Living in Greece

A practical guide to moving, living, working & traveling in Greece, plus musing and misadventures from an American in Athens

Καλημέρα/Kalimera!

March 9, 2010 at 12:30 ·

Permalink

You know, the Turks run a great TV spot every spring/summer here in NY. It’s so exciting, fresh, with hot music, bringing together ancient and new, sometimes I forget and think they’re advertising Greece, but no, it’s Turkey. Great. Why can’t the Greeks tap into that.? No, they want to say Kalimera…

It should have been “Kalamari”, which many foreigners think means G’day anyway. LOL

It was the only word my dad learned while he was here. Unfortunately he’d ask for Kalimera and chips every time we went to the taverna…

Great blog by the way Kat. You manage to stay balanced and humorous without ever sounding petty! I have passed your site address on to loads of friends!

What’s the betting next year’s slogan will be “Opa!” (set to this year’s Eurovision entry)?

Αγαπητό site, αρχικά ήταν πολύ ενδιαφέρον να βρω ένα τόσο ενημερωμένο ηλεκτρονικό πεδίο στο διαδύκτιο σχετικά με τη χώρα μου την Ελλάδα. Επί του παρόντος ζω στις ΗΠΑ (τη χώρα σου) εδώ και πέντε χρόνια και εργάζομαι ως ιατρός. Όμως έχω να κάνω κάποια σχόλια σχετικά με το ύφος της σελίδας σας. Εάν κάποιος που δεν είναι Έλληνας, και δεν ξέρει την Ελληνική κουλτούρα και φιλοσοφία, σας διαβάσει, μάλλον απογοητεύεται από την Ελληνική κατάσταση και μειώνεται το όποιο ενδιαφέρον του να ζήσει στην Ελλάδα. Πρέπει να σημειώσω ότι τα κάποια αρνητικά σας σχόλια περί της Ελληνικής κατάστασης πηγάζουν αναπόφευκτα από τη σύγκριση που κάνετε με τη χώρα σας (ΗΠΑ). Η σύγκριση αυτή όμως είναι πλάνη, διότι οι δύο χώρες δεν έχουν σχεδόν καμία κοινή βάση πάνω στην οποία να συγκριθούν. Είναι σαν να συγκρίνουμε μήλα με πορτοκάλια. Εάν πραγματικά θέλετε να βοηθήσετε στην καλύτερη εικόνα της Ελλάδας θα έπρεπε να τονίζετε το πόσα ταιράστια βήματα έχει κάνει αυτή η μικρή χώρα, μέσα σε μόνο περίπου τριάντα χρόνια ελεύθερης δημοκρατικής διακυβέρνησης. Ναι συμφωνώ ότι περιμένεις στην ουρά επί πολύ χρόνο στις δημόσιες υπηρεσίες. Όμως πριν από πέντε ή δέκα χρόνια, η κατάσταση ήταν πολύ χειρότερη. Εκεί πρέπει να εστιάσετε. Μην είστε το σίγουρη ότι ξέρετε τα Ελληνικά πράγματα, επειδή απλώς ζήτε στην πατρίδα μου κάμποσο. Τουναντίον, θα περίμενε κανείς ότι θα είσασταν πιο ευγνώμων προς αυτή τη χώρα που όπως εσείς η ίδια παραδέχεστε σας γλυκαίνει την ψυχή πιο πολύ από ό,τι η ίδια σας η πατρίδα (ΗΠΑ). Ο νόσοτς είναι Ελληνική λέξη άλλωστε. Ευχαριστώ για την ευκαιρία να σχολιάσω, τυχών απάντησή σας είναι αποδεχτή.

Note to readers: Melina is a repeat visitor to my website/blog, who composed her comment offline, came back to post it and leave. I know this because it says she only stayed 21 seconds. I didn’t translate her comment because her choice to write in Greek was intentional, and I don’t want to be accused of changing her words.

Hi Kat,

Although I could dissect the previous comment point-by-point, I’ll keep it short.

Always interesting when someone chooses to attack the messenger, and pays only lip-service to the message since they are unable to disagree with it in substance. I think many of us “who have a choice” are in full agreement that there are many things about Greece that make it a great place to live. But we also know that in many ways it’s not. And the most frustrating part is that it could be a lot better. Many Greeks outside of Greece are abroad for exactly that reason, and for the greater opportunities they find there among other things.

It’s somewhat ironic that I can have a frank discussion with most Greeks in Greece (in English or Greek) about the situation here, and my Greek friends abroad don’t want to hear about it. Yes, νόστος (a root of nostalgia) is definitely a Greek word.

Poor Dr. Melina. Homesick for Greece but earning a fat salary in the USA. Her post sounds more like “Ellinikoures” than anything else.

Well, the usual Greek nationalism and chauvinism are appearing, and hilariously from Greeks who left the place in despair and now reside in better-managed countries!

I don’t know what that comment is doing here, anyway, on a post about the tourism motto. Maybe she thinks that she is somehow aiding tourism in Greece by attacking “foreigners” who live here. Yet, she wrote in Greek, meaning that the intended audience is other Greeks and not tourists. Many doctor friends tell me that psychiatrists generally are rather screwed up people, so i guess we can put it down to that.

Good Morning,

I have never seen such a wonderful and informative website. I am hoping you could assist me. I live in Chicago and will be visiting Methoni in June. I have sent 3 emails and a fax to the Methoni Beach Hotel with no reply. I finally called them, but their machine is in Greek and although I am Greek I cannot understand what it says. 3027230 28720 is the number if you have a minute to provide a translation. I’m not sure who in the states I could ask to do this for me and I know this is an imposition. Since Methoni does not have all that many hotel choices I would like to know if they are no longer in business.

Thanks ever so much Kat,

Karen who is very excited to visit Greece

I have not commented on your site in a long time, but I have been trying to keep a close eye on it, not to mention the number of people that I have recommended it to for all the rich information that you managed to collect throughout time.

Following this short prologue, I felt the need to respond to our “compatriot” Melina, even though I usually avoid direct responses because I am a true believer that confrontations of this type lead nowhere.

For those who may question the initiative of my post, allow me to say that I was born and raised in Greece, where I studied, received all the necessary high level degrees, served the military, opened a professional Engineering business, without having or chasing any political ties and partly succeeded.

A couple of years later though, I decided to move to the US for reasons that are far from the point of this conversation. What is not far from the point though, is that I consider it home just like the UK, France and Spain because I feel that every place that earns you a living is home and after having lived in all of the countries mentioned above, they all deserve a place in my heart. People who see it any different are just plain selfish and cannot see beyond their nose. In that sense I hope you feel the same way about the US, Melina.

It’s totally pointless getting into comparisons between countries, because as she correctly mentioned it’s like comparing apples with oranges. What’s not comparing different type of fruits though is the people. People can always make the biggest difference above all and that is the very reason why Greece has the same backward mentality in terms of professionalism and productivity for the past 30 years, whilst the society and the nation has advanced due to the technological innovation of other nations and the monetary funds of the same nations that Greece blames for its current financial troubles today. How ironic!

The same type of mentality is sustained and has been highly rewarded by the governmental bodies during the past 30 years, who have done very little to promote the biggest source of income that Greece has, which is tourism. I can only imagine the people who are responsible for this huge responsibility and it makes me sick to my stomach knowing how they have been possibly hired or assigned for this huge task. Therefore, it leads back to the people and the decisions made for good or for bad. I love Greece and I love everything that it has offered me to stand up to my feet, but from a neutral point of view I am afraid we lost our path a long time ago, and advertisements of this type show signs of desperation and unintelligence I am afraid. It is without a say to talk about the competitiveness of our products and how efficient and affordable it is for newcomers to visit Greece.

I used to hear stories about how much cheaper Turkey, Croatia and other countries around that region have been compared to Greece, but in the end of the day it is us, the people again who allowed this to happen or is it not? It is us who became greedier, who had no financial plans to attract tourists; it is us who unanimously decided to enter the path of a strong currency without being equally responsible and at the end of the day Greece becomes less attractive to others. If only we could see things beyond our nepotism, we could be so much better and that is the frustrating part of the story.

As for Greece today, it has become so uncompetitive that on a personal level if my ties with mother land, family and friends have not been kept alive, even with my fat yet hard earned salary, Greece would not have been at the top of my list for any vacation plans of any kind. Inevitably people want to visit the place that they keep the closest in their heart and that is Greece for Greeks, France for French, Germany for Germans and so on, so it is beyond the point of discussion how much myself or other several millions of Greeks may complain about how unattractive Greece has become. The whole idea is how Greece can become the light of inspiration and uniqueness that will lead people from other nations to come visit, enjoy our beautiful sun, the breath-taking scenery and the amazing artifacts that we inherited from ancestors.

We have long ways to go until that day.

Just been passed onto your site..after 25 years in Crete what a breath of fresh air to read everything I have thought, said, fought over, cried over about Greece, the people, and my right to an opinion here!
Congratulations and I look forward to reading a lot more…

Melina’s post is typical of the mentality of many Greeks. It is the mentality responsible for the disaster we are living right now.

We behave like children and we want others to treat us like children, to praise and caress us all the time.

We do not accept sound and fair criticism (like Kat’s), because, ehm, everybody should love us ’cause we are cute or I don’t know what.

Melina seems to require that Kat should advertise Greece. But, hello, Kat is a private person, not the greek ministry of tourism – why should she want to “advertise” Greece?

And to be honest, she doesn’t want Kat to advertise Greece but to hide facts, which is something totally different.

We cannot stand the honest opinion of a honest person, we just want a “wicked messenger” whose tongue cannot speak but only flatter (that’s a Dylan song).

Congratulations on the site and sorry for the broken English!