In Greece ~ The Gift of Time

'Five years', we agreed on that mid-December day -- the day we purchased our Stone House on the Hill in the Greek Peloponnese. 'We'll give it five years and if we don't like it or get too old, we'll move on to something else.'

The Stone House on the Hill

Can you believe we made that agreement five years ago!?

Five years. A rather safe and long distance away it had seemed on that pivotal week before Christmas when we took ownership of the house that would ultimately change the course of our lives.

Where did the time go? How did we cross the goal line so soon?

Five years. We hoped we would stay healthy and young enough in spirit to make it that long. Back then, moving here and becoming expats hadn't even been part of the discussion. Those were just life's dominoes waiting to be tipped as we made our way to today.

Buyers (us), sellers, attorney and realtor celebrate the sale of the house.

Time does change all things, as Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure so aptly concluded. It certainly has changed us and our world.  Looking back on this last half decade those changes were so subtle that we didn't realize as time passed how substantial they were.

Agios Nikolaos fishing harbor - our village

Those first couple years, in retrospect, it seemed we were playing house here. It all was so different that it just didn't seem real.  Although we were living here, we were still feeling a bit like tourists who observe and enjoy and then take their leave.

The Scout joins the other 'old boys' in checking out the produce for sale 

Somewhere along the way we become part of the village and it a part of us.  We still chuckle at a houseguest's remark that she felt as if she were in a parade each time we drove through town with all the waving we did and calling out to those we know.  We're pleased that over time we've grasped enough of the language to be able to call out a greeting, inquire as to how the person is and respond when the question is asked of us. We are no longer the grinning bobble heads we were when we first arrived.

Even if we devoted the rest of our lives to learning Greek, however, we wouldn't live long enough to master it.  But as our cache of words increases so do our conversations and relationships. 

Bloody Hell! We've got some great British ex pat friends here

Speaking of language, one unexpected bonus of the last five years is that thanks to our fellow British expats we are becoming multi-lingual! We find ourselves interjecting proper English words into our conversations: 

"Crikey! We are speaking with proper English these days. Bloody Hell, who'd have thought we'd do that?"

Takis, our olive oil processor and the Amerikani

While feeling a part of the village we are still often called 'the Amerikani' just because it is easier to identify us that way.  Usually it is said, 'Amerikani' with a toss of the head in the direction of the hill on which we live as that further identifies which Amerikani we are. There are still so few Yanks in the area that 'Amerikani' works for the dozen or so of us who make our homes here on a full or part-time basis. And part of the reason for the label in our case is that while most get. Jackie, they have a difficult time with saying Joel.

One of my favorite 'name' stories comes from a recent first-time visit to a popular dry cleaning business in Kalamata. The young man asked my name and I said, 'Smith, . . pausing and adding, 'Jackie' for further identification. He laughed and replied, 'No need, I remember you.'

No claim ticket or receipt was given so I expected much confusion when I returned the following week. I shouldn't have worried because as I walked through the doorway he called out, 'Kalimera (good morning) Smith!' and had my items on the counter by the time I got to it.

Every day is a lesson in culture and history around here

We've been and are being culturally immersed here. No classes, no research papers. No assignments. We are learning of the world around us just by interacting with the many people who make up our village world. 

 Generally the tradesmen here are Greek or Albanian - and we've come to know many as they make repairs or improvements to our Stone House on the Hill. As the years have passed we've gotten to know them as friends as well and know their families. It has been enriching to learn more about their countries and cultures just from the one-to-one association we have with them.

The expat world itself  is made up of a delightful mixture of cultures.  We gathered for Christmas buffet lunch at our friend's home just down the road and we could have been a committee of the United Nations! Our small gathering of folks, who live within a two kilometer radius of us, represented nine countries!

Stoupa village - new shops and restaurants AND tourists

Our five years have given us an up-close look at Greece's economic struggles and the country's emergence from it. While we know there are those still struggling in the country we are seeing our slice of Greece come to life with new shops and restaurants opening each spring. The Airbnb craze has hit with signs offering accommodations sprouting up along every road we travel. We even have one next door now! New home construction is going wild with nearly a dozen construction sites within a two mile radius of our home.

No More Goals - Just a Gift of Time

The Scout, The Scribe and their Stone House on the Hill

In retrospect, we probably gave ourselves the best Christmas gift ever when we bought this home because we gave ourselves that 'final fling' and in doing so, we gave ourselves the gift of time ~

Time to explore a new lifestyle together.
Time with old friends who come to visit; real time that is; not a rushed dinner or drinks conversation but the kind that continues for hours long into the night kind of visits.
Time for basking in the best of new cultures.
Time for making new friends and expanding our world in ways we never could have imagined.
Time to explore the world that exists on this side of the pond.
Time to stargaze and time to watch ocean waves.
Time to step away from the routines of our old life and try something new. . . before time got away from us and we found we were too old to do it.

A table with village view

We didn't set a new goal of 'another five years', as we toasted the first five.  Instead we asked ourselves,  'Do you think we'll make it another five years?'

As boomers having a 'final fling' (as we call this adventure), we know our advancing ages and health will be a factor. Our four plus months of being 'held' in Greece awaiting our residency renewal earlier this year, was a clear reminder that we are but guests in this adopted land. Government rules, immigration changes - so many things beyond our control -- could easily dictate the time we have left in Greece.

Nowadays when we are told by friends that they plan to visit 'one of these days', we think, 'That's fine, IF we are still here.'

For now we'll continue living that daydream and enjoying this final fling of ours on the hillside overlooking our slice of Greece.  It isn't tough duty! And if the next five years go as fast as the first, well, who knows how long we might be here?

The Stone House on the Hill - far right, up from the harbor

With that, we will close with wishes for a Happy New Year and thanks for being here with us as we celebrate another year of this adventure.

Before I close, the problems with blog's email distribution continues and I continue to tweak the program trying to fix it..  Should you get this in your inbox, please drop a quick note (just hit reply on the email) and let me know. I am putting together a makeshift distribution system to get me to the real fix the end of January when the blog will undergo a major overhaul.  Thanks to those who've contacted us to see what has become of us!


Linking soon with:

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday

In Greece ~ Where there's a Will, there's a Way. . .

'End?' No, the journey doesn't end here. 

                  Death is just another path. One we all must take.                  

                                                                            --- J.R.R. Tolkien

Death and dying isn't a typical topic for someone whose blog focuses on travel and expat life. But if I approach it from the standpoint of a journey, then it really isn't such a peculiar subject, is it?

As with all journeys, some advance preparation is required.  And preparing for this journey is no different. Well, it is different when it is done in Greece as we were to learn. . .

Our slice of The Mani - Greek Peloponnese

. . .We've oft-times been told since buying our Stone House on the Hill  (and again when we purchased Hi, Ho Silver, our Toyota RAV), that as property owners here we should have a Greek Will.

'It will just make it easier,' has been the explanation for needing a Will. Now while we aren't convinced of that, should the plane go down or other disaster strike us both dead at the same time, but we finally decided to hedge the bet and do it.

The Stone House on the Hill - Platsa, Mani Messinias, Greece

This year seemed a good year to tackle that somewhat morbid task as we were already up to our ears in Greek bureaucracy. We'd made it through the paperwork required for our residency permit renewal and were stuck in Greece waiting for our permits.  We were also searching for the documents required to comply with a Greek government directive to file a cadastry (land survey and registration). So, why not take the stack of paper work a bit higher we asked ourselves and set about our task.

Greece - daydream or nightmare?

Before you can write a will you need to know what you want done with the property. And that was a dilemma:  to whom should we bequeath 'our daydream'?

Daydreams are wonderful things but we had to be honest: how many others see our Greek property as a daydream?  We thought about our small and scattered family (the members of which are still trying to figure out what time zone we live in let alone giving thought to visiting us there). While many friends have ventured to Greece to visit and proclaimed us to be  'living the dream' a few have added they could 'never do it'. 

So our daydream would undoubtedly be their nightmare should they find themselves beneficiaries of it.

The trip to the Mani is a long one from the Pacific Northwest

After doing a quick Google search of the topics of inheritance and second homes, we were comforted in finding we are not alone; similar dilemmas are being experienced by many boomers.  Those folks who chased their dreams and who own second homes, vacation property -- even those with timeshare ownership -- have been roaming the web seeking guidance on what to do with those properties so that family or friends aren't saddled with some unwanted inheritance.  

Sunset in Agios Nikolaos

And there seems to be a lot of us out there:

** The last U.S. Census reported that vacation home ownership had grown by 27.7% in the period between 2000 - 2010 as one million new cabins and cottages had been reported as vacation/second homes.

** The U.S. Social Security department reported in 2016 that half a million U.S. citizens receiving Social Security benefits lived outside the U.S. (I suspect a good deal of them own property and are probably dealing or dealt with the inheritance dilemma.)  

In general, the articles advise simply selling the property. They point to the sudden responsibility of paying for taxes, insurance, maintenance and travel to the property as likely being cost prohibitive for the beneficiaries. In all likelihood that is the route most, including us, plan to take. But our Greek Will is designed for the "Bam - You Are Both Gone!" scenario.

To Write a Will. . .differently

With decisions made that will keep all family and friends from being saddled with unwanted daydreams, it was time to write our Wills and I mean that quite literally.  We'd opted for the 'simple' Will. 'But, of course', as we say in Greece, 'Is anything simple here?'

Writing a Will in Greece - quite literally

First, we had to hand-write a Will on a sheet of lined notebook paper in Greece. No typing. No computer print out. CURSIVE writing. . .you know, that means of written communication that isn't being taught anymore in some schools in the U.S.

Our village, Agios Nikolaos - 

Once our Wills were written, we visited our attorney who in turn translated them into Greek. She then visited the right government offices to have them stamped as accurate translations. Then it was to be a simple matter of going to the Notary in the village and filing them there.  We would each be issued  a number which the survivor or our Executor would present to the Notary when the time comes to dispose of our property.

The Notary (a quasi-judicial figure in Greece) is in the village two days a week. She conducts business in a second floor apartment-turned-office on Mondays and Thursdays. So on a hot summer Monday morning we made our first visit. There is no waiting room so we joined others sitting or standing on the stairway leading to the office-apartment. The Notary was so busy, we were told to come back that afternoon.

The documents with 'those numbers' on them

Back we went. This time we made it to her bedroom-turned-office. The walls are lined with shelves of official document holders.  Here records of land purchase, cadastres and Wills are kept. She speaks little English and we, far-less Greek.  But we understood we would need to return Thursday as she needed to prepare documents in order for us to file the Wills. She told us we'd need to have an interpreter at our next meeting as the document had to be read and explained to us in English.

It was August - the month that most of Europe closes up shop and goes on vacation. We couldn't find an interpreter. Our meeting was moved to the following week when our attorney could join us and interpret the document.

Stamps make documents official in Greece

We gathered in the office, and the documents were read and translated (only after our attorney placed her hand on a Bible and swore that she would translate the document honestly). Basically the three-page document said we were filing a Will. That number we needed was on each document though. They were stamped, initialed and signed. Copies given, copies filed.

We had completed the task, yet I wondered for awhile how anyone would know we were dead if that plane goes down or the car crash happens.  Then I thought, even in Greece 'where there's a Will, there's a way. . .'

Daydreams realized -

That's it for this week! Next week I am switching our focus to the other side of the world where we are making a part-time life and where there's all sorts of country just waiting to be discovered. As always, thanks for the time you spend with us ~ we do appreciate your interest in our adventures and misadventures in the ex pat world. Safe travels to you and yours ~

Linking sometime soon with:


Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday

  

Life In the Peloponnese ~ Our Story

Marti, my friend from Kirkland, Washington in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and I regularly meet for morning coffee in the village, Agios Nikolaos in The Mani. It's the place the two of us and our husbands call home these days.

I walk into town for these get-togethers from our Stone House on the Hill. My route leads through the olive groves and along the sea. Seldom am I passed by more than two or three cars or motorcyclists, maybe a fellow walker or someone on a bicycle.

Prior to one of our get-togethers I varied my route following the backroad (there's only one) through the town, meeting up with the village's main road (also only one) along the harbor as I made my way to our appointed meeting place: Hades Taverna.

My circuitous route was so that I could take photos to illustrate an article I was writing for an on line magazine about our life here. Along the way I waved to Freda who, with her son Gregg, run the café that also serves as our post office. I then paused near the harbor at the kafenion where a group of village gents were gathered -- most likely just as village gents had been that first day The Scout and I happened upon this place, now more than six years ago.  I'd almost bet some of them were seated in the same chair they've sat in for years.

I chuckled as they bantered with the fellow selling the day's fresh catch. It was Saturday morning - a gloriously beautiful day. Summer's heat hadn't yet ratcheted up into high gear as it has now. I moved on and passed Sofia who runs the village's only clothing store - which is only open in the summer. We hugged and kissed a greeting as one does routinely in European countries and discussed the weather and fashion before proceeding on our ways.

Once settled in with our double cappuccino's (which are served in ceramic cups here with cookies on the saucer)  Marti and I began our debrief of the week's activities and absurdities. My neighbors drove past and waved and called out greeting.  Adam, the plumber from two villages away, stopped in for a coffee and chatted for a bit. We called out greetings and waved to others we knew. We watched the passenger bus that comes through twice a day make the tight corner turn, speculating on whether this would be the day it didn't work.

The editor for whom I was writing the article and taking the pictures had asked me to tell her readers what had brought The Scout and I here and what life in rural Greece was like.  This Saturday was a good example of both what brought us here and what keeps us here:  It was an ordinary Saturday morning in this part of Greece.  Yet, it was extraordinary. 

My article was published this week.  I posted it on FB so many of you have already read it, but I know a number of you are not FB fans so I am sharing it on the blog as well.  The publication, Travel with a Challenge, is published in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and is now in its 19th year. With an annual world-wide readership of 1.24 million, its articles are written for mature travelers and profile a number of alternative travel experiences. You travel enthusiasts out there might want to check it out!

In the meantime, hope you enjoy my article, which can be read by clicking on the link below: 
Moving to the Stone House on the Hill

All the photos used in this post and in the article were taken in our village.

Until next week, safe travels to you and yours ~ and thanks to those who've written on Messenger and sent emails this week about this article and the last blog post.  As always, it means a lot to hear from you. To those who've shared my writings, my deepest thanks! And to all who've reached this point in this post - thanks for the time you spent with us today!

Linking this week with:

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday

Ex Pat Life ~ A Mix of Madness and Mundane

'Life is either a daring adventure

or nothing at all.'

     -- Helen Keller

Okay, so I know I've been telling you that being an ex pat in Greece is one grand adventure. And in many ways living in the midst of Kalamata olive country in the southern Peloponnese is an adventure. It is most certainly a doorway to other travel adventures as well.

Yet, (I suspect many of our ex pat friends here would agree) in many ways day-to-day life could be more aptly described as being a mix of madness and mundane.

That seems a fitting way to begin a report on what's been happening at our home called, The Stone House on the Hill. While I often post updates on Facebook or Instagram, many of you who follow the blog, have asked, "What is happening at the house?' So looking back over the last six months, here's what we've been doing when not having grand adventures.

A Red Hot Welcome

Every other home on our street -- all four of them -- had some form of entry gate. Two black,one blue, one green. Except us.

Entry stairs at The Stone House on the Hill - before

We decided that such a gate at the top of the stairway leading from the road and our parking area to the house, would set off the entry.  Once decided, it took awhile to find a local 'metal man' who could build us one. Once we found him, his work load was such that he didn't get started on the project until January. (If I've not mentioned before, construction is booming in our area.)

I'd collected photos of the ornate types of gates we had in mind. He brought a catalog of more ideas. We agreed on a design, or so we thought.

What I thought we were getting and what we got

Somehow 'the ornate' part of the gate got left behind and we got a very mundane entry gate.

 . .that I will admit drove me a bit into a fit of madness (both anger and crazed) but then -- as with many things here -- it was time to put the madness aside and meet the challenge!

Finished gate with newly planted jasmine vine: Welcome!

The gate's builder said he'd left it plain because it would have detracted from the view. That does make sense. So we've framed the view with bright red and white paint and someday a jasmine vine will loop over its arbor.  I've come to love my little red gate.

On to the garden

I perhaps am smitten with my red gate because I had envisioned (at the same time we were talking about the ornate gate) having a small arbor built over our vegetable garden so that we can this year shade the plants from the cruel Mediterranean summer sun.

Arbor on Hydra Island

Last fall while exploring Hydra island with visiting houseguests of ours I'd spotted this charming tiny red arbor, pictured above. That was just what we needed.  Again, I showed the photo to the metal man who nodded his understanding. He took measurements.

All was good; o la kala, as we say here.

Our 'arbor'

I wasn't home when the construction began on this but arrived as the workmen were putting the finishing touches on 'the structure' that now dominates our side yard.  The Scout, being the taller of us, was tasked with painting it (we'd thought we were getting the small version so had told the builder we would paint it ourselves).

On the bright side, we don't worry about earthquakes any longer as this baby will hold the house up for sure.  We hope the bougainvillea will soon cover a good deal of it and a grape vine has been planted at the opposite end. . . I'll keep you posted on this one.

Yes, mundane tasks sometimes feel like sheer madness.

Do It Yourself  Madness

Not all the madness was caused by others. Sometimes we did it to ourselves by tackling a mundane task ourselves.  There was the stairway painting, for instance:

Our paint job of four years ago had faded and we were inspired by the bright white stairway in a hotel we'd stayed at last summer.  'Couldn't be that bad,' we told ourselves. 'A bit of sanding, a coat or two of paint.'  Let's just say it took several days to get the sanding and the painting to look like that we'd seen in the hotel. In the end we were pleased, but it did take a bit more talent than we'd expected it to require.

Once we had the stairs done, it was time to tackle the doors.  Stone houses built the time ours was, now 14 years ago, were decked out in pine. . .doors, windows, cupboards and cabinets.  While stone is easy to come by here, wood isn't.  The interior reminded us of the design of cabins built amidst, and from, pine forests in the Pacific Northwest.

The doors looked old. They looked dated.

And anyone can do a chalk paint wash, right?

We finally finished all six interior doors and their frames, but this is one of those projects that had us painting for days. . .it sounded so mundane but it became sheer madness.

Our most recent project was a joint effort - we helped do heavy lifting but turned the painting over to a professional.  We'd lived with the odd little closet/drawer/storage unit in the master bedroom -- another in natural pine -- for as long as we could stand it.  The top section was so high we never used it, so moved it to our storage room where it now stores the olive harvest equipment.

And as my father, a housepainter by profession, used to say, what a difference a coat of paint can make!  This project was sheer joy and it was madness that we didn't do it sooner!

Closet - before and after

So that ends our behind-the-scenes look at what's been happening at The Stone House on the Hill.  We've got painting projects coming up this spring but managed to squeeze in a bit of travel the last few weeks, including a luxurious long weekend in Athens. If you are planning a trip to Greece anytime soon, it would be a shame not to include Athens in your itinerary! I'll tell you a few reasons why next week.

Safe travels to you and yours and thanks always for the time you spend with us. Use the comments or send us an email to let us know what you've been up to ~

Linking with:

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday