Friday, January 02, 2009
My Trip to Elaiohori November to December 2008
Here are some of the highlights (and lowlights!) from my recent trip to Greece when I was there from 10th November to 12th December.
Part One
Monday 10th Nov 2008
12.00 Arrived at Athens airport. Took bus from right outside to bus station. At bus station got coach to Mani via Kalamata.
I was very worried about this journey as I suffer from motion sickness sometimes so I was concerned to get a seat at the front of the coach. Although I felt extremely claustrophobic at first – listening to a very amusing podcast helped here – I was actually fine, even over the mountains. The trip turned out to be very easy and extremely cheap.
19.30 Arrived Stoupa, Mani. Dragged my (VERY heavy) cases – full of decorating equipment – along the sea front to the only open bar. There I met with our friends Sophie and Richard. It was a warm, one might even say, balmy, evening. Sophie and Richard took me up to Elaiohori, leaving me at Katharina’s house – the house I had rented for the month.
Tuesday 11th Nov
In the daylight took a look around our house, Villa Stepeni. Interested to discover that of the list of completed jobs we had been given only one had actually been completed, plus one was just being started.
Removed the protective cover from the car and was very pleased to find that the car started very easily, I had been worried that the battery might be flat. Took a very deep breath, checked over all my documents for the one-hundredth time and drove to the local police station in Kardymyli. I needed to get a resident’s permit in order to be abl
e to complete the paperwork needed for us to legally become the owners of our car. On our last trip we bought a lovely little Kia Picanto from the car hire company we were using but had been unable to transfer the registration documents into our names because we needed a resident’s permit to do this. The only place to get such a permit is the local police station. The policeman who does this (there is only one) was not interested in doing it for us on our last trip. So now I needed to find a different approach. I checked my documents again (3 copies of passport, actual passport, five passport-sized photographs) I rehearsed what I would say: “Please can you help me …” I practiced crawling on my hands and knees and various positions of supplication. I’m pleased to say it all worked. He took all the information he needed and told me to come back on Thursday at 10.00am. RESULT! Well, actually. I didn’t allow myself to celebrate on account of the fact that there could still easily be some sort of difficulty. Greek bureaucracy is awesome. Even the simplest thing seems to require a sheaf of paper the size of a telephone book, every page signed and stamped (most important that it is stamped) plus information about your parents and 100 copies of your passport. Unbelievable.
From here I drove to Kalamata (about 40 mins away) and went to the two cathedrals of DIY: Practiker and Idea (known locally as “No Idea”). Here I bought all the decorating equipment and paint I needed to get started.
Wednesday 12th Nov
Started to actually work on our house. I began the enormous task of sanding the walls of the upstairs room. Dirty, heavy and unpleasant work. I began to realise how big the room is. Later our Greek neighbour Eleni appeared to ask me to come over for some food. I finished sweeping up the dust and then spent an hour sitting and eating with Eleni and Grigory – the former horrified that I was still not eating meat. How could I possibly be eating properly? Also she had prepared a rice dish with integral chicken and had had to hurriedly remove the chicken from my portion. This left me with the challenge of eating rice with chicken juice, hmm. But they are very kind, generous people and it was a joy to see them. I was having some trouble with the language though. I was a bit out of practice, especially as I have not been able to afford to attend the Greek evening class here in the UK. I found that I was having great trouble in getting any words out of my mouth at all. I confess this was a little discouraging, as I have been learning this language for a very long time.
Arranged to take Eleni and Grigory to the olive oil factory (owned by my friends Fritz and Burgi ) the next morning on my way to the police station to pick up my resident’s permit.
All this time I was trying to get in touch with Leta. Ah dear sweet Leta. How that name resonates for me. She was the lady who would enable the transfer of the registration document from Auto Union to me. I confess to being uneasy that we had handed over our money but were not the legal owners of our car. So it was not a good experience to be unable to raise Leta on the telephone for a couple of days. I managed it eventually. I don’t think I can bear to record the weird odyssey she led me on for the rest of my stay – and still going on the last that I heard. A job that, even in Greece is fairly simple, became the most complicated and drawn out process you can ever imagine. Have no dealings with this lady. She is very nice and sweet but the lights are on and no body is in. Leta, Auto Union Office, Pylos, Messinia, avoid.
Coming Soon in Part Two:
Martin Ate My Car!
Part One
Monday 10th Nov 2008
12.00 Arrived at Athens airport. Took bus from right outside to bus station. At bus station got coach to Mani via Kalamata.
I was very worried about this journey as I suffer from motion sickness sometimes so I was concerned to get a seat at the front of the coach. Although I felt extremely claustrophobic at first – listening to a very amusing podcast helped here – I was actually fine, even over the mountains. The trip turned out to be very easy and extremely cheap.
19.30 Arrived Stoupa, Mani. Dragged my (VERY heavy) cases – full of decorating equipment – along the sea front to the only open bar. There I met with our friends Sophie and Richard. It was a warm, one might even say, balmy, evening. Sophie and Richard took me up to Elaiohori, leaving me at Katharina’s house – the house I had rented for the month.
Tuesday 11th Nov
In the daylight took a look around our house, Villa Stepeni. Interested to discover that of the list of completed jobs we had been given only one had actually been completed, plus one was just being started.
Removed the protective cover from the car and was very pleased to find that the car started very easily, I had been worried that the battery might be flat. Took a very deep breath, checked over all my documents for the one-hundredth time and drove to the local police station in Kardymyli. I needed to get a resident’s permit in order to be abl
e to complete the paperwork needed for us to legally become the owners of our car. On our last trip we bought a lovely little Kia Picanto from the car hire company we were using but had been unable to transfer the registration documents into our names because we needed a resident’s permit to do this. The only place to get such a permit is the local police station. The policeman who does this (there is only one) was not interested in doing it for us on our last trip. So now I needed to find a different approach. I checked my documents again (3 copies of passport, actual passport, five passport-sized photographs) I rehearsed what I would say: “Please can you help me …” I practiced crawling on my hands and knees and various positions of supplication. I’m pleased to say it all worked. He took all the information he needed and told me to come back on Thursday at 10.00am. RESULT! Well, actually. I didn’t allow myself to celebrate on account of the fact that there could still easily be some sort of difficulty. Greek bureaucracy is awesome. Even the simplest thing seems to require a sheaf of paper the size of a telephone book, every page signed and stamped (most important that it is stamped) plus information about your parents and 100 copies of your passport. Unbelievable.From here I drove to Kalamata (about 40 mins away) and went to the two cathedrals of DIY: Practiker and Idea (known locally as “No Idea”). Here I bought all the decorating equipment and paint I needed to get started.
Wednesday 12th Nov
Started to actually work on our house. I began the enormous task of sanding the walls of the upstairs room. Dirty, heavy and unpleasant work. I began to realise how big the room is. Later our Greek neighbour Eleni appeared to ask me to come over for some food. I finished sweeping up the dust and then spent an hour sitting and eating with Eleni and Grigory – the former horrified that I was still not eating meat. How could I possibly be eating properly? Also she had prepared a rice dish with integral chicken and had had to hurriedly remove the chicken from my portion. This left me with the challenge of eating rice with chicken juice, hmm. But they are very kind, generous people and it was a joy to see them. I was having some trouble with the language though. I was a bit out of practice, especially as I have not been able to afford to attend the Greek evening class here in the UK. I found that I was having great trouble in getting any words out of my mouth at all. I confess this was a little discouraging, as I have been learning this language for a very long time.Arranged to take Eleni and Grigory to the olive oil factory (owned by my friends Fritz and Burgi ) the next morning on my way to the police station to pick up my resident’s permit.
All this time I was trying to get in touch with Leta. Ah dear sweet Leta. How that name resonates for me. She was the lady who would enable the transfer of the registration document from Auto Union to me. I confess to being uneasy that we had handed over our money but were not the legal owners of our car. So it was not a good experience to be unable to raise Leta on the telephone for a couple of days. I managed it eventually. I don’t think I can bear to record the weird odyssey she led me on for the rest of my stay – and still going on the last that I heard. A job that, even in Greece is fairly simple, became the most complicated and drawn out process you can ever imagine. Have no dealings with this lady. She is very nice and sweet but the lights are on and no body is in. Leta, Auto Union Office, Pylos, Messinia, avoid.
Coming Soon in Part Two:
Martin Ate My Car!
