General Update... September 2009
Posted by Dinny, 8 Sep 2009, 10:19 PM
I was just dusting my blog... and, as usual, noticed that 6 months had gone by with no news. Well, by now you should be used to this. I actually think nothing ever happens in my life here, it's just work on the one side and sunshine on the other! ;-) Not quite true, but in general it covers it.
I've had loads of pleasant visits from friends during spring and summer... and still have a few to come. Pam & Bob came by with the good news of Pam's pension being OK'ed, so it'll soon be Crete Forever for the two of them! :-) I had a long-lost friend from Denmark visiting me for a week in May, we were chatting our jaws apart. AND my daughter, Valentina, finally made it! She went into that frightening airplane together with 3 friends of hers and managed to get to Crete! We had so much fun for 2 weeks, they made me fell almost their age (not yet 30 any of them), LOL. After 3 years of promisses-promisses I finally met Dave & Hillary and their lovely daughter, they came all the way from up North, so we had a few hours on my terrace, a very nice lunch together at Vrahos overlooking the beach of Komos, and then it was bye-bye again. But since then I caught Dave on Facebook, so I keep track of what they are doing back there in Wales during the loooong and cold summer-autumn-winter months! Birgit made it down here from Agias Pelagias as well for a - short - day of chatting and laughing (Almost everybody seem to stay up North, the drive is so long, why don't you just choose your holidays in the most beautiful part of Crete... down South, I mean?). So, as far as visitors are concerned, I am just expecting some friends from Italy end of September, an old schoolmate of mine from Denmark also in September... and then I guess we shall close the season whoever is remaining with a nice party in my garden (ooops, take care of the dog leftovers!) AND on my terrace (which is safer!).
Animals? Sure! Still! Some!
Billy, my first cat - and apparently the most intelligent - is still going strong. 4 years old for a Pitsidian cat must be a world record!
And Darling - one of Millies kittens - is also still here. Since last time... all the rest are gone. Sweetie went missing. My noisiest and most amusing cat, Wheenee, went too far away on his walkabouts the last time and didn't return. My little honey, Pucci, was found in the road. I still have 2 cats - and I will never have any more cats in this place!
But I have 3 dogs! :-))) Just last month the latest stray dog member, Happy, was added to the bunch. I wish I had a photo to show you - you would know why I couldn't resist her! ;-) It is good that my garden is big enough for them and that it is all fenced! But still, they spend their day in my office, forcing me to sometimes leave the work and go out on the terrace so that they can have a little fun out there. Thank you, doggies, it does me a lot of good to get away from the PC once in a while!
Work situation is getting better. I have been very lucky to have been busy with the big project I told you about - been working on it since January and it seems to be going on for a year og two more - so the crisis haven't really hit me. And now I see signs of my old agencies coming back to life, even the Italians are starting to move a bit.... so hopefully we can ban the word "crisis" from our daily vocabulary from now on. I hope this is also the case for all of you. We saw it, we've had it, and we didn't like it! So welcome to better times from now on! :-)
Actually, the first reason for getting into my blog today was that I wanted to insert a warning about a car hire company, Eurocar, they managed to cheat my daughter, making her pay more than the agreed amount for a rental car and totally ignoring ALL the following emails requiring them to correct the error. They got the credit card number and they took what they wanted. I tried to insert a socalled "review" under the appropriate page on this site, but it seems to have been ignored, maybe because the company in question is a major client as far as advertising is concerned.
I am definitely NOT happy about that. If a Cretan company is cheating you (and I have heard that this is not a singular case), then THIS site is the appropriate site to warn other travelers to Crete about it! And if the company in question is advertising on this very site, some action should be taken. I am expecting to hear from Yannis about it, at least I hope so, otherwise there is no reason to have a page named "reviews", if only positive reviews are taken into consideration.
I wish I could manage to insert a few pictures. I should have at least one of my "cartoon dog", Lucky.... but it appears that I have to upload them to my Gallery Album. I'll give it a try!
Edited after trying this: I managed to upload 11 pics, but then the system apparently got "tired" of me and didn't want to continue... well, it is late, almost 3 am... so maybe this will do for today. I was hoping to insert the "captions" afterwards, but I simply can't find a way to do it. So, to explain, there are a few pics of where the youngsters stayed in Matala (you would dream about waking up to this view, let me know if you need directions to Alexandra's cheap place in Matala overlooking the bay), one picture of Lucky, some of my daughter getting "body art" in Matala, a game of Scrablle at Jodi's kafenion in Pitsidia.... well, have a look! :-)
Next time I'll let you know how wonderful it was to go back to Denmark for Christmas holidays... at least, these are the plans.
Then, as we all know, sometimes life makes other plans for us! ;-)
All the best
Dinny
Hey There! I Am Still Very Much Alive - Are You? :-)
Posted by Dinny, 5 Feb 2009, 08:03 PM
I admit it, I am not good at this - keeping connections! I tend to disappear, be occupied with other things, and then suddenly feel that something is missing. Oh! Haven't written anything in my blog for months and months!
Well, let me first reassure you: I am alive and well. Still without insurance but trying to keep myself in a shape where I won't need it!
The autumn months of 2008 after my holidays in Denmark were quite strange, workwise I mean. A sudden silence seemed to have fallen upon my Italian agencies with which I work regularly. English and American agencies were still working quite well, so I just assumed that my "Italians" were having a bit of extra holidays. Late November, early December, it became clear that the financial crisis had struck and killed most of my Italian connections. Well, they are still there, but they have no work to pass on to me. December was quite low even from my English/American clients... so I was starting to bite my nails. Living in Crete is not like living in Denmark. If work suddenly stops and you have no income, it's not like you can just go to the local community and ask them to take care of your bills. You can in Denmark. But not in Crete.
January didn't seem to start much better but, furtunately, I ran into a big project which would keep me busy-busy for a couple of months. So, that's more or less why I have disappeared for a while, because I simply have so little time left over every day, and when work is done I just want to go to the nearest taverna and meet the friends rather than hanging over the computer for a few more hours. The situation with my "regulars" is still the same, so I don't know what will happen when this big project is done. Hopefully, something else! ;-)
The animal situation? Hm! Always changing, I must say. It changes based on the amount of poison the Greeks throw around and on the amount of traffic on the road just next to my house! When we last spoke, I belive the situation was that Millie had 5 kittens, Billie (the GrandMa) was well... and sterilized, no more fuss with her. And His Majesty - Niko - was still around.
Well, His Majesty had a tendence to go walkabout for days, staying away for 3-4 days, coming back to get fed, then maybe away for a week, and then again for a few days. One day you suddenly realize that he is not coming back anymore, and you can only immagine what happened.
Millie used to go out very early in the morning to catch a mouse for her 5 kittens to play with... and one morning she just didn't come back, and the kittens were just barely ready to eat by themselves. But they grew up to be beauties. Peter Pan, the red one with the most wonderful brown-orange eyes. Baby, the only girl among them. Wheeny (becauce he was always whining), Darling, and Sweety - big strong boys, too.
I swear on anything dear to me: after these I will have no more cats!
Baby went out on a stroll and didn't come back. My beautiful Peter Pan remained on the road one morning after his very last walkabout. I cried my heart out!
But (swearing apart) one night at the end of the season there's this tiny kitten near a taverna in the Platia with no future ahead of her... she sort of just disappeared up under my T-shirt and we went home to see if we could find a better future together. She's my Pucci, a tiny little girl among the big boys... 'cause Wheeny, Darling, and Sweety are still around... patiently waiting for her to grow up. I think me and the vet will take care of disappointing their expectations! No more kittens! (unless, of course, they just happen! LOL).
Oh, and the "dog situation" also changed! One night, around midnight, I heard some scary screaming outside... I thought one of the cats had been hit by a car and hurried out of bed and outside... in the dark night it took me a while to find out that the screaming did not come from any of my cats... but from a little black bundle of curly hair! Somebody had thought it was a good idea to throw a little black puppy in front of my gate... I guess these people must know me - but I don't want to know them! :-( Anyway, I got the "bundle" inside and discovered a tiny little girl puppy. What do you want me to do? Throw her in the garbadge? I think not! Next day she was baptised "Lucky" and is now part of the family. She's quite a "cartoon dog", can you imagine? Like a Disney dog... her ears are always straight out as if she's ready to fly, her funny little black eyes totally disappear in the black fur and I never know if she is looking at me or sleeping... but I always know where she has been! Because any pair of socks I might have in the house will be hidden in her basket, somewhere in my bed, in the sofa, just anywhere... and if clothes are not washed immediately they have such a tempting "perfume" that she simply have to steal them and hide them somewhere! Bella is quite happy with the company, especially since she is so much bigger and therefore can be dominating the little bugger! They have great fun together tearing my socks apart!
OK, I'll shut up soon - but I just need to tell you about my latest bureaucratic experience. Facing that I have been here for three years without - still - being able to speak more that basic Greek everyday phrases, I decided to join the free Greek course that the Mires municipality is offering for foreigners. A lot of us signed up in December, filling in forms and delivering our passports for copying (I guess they are expecting some EU compensation if they deliver proof) and were told that lessons would start after the Christmas holidays. Finally, early February I'm getting a call (in Greek, of course) to show up in Mires Thursday 5th at 17:00 hours for the Greek lessons. I was really excited, finally I would start learning real Greek! So we showed up, some 20 foreigners, we all know each other.... all excited, finally! The teacher greets us in Greek and hands out a questionnaire - in Greek - which we are supposed to fill in. Hm! Looks exactly like the questionnaire I filled in when registering in Mires in December. The teacher excuses herself, but "Athens wants...". Athens wants AGAIN?? Appearently Athens wants "again". Since the teacher was not really able to explain (in other than Greek) what the single voices in the questionnaire were about, we tried to check with each other to fill it in... some knew a little Greek, some nothing... that is why we attend the course... but finally we managed to fill in the questionnaire. Then we are handed a test... in Greek, of course.... totally Greek to me! So I just put question marks everywhere (fine, it was in order to establish my knowledge of Greek)... and, now, can we finally start the lesson? No, now we all go home. Don't call us, we'll call you - to let you know when classes start.
Let me just say that ... we might lack electricity often, the water may be rationized most of the summer months, the bureaucracy might be over-your-head... but there is ONE thing they really understand here: How to start spring! The last few days we have had clear blue sky, sunshine, 20-25 degrees. We are starting the summer tan here! So, my fellow Europeans... you might have electricity on a never-ending connection, you might never turn on the water hose in the morning just to find that there is no water, you might be able to solve all you questions with the authorities by a click on the internet... but you are freezing your butts off at the moment - while we are just smiling at the sunshine. I will stay here till they carry me out head first! :-))))
A New Experience - And One To Keep In Mind
Posted by Dinny, 3 Aug 2008, 11:31 AM
I realize it has been many months since I wrote something here in my blog. As usual, I am surprised how time just flies away here in Crete. Yesterday it was Christmas - and in a few days I shall be off for my summer holidays in Denmark, escaping the hot-hot weather for at least a couple of weeks. I am looking forward to seeing the "Northern part" of my family again! :-)
Still, until a few days ago I expected that I would have had to cancel the trip, because I was trapped in the hospital and not very certain about when they would let me out... Let me explain:
A couple of months ago I was feeling not-very-well, a sort of burning in my chest that lasted some 20 minutes. I was thinking about bad digestion? Too much raki? Too many cigarettes? Stress? But then, after these twenty minutes it all passed and I happily went on with whatever I was doing. Still, during the following weeks I kept getting small reminders, just a little burning for a few seconds or minutes from time to time, although I really tried to smoke less, eat decent food instead of all this souvlaki and bifsteki fast food I usually eat too much of, drink less, take time off from work to go on some long walks with Bella. My daughters were pushing me and driving me mad so, finally, I gave in and consulted a cardiologist in Mires. I had an EKG and there it was, black on white: "myocardial infarction, probably old". SHIT! Pardon my French!
My doctor sent me to have a series of blood tests done (70 euro) and most of the values were over the limit, cholesterol being the most scarry figure of them all. He insisted that I had to go to the hospital in Heraklion to have them test my heart to find out if it had suffered any damage or whether there were any obstructions which could cause another heart attack sooner or later. And here is where I would like all you dreamers of a new future in Crete to listen in closely, because it concerns many of you:
I objected that I could not go to the hospital, I have no insurance! As a citizen of the EU, you have the right to the same insurance as the inhabitants in the EU country you choose to live in. In Greece, that means: NO INSURANCE. Unless you are employed with all the papers in order, then you have IKA. Or if you have your own business, you pay you own private insurance or get TEVE or something like that, which means 2-300 euro to pay every month. I did try to get an insurance a couple of years ago, but you can only get insurance if you are in perfectly good health, and when you are almost 60 there will always be something in the machinery which is not in a perfect state. So at the time I did not get any insurance.
Well, my doctor insisted. He said that if I could go there Monday morning maybe they would just do one test and then send me home... OK, so I went. Checked in at the university hospital in Heraklion. The doctor checked me and made an EKG. Then he said that they would have to keep me to make some more tests...
I was taken to the Cardiologic Dept. and got a bed in a three-bed-room. And during the following days I had all sorts of tests made and still the doctors were not happy. The threathening shadow of "operation" was up there, the cost would be around 8,000 euro, and with no insurance there was no way for me to accept that. Thursday they made a stress-test and injected some radioactive contrast fluid which was scanned to follow the ways of the blood through the heart. They had to make it twice and when I returned to the Card. Dept. my doctor asked me how many times they put me in the "tunnel"? Twice? That is not a good sign, there seems to be a problem then. And I should know, that after this test there were no other tests they could do, if I had a problem they could only solve it by operating. Anyway, he would let me know the following day when he had studied the papers...
OK, Friday noon my doctor came and told me with a big smile that he had good news for me. It seemed that the heart had suffered no damage and that there were no obstructions. 80 percent for sure. So I could go home. (here I would insert a row of smileys!!!)
The economical side of it: A day in the hospital costs 70 Euro. So I went to the administration office and paid 280 euro + some admin. fee, total 296 euro. A bill will follow for the special tests I have had. It is likely to be around 1000 euro. No insurance to cover it, so it is all "my pleasure".
By the way, the university hospital in Heraklion is fantastic! Well, naturally the walls are green, for some reason nobody ever thinks of a different colour for hospitals (except for MY local hospital in Copenhagen, which is in all the colours of the rainbow, and you can always find your way around it by following "your own" colour). But the people there - doctors, nurses, assistants, EVERYBODY - were extremely kind and friendly, most of them spoke perfect English. And the doctors were kind and competent and took the time to speak about what they were doing and why. I had heard that it would be impossible to sleep at night because they would never turn the light off and there would be relatives talking loudly all over the place all 24 hours of the day and the TVs were never turned off.... None of all this. All was nice and quiet from ten in the evening and you could sleep tight till around 8.15 before the nurses started to come with their dreadful needles and medications.
The food: I have never in my life tasted such disgusting "food"! OK, so apparently at the hospital in Heraklion they have never heard that good and tasteful food will make the patients recover sooner, i.e. liberate the bed earlier, which is good for the economy. Still, at least you would not die of hunger even if you have no relatives around you.
I am happy to be back home now. But it has also been a learning experience. I simply MUST find a way to get a health insurance, although it will cost me as much as I pay for renting my house.
And you, if you want to move to Crete to live and work, please keep it in mind. You might never see it coming, but suddenly you find yourself in a situation where you need health insurance.
You Want To Hear About My New House?
Posted by Dinny, 16 Dec 2007, 07:47 PM
Well, now is the time to tell you about it. I have moved in - and I love it!
The moving was hard work but eventually we finished it with the help of all my friends here, everybody was so helpful! And then, of course, it took some twenty loads with my own car for all the small stuff. I really get to wonder about how much you gather in a lifetime that eventually posesses you instead of the other way around?
Moving the cats was the funny part. I took two-three each time and locked them in the house, when number nine was in it was "locked doors" for a couple of days. Then I took care of following the advise of my English friend, Jenny, although it made me smile a bit: put butter on their paws before letting them out, so they will not get lost in the new environment. Well, after two days confinement in the house I finally made them all step into a small plate with butter and opened the windows. Now, all the cats that for two days had been scratching the glass on the windows to get out, all sat there in the open windows, busy licking their paws to remove the butter... nobody seemed to be in a hurry to go out. After a thorugh cleaning they adventured into the garden, little by little, discovering the roof of the house, the stairs leading up and with no possibility for the dog to follow, so this is where they spend their time now.
Bella is crazying around in the garden, she just loves it. There is grass to chew, earth to dig big holes into (she already had two big bones disappear in some treasure chamber of hers) and enough space for when she gets into her five minutes of madness and needs to run like a crazy. Which is exactly what she does.
After a couple of days I were here I noticed that some people were working on the road, which runs just in front of the house. A girl with a map, men with measuring things... I was sitting outside enjoying the sunshine... and after a while a man came to the gate asking if he could be let in: They had to measure for when the road was to be enlarged. As he said, pointing at my front wall fencing the properties: This might have to go. I felt like in a movie! I said, but I just moved in here, and now you want to take my garden? Well, as he explained, the road has to be much wider. I pointed at the cemetery a few hundred metres ahead and asked if they wanted to destroy that too? Well, we will move it, yes. Then he and another guy entered and they measured and planted a metal stick some 4 meters into my garden, taking most of the front garden away that is! I could not help laughing, this was so Salvadore-Dali, unreal... But as it can happen only in Greece: After some twenty minutes they guy came back and asked if I could give him the metal stick, they had made a mistake, the enlargement of the road was to be to 8 metres, not 12 as they had originally counted on. 
So my garden is safe! .... for now!
Moving the telephone line was another Greek thing: I had enquired at OTE first and they had told me that it would take a full day to move the line. I was thrilled, what efficiency! They cut the line on Monday morning at 8 sharp. Some guys from OTE came by Tuesday to say that they had made whatever they could do, but that I had to wait for another guy to come on Wednesday to fix the rest. Nobody showed up Wednesday, and not Thursday either. Friday morning I went to OTE to complain and they told me to go home and wait, somebody would come. Of course, nobody came. A Greek friend of mine happened to be in Mires on Friday and "just in case" passed by OTE to ensure, that they were working on my line, since I needed it to be able to work? OH, we forgot! But we will send somebody tomorrow for sure. So a man from OTE came by Saturday afternoon and started to fix the cables outside from the pole to a connection point. Wauw, now I finally had my telephone line back! But the internet connection still did not work! Monday morning I went to OTE, I was told that nobody could come that same day, maybe it was a problem with my modem? (This is what they ALWAYS tell me, when the line is down). Anyway, they would send a technician Tuesday morning. Tuesday they call me to say they were too busy. At that point I started YELLING! Tuesday noon suddenly the line was OK (so it was not my modem, which I knew already) and somebody called me to enquire whether all was fine? Yes, thank you so much. After one week with no line I discovered that my email contained something like 60 mails with requests for work and it took me all afternoon Wednesday to reply to everybody and most of a week after to fulfill the work I had accepted to do.
And now? Well, it is almost Christmas although I have not had much time to think about it. I only have a few days of work left before I "close for holidays" and then I plan to go to Heraklion (Macro and Carrefour) for the Christmas buyings and on the 25th we shall hopefully have a lovely Christmas dinner among friends in my new house. Last year we enjoyed it very much and I am sure this year will be no less enjoyable.
And Bella can bark in the garden to salute everybody that passes the house, nobody will ever hiss at her again!
To all my friends at the ExploreCrete I wish a wonderful Christmas and happy holidays! 
So It's Forever Pitsidia? :-)
Posted by Dinny, 30 Oct 2007, 07:12 PM
Finally, I have news on the househunting! I have been taking this siga-siga, not wanting to be too eager but not forgetting it either that I wanted a change: New house, NO neighbours!
And, by a fortunate coincidence, the house just outside Pitsidia that I originally wanted to rent before even moving here (which my daughter at the time said would be too far away from the village, I would feel lonely!) turns out to be vacant from December this year. I have agreed with the owner to rent it and he is right now taking care of my contract. Extremely kind landlord, no difficulties at all, rent is the same as for the previous owner - and actually a bit lower than what I actually pay.
I will have the same space as in my actual house - living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and a small room for my office - but a much bigger garden. I will from now on be self-sufficient on C-vitamins since there is a lemon tree, an orange tree, two small mandarine trees - and, of course, an olive tree.
Bella will be a happy dog, no more hissing on her, neither from me nor from my neighbours, since there is absolutely nobody living just near to us. I have promissed myself that with the money I save on the rent I will buy myself a stereo system with huge amplifiers. For two years I have never dared to play any loud music - from now on it will be my choice when and how loud my music will be playing - maybe just loud enough so that I won't be bothered if my dog starts barking. She will be allowed to do that from now on.
I have not wanted to say anything about it for the last month, scared of jinxing myself but now that everything seemed to be in place I thought I would let you know that it's not goodbye to Pitsidia and I am very happy about that. I love this village, I just didn't like my neighbours to decide how I should live.
I am looking forward to seeing friends from the ExploreCrete in my new garden - there won't be a sea view, but hopefully we will be able to sit peacefully in the shade of the orange tree and just enjoy life.
Greeks Like To Stay Close To Each Other
Posted by Dinny, 8 Jul 2007, 08:35 AM
Still no news on the househunting. It takes time to go looking for a new house and at the moment I have loads of work and don't have any time to drive around. I will have to dig into that when I come back from my holidays in August, since I would like to move at the end of September if possible.
I did actually go to see a house near Agia Galini, a very nice house with a huge fenced ground around it. The owner had no problems with cats and the dog (which I asked even before thinking about going to see the house) so I went to have a look. Real nice house. We spoke about a rent of 450 a month. After a week he came back and told me he would like 600 a month. So as far as I am concerned he can keep his house empty.
Funny thing about this house: It was originally built in a totally empty area. The fence runs quite close to the house on the one side, while on the other three sides the ground is wide. But when I went to see it I noticed that somebody was building a big house just 3-4 metres from the fence, meaning there would be not more than 7-8 metres between the houses so that people in the new house could look right through the windows in this house. Peculiar choice of location! Apparently Greeks like to stay very close to each other...
I also notice this when shops are concerned. If somebody has a minimarket he can be dead sure that soon somebody else will open a minimarket a few metres away. Take Pitsidia: In the old town we have Kostas supermarket, some ten metres away another little shop with canned food and beverages and another 10 metres from that another Pantopolio with exactly the same goods to offer. I don't know which of these came first, but I would say we have a pretty good possibility to find whatever we need in daily grosseries. If only they would decide to offer different stuff instead of having all exactly the same brand of, say, dog food. Now, where would you guess that somebody else just opened a beautiful new grossery shop? Exactly between Kostas supermarket and the little ol' shop with canned food. 
A couple of years ago a hairdresser opened shop in Pitsidia and seems to have a good little business. And since it was such a good business, now we have another hairdresser here.
In nearby Vori I have seen four butcher shops so close that each of them could check the business in the other butcher shops.
I wonder why nobody is able to figure out which kind of business we actually need here. There is no clothing shop, no shoemaker, no bookshop, no kitchenware shop, no ATM machine, no post office, no electricity shop, no laundry shop... You name it, and we haven't got it.
Goodbye To Pitsidia!
Posted by Dinny, 11 May 2007, 05:50 PM
Some of you might have been following this blog to get to know about what it's like to live in Crete. I regret if I haven't been very informative, I've only posted whatever came to my mind when something special was happening.
Now, something special is happening again, because I have decided to leave this little village where I have rented a house. Nothing wrong with the house, it's all you could ever ask for, but when signing the rent agreement I didn't take into account that I would have neighbours!
When moving to Crete as a foreigner there is ONE thing you should consider before anything else: In MY opinion, different rules apply whether you are Greek or whether you are of any other nationality! The things that the Greeks are allowed to do don't apply to you, be sure of that and dont't try to fight it, because there is no way to do it unless of course you are very stubborn and insist that Greek rules apply to you as well. By law, of course they do. But in daily life, forget it!
I'll get back to my little corner of Paradise to explain. My house is situated in a village in the countryside in Pitsidia, South of Crete near to Matala. On my left hand I have a small pension, "Isabella Rent Rooms" and on my right side a German neighbour living here some months during the year. In front of me is a field with a ruin of an old house, sheep use to graze there during all the months of spring, then suddenly disappear around Easter. They all end up on our dinner tables...
When I first came here some one and a half year ago I immediately received the visit of five little kittens, the offspring of a cat living on the ground of my neighbour's mother-in-law, she too living in a house attached to mine. The kittens were starving, I guess that's why the mother thought it would be a good idea to bring them to my terrace, and naturally I immediately started to feed them. A five-day penicilline cure brought them back to life and they were quite happy running around on my terrace as I was happy to have them there. The food on the terrace obviously attracted other cats and soon there were far too many for me to feed. Greeks don't think it's necessary to feed cats, meaning they are all hungry all the time. After a month or so my neighbours made their first complaint: They had counted 16 cats on my terrace! Excuse me, maybe you should concentrate on your own business instead of gazing into my terrace to count the cats - but still, I understand your concern. The wife of my neighbour suggested that I stopped feeding them since cats would eat leaves if they were hungry. I looked at her for a moment and then decided that no civilized conversation could take place with a women of her level of intelligence.
Every possibility of communication stopped when one of my small cats went outside my gate and was crushed between the wall of my neighbours and a big pot they had outside. It took only one impatient push on the pot from somebody outside to crush her hip bone and it took her 2 months to start to walk on her four legs again instead of three.
Later that year I got Bella, my beautiful dog. When you live in the countryside you are obviously allowed to have a dog, aren't you? Well, she immediately chose who could stay on the terrace and who could not, so she reduced the outdoor cats to 3.5 - meaning that 3 were great friends of hers and the 0.5 was allowed to TRY to get some food but was not allowed to be seen walking on the terrace. Obviously, she just waited until Bella was inside for the night and then she would come forward to eat whatever was left.
Having the dog immediately caused some new complaints from my neighbour: When she was a puppy she would go out in the morning and pee whereever she wanted. I would then run out to clean the mess with the waterhose trying to send the water stream towards the little corner of soil where the wine plant was living so that the water stream reaching the driveway (the terrace is all pending towards the driveway) would contain only water and not pee. Obviously, my negihbours were there to complain every morning that the water running down the driveway might be dirty. We have BIG problems with you!
Well, Bella soon learned that she was not allowed to pee on the terrace tiles but would rather be complimented when she did her needs directly on the ground. Brava, Bella! The lastest complaint goes on that my neightbour, when gazing through my gate, can see that a dog is leaving her poopoos on my ground... I've not quite catched what the hell she is complaining about, but maybe she wants to pay my rent, so that she can tell me what to do here?
But a dog barks sometimes, doesn't it? It's her job and she has to keep the strange cats out of the terrace, so Bella barks sometimes. Well, not that it would be a big problem since Bella is sleeping inside during the night, meaning that she would be going outside (during wintertime, with no turists around) at 8 o'clock and during summertime at 9 o'clock. Her first barking - the duration would be about 30 seconds to 1 minut - would happen around 9.30 usually. And immediately my neighbour would come out like a spider from its hole to make her tedious "shhhhhhhhhhhhh", this at whichever hour during the day. And she would at any occasion tell me about what a BIG problem she had with the dog, since she would wake up the tourist which would be sleeping. At any hour.
Now, you would think that neighbours who are always complaining would be a picture of perfection themselves, wouldn't you?
Well, unfortunately my neighbours think that they own Pitsidia and especially whatever is around their own 'territory'. So, the driveway to my house is usually the parking place of my neighbours car (although he has something like 15 other choices of parking), meaning that whenever I come back from big shopping I cannot drive to my gate to unload my car but have to carry the many and heavy bags the 30 meters from the street to my house. Lately, I HAVE asked him to stop it, to park somewere else so that I could get to my house, but naturally he couldn't care less. I'm just a foreigner....
When they had a small puppy last year they were so annoyed with its peeing and whining that they decided that placing it in a confined space on their parking lot just beneath my bedroom window would be the perfect place to get rid of the noise. They were right, they probably never heard it again, the only problem was that I had to listen to this little puppy crying all night during the rainy and cold winter months while it made my hearth breake. A lonely puppy of 2 months under the rain IS hearthbreaking to listen to....
While everything here has to be quiet like a cemetery that obviously doesn't go for when they have their grandchildren visiting or friends or relatives or tourists. Then the air is filled with screams of Jajaaaaaaa (granny!) and cin-cin and cheerio, all is allowed, who cares if I am trying to work and concentrate on my translations? The only time I actually complained was when their granddaughter chose to ring my bell outside to hear the dog get excited and start barking whereafter she would escape before I managed to get to the gate. (Of course she didn't know that I can see my gate from my office window where I am working so I saw her every time she made her little trick). She funny thing is that my neighbour would come out and hisssssssssssssss on the dog when it started barking! Well, after some 10 times I went to tell her granny to make her stop it. Naturally, they wouldn't believe that the little sweet girl would ever have done anything like that...
When you sit outside enjoying the evening and the sunset that is when my neighbour decides to cut the lawn downstairs with his motorized lawnmover. Well, of course I just go inside and forget about the quiet evening on the terrace...
Obviously, if I were Greek nobody would ever have dared to say anything about my animals. Greek dogs are barking continously from 6 am to 8 pm and even during the night, but they are GREEK, nobody can do anything about them. Obviously.
Anyway, to make a (too) long story short, now I have decided to move on, I can't live near to these people anymore. My neighbours are licking the tourists leaving a miserable 30 euro a night while ignoring that living here you might spend 2000 euros every month during the year in the community of Pitsidia for the good of everyone. They simply don't have enough IQ to realize that this is as valuable as a volatile tourist...
So, when you move here, take care that you get neighbours that ACCEPT you as foreigners. You might be able to show an attitude of WHAT DO i CARE? (how I envy you!) but if you get affected in any way by complaining neighbours then make sure you won't have ANY! Having 'neighbours from hell' like Izabella might ruin your daily life! It has surely ruined mine!
On the happy side: I will soon be able to tell you about another region of Crete, probably a very deserted one, where the sun is shining like everywhere else and where there is no annoying neighbour to ruin my life! :-)
Pollution Is Now Officially Illegal!
Posted by Dinny, 10 Mar 2007, 07:20 AM
Congratulations, Kriti! The word has reached the most distant corners of the island: It is now officially illegal to pollute the ground water and to throw litter in nature.
The talk of the town (well, village) these days is the new rules (and heavy fines) concerning how to dispose of waste water. Before, you would always know who was using the washing machine, because the dirty soap water would be running directly onto the road and downwards untill it would find an open sewer or just run onto the ground somewhere. I don't know if the municipality has informed all the inhabitants by letter but all of a sudden everyone is concerned about moving the discharge hose from the washing machine so that the waste water runs directly into the septic tank instead of onto the road. Unfortunately, all this concern is not moved by an awakening acknowledgement of the necessity to protect the ground water and the nature, but simply by the threat of heavy fines for violating these rules. In fact, people are not happy at all about it, since it's expensive to have the septic tank emptied and with all this extra waste water going into it everyone will have to pay the 50 euro to the "votro-man" more often.
Of course, we will not see the police or officials from Timbaki more often in the village to check that all discharge hoses are connected correctly. In Kriti you never need this kind of control, since everyone can be certain that the next door neighbour will report it if somebody is not complying. Again, not for the sake of the nature, but more due to "if I have to pay more, then he has to pay as well".
I would be very interested in reading these rules, but I have received no notice about them whatsoever. Fortunately, the mouth-to-ear news service is as efficient as ever.
You've Got To Admit It's Getting Better...
Posted by Dinny, 28 Jan 2007, 09:01 AM
While Europe is suffering storms and now even snow, we are just getting back into our T-shirts and enjoy that winter actually never came. This is of course a bit egoistic of me to be happy about that, because we haven't got the amount of rain that Crete needs and I start wishing that we could get a few weeks of pouring rain to get us through summer without drying out. The nights are still quite chilly, but as soon as the sun comes up in the morning it starts warming up everything and I catch every excuse I can find to go out for a little walk, sit outside in the local kafenion and enjoy the sunshine - and a cool beer of course - chatting with some local friends while trying to improve my Greek, which by the way is still miserable!!
The last couple of months have actually been very bad. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong - I must have been under a spell or something like that. First the lightning struck my house during a thunderstorm and my TV, my DVD-player went POFF together with my satellite box (fortunately I had unplugged my computer, I'm doing this automatically never mind the weather, since my PC is my daily bread, can't take any risks). Then my washing machine broke down, I had it repaired and it made just one wash and then broke down again. My tape recorder? POFF! When there were no appliances left in the house still working, every time I turned some light on the light bulb exploded. I started laughing about it, no use crying anyway.
One morning a guy driving in a hurry to get his daughter to school on time just crashed into my car parked outside. He was too much in a hurry to stop to leave a note, but fortunately he knew that 'this was the car of Linda's mother', so he called her later that day to explain. Since the damage was quite big we decided to let his insurance settle it. Two trips to Mires for the insurance guy to check the damages, a trip to Timbaki to make the paperwork at my insurance company, leaving the car three days at the garage to fix it, picking up the car and taking the bills to Timbaki, and now several trips to Timbaki to push them into settling the amount with the garage. Well, they will actually settle the amount with me, then I'll have to go to their bank to get the cash, then go back to Mires and pay the mechanic. Tons of wasted time....
When nothing more could go wrong, my cats caught the 'cat disease' (feline panleucopenia virus) and 5 of my indoor cats died within a week, one almost every day. Minimis, Frenzie, Fuzzy, Leo and tiny little Cookie are now burried deep in the sand under a bush in the Komos hinterland. The house was so quiet afterwards, of the cats only Billie, Niko and Silvie (Silly) were left. It was a sad time.
Besides, during this period most of my clients decided that they had plenty of time before they wanted to pay my invoices, so I had to slaughter my piggy bank to get through, and I fortunately also have some good friends, so sometime you could find us at the kafenion counting the coins in our pockets to see if we by common effort could get the necessary amount to buy a packet of cigarettes!
At Christmas, my daughter Linda took the kids with her to celebrate the holidays in Italy with the Italian branch of the family, so I was free to make whatever arrangements I wanted. So, between friends we decided to have an 'international Christmas dinner' at my house. I made a Danish traditional Christmas pork roast with red cabbage and sweet potatoes, Jenny & Dennis brought an English roast, Christine brought her German specialities - sausages and sauerkraut - and Andreas, who is Greek and not much of a cook, bought some blue cheese for dessert. We spent the most wonderful Christmas Day together, very relaxed and with a lot of laughter.
After Christmas everything seemed to sort itself out. My clients finally paid all the invoices, my washing machine ended the strike and without any reparation just started to work again. Petrus fixed my satellite box with a new power supply, Dieter had a spare TV which he didn't use anymore so I could have it, work came pouring in so the nearest future is financially on the safe side. Silly got pregnant, so I shall soon have a 'full menage' of little kittens again, and besides: One little kitten from the 'outside cats' (last of a bunch of five, of which four had disappeared) was so determined not to die although all odds were against her that I promoted her to 'indoor cat', naming her Baby.
Yesterday I took Baby to the vet to have her vaccinated (no more panleucopenia in MY house!!!) and Bella had to have her last vaccination as well. We managed to get my 'cute little puppy' on the scale: She is now 26 kgs.
And while everything is now back to normal I can concentrate on enjoying life here on this beautiful island, working every morning and in the afternoon taking long walks with Bella to the beach, enjoying the warm sunshine and the fantastic surroundings. Life is SO wonderful!
Winter Is Coming ... 2nd Time Around
Posted by Dinny, 2 Nov 2006, 08:51 AM
I wonder what is happening to 'time' on Crete. As most of you have experienced during your holidays here, time seems to disappear much quicker than everywhere else. 24 hours in Crete is like 8 hours elsewhere. At least, this is the only explanation I can find to the fact that it feels as if I have just arrived here, but now my 2nd winter is approaching already, I just can't believe it!
I really like the winter here, I like the quietness that falls on everything, I like the absense of people and tourist buses, I like the empty beach and the high waves. And I especially like that the 'cold' period is so short and still blessed with sunshine. I must organize to get a load of wood for the fireplace, though. When it's chilly outside, a stonehouse can feel real damp and cold if you don't have a good fire burning.
My Greek has not improved much over the last year, so this winter my friend Christine and I will attend Greek courses for foreigners in Pombia, a village nearby. And we are firmly determined on speaking only Greek together from now on... I fear a big silence will fall upon us!
In other ways I am very, very Greek. I never 'get organized', I never get to do the things I plan to do, always postponing... because I would rather just stay at home with all my animals, do a little work, take a walk to the platia in the afternoon for a chat with friends, just living life siga-siga.
An update on the animal situation: Bella is now quite big, some 12 kilos I think, but when I saw her together with her mother the other day I realized that there is still room for growth. The mother is about double her size, and the father even bigger. Eight cats have now obtained the degree of 'housecats', they just seem to 'happen' without anybody planning it. It started with Mis Daisy, Bernie Bumbleleg, and Billie. If you have followed so far, you will know that Mis Daisy was poisoned and died, Bernie has disappeared also, and only Billie is left from the original bunch. So Billie is the matron of the house. She decided to get pregnant and delivered 5 kittens, one died and the rest are still living in the house: Frenzie, Silvie, Minimis, Niko. Happy about this development, Billie decided to get pregnant again! Three kittens, of which 2 died almost immediately. The last one, Cookie, lives in the house, naturally. One of my 'outside cats' got pregnant and had 5 kittens, and I simply refused to get involved!! Determined to ignore them, the outside cat took care of them as best she could, but three of them died within a few days. One of the kittens, however, decided that it seemed much more comfortable to live in a house than in a box on a terrace, so he grabbed every occasion to sneak inside whenever a window or a door was left open, just placing himself gracefully on the couch and pretending to belong inside. Finally, I gave in, and promoted him to official housecat with the name Fuzzy. Last one to be accounted for is Leo, a beautiful red longhaired kitten, which had more or less the same attitude as Fuzzy: I like the house, so why should I remain outside?
Last winter I was feeding some twenty cats on the terrace, but I think this winter will show that the number will be restrained to approx. 8 cats. Simply because Bella is governing the area severely, she accepts 8 cats outside, all friends of hers, but whenever some intruder tries to sneak in to get some food hell breaks loose outside until the stranger disappears, sometimes Bella gets a scratch on her nose in the process.
This 'family tree' of mine explains in some way while I never get anything organized and done: I simply have to stay put in front of the computer to do all the work I can get my hands on, because every penny I earn is spent on feeding myself and the animals. But I don't mind at all. When the evening falls and I start a nice fire in the fireplace I enjoy being surrounded by well-fed and happily sleeping animals.
All The (cretan) Animals In My Life
Posted by Dinny, 24 Jul 2006, 11:42 AM
Finally I have 'done my duty': Been back in Denmark to visit my daughter, grandson, and the rest of the family. I was a bit worried about leaving, but then a local German friend of mine, Angelika, offered to take care of the menage while I was away, and since she is a true cat-lover I felt very much reassured and convinced that all my kitties would be in the best of hands during my vacation.
When I returned home from these very nice holidays in Copenhagen, I was greeted with the warmest welcome home from Billie and the four kittens. They were all in good shape but seemed to have been missing me, especially Billie since she just doesn't make friends with anyone but me at all, not even if it's the person that takes care of serving her breakfast and dinner!
You might remember that I had a dog, Lucky, which one day decided to move in with me. Unfortunately, after a few weeks she decided to move on, I am sure it was not due to bad quality of the food and surroundings, she just had a craving for adventure in her, and I never managed to keep her on the terrace even five minutes alone, she immediately made her Houdini-stunt through the banister and jumped down to the parking lot beneath my house and ran off. A few times she presented herself again in front of the gate, but one day she didn't come back.
But now the long awaited addition to the family is here: Bella The most beautiful puppy I have ever seen!
She is totally messing up my day, waking up at 6:30 and demanding attention - and breakfast! Then she manages to stay awake an hour or so, during which time she will do whatever she is NOT supposed to do, like chewing on electric wires, chewing shoes, dragging any piece of cloth she can get her teeth on (preferably table cloths with whatever result may come of it), making friends with the kittens and getting her nose scratched during the process, and so on and so on. Useless to say that I'm getting absolutely NO work done during her 'activity training'. After an hour or so she drops to the floor totally exhausted, and I get a chance to work for an hour until she wakes up and is ready to continue where she left off whatever she was doing. This is of course the second I must catch her and bring her outside, so that she will immediately learn where certain things are to take place!
Hopefully she will soon get the hang of how the four little sticks under her body are working, so that we can start treating ourselves with some long walks to the beach. As for now, she tumbles after three steps every time she tryes to make a run.
Here is a selection of my former and present housemates
(Bella - Bella Bellissima - Billie - Billie and Minimis - Lucky)
I Actually Forgot To Tell You...
Posted by Dinny, 25 Jun 2006, 04:30 PM
That my housecat - Coyote Bill - turned out to be a female, a very pregnant one! April 17th we had 4 kittens, which are now devastating the house, because I cannot decide when is the right time to make them meet the world outside. I think it will be when I'm back from my holidays, so that I can keep an eye on them...
And my daughters dog - Zoi - proved her name was appropriate because she has given birth to TWELVE puppies. Of which I shall have one in due time. Since Lucky decided to disappear again from my life as suddenly as she came into it, I think it's time that I have a dog of my own, from the very start.
And so, my dream of living in a house full of animals is just about to come true.....
Normal Life... Living In Crete
Posted by Dinny, 25 Jun 2006, 01:19 PM
I haven't written anything for quite a while, actually I am experiencing the 'normal life' in Crete. I'm not a tourist although I'm a foreigner, and I have to adapt to whatever rules and regulations appear to be in Crete. 'Appear to be' because you never get a chance to know, not even the locals know...
"Normal life" is like everywhere in the world: Most of the day is just work-work-work. Being self-employed in translations though I am happy to say that as for office hours my boss is not too hard on me. Sometimes I would have been out late the night before, and my boss doesn't mind if I'm not too early at my computer. 10 o'clock is just fine to start work. But normally I turn the machine on at 8, spend an hour to read the online paper, check my mail, read ExploreCrete and whatever belongs to the 'must' list, and at 9 I start working. When it comes to leaving the office, my boss is quite tough: Nobody leaves till the work is done. Sigh!... Often 10-12 hours of my life disappearing into the thin air before I can turn off the damn'ed machine!
Crete is out there. I can actually see the sea from my office window, but there isn't much time to enjoy it. Most of the weekends are just like normal working days, something always pops up, urgent business, real urgent, forget about weekend! If I want to see Crete I pull down a slideshow of the photos on ExploreCrete....
I wonder if people wanting to move to Crete thinks about this? Well, of course, if you're retiring, no worries at all, you'll have al the time you want to explore the island. But if you're just dreaming about moving to a warm and friendly place while still having to work, then you should remember that you'll probably not have much more time to explore the place than if you were leaving 2-3 weeks on holidays to come here from whereever you live now. Life is tough. Also in Crete.
But I don't regret moving to Crete. Because, even though I don't have the necessary time to enjoy the place, I still have the HOPE to be able to get some time sooner or later. And it's right out there. No mornings with pouring rain, no cold winters, if I'll ever get some time (and sometimes I DO) I'm just two steps from Paradise.
Friday 23rd I put my last word in a translation. Then spent the rest of the day invoicing the work of the month. And now... TAAAA TAAAAAAAAAAAA .... I'm on holidays! Just a ordinary tourist in Crete with all the time I want to do anything I want. Oops, forgot, when you leave your home country to live in Crete, then your holidays will be "going back home" to visit whomever you have left behind. In fact, in a few days I'll be leaving for Copenaghen to see the family. Fortunately, the weather in Denmark is nice these days, and since it's 36-38 degrees here right now, I shall probably enjoy the 24 degrees of Copenhagen. Must remember a warm sweather though....
Want To Come For A Day In The Sunshine?
Posted by Dinny, 27 Mar 2006, 07:29 PM
Last week I was killing a bottle of wine together with my friend Christine, a German lady my age who lives here in Pitsidia, and we were talking about nice places in Crete. She told me she used to go with her (then) little son to a beach near Plakias on the South coast where she slept on the beach for 6 weeks during summer... I guess we were talking about life in Crete some twenty years ago.
So, yesterday morning she called me to inquire if I had done all the work I had on my conscience when we last talked, and I had to admit that I had not been quite as busy as I was supposed to, still having a lot to do for delivery Monday afternoon. Well, what a pity, she said, I was going to suggest that we could go together to Plakias all the day Monday, but I guess you can't make it then..... I assured her that I would love to come along and worked like a maniac all Sunday, delivered everything by 22.00 hrs and was ready this morning for a trip to whereever this Plakias was.
Before we left Christine inquired if I had a map. I said no, since I always get lost anyway, map or no map. OK, she got her own map from her car and we went along, agreeing that she would tell me where to go. First we go to Timbaki. OK, I said, at least I know that way. In Timbaki, Christine directed me to the right, towards Rethymno.... and then all the fun started! To go to Plakias on the South coast we actually managed to see the mountain areas around Klima... Agios Ioanis... Elenes... Meronas (stopped for a drink of water and to ask for directions)... along the macaroni-road from there towards Spili (stopped for a frappe)... and then finally we found the right way to Plakias. So much for having a card-reader with you! ahahahh
Plakias is very touristy, nothing much to see which you could not find anywhere else: the sea and some tavernas. We decided we would have our lunch in a nice taverna which Christine remembered in Mirthios, just over Plakias. Up, up, up and Mirthios actually has a fantastic view over Plakias and the sea. Unfortunately, the taverna was not open and we were starting to get hungry. So we went towards the beach where Christine had spent her 6 weeks on the beach - Damnoni - which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment because somebody had had the great idea of building an enormous group of timeshare villas (which we heard from a local were almost all empty all year round, not much business in that project). But Damnoni had one wonderful thing: an open taverna which announced "fresh fish". We sat down outside in the sunshine and enjoyed a Greek salad and our wine while we waited for the fish. And when the fish finally came an almost religious silence fell over the table while we enjoyed it, it was SO good, and the little vegetables on the side of the dish did not disturb me too much, I concentrated on the fish.
Well, since we were in the area, we thought we would go have a look at the palm beach in Preveli, and having such an excellent card-reader with me, who surely knew the way by heart (at least so she told me) we went to find a way to Preveli. After a while we actually found a small road with a sign: "Palm Beach", so we turned left. This road was a so-called "dirt road", but as we went along up in the mountains it sometimes turned out that half of this dirt-road had disappeared over the edge, leaving a very, very tiny space for the car to pass. On one side were the cliffs and whatever they had dropped on the road in form of stones and blocks, on the other side I actually didn't dare to look, I kept my eyes on the "road" although Christine assured me that the view was fantastic.
When we actually made it down to the beach, it turned out that this was actually NOT the Palm Beach of Preveli which we were looking for. To reach that we had to climb the rocks on some rudimentary steps cut into it, I'll probably not be able to move my legs tomorrow, it would have taken some Olympic athlet to manage the trip, not common mortals like us two ol' ladies. Well, it seems that Christine and I have a thing in common: we don't give up. So finally we managed to climb down another 722 steps to reach Palm Beach on the other side. Of course, nobody was there, and that was the pretty part of it, so we rested our sore bones on a couple of beach chairs for half an hour before we took the 722 steps up and the 615 steps down again. (OK, maybe I'm exagerating, maybe they were only 721 and 614).
Now, the fun part: Getting the car back on the same donkey-track which had taken us there. The view was still marvelous, Christine assured me. And when we finally reached the end of it she said that had she been alone she might not have dared going that way. Now you tell me! 
It was time to go back, and since we enjoy seeing new things we decided to take the right road back towards Agia Galini. And when we were almost in Agia Galini we decided to finish the day at the port there to have a cool drink.
When finally heading home I suggested we could turn left towards Heraklion and have a Pizza there before going home, but Christine seemed to have enough for that day, even though I ensured her that she would not have to keep her eyes on the map, I could easily find it myself.
I used to hate the first Monday after the start of summertime, having to wake up almost in the middle of the night just because some lunatic had decided to move forward the clock for an hour. But going back to Pitsidia around seven in the evening it was quite nice to still be able to enjoy the sunset over the sea.
I've Finally Managed To See Agia Galini !
Posted by Dinny, 18 Mar 2006, 05:00 PM
Considering that I have been living here for 6-7 months now and have been visiting a few times before that, it's incredible that I had never been to Agia Galini, isn't it? I mean, I can see the place from the beach of Matala and from the beach of Komos, it looks like a nice cozy village and I have often wanted to go there.
I am handicapped by my missing sense of direction, and by a (usually male) reluctance to ask for direction. So the first time I wanted to go to Agia Galini, I arrived in Timbaki and saw a sign which I interpreted as "Agia Galini left, Rethymno right", so I went left and ended up in nowhere near Kokinos Piros.
This weekend was miraculously without work! I simply had to go out an enjoy the surroundings, so I decided that NOW would be a good time to see Agia Galini, it's not so far away, maybe I would even bend my pride and ask for direction if I had problems!!
So off I went with the firm intention to have lunch in Agia Galini. When I arrived to Timbaki I looked once more at the sign that had misled me, and in fact it said "Agia Galini right, Rethymno right". Ah, that's why I ended up in nowhere last time when I went left here! So I followed the road right through Timbaki and towards Rethymno. At a certain point there was another choice to make, and passing by I read the sign as "Agia Galini right, Rethymno right", ergo I went right. I had a beautiful drive through the mountains, the snow on Mount Ida seemed ever so near, but it was soon clear to me that I must have misunderstood something. The sign had said "Agia Galini 1 km" and after some 5 kms I reconed I should have gone straight ahead instead of turning right. But this time I simply didn't want to give in, so I turned the car, went back another 5 kms and got on the right way to Agia Galini.
It's a VERY touristy place, but still extremely nice. This is what you like to see when you go on vacation from the North to "some Greek island", small coloured houses climbing up the rocks, a nice harbour with lots of restaurants and bars close to it. Holidays surroundings. And since I was a tourist today, too, I enjoyed the quiet little village, everybody was busy preparing their places for the start of the season, and I can just imagine how the village must be during the summer months. But today it was calm and quiet.
I managed to find an open restaurant offering 'fresh fish'. Geez, it's been months since I've had fresh fish, during winter in Pitsidia there's only meat and meat and meat to be found (Yes, and of course, also vegetables, I tend to ignore them!). So I went in and had a wonderful grilled fish while the lady who was cooking my meal was telling me all about the Bulgarians having let tons and tons of water onto Greece and Turkey by openings the walls of a dam. We were watching it on the news, villages and fields totally under water, desperation.
After lunch I enjoyed the drive back to Pitsidia and the sunny day allowed me to stay a while on the terrace at home, getting a bit of tan while reading.
What really ticks me off is that I have to work still 10 more years before I can get my pension and do nothing. But then again, one should be positive: On a Saturday in Denmark I would have had to stay inside because of too much snow and cold outside, at least here I have the option to escape whenever there is no work.
Don't Fight Them - You Can't Win!
Posted by Dinny, 16 Mar 2006, 02:07 PM
Once you realize that it's useless to fight them - the Greek authorities, I mean - then you get peace of mind by just adapting. As far as my car is concerned, I decided that I might as well forget about being Danish, even a European Citizen. I would just adapt to a system that carries the motto: Who cares about legislation? Because the cost I would have to pay by fighting them would be much more than just letting them steal my money for the registration of the car, and I don't talk about cost in terms of money or expenses, but in health.
So, do they want to steal my money? WHO CARES, I'll just have to work harder to be able to comply with all their requirements.
From the moment I decided to give in, everything went smoothly. A couple of weeks ago I went to the customs office in Heraklion and managed to get all the paperwork done by the customs agent who doesn't speak one word of English. Sometimes he would call upon somebody else whom he would know capable of speaking the English language in order for them to explain to me what he wanted. And after a couple of hours, with a total check of my car to copy all the numbers on the engine, the chassis, the number plates, he got my phone number and told me that he would call whenever it was time to pay.
So, yesterday I got a phonecall - obviously in Greek - and I sort of "guessed" that it was Mr. Customs Agent telling me to come and pay. I told him "Oxi simera, avrio, endaxi?" and he said endaxi, then he passed the phone to somebody else to tell me how much I should pay. 1,150 Euro, all included.
And today I went to Heraklion to pay the customs duties on MY car as if I had just imported it from some other country. He kept me waiting for almost an hour to receive the money, but I had brought a book and I was in no hurry. Then when I had paid he gave me one set of papers for the K.T.E.O. - where I should get my car checked - and one set for me to keep. And that was it. Well, except that they took away one of my Italian number plates, maybe as a souvenir.
Well, I thought that I might as well try my luck (16th of March has been my lucky day for a lifetime!) and went directly to the K.T.E.O. outside Heraklion, maybe I could get an appointment within not too long. What efficiency! I arrrived and presented the documents at 12.30 to an English-speaking lady and at 13.00 hrs I had the papers to prove that my car was OK and that the emissions test was fine too. Paid 44 for the revision and 10 for the emissions test. When I asked about the number plates I was told that I would have to go and get those in Mires, at the Mecanologic Office, or something like that. I'll see to that one of these days, I guess I will have to make a market research first as for the most convenient insurance company.
See how easy it is when you don't pretend justice to be done?
I wonder if I will get my money back WHEN Greece will loose the court proceedings against them at the European Court? I was supposed to pay something like 300 Euro to get Greek license plates according to European laws concerning the free movement of EU citizens within the member states. But if I ever get a refund, I shall probably be able to buy myself a cup of coffee with that, seeing how prices keep getting up and up.
Who cares? I'm in Crete. And there's no tax on the sunshine. So far. 
Next Entry Will Be About "dentist In Crete"
Posted by Dinny, 13 Feb 2006, 02:34 PM
These days everything is "ligo-ligo" and "siga-siga"...
I'll be vsiting the dentist soon... and I'll keep you posted about this event, 'cause it might be worth learning from. Dentists in Crete are supposed to be less expensive than in the rest of Europe... so let's see what happens.... Meanwhile I'll just keep quiet in my pain ;-)
A House Is Not A Home Without A Dog
Posted by Dinny, 10 Feb 2006, 08:32 AM
Some of you might have felt it coming... "When will she get a dog?"
I like dogs. And somewhere in my heart I have always wanted one without getting one, knowing perfectly well that it would be unjust to a dog to live in an apartment with me away and cooped up in some office all day long. In Crete, things would be different. But I thought that when the time would come for that decision, it would be a dog choosing me and not the other way around.
And that's exactly what happened. Some ten days ago a dog was running around on the parking lot beneath my house, a bit confused but not sad-looking, rather like an escaped prisoner, happy about the freedom but with no clue about where to go. After a while I met her when I went out with the garbadge and we had a little chat, hi-doggy-what-are-you-doing-here-all-alone, etc. She decided to follow me back home and - just by coincidence - I had a nice bag with bones in the fridge. The butcher gives me the bones, and I give some to the cats once in a while. And now, naturally, I gave one to the dog. After some happy cheewing she lost interest in the bone and I led her to the gate, telling her to scoope out and get back home. Off she went. An hour later I found her in front of the gate barking to let me know she was back. OK, come in doggy, let's see if we can find somebody that knows you....
At first, she was quite scared about getting too close, but it was obvious that she wanted to. Finally we got around to the nosing hands, wagging tail, jumping up to show her happiness to find a friendly soul. I wanted to make her play a bit and picked up a small stick from the firewood, but then she started creeping and crying, she had surely been "tasting" a stick like that on the bag for a long time. In fact, she has two bad scars on her bag where the hair is not growing anymore. So we don't play throw-the-stick....
We've walked many chilometres in these last days, asking around if anybody knew the dog, had seen her before, knew to whom it belonged (with me naturally hoping never to find the owner who had mistreated her), but nobody seemed to know anything. My daughter told me that since the dog was female somebody might have gotten tired of her, females are troubles, they get pregnant and then you have to get rid of the puppies, etc. so she had probably just been let out of some car by the road for her to get killed by some passing car. Saves money for the vet...
She's a beauty. Some kind of wire-haired pointer, very young, I'd say about 7-8 months. When let loose on the beach she runs with the speed of a missile. Her craving for movement will be very healthy for me too, since I'll have to take her out for a couple of hours every day.
Some of the cats on the terrace didn't agree to this new companion, so they've decided to spend their days elsewhere, popping by just for dinner and then disappearing again. But most of them have already discovered that there is nothing to fear. As soon as the dog turns its back to the bone they come running to steal it from her. Well, when she sees it she runs towards the cats, barking, but as soon as the cat pumps up the fur to look scary, doggy stops immediately, not wanting to get her nose scratched. :-)
I didn't know how to name her, thought that an appropriate name would pop up sooner or later, but members of my family have already decided based on the circumstances. Her name is Lucky.
Bringing My Car
Posted by Dinny, 2 Feb 2006, 06:35 PM
The other day Yannis was kindly guiding me by telephone to filling in a form to OTE requiring the subscription to ISDN "flat rate" (believe me, it's not flat at all!). At the end of the form I signed, but then I also had to sign after the next two pages of rules and regulations, all in Greek, naturally. So, even though I don't understand a word of what is written, I sign as an acknowledgement of having read, understood and accepted these rules. If these rules are putting any kind of obligation on my shoulders I shall not abide, since I don't know what I agreed to. But, if I don't sign, I cannot obtain what I want, and ISDN flat rate connection.
I have the feeling that when Greece joined the European Community it might have been a little like the above scenario. Somebody filled in the forms and finally told Greece that if they wanted a part of the heavy EU subsidies for this and that, they should just sign on the bottom line. Wauw! Like winning the lottery! Unfortunately, there are a few catches, things to do, obligations to fulfill, laws to abide by, not to speak about the general vision of the EU that the partners in the European Union should not make life more difficult for its inhabitants, on the contrary, they should work towards erasing frontiers, both physical and mental.
One of EU's corner stones is the idea of free circulation f labour. Citizens within the EU are free to settle down to live and work in any of the other countries, bringing their belongings without having to pay customs duties or tax whatsoever. Because the European Union is a community without borders. Changing your domicile and working place from London to Athens should be no more difficult than changing it from London to Birmingham. And when you go from London to Birmingham you just bring your stuff and your car with you without any problems at all.
Moving from Italy to Greece should be just as easy. I packed my belongings in the removal truck, stuffed my suitcases in my car, and just went. I asked for and obtained a Residence Permit and now I want to abide by the laws and change the registration of my car from Italy to Greece. To help any of you people out there having the same insane idea I shall list the documents I am asked to present in order to obtain a certificate of change of residence, essential requirement to be able to apply for Greek license plates:
Passport (original)
Vehicle Registration disc (original)
Certificate of ownership to the car (original)
Drivers License (authenticated copy)
Residence Permit Greece (authenticated copy)
Residence Permit Italy (authenticated copy)
Historical Certificate of Residence in Italy (stating from/till) (original)
Certificate of Family Situation (original)
Certificate of Cancellation from Register of Residence in Italy (original)
Copy of my Italian lease contract
Copies of my tax return for 2003, 2004, and copies of my monthly wage packets Jan-July 2005
Signed declaration to confirm that I have never asked for residence in Greece before and that I intend to ask for it now.
Letter addressed to the Greek Consulate in Milan asking them to issue a Certificate of Change of Residence.
25 Euro in cash.
With this Certificate I can now apply for my car to be registered in Greece. To this application, besides most of the above documents, I shall have to add the Certificate of Conformity, which by the way is kept by the Italian Vehicle Registration office and cannot be released untill the Italian license plates are returned to said office.
If I find this procedure too complicated I am welcome to pay a 100% import tax on my vehicle as if I had imported any other car directly from another country without ever owning it.
This, my fellow EU citizens, is the Greek concept of free circulation of labour.
Oh, Why Does The Weather Have To Be So Nice?
Posted by Dinny, 21 Jan 2006, 12:23 PM
These days are just so beautiful! Every morning I am greated by a blue sky and warm sunshine (ok, ok, it DID rain the other night and there were some clouds the day after, but nevertheless...) and I would like so much to get out to enjoy it. But I don't have time, since I had to accept a big translation project to even out the cutbacks in my budget lately. Which means that I am chained to my chair in front of the PC from 8 am to 8 pm with just a short escape for an hour or so around lunchtime.
And while things are like this, I enjoy going up to Kouses for my lunch break. It's a tiny village on the heights over Petrokefali, some 8 kms from Mires, with the most fantastic view over the whole valley of Messara. There is only one very small taverna open in this period, maybe it's the only one in Kouses even during summer, but Yorgos makes well-tasting and healthy food. And you get to enjoy it while sitting on the glass-shielded veranda, so your eyes can explore everything from the beach of Kalamaki to the windmills halfway to Heraklion. The top of Mount Ida is totally covered with snow, all the other mountain tops try to live up to her standards, but they don't have the necessary hight to dress as beautifully as her, just some unevenly scattered snow among the green. The olive fields beneath the mountains are a mix of green and yellow, and you can see people working like busy little ants, tractors dragging the branches cut off the olive trees, people lighting a small fire for the lunch break. I enjoy my well-deserved break together with them untill it's time to go back for some more work.
But there is a big and important difference in this situation compared to my former working life. While I lived in Denmark winter would last some 6 months, no need to look out of the window to check upon the weather, it would almost always be dark, wet, and cold. During spring and summer the nice weather, if any, would start on Monday at 9.00 and finish exactly on Friday at 17.00 hrs. Knowing that for at fact would depress you in the most terrible way, having a full-time job would leave you so little time to enjoy a nice day whenever that happened, and while being cooped up all day in the office the only joy for your eyes would be to look at it through the windows. When I moved to Italy that didn't change much. The winter in Northern Italy is not so much different from the Danish, but the summer in comparison would be like living in an oven. Made you fear the end of working hours when you had to leave the airconditioned environment to go out into some 35 degrees celcius and a 60 degrees celcius car.
Crete is SO different! The heat is never unbearable because of the delightful wind blowing, and I hardly ever got to know the winter before it was over and done with. You don't have to fear that the nice weather will be gone whenever you finish your job, so despite having to stay inside to meet my deadline I don't really mind. I am CERTAIN that the sun will be waiting for me the moment I have the time to enjoy it.
