What don't you like about Greece

[Haraki]

As an expats I am sure if you are the same as me, once the exitment of moving to Greece has passed and you try and intrigate yourself into the local Greek community, some things just start to anoy you, I laugh at them now but at the time, I just could not get my head round the Greek way of thinking.
I really would like to share these moment with you, and now be able to laugh together.

Just for for example: my first experience of aquiring a greek tradesman to do some work on the apartment, great phone call, the work not a problem will be there the next morning, well three bloody mornings later he showed up as if this is when he said he would arrive, I can laugh at it now

[tpebop]

Greeks dont care about the countryside. If they have something to get rid of, they just dump it by the roadside. All manner of things from household rubbish to white goods & vehicles

[hecate]

At the moment I'm heartily sick of my friends - Greeks - blaming everyone else for the economic mess.

[Haraki]

This is so true, even in the most picturesque areas they have like dumping grounds, so sad.
I have spoken to my Greek friends about this and keeping the countryside clean is a consept lost on them.
What gets me is that all Greeks seem to be very proud of there country and then they fly tip!!!

[Haraki]

Originally Posted by hecate

At the moment I'm heartily sick of my friends - Greeks - blaming everyone else for the economic mess.

Yes, so so true, how can it be anybody elses fault for the expenditure of Greece other than the Greeks!!!! Seem to me that they are very quick at pointing out other countrys faults and not recognising there own.
But now there is no getting away from it, fact... Greeks can spend money good style and have yet got to understand the consept of saving and planning for the future.

How can blaming everybody else reduce your responsability??????

[hecate]

The countryside sure is messy with all that garbage tossed wherever. 'Course I think that because I'm from a tidy land with plenty of ways to get rid of my trash, broken stuff, dead cars, house-building rubble.

But the toilet paper/plastic bottles/used condoms tourist trash ain't pretty either

[expat914]

I hate when I see people throwing garbage out the car window.

My other pet peeves are the strikes. OMG already! Stop crying and start thinking about the changes that need to be made to get the country out of an economic crisis.

[KathyK]

The amount of rubbish left laying around - too lazy to get out of the car some of them! and the complete and utter greed when anything to do with land/houses rears its head.

[wka]

I think the main thing I don't like is some bureaucratic hassles. Yesterday it took my husband SIX HOURS to do his απογραφή (which is supposed to take 5 minutes) because the system was so poorly designed / overloaded. My one-year residence permit wasn't issued until 12 days before it expired. My husband is a teacher and it's July 18 and we still don't know what part of Greece (not even which prefecture) we'll be living in come September. Getting my health insurance cost us so much money because we had to travel from our island to two different islands plus the mainland to get all the stamps and signatures necessary. They are so unclear about requirements that it doing immigration / taxes / property issues without a lawyer or an accountant is intimidating.

I think if you take away the bureaucracy, I couldn't really complain about anything else.

[KathyK]

Yes, that is true. When we went to tax our car at the end of December, there were 3 people working, but only 1 actually doing the car side - the other two just sat watching as the queue got longer and longer Also, we are trying to register to vote - tomorrow will be our 3rd attempt. Once again, 3 people work in the office, but only the woman deals with the registration. If she is not in (and she doesn't work a full week) you just keep going back and going back and going back. Makes you wonder what the other two do. In UK you multi-task. In Greece this is unheard of. Most places, (car tax, insurance, IKA etc etc) you are guaranteed at least three visits before things are finally done!!!