Sue Saraswati Merry

Phase one:
Finding the Right Place

Owning a house in Greece has been our dream for many years. I have always felt very strongly drawn to the ancient world. (Hence my life-changing trip to Egypt in October 2006 - see my relevant blog entries for this.)
In May 2006 my husband Roger and I travelled out to mainland Greece to look for a house. It was a very packed two weeks. Once we clarified for ourselves exactly why we were there - over an ouzo and a beer! - things moved very quickly. We were led to exactly the right area for us and, soon afterwards, to exactly the right house.

The house we found has very good energy, it has to be experienced to be appreciated. It is my sincere hope that many of you will be able to come to this place and share the energy with us. But first.......
Removal of Goats
The house we have bought used to be the local coffee shop – the kaffeinion - many years ago. A place where the local men would gather over a coffee or an ouzo and pass the time. It had not been used for this for a long time and the owner's aunt and uncle were looking after the place and storing things there. They also had their goats in the garden!




The garden is unusually large for the area and has been looked after well. The aunt and uncle grew vegetables there and the goat excrement means that the soil is very fertile. However the most striking thing about the garden has to be the view. The garden overlooks a deep gorge in the Taygetos Mountains. It is impossible to capture this with a camera but here is a picture any way:



The road that runs past the house does not really go anywhere. It ends at the church, which stands a little higher than the house. The picture below is one I took of the gorge from the church:





The Kaffeinion

The inside of the house needs lots of work, it will need to be entirely gutted. At the moment though there is one very delightful feature. In the main room downstairs, where the coffee shop was, there are several cartoons painted on the walls. They depict various humorous situations plus the aunt and uncle going about their business picking olives. There is a wonderful cartoon of the uncle playing a bouzouki.

This indicates to me there were some wonderful evenings of music and song in the building. The cartoons were painted by a local artist and his initials can be seen also painted onto the plaster, PK. When we went back to Greece (below) I managed to take some copies of photos of parties at the Kaffeinion, like this one . The guy playing the instrument is our neighbour Grigory. In the background is the cartoon of him playing the bouzouki! This was taken in 1997.

Phase Two:

Making Friends With the Neighbours …and about those goats …

November 5th - 11th 2006
We flew from London to Athens and on the 6th November. We picked up a car from the airport and then drove to a metro station in the suburbs of Athens. This was quite an adventure as the metro proved very difficult to find. Everyone was very helpful though and one lady got us to follow her car as she drove out of her way and deposited us at the entrance to the metro station car park – we would never have found it otherwise!

The Metro system in Athens is brilliant. It is clean, efficient and the environment is very pleasant. We emerged onto the street in the Monastraki area, right in the centre of town. Athens was absolutely freezing – barely warmer than London. Our hotel was….. well …… Let’s say it was an experience. Not one we will be in a hurry to repeat!

We had the first meeting with our architects Eleni and Jamie at their office close to the hotel. Eleni was born in Greece, although her mother is English, and Jamie is Scottish and married to a Greek woman. We got to know each other a little and got a few technicalities out of the way. We gave them a few copies of the all-important topographico, a technical drawing of the house and the land, which officially describes what we have bought and is stamped by the notary as the sale is completed. We arranged to meet with Jamie at the house later that week.
Roger and I then drove out of Athens and across the Peloponnesian peninsula to the Mani ending at Stoupa where we had arranged to stay. It was a fantastic drive. We had braced ourselves for the journey having been warned of the horrors of the Greek Motorway system. Excuse me? You have to be kidding. It was often a case of “spot the car”. We are so used to the horrendous traffic conditions in the UK that this motorway was a very pleasant surprise.

The next morning the sun came out and the weather got warmer and warmer. Roger, madman that he is was straight into the sea. As the week went on the temperature became warmer and warmer and we found ourselves the only people on a beautiful beach bathed in sunshine. Not that we had much time to linger on the beach. It was an exhausting time and a part of me was relieved to get home for a rest!

Things we did on our trip:

• Befriended the neighbours – Eleni & Grigory. This is Roger with Grigory.


• Took a very close look at the house and property, photographing it in detail


• Met with an accountant to sort out our Greek tax return


• Opened a joint account with the architects so they can access money easily as needed


• Opened another Greek bank account in Euros and closed an old one which was in Sterling!


• Gave power of attorney to the architects in relation to managing the properties utilities and applying for building permits


• Led a global meditation from the garden. This photo was taken from my soul spot and was the view I had during the meditation.


• Went for a walk on one of the mountain paths that lead from the house and saw: A TORTOISE!


• Met Lykourgos, the gentleman who had been the owner of the property and who is Eleni’s brother (Eleni our neighbour), and listened while he indicated a piece of rope tied to a couple of trees which he explained was the boundary at the end of the garden. Attempted, successfully, to befriend him.


• Met with a topographer to measure the property boundaries and discovered that the Greek family had sold us more land than they thought they had….opps …That rope is in the wrong place! Put things on hold while we came home to think what to do.

And yes... there are still goats! Well just one actually and I began to get rather fond of it. It managed to follow us upstairs into the house one day. It peered around the door of one room and then deposited a pile of droppings on the floor. Good job we don't have any carpets.