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Those who migrate learn the language of the new country. That is a statement, it sounds normal, it is a form of respect too. Even though we now feel, after 2 years of living in this region of the Mani, that we could get by without Greek too, we take you on our Greek language journey for a moment.

We first go back to 2020. Remember? A pandemic! And suddenly lots of extra time, at home. Our plans to move to Greece are in the early stages. So let’s study some Greek together now that we have that much free time. April – May – June 2020. By summer, we realise we haven’t done anything with this intention. So we decide to take real classes. A search brings us to Encora Antwerp. Greek lessons! We start in good spirits. After 5 weeks of lessons with lots of measures (distance, mouth mask, etc.) we continue online for the rest of the year. Fortunately, we can start the second year in Antwerp. Chris was a wonderful teacher and taught us not only the basics of the Greek language but also, above all, that you have to dare to speak. Her statement: if you say nothing because you are afraid of making mistakes, they certainly won’t understand you!

In April 2022, Greek learning stops for us very suddenly after a serious traffic accident. But we noticed on our trips to Greece that we could understand a bit of what was happening around us anyway. A mother on the beach calls her child to order : ‘no, don’t!’ and I’m glad I understood. A billboard or signpost in Greek: if we stop driving, we can read it. And very happily we greet all Greeks with ‘Jasas!’ or ‘Kalimera’. Very occasionally we can even add something extra.

We move at the end of ‘22 and once we are somewhat settled here… we look for ways to learn Greek again. We tried different things. Trying to motivate each other to repeat, re-study what we had learned with Chris in Belgium. Only moderately successful.

Looking for classes here in the region. We discover Sofia and I (Els) start taking lessons with her. I join a group with some other ladies. Sofia mostly asks questions and teaches us phrases, conversations in Greek. But I still miss the basic explanations – cases, conjugations, etc. Vocabulary is also still limited…. So there’s only 1 solution for that, study more yourself.

I organise weekly meetings for foreigners to learn Greek together. Only….. we don’t find any Greeks who would like to participate. We meet a few times, but my initiative doesn’t last.

Some other foreigners take online courses here in Greece, there are language internships in Athens or other places,…. but that starts from English. I don’t feel much like having to translate everything I learn in my head twice. Through a Dutch friend, I find an online course, from Dutch, at my own pace, with lots of videos and listening fragments, organised by a Dutch lady living in Greece. We purchase that course in early 2024. And we are studying. In the beginning enthusiastically,…. Then it weakens a bit.

We do notice that we are making progress, but so far still no solid foundation. Lots of intentions, though.

In the summer of 2024, I (Els) and two other friends who live nearby decide to take online Greek lessons from a CVO in Brussels, again the second year. Ideal! Because it’s from Dutch, lessons every week,…. I now have the discipline to study (almost) every day. I enjoy the lessons, I feel progress. I already understand quite a lot of Greek, speaking is still a bit more challenging but Sofia still helps with that. Together with Bart, I now go to Sofia every Tuesday morning. Bart can start his working day afterwards.

And I still found a group of foreigners who get together with some Greeks to speak Greek together.

It takes time, lots of time, to learn a language. And you have to find the motivation. Not always easy because it regularly happens that when we try to speak Greek, Greeks immediately switch to English. But if you make the effort, it is great fun and you have a different contact with people. Most Greeks are naturally very friendly : there are greetings on the street, a chat at the supermarket checkout,…. At first, I thought that happened between people who know each other, but that’s not the case. Greeks like to talk to each other. So we try to participate in that now.

Christina from the village walks down our street here, she is looking at the olive grove where she also has an almond tree. She is coming to harvest almonds. She calls out : ‘Yasas’ = hello. I greet back and go over. I introduce myself and tell where I live. I ask where she lives. She gets very excited because I can speak Greek and I go home with some almonds.

On Tuesdays, there is a market in Kardamyli. In winter, it is very limited: yesterday 4 stalls. I buy fruit and vegetables and have a chat with the young couple of market vendors. They want to sell me another goblet of olives. I apologise and tell them I don’t like olives, coffee or meat. And yet I live in Greece. The man is laughing very hard. Greeks can’t imagine that you don’t like those three things. Next week I will see them again.

This blog post came about because Sofia, our Greek teacher challenged us. You have a blog, why not write it in Greek too?  So herewith, for Sofia, a little piece in Greek.

Καλημέρα.

Είμαστε η Ελς και ο Μπαρτ. Μετακομίσαμε από το Βέλγιο στην Ελλάδα, στη Μάνη.

Μαθαίνουμε ελληνικά γιατί ονειρευόμαστε να μιλήσουμε με τους ανθρώπους εδώ στη δική τους γλώσσα.

Αγαπάμε την Ελλάδα και τους Έλληνες!

Most conversations with people from Western Europe start with a question about the weather. One can imagine something about a Greek holiday summer, but what is it like in Greece in winter?

First: Greece, the mainland anyway, is a mountainous country. That means lots of local differences in weather, lots of variation and microclimates. In addition, Greece is also bigger than the Low Countries. From our region in the south to northern Greece is 500 km as the crow flies, and the climate obviously varies. We have a mild winter climate in the South by the sea, but in the North it is colder in winter, and certainly in the mountains there is also quite a bit of snow in winter. There are ski resorts in Greece, though they are not open all winter.

Anyway, back to the Mani, the region where we live. A Mediterranean climate means dry, hot summers and mild winters with rain. If we compare with Kruibeke, our home base in Belgium, there is almost as much rain here every year, but 85% of it falls from October to March. In June, July and August combined, it rains an average of 3.6 days. The thing that feels perhaps as the biggest difference is the light in winter. During the winter rainy months in Greece, it is not continuously grey, cloudy and dark. This year, from 1 to 17 December in Belgium, there was a total of 6 hours of sunshine. Once the showers in Greece are over, it clears up and it becomes sunny and warm. Even in the 6 winter months, you have 60% blue sky here, which is almost double that of Belgium.

Occasionally it can also get really ugly in winter. There are some winter storms every year with big gusts and hailstorms, where the otherwise calm sea pounds the coast with big waves.

The sun is still powerful in winter. In the afternoon in the sun and out of the wind, you can eat outside in a light jumper or T-shirt. Which brings us to southern temperatures. On average, the temperature in our Greek region is 7 degrees warmer than in Belgium during the day, 4 degrees warmer at night. In winter, 15-20 degrees during the day. As soon as the sun sets, it does get cold, it is 10 degrees less at night than during the day. At our seaside, it doesn’t freeze. The mountains behind us do have snow on the highest peaks from Dec/Jan to April.

Winters here are green. From November, the arid, brown-red soil recovers. From January onwards lowers start blooming and by March everything is covered in a carpet of flowers. Most trees do not lose their leaves or change leaves briefly.

From June to September, daytime temperatures are close to 30 degrees, with some spikes to 40 degrees during a heat wave. Then too it cools down 10 degrees at night. Actually, summer is our least favourite season. It is too hot to walk. The landscape becomes barren and dry, and everyone is on alert for possible forest fires. Swimming in the sea is the only suitable activity in the hot afternoons.

But the in-between seasons, April/May and September/October are really perfect in terms of temperatures, 20 -25 degrees during the day.

We too live in a region with a microclimate. The high mountains shield us from the ‘meltemi’ wind, the northeast wind that often blows south through the Aegean Sea and is strongly felt on all islands. This means that, despite living by the sea, we have few windy days, and the sea is also often flat with few waves. Because of the mountains, you can also sometimes have a 5-degree temperature difference a few km away, or go from gale force winds to windless.

One last difference is day length. Being more southerly, days are up to 1h50′ longer in winter than in Belgium, and just as much shorter in summer.

Another fact for those who like to compare data: at https://weatherspark.com  , you will find an option ‘Compare cities’ at the bottom. Enter ‘Kardamyli’ and your location there, and you get the climate comparison in nice graphs.

We wish you all another Merry Christmas and a Happy 2025!

Bart & Els

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.

We’ve been attempting to restart our blog several times. With all the adjustments to the new country, administration in Belgium and Greece, exploring, finding our way, busyness at work, we kept postponing it. But we are going to make up for it!

We have now been living in Greece for 1 year and 9 months, and we like it very much. So much so that it’s time to decide. We are emptying our house in Belgium to put it up for sale soon. Then we will look for something to buy/build in the area where we live now.

We first lived in a rented house in Agios Nikolaos( Messinia) for 1,5 years. Beautiful and very large house, 600 metres from the sea, 1.5 km from the village’s little port. The extra flat at the bottom of the house was ideal for visitors, and there were many. But the American owners retired and moved in themselves. We now live 5km away in Neochori, a mountain village 3km from the sea and 200m high, in a house we rent from a Belgian couple.

Keeping in touch with our children in Belgium is super important for this adventure to succeed. There is of course a WhatsApp group and we zoom in once a week, preferably all together. They occasionally come to Greece and we occasionally come to Belgium. We search our way in this together.

Life is very different here than in Belgium, and we start to feel that every time we come back. That is probably what you are most curious about. It’s far too much to tell all at once, but we’ll write more about that in some of the next posts.

Many greetings to you all,

Bart & Els

In February, our Belgian former neighbours were the first to visit us in Greece. Below are their first impressions. We asked them to write down their impressions in a short text and 4-5 photos. Selecting photos was clearly a problem, you get to see all 17.

Thank you very much for your hospitality at the end of February. We thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful region where you live, the few days’ drive with you along the authentic, beautiful villages, the many beautiful viewpoints, an aperitif at sunset in the amphitheatre, our cycling trips along the coast, walking among the olive trees, the quiet beaches and swimming in the sea, discovering a monk seal, the super tasty food, and above all, doing all kinds of things together with you again, catching up, having a good lag and enjoying together.  In short, a short wonderful holiday ! 🙂

Sorry to our English-speaking friends, but this post is only for Dutch speakers.

Eleni Meersman is a student Radio at the RITCS in Brussels, whose study assignment was to make an audio report on an important event in someone’s life. She came to us through friends. Eleni made a beautiful report on our preparations for our departure to Greece.

For those who are interested, you can listen to the audio report on Soundcloud via this link , but it is in Dutch only.

First of all, our sincere best wishes for a loving, happy and above all healthy 2023.

By now we know very well how important health is and we are therefore happy to leave 2022 behind us.

It was not our best year. With Els’ serious car accident and the loooong recovery that lasts until today.

But hey, 2022 also brought beautiful things: the value of friendship, of connection and closeness. We felt surrounded by a great group of “saviours”, people who wanted to step in with practical help of all kinds. We received so many beautiful attentions and words, so much encouragement.

And for us, of course, the most beautiful thing: 2022 brought us a (temporary, we are renting) Greek house! Despite everything, we are making our dream come true. Living in beautiful Greek nature, with sun, sea and mountains all around us.

And that fresh new life sometimes brings some fresh dilemmas.

Dilemmas from everyday life

After 3 weeks in Greece, we are now back “home” for a while. Or wait…. What do you mean? Where is home? Do you mean our home in Bazel (Belgium) or in Agios Nikolaos ( Greece)?

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We need new vocabulary, need to agree on how to name the rooms in our Greek house. The living area (living room and kitchen) is on the middle floor. The bedrooms on the second. Downstairs there is a flat, also with two bedrooms.  When Els asks Bart to put something “downstairs”, he puts it in the flat, and she just meant in the house downstairs. We have to agree on that : flat – downstairs – upstairs.

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Do I throw the toilet paper in the bucket (GR) or do I drop it in the toilet (BE) ?

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Do I drink water from the tap (BE) or from bottles (GR)? How do we organise our lives so that the plastic waste pile we create does not become too big? 

Do we eat outside or not? (GR!) Do we go outside or not (BE)? I, Els, stayed inside the house for the first two days in Belgium, far too cold to go outside.

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Which taverna do we want to eat in tonight? Eating in a taverna costs us about 10-15 euros per person if we do go for a sumptuous meal, with wine.

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And “last but not least”…. The dilemma these days…. Do we take this to Greece or not?

We are currently packing. A lot of things are going with us. We are, here in Belgium, currently living among boxes (and mess 😉 )

December 15. Tomorrow we leave again. Back to cold Belgium. It will hurt because here today it is just over 20 degrees and full sun. All the doors are open here to let the heat in.

We arrived here three weeks ago now and these have been fantastic weeks. We are enjoying.

Our house

We rent a big house from an American couple. On Thanksgiving, we met them and had a pleasant evening together at a local tavern with live Greek music. A blissful start.

The house has the basics in terms of furniture. There are 3 (!) double beds with mattresses and pillows, fitted wardrobes, a fully installed kitchen, a washing machine, terrace table with chairs,…

Els brought a shopping list for Ikea, and that was the first thing she did, to Ikea, near the airport. Bart picked Els up there. A car full of practical things : cutting boards, oven bowls, cutlery, plates,…. Heading for the Mani! Now it’s for real. A great feeling.

We spent the next few days cleaning and decorating the house. Unpacking boxes, going to the supermarket,…. The ordinary things of life, but in a different place.

The weather

Open the shutters in the morning and enjoy the view. Some days are sunnier than others. Over the past few weeks, the weather has been very changeable. Sometimes heavy gusts of wind and heavy showers, often cloudy but also often a day or a few hours of bright sunshine.

Unfortunately, the Christmas market where Els was supposed to stand and lead a children’s workshop was postponed due to the bad weather. The Christmas market was supposed to take place on the street, nothing covered. But the weather gods were not kind to us. On Saturday it was decided to just postpone the ‘Christmas bazaar’ for a week. So now Sunday. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be there then. But we found a Dutch lady, Ilse, who will happily take over the children’s workshop. The forecast is already better: 21 degrees and sunshine.

In the garden, everything is growing and blooming. We will have our work waiting for us in January when we get back. The combination of showers and sun makes it very green here at the moment. And lots of flowers. And almost ripe oranges!

We are also enjoying some wonderful sunsets. Would this ever get boring?

Our daily rhythm

Bart works. Els doesn’t.

So his work rhythm determines our weekdays. In the afternoon, lunch together on the terrace upstairs. At his office. That’s where there is the most sun and the best view.

Els does a bit of everything: installation, tidying up, cleaning, shopping, ordering Ikea online, clay modelling (yes! I started again), going to yoga class, preparing an afternoon Christmas market with Gitte, making Christmas decorations for the Christmas market, an afternoon with Ilse for the children’s workshop, having breakfast in the tavern with Lee and Tony,… and in the evening Els is usually dead tired and watches some TV (Belgian, via internet) and crochet, of course. She won’t get bored easily!

Our social life

During the three weeks, and of course also before that when we came on holiday or prospecting in the region, we have already built up quite a few contacts. A lot of “expats” live here in the region. Lots of foreigners. Mainly British, but also Germans, Dutch,… and one couple of other Flemish people. We have a click with Gitte and Johan!

Our neighbours are Dutch. Occasionally we have a chat in the garden with Frans.

Els went to yoga class and there she met a fine British lady, Linda. Last night we went out for an evening drink with our husbands.

There is a group – Parea Sti Mani – that organises weekly (not in summer) walks here in the region. Bart went along last weekend, and again contacts of people we want to meet later came out of this.

So for now, everything is going well. Our honeymoon period here, as someone said. But mostly enjoying the sun and light!

After a long time of dreaming and preparation, the moment has arrived. The first departure to Greece. We are now 2 weeks further, just a throwback to the trip.

We leave in steps. Now for a month, and in mid-January a bigger move. That means going to Greece by car now, and take stuff with us for the first few weeks.

We had a rather complicated schedule with Bart first driving the car alone, dropping off luggage, and then leaving on a business trip, and Els coming by plane a week later. Finally, we met in Athens on Thursday 24/11 and drove together to Agios Nikolaos to start renting our new house from Friday 25/11.

The road trip from Belgium: 1400km to Ancona, with an overnight stay in Como in between, a wonderful 24h ferry trip to Patras, and a final 3 ¾ hours to Agios Nikolaos.

And I (Els) stayed behind in Belgium…. Another week and then I too can leave.

For weeks on end I’ve been hearing from different people, “Exciting, isn’t it?”. And then I think, and also say, “bah…. Not really exciting, I don’t feel that way. Looking forward to it though”. But in the meantime, I still found it a bit exciting.  It was nice to be able to follow Bart’s trip on Whatsapp and Instagram. I was happy that it went smoothly.

My week here consists of physiotherapy sessions, tidying and sorting (which is already done now, is less work in December/January) as well as making lists. A list of what to take with me in my hand luggage Wednesday. A list of what I will buy in Ikea, Thursday. A list of what to take in the car in January. A list of what to ask Bart when I see him again. A list of questions for the landlords regarding our new house.

And the most surprising thing about this week? I got an application to be at the Stoupa Christmas market! On 11th December. A Christmas market where all kinds of creative people sell their things for the benefit of a “charity”. And two days later I was asked if I would also accompany a children’s workshop there ? So you see…. Life goes on…. In a different place. Looking forward to it!

We have been to Greece 5 times in the last 2 years, in different seasons: June, September, November and January. We definitely wanted to experience a bit of winter there too. In the South of Greece it is on average about 10 degrees warmer than in Belgium. It cools down quite a bit in the evening but when the sun shines during the day it still gives real warmth. The weather can occasionally be bad but it doesn’t last very long. And the south stays green in winter. You do need decent heating in the house, a stove or central heating, otherwise it gets pretty chilly and damp, and that for about 3 months a year. In summer, on the other hand, it’s very hot for 3 months. The in-between seasons are perfect with temperatures around 25 degrees.

Meanwhile, the region we want to go to has been chosen, and we have also found a rental house there. We are going to the Mani, more specifically the area around Kardamyli, Stoupa and Agios Nikolaos, also known as “West Mani” or “Messinia Mani”. It ticks a lot of boxes from our wish list. Quite far South, winters are mild. Sea and high mountains close together, giving a kind of microclimate with little wind, even though you are close to the sea. A beautiful and very varied region with amazing nature and views, fairly green too, not a bare stone region. There is even a climbing rock equipped with security bolts. We look West to the sea, so we can enjoy beautiful sunsets. Life is relaxed there. The region is not completely deserted in winter, a supermarket and a medical aid station within reach. A mixture of Greeks, Albanians and still some (retired) Western Europeans living there. Tourist facilities but no mass tourism. A cool city, Kalamata, an hour’s drive away where you do have a lot of infrastructure, including an airport and a hospital.

Of course, there are always drawbacks. In winter, it is quiet and not very many people live there. The supermarkets are still open, and some restaurants and bars. Is it too quiet then? Is there enough social life? We will have to experience that. For more complicated shopping than a supermarket, you have to drive over a mountain pass to Kalamata each time. In summer, from June to August it gets very hot and in August it is super crowded, and everything is full of (local) tourists. There are certain neighbourhoods where there are more foreigners than Greeks, and you can end up in an expat bubble. And there is of course the bureaucratic chaos of the Greek government that awaits us, but that applies to all of Greece. Chaos is an originally Greek word 😊.

Meanwhile, we were already making contact with some foreigners living in the area. Fascinating to hear their stories, get tips, and just fun to make new friends.

We are really looking forward to it.