Living in Greece 🇬🇷 | 5 Things Every Foreigner Should Know🧿

you have to remember that when you travel and you live abroad you are the one who needs to adapt to the language not the other way around just because Greeks are very welcoming and they will go and meet you halfway if you don't know any Greek and they do know English not everybody but they do know English especially if you come to a a tourist destination here in Greece you know I come from a different angle I come from the angle that I am the Foreigner and I am the one who needs to adapt I am the one who needs to learn how to speak Greek I am the one who has to adapt to the culture Greeks do not need to adapt to me okay and I can tell you different stories of of people that I know that they live in foreign countries they don't speak the language and I just find that shocking [Music] Kima apono here are five things that every Foreigner coming to Greece should know number one this is a quite obvious one the language now of course if you're just coming to Greece to visit you're coming on a holiday with your family for a week you're not going to learn to speak Greek however if you're coming to Greece to live for a short period of time or even a a long period of time you should learn Greek at least the basics why am I saying this to you well because there's a lot of expats that live here in Greece and refuse to learn Greek actually I'm being a little bit harsh with that but I have certainly met some expats that uh have been living here for a long period of time and they don't want to learn Greek or they find it very challenging to learn Greek and there is no need really to learn Greek because everybody here speaks English uh in fact I just met with a fellow British expat quite recently and he's been living here for for a year now and uh the very basic Greek that someone should have after living here in Greece for a whole year was shocking to me and I asked him how do you get along how do you go about your day if you don't speak any Greek and you actually have no intentions of learning any Greek now what bothered me the most about this person that I know and if he's watching this video I hope he doesn't get offended but what bothered me the most was his attitude towards the Greek language and as a foreigner you have to remember that when you travel and you live abroad you are the one who needs to adapt to the language not the other way around just because Greeks are very welcoming and they will go and meet you halfway if you don't know any Greek and they do know English not everybody but they do know English especially if you come to a a tourist destination here in Greece you know I come from a different angle I come from the angle that I am the Foreigner and I am the one who needs to adapt I am the one who needs to learn how to speak Greek I am the one who has to adapt to the culture Greeks do not need to adapt to me okay and I can tell you different stories of of people that I know that they live in foreign countries they don't speak the language and I just find that shocking okay I mean I have uncles who live in the states and they live in Florida for example and they speak Spanish and you know there is no intention of learning how to speak English because we all know that in Florida uh a lot of people speak Spanish you know uh my family is from Venezuela I grew up in Venezuela so I speak Spanish but this is something that I'm very aware of as someone who lives abroad and I have a cousin as well who lives in Houston Texas who speaks no English whatsoever and I know it's a challenge to learn a language especially as an adult but he's not living in Houston as as a as a tourist right he's living there he's actually working and living there and and it is a challenge if you don't speak any English I mean Houston everybody speaks Spanish but at the end of the day you know you're living in the state so I mean you need to learn the language and again if my cousin and my uncle are are watching this video I love you all very much I'm just using this as an example I got a quick story of me coming to Greece for the first time um as a visitor as a tourist and I went to a Greek island like most tourists do and I remember being so frustrated because it was the very first time in my life that I was in a foreign country in a in a foreign country and I couldn't go to the perip to go and buy cigarettes because I didn't speak Greek and that really made me feel very frustrated because I was used to travel abroad uh you know to the States to Canada to the UK and you know and I knew English I knew the language so I never felt that disconnection from the culture so when I came to Greece the very first time and back then I was smoking I don't smoke anymore that's just a fun fact but I do remember feeling that frustration that I'm I'm visiting this beautiful country and I want to go to the pipo to buy some cigarettes and I cannot order I mean I knew the basic the basics like yasas Calima you know and uh but what terrified me the most was that someone will talk back at me and I wouldn't be able to answer back you know that's something that really bothered me so I was really fascinated about uh learning at least the basics uh for my next trip to Greece you know I mean it is a tough language of course Greeks are very warm and very helpful uh not like other Europeans countries when you go and you don't speak the language I'm not going to mention any countries here because I don't want to offend anybody uh but the language is something that has to be learned and you know I I don't see why anybody that wants to come to Greece uh for a short period of time or even a long period of time to live here right and not be fascinated by learning the basics of the Greek language I mean Greek language is one of the most fascinating language in the world right and so what a better excuse to learn Greek when you come to Greece uh you know even if you're going to stay here for a short period of time right and when I say a short period of time I say maybe 6 months maybe a year right and then you're going to go back to your to your country or to your hometown to your Homeland if you will uh but you are going to be involved with Greeks and you are going to be involved in the Greek culture like my fellow friend that has been living here for a whole year and you know I mean he's a unique case because his his attitude was very very very arrogant I found it very insulting H and you know as someone who lives here you know even though I'm not Greek I considered myself Greek and it was very insulting uh and very arrogant of him to just say you know everybody speaks English there is really no need for me to speak Greek or learn the basics so so that's that you know I mean in my house uh obviously we speak Greek because I live here uh my two daughters speak Greek obviously the eldest one was born in the UK but she speaks English and Greek okay and I will say in my household we speak I would say 5050 I mean obviously we speak Greek uh but I communicate with my wife in English and that's just because we met in the UK and you know back then I didn't know any any Greek and now I speak to her in Greek obviously uh but in the household between me and her we speak in English half Greek and when I lose my nerve I speak Spanish right I start to swear in Spanish so it's a mix of different languages but for me uh learning Greek and speaking very good Greek has been a challenge because I work from home so you know I'm not involved every single day in the Greek Workforce and and that has been a challenge for me because um my job is in English and you know I have integrated very well with the community but at the same time it has been a challenge for me to to express fully in in Greek and and that's one of the reasons why you see me hanging out with my friend uh panayotis who has a grocery shop and I I integrated very well here the community you know uh kidos Dimitrius who is uh the elderly uh Papu who I see every morning when I when I go for my walks I have documented that uh on Instagram and and over the years you know I have integrated because I'm I'm very aware of that I'm very aware of the The Importance of Being uh being integrated not only in the community but as well the ability to communicate because I am the Foreigner they don't have to learn my language I have to learn their language so that's that when it comes down to learning Greek but you know I mean this will be helpful even for you if you're just going to come here as a tourist you know because you know what a better excuse to to go go back home and and get a book and learn Greek because it's one of the most ancient languages in the world anyways you know and you can go back home to England or to America and say you know what I went to Greece and I was fascinated by the language I'm going to learn Greek on the side just for fun right obviously I'm biased because I love Greece and I love the Greek language and you know I love everything about Greece so I'm I'm promoting Greece in the Greek culture in a way by saying this driving here in Greece is a it's an experience if you're a foreigner if you're coming from the UK or you're coming from America driving here in Greece is going to be a shock for you okay uh even if you're a tourist you're just going to come for for a short period of time and you're going to rent a car you better not only wear your seat belt but be very careful no offense to my fellow Greeks but you know Greeks drive like maniacs okay to me as a foreigner when I came here to Greece the very first time I was shocked but then again I grew up in Venezuela and in Venezuela we drive similar to the Greeks okay we don't stop at stop signs we don't respect parking spaces or parking places there is very very little traffic uh police here in Greece people pretty much do whatever they want when it comes to parking if it's a red light you know it's very very dangerous for a foreigner uh before fellow Greeks start to hate on me here on this one again I sympathize with how the Greeks drive because I am a Greek driver nowadays in fact I had to get my Greek license my Greek driving license here in Greece when I relocated from the UK here to Greece because the one that I had was a Venezuelan one and because I moved abroad first I went to the states and then to the UK my International driving license I had an international driving license which allowed me to drive when I was living in Houston and you know that I I used that for quite a long time but that that then that expired and when I moved to London I I didn't really needed a car right I was just on the tube and on the bus so there was no no need for me to actually have a car while I was living in in London in the UK so it got to a point where I had no license you know and when I relocated here to Greece uh I realized that I needed a car but I had no driving license so I had to go through the whole process of applying for a driver driving license pass the exam and everything man it was a little bit uh humbling for me I guess to do a drive-in a test both in theory which I found it as a joke because nobody really respects the you know the signs or anything here in Greece when it comes to drive-in and I had to do my Drive-In uh in practice as well with a teacher and obviously everything in Greek so I got my driving license here in Greece so it's a Greek driving license which I'm PR to have of course but you got to be very careful you know uh I mean accidents here in Greece when it comes down to drivve in and you know I think it's one of the highest mortality rates uh I don't know if it's number one or number two but it's it's up there uh especially with young people you know motorbikes I mean they just like to run and it's a real shame but if you're a tourist and if you're a foreigner I mean this applies to you if you're just a tourist and a foreigner that wants to relocate here to Greece this is something that you need to be very very aware of and not only drive carefully but be aware of your surroundings and how others are driving that is the most difficult part by the way okay but you will get used to to the Mayhem you will get used to the high speeds of how we drive here in Greece and you know how people will not stop in a cross when you're crossing the street even though there's white lines you know for example in the UK in London people will stop and you will pass here in Greece it you got to be careful okay if you're walking down the street and there's a Crossing line the most people will not stop so you got to be very very careful with that and those who stop are very very considerate so it's very easy to get used to it even for me as a as a foreigner living here in Greece I tend to drive like a Greek of course because we adapt there's no way you're not going to adapt you're going to pick up on those things that Greeks do and it's going to become part of you so but I just wanted to bring that to your attention because I remember the first time I came to Greece I was with a friend who lives here in Greece and we were driving from Athens to alen and I was just shocked man I thought I was going to die inside that car and it was Daylight one time I got on a motorbike with my brother-in-law I thought I was going to lose my life as well I thought this this this was it and and I I am not a motorbike guy but you know the speed it was just shocking to me so so that's that when it comes to driving just be aware of that okay okay another thing that might come to you as a surprise as a Foreigner is that shops close on Mondays afternoons and Wednesday afternoons okay Athens might be a different story especially in the center of Athens but most shops close on Monday afternoons and Wednesdays afternoons all right they don't open again all right so the shops will be open I don't know 9:00 all the way up until 2:30 in mesed and then they will close for the rest of the day so this is something that you need to be aware of if you're a foreigner and you come to Greece and inform yourself if the shop is going to be open if you're planning to buy shoes on a Monday afternoon at 5:00 let's say in the afternoon on a Monday or a Wednesday uh make sure that the shop is is open and you can ask in advance or find the information for this here where I live which is epara okay uh which is translated to to the countryside all shops close on Monday afternoons and Wednesday afternoons so this is something that you have to be aware of and and you adapt to this schedule if you want to go like I say buy shoes or or go and buy something you know you are not going to plan your schedule around Monday afternoons or Wednesday afternoons uh the other days Tuesdays Thursdays and Fridays shops close as well from mimti what that means is that the shop will close around 2:30 in the afternoon they will be closed until 5: to 5:30 in the afternoon and then they will open again between the hours of 5 5:30 all the way up until 9:30 in the evening and this is this intensifies in the summer because of the heat okay so shop owners what they will do is that they will close the shop for mimed they go home they eat and they have a siesta and they rest this is part of the terranean culture and and I love this about this this lifestyle here in Greece but for foreigners this could come as a shock that as a as a shop owner as a business owner you will close the shop in the afternoons to go home and eat and go for a siesta and then go back to the shop and open at 5:30 all the way up until 930 in the evening uh for us that live here and for Greeks this is part of the lifestyle and they don't know anything else and and to me this has become as well a routine or a way of life I should say not a routine a way of life because I'm not a shop owner but we're very aware that hey it's Monday so if we're going to go to to I don't know to a Bookshop for example uh understand that the Bookshop is going to be closed on Monday afternoons and if it's a Wednesday it's the same thing right and if it's a Thursday or a Friday under understand that in mimed uh the the shops going to be closed so we have to wait until 5:30 until they open right because they're completely shut down and a lot of foreigners find this a little bit shocking from the economic perspective as well a lot of foreigners complain about this that Greeks are lazy which I completely disagree Greeks are very hardworking people in fact some of them just run a shop on their own like my friend for example that runs a grocery shop on by by himself there's nobody else so if the guy wants to go to the toilet you know that becomes even a challenge I mean there's nobody else there right so Greeks are really hardworking people okay uh but for foreigners they see this as as a way of saying like people like Greek people are lazy because they close the shops in MTI and they don't open the shops uh you know throughout the day and I disagree with that completely now the schedule goes as follow Mondays are Clos in the afternoons Wednesdays are Clos in the afternoons and Saturdays are Clos in the afternoons and Saturdays as well Saturday usually the shops will open only up until 2:00 2:30 and 3:00 maybe and then they close so you will see this Rush of people uh on a Saturday morning buying stuff it's Mayhem around town and then at 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon it's very very quiet because the shop has closed and and everybody's at home already okay so this is something to consider again Athens might be a different story or any major city might be a different story The Shops will be open uh because you know it's it's a major city it's the capital or whatever but you know outside of Athens and and different major cities uh you're going to find this that this is going to be the case so make sure to to be aware of this and at that to that Rhythm of Life especially if you're looking to relocate to Greece right I have certainly have taken siestas especially in mesim when it's summertime you know it's nice to just eat lunch and then just go and pass out for an hour or two and then wake up have a coffee and then go about your day I mean there's nothing more Greek than this okay another thing that you should know when visiting Greece and this applies to you if you're just a tourist okay you just want to come here as a tourist but when you order food in a Taverna a restaurant learn to eat like the Greeks do Greek culture is famous for sharing when you go to a Greek Tava and you order ayati Greek Salada right when you order a Greek salad do not order a Greek salad just for yourself and eat the Greek salad by yourself okay that's not how we eat Greek salad here in Greece this kind of winds me up a little bit because I see foreigners and please don't be offended by this okay but I see a lot of foreigners going to tavernas and eating in places and ordering Greek salad per person now there's nothing wrong with that but that's not how we eat here okay the Greek salad supposed to be in the middle of the table and we grab and we share it and it's not a mistake because there's no right or wrong way of of eating but it's just part of the culture you order mtii you put it in the middle of the table and you share from it if you want another one we order another one okay but I'm not going to go to a TNA sit down order Mia Salada okay a Greek salad to myself and grabbed a whole bowl of salad to eat it okay that's not how we eat it here the same goes with other types of food and food uh Customs I guess if you will here in Greece we have a lot of mes and mesos which is the equivalent of Tapas in Spain and that is part of the culture that is part of the whole Greek eating experience so even if you're a tourist and you want to come to Greece and you want to experience the the real Greek culture you know then share all right and I'm going to do a whole video about food actually so you can experience the beauty of eating like Greeks do order other stuff apart from musaka and jaiki okay because Greeks do not I mean we eat jaiki but we eat TI okay and there's more to a Greek Salah than just a Greek Salah okay okay I'm going to show you how you can enjoy the best of the Greek cuisine horta is a great vegetable dish if you will aorta is something that you have to try as a tourist there's so many things that I want to talk about when it comes down to the food but I'm going to dedicate a whole video about about Greek food and how to experience Greece eat like the Greeks okay Greeks do not eat just musaka jaiki and greet yogurt we eat more than just those things okay and I'm going to help you with that so that's when it comes down to food and when you come to Greece you can see how Greeks eat and how everybody is sharing a dish everybody's ordering something and then everybody's taken from that made main dish and this is costume in many t and it's common practice I still remember my mother God bless her we were going to a meat TNA and she said to me my mother lives in the states by the way she's Venezuelan but she lives in the states my mother said to us like I'm not very hungry I just want a soup we couldn't help but laughing because it's aita there is no such a thing as a soup all right there's only meat by the kilo by the way so it's not even like a dish it's not like I want a T-bone steak you know what I mean and I'm not trying to be sarcastic here but this is part of the Greek culture that a lot of tourists and and foreigners do not understand and it's the purpose why I'm doing this videos because I want to help you guys that want to travel to Greece or even relocate to Greece uh experience Greece like uh like not like a foreigner or a tourist but like a local okay and adopt that have those little insights okay so we were in this Taverna which is just meat by the kilo so it's just meat and potatoes that's it and this Taberna is a very small Taverna and you know you just order that there's no other selections for you there's no soups there's nothing so we told my mom you know we're going to order a kilo of whatever meat you know it could have been lamb or whatever it doesn't really matter we're going to order a kilo of this a kilo of that some potatoes H horta do domato Salata you know beers you know the whole lot and my mom obviously ate like a king you know she thought she was not hungry but that changed very very quickly as soon as she saw a kilo and a half of meat coming into the table so everybody can share [Music] let's Go's go and and I'm telling you here that when you sit down they will first bring you empty plates for that reason they will bring empty plates for everybody for that reason because they are expecting you to order your Greek salad and the rest of medidas right and you're going to share that you're going to put it in your empty plate that's why that empty plate is there okay so that's just when it comes down to food uh there's other things that I want to talk about food and and drinks you know like for example Uso goes with fish right we don't drink Uso with meat but that's for another video okay I'm certainly going to dedicate a whole bunch of videos and V video series about what to drink when to drink it what to drink it with and what to order so you don't you don't feel completely out of place okay it's the equivalent of ordering a cappuccino when you go to Italy and it's like I don't know 3:00 in the afternoon and you say can I have a cappuccino I've never been to Italy but I know that about Italian culture that cappuccinos are for the morning not for Messing ready but that's for another video and finally something that every Foreigner should know when coming to Greece whether you're visiting you're coming here as a tourist or you're going to stay here for a short period of time or for a long period of time or like me that lives permanently here is toilet paper haras you will see signs everywhere please do not throw the haras in the toilet okay we do not throw artigas in the toilet in fact you will see many toilets in public places where the ring is missing okay this is for Hygiene reasons have been told you might go to a toilet here in Greece in a restaurant or something and there's not going to be a ring so and I feel for you women and for the females and and I know is hard obviously in airbnbs and hotels this is not the case but when it comes down to other places here in Greece uh just be aware of toilets and do not I repeat do not throw hardas down the toilet you will see the sign everywhere anyways okay but if you're coming from America or even the UK it might be hard for you to get used to this idea all right but just be aware of that another fun fact about toilets is that public schools have the old Turkish toilets so my daughter has gone to public school and this is a real challenge for girls specifically for girls because it's a whole underground all right and that's the Turkish uh influence yes Greece is right at the end of Europe right so you can see this that even in public schools I'm not sure if it's in all public schools but at least the public schools that my daughter has been both in alfena and here in afo they both had a hole in the ground as a toilet which is to me as someone who grew up in Venezuela it's still shocking I have never ever used a toilet that is a you know hole in the ground okay so just be aware of that if you are going to relocate with kids and they're going to go to deoo primary school and all of this don't be shocked if when you realize that or when your kid realizes that if they want to go to the toilet at school it's going to be a hole in the ground okay so this is something that yeah there's just no easy way around it [Applause] I got to confess I was infuriated when I found out about this because I couldn't I couldn't Envision my my daughter you know going to to school and and peeing like that I mean if you're a girl how the hell do you pee when there's just a hole in the ground as a toilet right that's the way it is go figure in fact my young daughter right now she is six and she's going to go to the MTI go now in September as I'm recording this and this is one of the concerns I mean my wife is already like well we have to put some extra clothes because she's going to get messy you know and I can imagine if you're a girl if you're seven six and you have never taken a piss like that you're definitely going to get messy right for us boys is different we're we're okay you know but for girls it's very challenging so that's something to be aware of okay obviously if you're just a tourist and you're going to come here you're not going to come across this in a restaurant all right it's not like that anyways I have ended up now here in this beautiful beach I'm located in gatha beach in Naf and I'm going to head back now thank you so much for all the love and support my friends it really means the world to me all the love you have shown for the Channel Please Subscribe share this video that might help someone who wants to come to Greece wants to relocate to Greece wants to visit Greece or is just curious about all Greek things it will mean the world to me [Music]

Channel: My Greek Lifestyle 🇬🇷

Views: 13,184

Keywords: Living in Greece, 5 Things Every Foreigner Should Know, Greece, moving to greece, moving to greece from usa, moving to greece from uk, moving to greece from canada, moving to greece pros and cons, moving to greece from london, living in greece as a foreigner, living in greece as an american, living in greece as an expat, living in greece vlog, americans living in greece, brits living in greece, expat, expat in greece, 5 things

Id: 7z5fSWg4kU4

Length: 33min 6sec (1986 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2024