Spring in Greece
April has come and gone. We’re back in Greece, since the end of March. It took us a while to unpack, wash, and put away our stuff we had taken to Mauritius. We plan to spend the next several months here in Greece before heading off to our next trip.
We had hoped to come back to warm weather in Greece in April. Last year in April, it had been warm and sunny. This year, temperatures have barely risen above 20 C, and it’s been cloudy and sometimes rainy most of the month. There’s also been quite a bit of wind at times, making it feel chilly. This said, there have been some nice days, and opportunities to sit in the sun enjoying a coffee, just not as much as we had expected or hoped for.
One of the things we were curious about was Greek Easter. Easter is the most important holiday in Greece. The build-up was quite low-key, I suppose also because of the Lent period. We went to Tolo, near our home in Nafplio for the Good Friday celebration. Tolo is a town right on the edge of a sandy beach. In some places, the restaurants and hotels are less than a meter from the water’s edge. On Good Friday, a religious procession leads through the town to the harbor - on one end of the town - and back to the church at the other. On the way back, the pallbearers of the procession wade through the water, accompanied by a rowboat, while the congregation follows them on the beach, singing. At each jetty they pass, flares are lit, illuminating the procession as they pass. The throngs of people of all ages were incredible. As you get close to the church, it’s impossible to get through.
In general, it seemed that everybody was out and about. Later that evening in Nafplio, there were long lines before the churches to revere the icons that had been carried in procession, and all the cafés in the Syntagma Square were bursting full at midnight. Also on Saturday night the crowds packed around the churches, big and small holding candles to receive the reignited flame at midnight. We passed the church around the corner from our apartment, and also got an earful of all the firecrackers going off.
In the meantime, we’re keeping busy. We’re planning a visit to the other side of the world. Starting from Perth, a two-month road trip in a camper along the south of Australia to Brisbane, then a visit to the Great Barrier Reef, and New Year in Sydney to cap it off. From there, a tour through New Zealand’s North Island, then off to French Polynesia, with visits to some of the Society Islands, then a cruise to the Marquesas, and a few relaxing (we hope) weeks in Tahiti. Leaving Greece in September, we’ve done our reservations and bookings all the way to the end of February.
On top of travel planning, we’re struggling with some issues on the home front. Since we have been able to rent out our apartment, our municipality (Dübendorf) has decided to de-register us. This means that for adminstrative purposes we lose our domicile. Of course they keep the tax domicile - even if they cut administrative services and political rights (no more voting rights), they still expect us to pay taxes for them. As it turns out, without an administrative domicile, you can’t get insurance (health insurance excepted, thank god). We’d want travel cancellation insurance in case something happens to us or the family during our trip, and private liability insurance in case we sink the cruise ship or something. We’re scrambling around for options, but of course they all come at a price. And a considerable amount of time & effort.
We hope to get things sorted in the next few weeks so we can breathe and relax before hitting the road.
Summer is coming!
