For the last few months, we have been travelling back and forth between Greece and Belgium. This had everything to do with emptying our Belgian house and preparing to sell it. And when you live in two different worlds like that, the differences become even sharper. In Greece, we enjoy the peace and tranquility. There is little traffic where we live. There is space.

Greece has fewer inhabitants (10.4 million) than Belgium (11.8 million) but….. Greece is 4.3 times larger. Added to that, a lot of people live in Athens (4-5 million), some more in a few other cities (Thessaloniki, Larissa, Patras,…) and the rest….. scattered. So the Mani, the region in the southern Peloponnese where we live, is sparsely populated. In our municipality of Dytiki Mani, 5,800 people live (permanently) in an area of 400 km², a population density 33 times less than in our Belgian ‘rural’ home municipality of Kruibeke. And we notice this whenever we are in Belgium. Even though we have lived there much longer than in Greece, the crowds, the densely built-up area… it strikes us every time.

The landscape around us, here in Greece, is also different, of course. The Mani region on the Peloponnesos where we now live is a rugged, mountainous area. The wide views, mountains and sea, we enjoy it daily. From a lot of spots we have a beautiful view here, you can see very far, see mostly olive trees, mountains and sea. We live more outside here, lunch can be eaten outside practically all year round.

The coast is varied, with about 10 bays to choose from for swimming. One rocks, another pebbles, others are sandy beaches. From late May to late November, the sea water is above 20 degrees. An after-work swim, an electric scooter ride along a mountain road or a sunset at a beautiful viewpoint quickly washes away all the stress of the day. On mountain hikes you are usually alone and will not meet anyone all day. There are caves to explore and rock faces to climb. There is little traffic, you don’t need a Waze app to avoid traffic jams and speed cameras. Then there is also the ‘life philosophies’ of the Greeks ‘siga siga’ ( means ‘take it easy’ ). More on that in a future blog post.

The peace that all this gives slowly creeps in when you are here for a while, and makes you much calmer inside too. We enjoy it.