Living in Greece

O klimatismo dude no cometh

June 25, 2008 at 03:38 ·

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Let me break down my experience for you during my stay in Athens 10 years ago (no air-condition of course)….

The apartment had a small balcony where I placed the mattress and decided to give it a try. Well, you know what, I spent 10 nights sleeping tight and for a strange reason the mosquitos kept ignoring me…smooth!

As for your situation, the “noisy-all-night-club-until-dawn-blast-my-music-because-I-don’t-work” really seems to be the biggest issue…

i wish i could send you some cretan ‘aeraki’ to cool you down. the area you live in now sounds (thumb down). i think you won’t be living there for too long

One summer on the island was one of the hottest even the natives had ever experienced. No one had air conditioning and fans did nothing. We slept on the plakakia or on lawn chairs on the porch. Inside, my mother-in-law wouldn’t let us open the window shutters since she was afriad the Albanians would come in the night and I hated leaving open the front door for fear the lizards and such would walk in.

At 4:30 each morning the roosters were crowing, by 5AM the garbage guys were yelling, by 6AM the motorcycles and buses were roaring, and the guy selling all manner of stuff from his truck was screaming, “Karpouza, domates, peponia,…” Who could sleep?

Where is this suburb where you live??? Sounds like maybe Glyfada area? I have just moved here from the US, living now temporarly in an apartment in Kifissia. (Nice here but want to see the water!) I really have been wanting to look for a place to live in the southern suburbs, like Glyfada.

Do you have any advice??? ok, the traffic and disco noise surely sucks, but is there somewhere around there that it is somehow avoidable? Otherwise to be honest, maybe Glyfada area isn’t that great, it sounds like your housing situation/area really is a big bummer…

Thanks for the help, appreciate the advice!
H.

Well Kat, time for a move? I hope by September it will cool down since the apartment in Glyfada (1st floor this time) doesn’t have air conditioning. I hope you get everything working soon before you wilt…ciao

The only positive thing about central Athens is that people will actually deliver/repair/ deal with things generally because it is convenient for them. On the downside, it’s hotter (by about 2-3C), noisier (illegal clubs booming until 6 am, idiot student types shouting inanities at 4 or 5 am; cars honking all night so that they dont need to stop at lights; delivery trucks appearing from 5 am), and in some districts expensive per sq. m. Oh, did I mention the thriving export industry of cockroach farms? Every polykatoikia has one!

*****
“Add to this our water being turned off in the morning and afternoon, throw in some power cuts and that’s my “affluent” southern suburb Athenian life.”
*****

I officially take back my “doesn’t feel like the developing world” comments from the previous post ;-))

Aisxos

Just be glad you don’t have the Greek Mother-In-law (MIL) telling you not to run the fan or you’ll get “PSI-KSEE” (draft??). Some imiginary Greek (only apparently) illness y ou can get in Greece if you run a fan at night, or walk out in the cold after sweating. I asked my American doctors and they haven’t heard of it so maybe it’s something unique to Greece???

D – Well, you’re cool as a cuc, aren’t you? No mossies on you! We technically aren’t on the road with the night clubs, just the main road that everyone takes to get there and go home (as if that’s better, haha). If it weren’t for the noise and the fact mosquitos would carry me away, I would use the balcony or fill up this kiddie pool I’ve got and sleep in it.

M – Why thanks! We have committed to living here because I’ve already moved twice in under 18 months, and our scheduled re-assessment of our life/careers is a few months from now.

D – It’s good to know I’ve got a plakakia partner! I laughed so hard when I read your comment. It’s like you live next door to me or something. Our schedule goes like this:
3:00-5:00: Rooster crowing (yes, we live in a city, but our neighbor thinks it’s a village)
5:00: Garbage man
6:00: Paliatzi and ntomates freskes, etc.
7:00: Landlords downstairs are yelling at each other; kids screaming; doors slamming
8:00-17:00: I don’t really know because I’m at work, but on days I telecommute, it’s a lot of neighbor noise, delivery trucks, road noise, motorcycles, babies screaming and crying.
18:00: Children next door and yappy drop-kick dogs are in the yard, which irritates other dogs and the whole neighborhood erupts.
19:00-20:00: Airplanes overhead, all of my neighbors turn on their sprinklers or hose their driveway (why? I don’t know)
20:00: Gionis starts birping (a lovely sound!)
21:00 – whenever: Hens gossiping and cackling on their balconies, eating, yelling, talking on the phone, dogs barking, food delivery.
1:00: Traffic to beach gets bad, pulsing music from cars, motorcycles
All day until it cools – Tzitziki (cicadas)

Last night, I had to laugh when one of these hens was telling her dog to shut up, and she was (ironically) louder than the barking itself.

H – Hello! We are farther south of Glyfada, and I can’t tell you where because I value my privacy. We cannot see the actual water from here; we see green mountains and the beach is 5 min. The problem isn’t the location. The problem is most homes built in Greece do not have insulation and therefore are not soundproof. Yes, people are loud and so is traffic, but the construction is really the issue as I’ve mentioned in previous posts (this is one reason resources are wasted and electricity grids are overextended regarding heating and cooling). You really need to inspect any house closely and not listen to what the landlord says. I regret that I can’t dispense advice for you here as I have a whole list of things to look for; maybe in a future article. But it also depends on your priorities, personal compromises and a little luck.

R – I’m melting! But you know the funny thing? Even though I’m sweating buckets, my skin is dry from the wind/fan and wearing mosquito repellent all the time. What a conundrum. A mosquito net at night is an option, but I don’t see how to wear one while watching TV, cooking and working. With weather being so unpredictable, I hope things will be cooler by the time you get here.

X – Maybe I’m just unlucky, but the incident I detail about making 9 appts with three services 5 years ago occurred when I indeed lived in the center of Athens, and I’d started scheduling when it was early May (not even last-minute busy high season). I can count on one hand how many times repair/delivery people kept appts in the same day (never mind the time), and those times were only because I knew someone or had a connection. It’s only been the last two years I’ve been in the burbs, and it’s not remote or poor by any means.

K – LOL!

What I fail to understand is, if you move around so much anyway why not track down some place that is to your ideal living environment. Why keep puting up with the noise. Find some place out in the sticks and stay there. Don’t get me wrong I sympathize with you but I just don’t understand why you put up with it.

First time posting. Found your website after moving to Greece this past December. I’m Canadian but lived the last 10 years in Manhattan. I get such a tickle reading your posts. You seem like my kinda gal. I can’t complain where I live at the moment as we’re in the northern suburbs in Nea Erithreia. Temps are at least 3-5 degrees lower and since we’re living on the 6th floor we manage a nice cross breeze. However, you do bring back memories of when I lived in a first floor apartment in NYC where the heat/humidity could be unbearable and the noise off the streets was constant. I guess one thing to be grateful about is that you aren’t having to deal with the West Nile virus!!!

People, people, people: I have to put my foot down. Everyone with a yia yia or an MIL knows that if you run the AC or the fan, you are going to end up with “creo stomaki”. Same result if you take too many baths or showers.

@ Scorpion

Ah yes, the dreaded Psiksi. If you want to terrify Greeks on a hot day, open a window to let a draft in and watch them all panic. Hilarious!

You can come up to Thessaloniki and stay with us, Kat, we have nice cool air conditioning now. We weren’t going to buy it up here because everyone said it would be nice and cold up on the mountain, but after a couple of hot days in late May we decided it would be necessary. I mean really, maybe it is a couple of degrees “cooler” but the difference between 38 and 36 isn’t really that much when it is hot and humid. We only got it for our bedroom and the computer/T.V. room upstairs for now.

Of course, I’m still trying to deal with my climate guilt for using it, but we made up for that a little bit by spending more on ‘A’ rating air conditioners.

P.S. Glad to see that it isn’t only those of us in the Thessaloniki ‘burbs that go without water. Today, off at 9am and on again 1am for an all day water lockout. Whee!

The S – If you run the fan and it blows directly on you for an extended period, you can feel stiff and tired, i.e. wind does the same thing and additionally causes windburn. I put our fan on oscillate. I don’t know of any illness caused by a fan or AC, but I do know that if people think they’re going to get sick, they usually do. That’s a whole different thing.

N – If you’ve been following the site, the last two moves were not my choosing. I was perfectly happy in the home I was in 2 years ago before I met my fiance and lived there for 3 years, as I did 4 years in the apartment before that. We both changed jobs, and it was extremely cost prohibitive to drive from north to south, raising my fiance’s fuel costs (even before it reached today’s level) and his commute time to 2 hours each day without traffic. Therefore living in the sticks, as you say, isn’t viable since we’re young people who both work in the city. I take public transport, he refuses although to his credit he occasionally cycles to work from our present location. We are not changing homes again because it is expensive to move, I’m the one who gets stuck packing, arranging and unpacking, and we are changing countries in the near future.

Moving would also solve nothing since people are still ill-mannered, disrespectful and noisy in the sticks, and houses are still not insulated and not soundproof there as well. Seriously, I’ve had more peace and quiet living on a main street in NYC or Brussels.

The pickings were slim at the time we moved and still are; the majority of houses resemble mine rather than “the ideal,” so there’s no guarantee we’d find something better, only different, and different could be worse. Most people only get an ideal house if they buy and build/renovate it themselves or pay more than 1000 euros a month (that’s nearly my whole month’s salary). As we don’t plan to make a future here, it makes no sense to invest or throw away that kind of money. And if it were left only to me, I would have left GR already and this site would not exist. But we make the best of compromises sometimes and find the humor in things because getting upset and angry accomplishes nothing in the end.

M – Well hi! It’s always nice to know someone gets my sense of humor and sees this site as more than useful. But now you’re bringing back memories of my 2 years in NYC. The weather forecasts were so honest, weren’t they? “Tomorrow will be stifling” and “this weekend will be oppressive.” They weren’t kidding! And going underground to the subway was even worse…urg! That AC didn’t help much while being pressed like sardines in a can. Thank you for coming out of the shadows today to comment and compliment.

A – I’ve never encountered that in my AC-and-fan-using lifetime, complemented by twice daily showers in summer. Is there a remedy for those who do, other than stinking and sweating to death?

I spent nine years in Greece. My abodes were in Papagou. The mosquitos were Airbus A380 size, with similar sound. In that period I spent many summer days under a mosquito net, and even then, a culprit would on occasion sneak in. I had installed an air conditioner, but the mosquirtos still found opportunity to visit.

On my last days when the movers took the bed away, I made a makeshift shelter by visiting a construction site and “borrowing” some rebar which I bent in the form of an arch. I inserted the ends in holes of construction bricks. It worked well. This was the answer to sleeping on the floor.

I, incidentally was the magnet for the beasties; my wife and son were immune since mosquitoes ignored them.

All of the antagonisms you face, and those expressed by the readers, are all reminders on how challenging—and irritating—life can be in Greece. Every one of the irritants are all too real. I have run into them even while visiting and staying in hotels.

Kalo kalokairi.
CS

All – The AC man is supposed to come tomorrow, so I’ll be waiting again and I hope for a good end result. If he doesn’t show up, I’m going to take care of it myself by begging the man I know in the center to send one of his men. This cannot go on.

P – LOL! My ex-boyfriend’s mom used to tell me all kinds of horror stories no matter what we did, mostly having to do with people dying. “Don’t go into the sea, a man got killed by a shark once”; “don’t walk by the side of the road, a soldier got hit by a car and died”; don’t eat just before you swim, you’ll go to the hospital.” Yeesh.

M – When I lived in the center of Athens, my landlord told me I didn’t need AC. And what happens after that? A heatwave — it was 43C every day for 10 days. That’s when my sleeping on the marble floor days started, alternated with dousing my head with cold water. My landlord changed his mind as well; he had AC installed in his apartment at the same time. An ‘A’ rating is the best; I’m sure your use is much less than corporations who leave it running 24/7.

Regarding water and cuts, I know people on Crete who have the same issues, as well as the Peloponnese. Since our electricity was cut here and in the center of Athens, the traffic lights weren’t working and traffic was a huge mess, so we never got the portable AC and I had another sleepless night. As summer progresses, I know we’ll see a lot more cuts as the grid gets overloaded. Nothing was done since last year, and I don’t think the population decreased or people’s habits have changed.

P.S. Careful about inviting me, I might just show up at your house with carrot cake and coriander!

CS – The buggers are especially loud when you’re sleeping, aren’t they? I’m so glad you know what I’m saying. When I tell people I get bitten on my scalp or the bottom of my feet if I don’t spray them with DEET, they think I’m exaggerating or (my favorite) “it’s all in (my) mind.” Yeah, I’m sure I manufactured these welts on my body. I love people who claim, “There’s no mosquitos.” Oh yeah, just because they don’t like you, it doesn’t mean they’re not around!

And in hotels, you have the added pleasure of maids entering your room and knocking on the door despite the do not disturb sign, tourists coming and going, and sometimes no hot water. LOL. It’s character building

I’ll keep your ingenuity in mind about the bed when we take leave.

Pas – I received your inquiry and will respond to you privately regarding your questions. And just so you know, this website is not just for Americans. My content is used by Canadians, Australians, Greeks, EU citizens of all countries, non-EU citizens from Africa and Asia, and anyone wanting to share their experience or read about everyone else’s. Yes, some articles focus on American issues, but that’s because there are 300 million of them and that’s the country I’m from. The same rules that apply to Americans in Greece apply to all non-EU citizens. There is no differentiation in nationality.

Kat- When my Greek husband brags about how relieving his cold shower was and that he plans to buy 2 more A/C units…you know it’s hot! We have a unit in our bedroom that we bought in the winter to use as a dehumidifier and I’m soooo glad. We all sleep in the same bedroom now-camping out once again. I have a full size air mattress on the floor between my bed and the wall but it works. As far as mosquitos go-they’re not too bad here but my kids spent the night in Halkidiki and came back just covered with bites. I’m not opening the doors a lot at night so luckily we haven’t had too many in here. And as far as noise is concerned-we’ve got a yard full of real cackling hens across the road and a neglected dog that barks all night…I mean-all night! And, I’m convinced that the damn roosters never stop with their crap. Until moving here, I really believed that they only woke people up with the sunrise, how sadly uninformed I was. But I’ll take it over any load music and cackling humans any day!

this has to be the funniest blog post title I’ve ever read. im in the centre and i commiserate. hope you get your a/c hooked up real soon.

Mmm… I’m kinda thinking I’ve been mis-lead because I was told about the whole draft thing and have never slept with a fan pointing in my direction. I can’t sleep in an air conditioned room either because it’s makes me far too dry.

My answer like a lot of you guys is sleep on the marble if it gets too hot so count me in for the slumber party however the heat usually just knocks me out anyway… I sleep like a log when it’s hot so I won’t be up all night complaining!

PS: Hi to the new guys living in my neck of the woods… I’m in Kifissia too. Isn’t it amazing to hear how people south of the railroad tracks live?

As for noise, I assumed everyone else would be like me… sleep right through it because you’re used to it. Luckily where I live, there isn’t much noise…. there’s a good gap between me and the street and the road itself is really quiet anyway because it’s a dead end.

Yeah, well I follow the site most of the time. I just don’t post. And I understand you’re young. But I’m not exactly old myself. I’m 17. But I suppose you know more about living in greece than I do. I’ve been in AL most of my life living in a town of 1,400. So I’ve never had to worry about noise. I’m just saying people are ill mannered anywhere you go. That’s unavoidable. Yesh, moving is expensive, I get that too. Luckily for me I don’t have to worry about it very much. I have a house, family, and money in Kefalonia. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

C – Funny you should mention that. You know what just happened? My fiance asked for a pair of my American earplugs. Him. Mr. it’s never too loud to sleep, I can sleep right through it, no problem. Well, there you go! Right now I’m listening to traffic, pulsing music, car alarms and a mother and daughter screaming at each other, and it’s 3 a.m. I’ll take the real hens any day! And give me the owl too. He’s cute.

D – Why thank you! See what extreme sleep deprivation can do to you? LOL.

ED – Yeah, yeah, north is good, south is bad. I fully expected you to say something after you got caught up and settled in. Heat knocks me out too, but extreme heat and stifling humidity or lack of air circulation keeps me awake. I use to fall asleep in the car when I lived on Rhodes because it was the only time I had AC, as my apartment had none and laying in the sea every day got boring, not to mention a bit like a big salty hot tub.

As I said to Cheryl above, my fiance asked for a pair of earplugs tonight, so it must be bad. He’s the kind of sleeps-like-a-log guy you can literally hit and kick, and he won’t wake up. How I long for my quiet, non-snobby street in the north! Filakia

Nik – If you’re saying that people are ill mannered everywhere, then you’re basically admitting that your original suggestion of moving to the sticks is irrelevant. And manners aside — although GR is the noisiest country of 36 I’ve been to and Greeks proudly admit they’re loud — the majority of homes here are poorly built and not soundproof, so that’s the issue. Therefore, people everywhere in GR (even those in the sticks) have the same noise challenges I do and moving accomplishes nothing. Also, you mean YOUR FAMILY has a house and money in Kefallonia. Until you grow up, earn a living of your own and see what real life is all about when you pay your own way in a city working alongside millions as we do, it’d be prudent to not dispense unsolicited advice based on ignorance and inexperience. For sure I know more about living in GR than you do, being as I’m here 11 years and made it on my own, while you can’t even make a decision about whether you want to move here or not and have help. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Ah, the arrogance of being 17 youth.

You’re welcome back at any time. I got over the whole you abandoning us thing and took you off the blacklist!

Hope you’re all climate controlled soon!

To the people that continuously make the argument, “there are people like that everywhere”, or “it’s like that everywhere” it’s important to remember that, while this is partially true, every country and culture has its own unique nuances. Every country has its national psyche or general mentality, and a lot of those little societal quirks that you notice in daily life are a side effect or manifestation of that underlying national psyche.

When you are in Greece you know you are in Greece. When you are in France you know you are in France. When you are in Russia, you know you are in Russia.

There ARE differences. If there weren’t, you wouldn’t even know you changed countries when traveling. But the differences are difficult to express. When you try to express them, people contest you.

“No, it’s like that everywhere.”
“There are loud people everywhere.”

Yes, there are loud people everywhere. But when you say, for example, that Greece is generally a loud place, most people know what you’re talking about. Similarly, when you say that Japan is an organized place, people that have visited there know what you mean. And you can’t prove this situation by situation. Because if you try, people will say, “No, but I was once in a tourist office in Paris, and this guy was yelling, so loud people are everywhere.”

Unfortunately it’s not really something that can be statistically or analytically proven. It’s based on impressions. It’s like art, if you’re feeling it, if you’re getting that vibe off that society, situation after situation, then there is probably some truth to it.

I can’t remember exactly what the remedy for creo stomaki is. After being berated for such folly, my grandmother would perform some feat with burned, crushed chicken bones and oregano, which was wiped on the inner wrist. After this she would do her evil eye test and pronounce the patient on the road to recovery so long as no additional showers or baths occurred in the near future.

The first time I went to my father’s village, in July, I was amazed at all the old people wearing woolen long underwear. They were immune to their own smell. Of course, at the time, bathing meant a dip in the river, or some water boiled and then mixed with cold spring water and splashed on you with a towel, or a shower from an olive oil tin with a spigot on the front. Under these circumstances, I can see how it was not so appealing.

1) I said to move to the sticks to avoid noise. Not to avoid all the problems that occur anywhere in the world. I live in a town of 1400 but I’m still ill mannered and know ill mannered people. But it’s still noisy. And my posts don’t have anything to do with arrogance. Its about what is smart. You said yourself that you’ve had to move twice in 18 months. If I have to move that often I’m going to find a place I enjoy living. Besides, if your life is as hard as you claim its been you would have moved and settled in one of the 36 quieter countries you’ve been to.

My post was an actual joke. Not like your finding humor in tough situations. From most of your posts its like ” Oh Greece is noisy and it sucks” and ends with an “oh well what can you do”. But it seems like i’ve hit a soft spot. You like winning. So keep twisting what I say. It doesn’t bother me as much as you would like it to.

2) No, I never said you could avoid ill mannered people. I said you could avoid some problems by moving to the sticks. I never said moving to the sticks would make all your dreams come true. Don’t twist my words. Besides that, when you say you’re young (acting as if I was old) you were saying I didn’t know what you were going through.(because I’m old). Then you go on to call me arrogant because I’m young. So only people in your specific age group know what you’re going through. I’m young, not stupid.

What I’m saying is that if you’ve been to 36 countries. Why would you settle in the one you seem to hate the most? Don’t treat me as if I’m ignorant because I point out what should be obvious to you. It IS up to you if you want to leave greece. If you can’t in 11 years of living in a place, figure out how to leave the you are the ignorant one. And don’t use your fiancé as a scapegoat. He may be a reason for you to stay but I don’t think he’s forcing it on you.

Kat Reply:
June 28th, 2008 at 21:28

The problem with your comments is again ignorance (not stupidity), youth (you’ll see what I mean 10-15 years from now) and inexperience (talking about a glass a water is not the same as drinking it) — same as what I said in my last comment to you. Even Kev tried to politely and intellectually point out the weakness in your comment, and you didn’t get it. I highlighted we were young with careers as a way to support why we cannot live on an island or somewhere remote, aka, I’m not a housewife, we’re not retired or leeching (living) off our parents, and we don’t want to be unemployed. You think because you read this website that you know me, not taking into account I have a complex private life that I don’t share at all. Therefore, your judgmental assumptions, name calling and unsolicited, simplified answers to my life are unwarranted. It has nothing to do with winning, it’s just irrelevant.

I encounter people like you every day in droves, so it’s sadly just more of the same. How bothered could I be? The answer should be obvious. Good luck to you.

@nik — its obvious you have no clue about living in GR or what it takes to move to another country alone on your own money. if you did, youd know its not easy or inexpensive, and when it involves a partner (fiance, girlfriend/boyfriend, wife/husband) is even harder because sometimes theres immigration law and sometimes the other person does not want to go, or wants to go and isnt ready or has family obligations or is scared or changes their mind or whatever. any relationship takes compromise, sometimes big, sometimes small, is not a matter of force. i cut a relationship with a girl i was going to marry and have kids because i waited 5 years and couldnt wait anymore. i left a country, my family and also my future wife behind, and i didnt have anyone, any house or any job waiting me in UK when i got here.

so all due respect, but you as a teenager with no life experience shouldnt be giving advice to anyone or assuming others cant see the obvious when its you who cant ssee. i think kat has been more than polite to you, and you still dont get it.

ED – How sweet of you The good news is my fiance went to look for a portable for me, the bad news is the power cut caused all the traffic lights to stop and he was stuck there for 3 hours and never got to the store. The good news is the air conditioner guy came out yesterday. The bad news is the unit is broken. Although it worked when we had it installed in December, it somehow broke while it wasn’t being used in winter. How? Who knows. So, come on over for a plakakia party

Kev (or the commentator formerly known as ‘K’) – Very intelligent commentary and so true! I think that people who make blanket statements like that are usually people who have limited or no experience in knowing countries that intimately or are simply unaware of subtle differences. Other than this article, I have nothing further to add because you said it so well.

“Noise affects 6 in 10 city residents” – Kathimerini

A – My friend Eva has in-laws who make fun of the fact she showers daily and twice daily on hot summer days. They think she needs to see a therapist, and their son picked a ‘strange girl.’ They on the other hand have been treated at the hospital for diseases and rashes relating to improper hygiene. She insisted they get an AC unit for her in-laws’ island home and paid for it herself, so the 2 weeks she spends there each year are more pleasant. They berated her for being frivolous, but have no problem using it all summer when she’s not there.

Bathing in a river or having a bucket of water dumped over one’s head isn’t so bad, but then again I never did it for more than 5 days in a row. It’d probably get old fast if made a normal routine.

@ Scorpion and @Paul
on the dreaded Psiksi.
We were at a restaurant in Therisso, Hania. As we arrived early, we chose a table near a door which led out to a park for the children to play in. Along come some middle-aged parea, who saw my children come in and out the door twice. they asked us to keep the door closed (no doubt they were afriad of the dreaded PSIKSI). i asked them to stop smoking. they moved tables – how simple it was to get rid of them.

The amusing thing about the last story is how the middle-aged Greeks described were more concerned with a fictive potential illness (psiksi) than with a well-established medical probability of various diseases from smoking! It just goes to show that myths trounce facts in Greece!

I forgot that “tsai to vournou” (vounou) was also part of yia yia’s remedy.

Last year I told my kids about how when we went to the village, if we stayed with my aunt we would take showers with the can/spigot, or go bathe in the river if the mill was not washing flokati. They looked at me like I had a second head growing out of the first one. Not campers, I guess. When I told them about how when I first visited there was no electricity and no running water, they said I was lying.

Greeks–If they were not so entertaining, most of us ex-pats would have probably moved on..

Edo Ellada!!!

Trolls, heat and adventures in Greece.

I arrived late to this, but it was quite good (of course) including comments.

My mom just took our turbine fan that works, but these days I guess I could use 4 or 5 of these during the day.

don’t have much to add here except that the northern suburbs are not exactly quiet either; sure if you live in a ‘rich’ suburb like Kifissia, but the ones i lived in were almost as noisy as in the south, especially Galatsi.

Kat

I also moved homes recently here in Melbourne and (unlike yourself, for which I sympathise) most things have run smoothly. BUT I have had a huge issue with an Internet Service Provider here. It has caused me such inconvenience that I thought of you and your misadventures in Athens. In fact I would like to challenge you to provide a personal story of a slower, more inefficient and mis-communicating (both internally and to the customer) Internet Service Provider in Greece. I am sure one exists in Greece!. In summary, here is my story

– Jun 4: shortly after moving in, my girlfriend and I need Internet indispensably to stay connected with the world. After some research I contact “ISP Xalia” (let’s name it as such for confidentiality) and I order the Internet plan which seems best. To save a hefty delivery fee, I arrange to pick up the USB modem myself (quite commonly done in this Internet Service Provider – ISP) as the head office of the compnay is locally here in Melbourne. They promise that in 5-7 working days they will call me (after I double check they have the right number).

– Jun 26: I still have no phonecall from them. So far we have given them the benefit of the doubt but we become impatient and are forced to use a nearby Net Cafe daily. I call ISP Xalia and they politely inform me that the modem has been available for the past 9 days. They apologise for not having attempted to call me. I am furious but do not externalize this. I thank them and immediately go and pick up the modem from their office.

– Jun 27: I install the modem to my laptop, which occurs seamlessly thanks to the reliable instructions of ISP Xalia. But there is no connection still. I carefully read the 64 page user manual and find (hidden in fine print in one of the last pages) a statement that before I can use the Internet, I need to call ISP Xalia again so they can activate it.
Immediately I call them. I pass them three codes that they need (from the modem case) and they promise me that within 24 hrs I will have Internet ready. My girlfriend and I are about to pop open a champagne! Boy are we naive…

– June 28: Exactly 25 hours later I call ISP Xalia. I inform them that I still cannot connect after repeatedly trying. We go through the 3 codes I gave them and this operator tells me I need a concealed 4th code as well (which should have been given the day before but I was not asked for it ). My face begins to change various colours but reluctantly I keep my calm. I am perhaps inspired by Kat, who has consistently and admirably faced such service in my distant home country for over a decade. So I calmly provide the 4th code. I am promised than within 24-48 hours it will be activated. I enquire about the activations process and am informed that it involves a systems administrator on their end ticking an appropriate box on a computer screen. Somehow this reassures me, surely it cannot take much longer..

– June 30: exactly 51 hours later, still no Internet. Increasingly agitated, I telephone ISP Xalia. After an hour confirmation process, I politely express my dissatisfaction with the company service. The operator has no news for me as to what went wrong (let alone why). But they do apologise and promise to call me the next day.

– July 1: I receive a call from the same operator. They have no further news but renew their promise (after some eloquently spoken, reassuring comments) that “ISP xalia will get to the bottom of this”

– July 2: I call again. I believe I know what the issue is (after a couple of hours of research). There are 2 codes with exactly the same name and 6 digits. I was asked for and provided one but not both. So I call and inform the operator of the issue. They confirm that this was indeed the issue and that now, within 24-48 hours Internet will be ready.
Later that day, my girlfriend and I go on a well deserved and much needed short holiday trip (we needed this trip as much as we needed Internet 28 days ago).

– July 5 (today). We are back in Melbourne in the morning. Over 70 hours have elapsed and still no Internet. I call the company to cancel my order. I am fed up and rather politely (and trying not to personally insult the operator but attribute all blame to the company and even suggest ways for them to improve) tell them that even the last drop of patience has been exhausted for me. They try for 10 minutes, in vain, to convince me to stay with ISP Xalia. I firmly reject: I remember that I spent the first 16 yrs of my life in Greece, where such (lack of) service is not as unusual as it is here in Australia. So this situation is not totally unexpeted from me and I keep my calm.
BUT as I am about to hang up, my girlfriend grabs hold of the phone. Her rage for ISP Xalia cannot be contained. She screams at the top of her voice complaining about the extent of their incompetence. She is from Scandinavia and it is extremely rare to see her acting like this. But this is compeltely new for her. I feel for her. She swears at the phone in a few languages and then comes to my arms seeking comfort and apologizing to me in teras. I drink some ouzo, she some vodka and we somewhat relax. I then begin the search for another ISP. I know I will have to wait 1-2 weeks at least until we have Internet, but I have too much dignity to stay for ISP Xalia. I do not even want to think about how much money (and time) I have lost calling them and going to the Net cafe (expecially after this holiday). I immediately send an email to all my friends here in ASustralia telling them never to use ISP Xalia, or face losing my friendship eternally.

Now I know this post is long (Kat, I apologise). But the reason is that I suspect, from your experience in Greece, you can beat it (speaking specifically in terms of Internet Service Providers).

I challenge you Kat! Bring on your best story of your own ISP Xalia!

G – I can point you to the recent post, “On the Exodus (OTE),” which is the last installment of a continuing saga of our non-working phone line and shoddy DSL connection. We used our connections to get installation in an unprecedented 3 days, however the phone number never actually worked, we were assured for months that it would be fixed with my fiance calling every few days, our DSL blacked out for extended periods, thus causing me to spend money at Internet cafes then eventually lose two jobs in the USA. It’s also incredibly difficult to feel settled in a home when things don’t work. After all, home is supposed to be the one environment over which you have some control.

This went on for 6 months until we finally said we’d had enough, as we were paying for this nonsense (230 euros total), and it could still be going on now. Strings had been pulled for us, however there was a final paper needed from high up the OTE chain over which no one had control. I told my fiance to cut it after 3 months because I felt it was a waste of money and our sanity; he insisted on continuing. There is a fine line between hope and denial, and I know where that line is drawn after 11 years here, but he does not.

During that time, there were a lot of arguments, I broke some stuff out of frustration (I was never like this until living in GR) and took some days to get over losing one job in particular because it was prestigious and meant a great deal to my career. But what am I going to do? Sue OTE, sue Greece. No, because that’s the way things are here. I still have no control over my own home. The only thing I can do is leave the country to cut this cancer from my life.

The bad thing of course is, unlike you having choices where you are, OTE is still involved not matter what ISP you choose in Greece. The only way to go around it is to use a 3G connection, which is now what we have.

I assume ISP Xalia is not the real name of the provider you’re speaking of. If it is, it’s hilarious.