they need a visa both to get into the EU and into Greece. We knew from speaking to them that the procedure was not going to be plain sailing but I don’t think any of us knew just how difficult it was going to be. What a palaver!

The first problem for them was that Greece does not have an embassy in Tanzania which meant a trip to Nairobi in Kenya. The Greek Government website sets out what is needed in terms of paperwork so one fine day they set out armed with it all (or so they thought), including a letter of invitation from us with just about all the information which we thought the visa section at the embassy could possibly want. We were wrong!

They were faced with a not very friendly woman who told them that the letter had to be on the correct form and counter signed by an ‘authorised’ person! What is more, as they had started the process, they had to get this sorted by the end of the week, otherwise the process would have to be started all over again.

After a few phone calls and some skyping (not helped by the fact that our microphone was broken), we knew what we had to do. Previous experience has led us to know that Greek bureaucrats often claim not to speak English so we enlisted the help of Nikos, our Greek tutor, for our visit to the Police Station the next day. As it happened, Nikos had been to school with the Officer, Christos, who dealt with our query and he did speak English. What is more, he knew about the form and gave us a list of all the additional information that we would need but did not have with us.

So, we agreed to meet Nikos at the same time and place the next day and armed with photocopies of this and that and Sheila’s father’s and mother’s names and places of birth, we wait our turn to be processed. Fortunately, Christos was on duty again and was able to deal with the paperwork but right at the end, he announced that he was unable to counter sign the copy of Sheila’s passport because it was not in Greek! So, we had to find a Notary and of course it being August here, they are all on holiday!

Fortunately, Nikos was able to call his Dad (the local MP) and seek advice and Costas knew someone who was open. So, we trouped around there and a young clerk is able to counter sign the copy and we think that finally that is it. Only it isn’t because the Police Officer has copied down the dates incorrectly, so we have to go back and get the Letter of Invitation re-issued. Another half an hour goes by but finally we get it. Nikos does a last check of the Greek and we are on our way.

The documents are all scanned in the afternoon and sent both to the Embassy in Nairobi and to Annie in Arusha and the next day we hear that all is well and the visas have been issued. By now Gid will have made a further trip to Nairobi and they should be ready to leave for the middle of September.

We find it hard to believe that this procedure is necessary and that it applies throughout the EU. We hear that 600,000 visas have been issued to Russian tourists alone this year and it seems unlikely that they all have friends in Greece who have jumped through the bureaucratic hoops necessary to get them. So, presumably, the holiday tour companies and/or hotels have some arrangement with the authorities but who knows?

Still – another victory over bureaucracy and we shall know what needs to be done next time!

Our next challenge is house purchase. After flirting with a new build, good sense prevailed and we have decided on a house that we like in the village of Kavousi which is on the north coast about half an hour from where we live. We are in the very early stages of the process and it remains unclear to us precisely what is expected of us. One thing is for sure, the procedure is different from the UK and our friends here are really unable to help us much because virtually all of them have had houses built rather than having bought a ready made house.

Fortunately the agent, Wanda, is English and we think she is pretty straight although when we were faffing around about making an offer, she did come up with the oldest estate agent’s line in the book, that there was someone else interested in house! Whether there was or not, we don’t know but it did serve to make us realise that whatever the process, we want the house.

Prices here are at rock bottom but there are signs that the market is about to move, so we have taken the plunge and hope to get the house for 75% of the asking price fixed two years ago! If you are interested, follow this link for some pictures and details:

http://www.holprop.com/s/sale/GR4010070/1/y/666851056/

We will keep you informed of developments.

On a lighter note, the day before yesterday was the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (look it up on Google – I can’t possibly explain) and we had been invited to a spot in the mountains where there was to be a kind of Greek Festival. I thought there would be a heavy religious tone but quite the contrary – what a party!

 

Aroula, our butcher, in the centre, leading the dance!

There was music, traditional dancing and everyone was there from our butcher to the estate agent and the local MP to the ex-pat fraternity, plus of course literally hundreds of ordinary Greek families having a ball. Now we intend to go on a Greek dancing class next winter – shades of Scottish Country Dancing in Strachan Hall all those years ago!

 

Can I have a go, please?

Next week, we leave for a two week holiday In Scotland, the first ten days of which will be spent on the boat going through to Edinburgh and back. We’re looking forward to catching up with friends and family. However, this means there will be no postings on the Blog for a liitle while! Do I hear sighs of relief all round?

Finally, a special message to Nino and Joanna who stayed at Pano Spiti in June – thank you for the photos and book, which you sent. I look forward to discussing the book with you when you come back next year but please can you email me on: johnburt147@hotmail.co.uk because we don’t have an email address for you and would like to keep in touch!

John

Archaeology and Auf Wiedersehen

 

We said goodbye to Rosie last week. She had been with us for two and a half weeks and we like to think she left much more relaxed than when she arrived, having had a good rest, lots of sun and swimming, good food and long walks with Bonnie. She is now in the UK for two weeks or so and by all accounts is having a great time seeing friends and family.

Last week we were invited by Michalis to join a group visiting a new archaeological site , where a team from the University of Athens are excavating what is thought to be a Minoan villa. The location above Kalamafka was first recorded by Sir Arthur Evans (of Knossos fame) in Victorian times, when he thought that, given its position it was likely to have been some kind of fort. Some years later, John Pendlebury, another British Archaeologist who had taken over from Evans at Knossos, also passed the same way along an old Minoan track but the war intervened and Pendlebury was killed in the defence of Heraklion and nothing more happened. Finally, after a review of recorded sites, the academics have got some money together and we were privileged to see the results of their two years’ labour.

The guy in charge, John Papadakis, was an engaging fellow who made the subject extremely interesting even though basically, we were just looking at a pile of stones. Contrary to Evans’ view however, they now think that the building here was some kind of administrative centre for ‘harvesting’ the products of the mountains for the benefit of the bulk of the population who lived on the coastal plain below.

The site has a truly fantastic view and is located only about a mile or so from a peak which was important for devotional purposes in the Minoan civilisation and which was also possibly used for communication along the coast.

While we were there, we watched the students who were doing the digging, carefully unearth pottery shards and it was amazing to think that that these had not seen the light of day for over 3,500 years!

Then it was time for lunch so we headed off to Kalamafka to the nearest taverna which just happened to have most of its tables and chairs placed in the road! It reminded me of a song from my childhood – ‘The Railroad runs through the middle of the house’ as cars and tractors negotiated their way past our beers! All very Greek and charming.

One of the unexpected benefits of our new life here in Crete has been meeting people from different countries, who for one reason or another have chosen to make their lives here and as a result we have been exposed to foreigners in a way which has not been the case (at least in our experience) in the UK. We have mentioned our good friends, Hans and Hanneke many times in this context, the good times we have and the many kindnesses they have shown us both last year and when we came back in November.

Now we have been fortunate to make friends with our neighbours in Pano Spiti, Walter and Brigitta, who come from Kiel in Germany. Walter is a retired orthopaedic doctor and Brigitta is in her last year of teaching. From next year, they intend to spend much of their time here in Crete where Walter is already spending enjoying his passion for sculpting. Sheila and Brigitta play tennis and I watch the world go by with Bonnie and drink the occasional raki with Walter!

Walter & Brigitta (second and third left)

 We are of a similar age to Walter and Brigitta and therefore share a common experience of growing up in Europe after WWII. We also share a common interest in political matters and as they both speak very good English, we have been able to have a number of very interesting discussions on all kinds of subjects ranging from our fathers’ experiences in the War to left wing politics and alternative lifestyles – they like us have had periods of switching traditional roles. They are just the sort of people who you immediately feel comfortable with and it has been a joy to meet them. But they had to leave on Friday for Germany because the new school term starts on Monday and their young grandson is being christened tomorrow. We like to think we have become good friends and we shall miss them. Auf wiedersehen! 

Returning to matters archaeological, on Friday evening, we went to the reception to mark the launch of Michali’s book on ‘iconostasi’. Anyone who has been to Crete will have seen any number of shrines by the side of the road or in remote spots, usually with a tiny ‘room’ so that a candle can be lit to the Saint to whom the shrine is dedicated. It has been Michali’s hobby for over thirty years to record and photograph these ‘iconostasi’ and he has been trying to get his book on the subject published for some time. Finally it has happened and last night saw the launch.

The ceremony was in a rather smart school hall in Ierapetra and was basically conducted in Greek (as you would expect) but also in German (Michali having studied architecture in Germany), so we did not have much of a clue what was going on.

Michalis (centre)

Nikos (our Greek language tutor) and girlfriend Efi

However, our Greek tutor Nikos and his friend Alexi played some Greek folk songs, which was a good break from the unintelligible speeches! I have a small vested interest in the book because Michali had said that he wanted an English language version and I have translated part of it as a bit of a trial run. Whether anything will come of the project now that the book has been published remains to be seen but at least it meant that having translated the Introduction, I had some idea of the subject matter.

Now it is back to house hunting! We have been accused of ‘faffing’ around and we accept the criticism but in our defence, despite the claims of the various websites, there are not really that many houses on the market which fit our requirements. We have one outstanding candidate at a very reasonable price. It does not quite tick all the boxes though, so now we are thinking of a new build. This option is generally considered to be more expensive but will at least mean that Sheila should get her dream house!

John

House hunting Cretan style

As reported in previous postings, having decided to make our home here in Crete, over the past two months we have been house hunting. This has been a more difficult process than anticipated! 

It all started so well when we thought that we had found our dream house in the hills behind us but on reflection, the implications of living in a fairly remote mountain village weighed too heavy and reluctantly, we decided against it, even though it ticked every box other than location. 

This led us to think about the criteria which were important to us which include; being within half an hour at the most from Ierapetra (it offers tennis, shopping, music, a market, a meeting place with friends etc); a minimum number of rooms and floor area to accommodate us and friends and family who come to visit; a house that doesn’t look like a box; an outdoor area; some privacy and a sea view (if possible).  We have left it open as to whether we live in a village or in the country.  We have also considered buying a plot of land and building a new house but feel that we will only do that if we can’t find a ready-built house.

Well, some weeks later, we still haven’t put in an offer on a house and have now started looking at plots of land as well! 

We are dealing with a couple of estate agents who are very different.  On the one hand, we have Yiannis, the local man, who has been fantastic in showing us all kinds of properties and driving us around, pointing out possibilities. The downside with him is that whilst he listens, he doesn’t really hear! He shows us too many houses which he should know by now that we will not like and plots of land which are too big or unsuitable. Often, he does not have the keys to properties and uses local people to show us round areas he doesn’t know. This can be disconcerting as we troupe round in convoy with a constant sales pitch in pidgin English from folk we have never met before.

We have visited a house where it turned out that the owner is dying in a hospital in Heraklion and his tenant didn’t know anything about the house being sold! On another occasion, we had an enforced mid-morning break when Yiannis and his ‘friends took us to see the oldest olive tree in the world (even though we had told them that we had already seen it!).

It transpired that the ‘friends’ wanted to drink raki at the local taverna, which was fine by us but not quite what we were there for – we thought there was a house to view! In the middle of all this no less than twenty-five jeeps turned up to take in said olive tree as part of their mountain safari!

Still, despite the downsides, it has been a positive experience. We have been to places we would otherwise never have seen, including the house (under construction) of a Russian Oligarch in the most beautiful location that you could imagine and there have been lighter moments too, such as when we were poking around Kavousi looking for a mysterious plot of land and met Yiannis quite by chance, doing the same thing!

Russian Oligarch’s house

Wanda is completely different to Yiannis. She is English and operates much like we are used to in the UK. She only shows us houses we want to see and she listens.  She was very annoyed to find one of Yiannis’ local contacts apparently renting a house that she was trying to sell and irritated when the local showed us round the house and wanted a cut of the commission if it was sold! 

We have found a village we like and a piece of land we like.  Unfortunately they are not in the same place!  The village is Kavousi which is on the north coast but is within half an hour of Ierapetra.  It is extremely pretty, has a life of its own and is surrounded by stunning scenery. There is a house there that is a possibility. The piece of land is quite near here (on the south coast), not in a village but very near the sea.

Wanda showed us the house in Kavousi which we like but there are some problems with it including lack of parking and the possibility of someone building something next door which might obscure the view.

The plot of land has a similar potential problem but at least we would get the house we want but at a price. Choices, choices!

Then today, I read that Greek house prices have fallen 20% in the last two years. Surely there must be bargains around but where are they? This piece of news is not all good though because effectively it means that a new build will not be worth what it cost and will prices fall still further? Will Greece stay in the euro? Perhaps it might be best to continue renting after all! We get conflicting advice.

However, later today, we have a Property sub-committee meeting ie H2 and ourselves to discuss the options and to show them the various possibilities. Then on Tuesday, we meet up with David and Bernadette (from England and Ireland respectively) who run a property business here. Sheila was introduced to them at the hairdressers! They will give us their take on the situation. And then, we need to decide what to do.

In the meantime, we can always dream of the view from the Russian Oligarch’s house!

Watch this space!

John