It would mean that we could move on time according to the ‘Exit the UK’ plan and not make a hasty decision immediately; a decision that we may come to regret in the months and years to come if we chose the wrong property in our haste to move.
THE SPIDER BITES AND THE WALKING WOUNDED!
We were 10 months into the 18 month plan and by now we had made quite a lot of new friends; English, Greek and Albanian.
One English friend, Heather, ran the local Car Hire Agency in Stoupa at this time (she now works as an Interior Designer specialising in paint finishes). She lives up in the mountain village of Neochori and shares her house with Harry. Harry is one of those lovable ‘Rascal’ type dogs. Remember Lady and the Tramp? Well, Harry is the real life ‘Tramp’ dog; long, fluffy and ‘unkempt’ fur and great big ‘saucer shape’ and ‘innocent’ eyes that are forever looking at you from underneath great big bushy eyebrows. He has a look that says “Talk, talk, talk, but when are you going to take me out for a walk?”
On our first night of the two week stay, we went to see Heather to share our news, and to update her on the progress with the plan. She was as excited at the prospect of us living in The Mani as we were.
That evening, as we sat on Heather’s terrace enjoying the warm evening air, and just a slight and very welcoming cool breeze, we were admiring the fantastic views down to Stoupa and the Messinian Gulf and dreaming of what the future would hold.
Harry was, as usual, sulking in the corner of the terrace with those eyes once again ‘saying’ “When are you going to take me out for a walk?” So, there and then we decided to surprise him and we agreed with Heather to come up to her house the following morning and take Harry for a long walk.
The plan was to walk Harry down the donkey track to the sea below their house and then along the coastal path from Agios Nikolaos to Stoupa where Heather’s office was located.
At this stage, remember this is day two of a two week visit. The first half hour was fine; downhill is somewhat easy even in the heat of the day!
After that first half an hour, I started itching around my ankles. As time went on, the more I scratched I noticed little red spots appearing. After an hour, there was a significantly sized spot on my left ankle and my foot had started to ache and was becoming swollen.
About half way along the coastal path there is a bar with a swimming pool, so we stopped for a drink and for me to bathe my feet in the pool to see if the cool water would reduce the pain and the swelling. It did neither. By now, my left foot had become so swollen that I couldn’t get my shoe on and I was hardly able to walk; more like a limp and a shuffle dragging my foot along.
Sometime later, we pulled up outside A & E at Kalamata hospital and this was not in the ‘Exit the UK’ plan!
Previously, we had eventually made it back to Heather’s office. She had taken me to the local Medical Centre in Agios Nikolaos and they suggested a visit to the hospital for an x ray as they diagnosed a broken bone! How had I managed that on a gentle walk? Heaven only knows, but off to the Hospital in Kalamata we went!
The journey is just over an hour and a half, and by now I am in a great deal of pain and can hardly move my foot. It fact it was so swollen it had lost its shape.
As I was struggling to get out of the car, a Porter came rushing out to help me. He was in command of a wheelchair and once he had me it, he was off to Reception at such a pace that I called him Michael Schumacher after the seven times World Formula 1 Racing Car Champion Driver!
“Astonishing” is only how I can describe the next 23 minutes. From Reception, to a Doctor to inspect my feet and to order a trip to the X ray department (cue Michael Schumacher again!) where x rays were taken, the film developed, and then back in the wheelchair, (complete with X rays in my lap), returning to the Doctor for her diagnosis. The whole process took just 23 minutes!
After studying the x rays, the diagnosis was not a broken bone. Upon closer inspection of both my ankles with a magnifying glass, the Doctor determined that the intense pain and swelling was because I had been bitten on my ankles; most probably a spider. I had been bitten on both ankles but one bite was considerably worse than the other. She also thought that I had had an allergic reaction.
Photo: Harry The Dog.
Photo: The X-ray Of My Foot.
She assured me that it was not life-threatening.
However, she said it would be very painful and for a considerable period of time. She also determined that the poison would probably take a few months to clear my system and in all probability would damage the tissue of the balls and soles of my feet.
It was serious! She advised me to keep my feet up, to rest and to drink as much water as possible every day; a minimum of two litres. I should spread this intake throughout the day and for the rest of our stay, and to go to my own hospital when I returned to the UK to have tests made to establish what type of poison it was in order to get the correct medication for treatment.
Me? Lots of water? My family and all my friends know that I don’t drink very much water at the best of times, but two litres every day? Ugh! Somehow I couldn’t picture it with pleasure and this was only day two!
Diagnosis made, and prescription for anti- inflammatory and pain killer tablets issued, ‘Michael Schumacher’ put me in the wheelchair and ‘drove’ me back to the car.
From start to finish the visit had been just been an incredible 23 minutes duration.
Why do patients in so many hospitals have to wait for hours in the waiting area, even though they have a timed appointment? And why do some of them have to wait for over a week to get their x ray results back, and then wait for another appointed time with a Doctor? Yet, here I am a visitor to the country and it happened so quickly. Unbelievable!
By now I was unable to walk unassisted and this whole situation was not in the plan.
For this visit, we had found a self-catering apartment in a small block on the outskirts of Agios Nikolaos and it had its own swimming pool. So, for the rest of this visit, we confined ourselves to sitting around the swimming pool, certain in the knowledge that we had decided upon the ‘Where to live?’ and ‘What to buy?’ parts of the plan.
We returned our hire car to Heather and we hired a bicycle for me to sit on and for Valerie to push me around when we ventured out to the village! Some evenings, we ‘freewheeled’ down the hill from our apartment to the village and to look in the windows of the Real Estate Agencies to see what properties were available; there were never any that met the criteria as set out in our plan.
Although we knew that finding the house in the ‘What to buy?’ part of the plan would have to wait until the next visit, we could start thinking about the finance that would be required based on the properties being advertised.
Eleven days later, we were on our way back to the UK. We were disappointed not to have achieved everything that we had planned for that visit, but none the less we were making progress with the research checklist.
FINDING THE ‘DREAM’ HOUSE
In September 2007, some 12 weeks after our last visit, here we were back staying in the same self-catering apartment in Agios Nikolaos, and at this time, I was what can only be described as one of the ‘Walking Wounded.’
As instructed by the Doctor in the Hospital at Kalamata, I had duly been to the hospital in Bedford, and they in due course confirmed the diagnosis and I had just been unlucky to get the allergic reaction, and maybe this was because of multiple bites on the same ankle. They prescribed some drugs that would act as an antidote to the poison, but also confirmed that I would have to stay at home with my feet up all day long and continue to drink lots of water, just as the Doctor had said in the A & E at Kalamata!
Three months on and my feet were beginning to heal but the swelling hadn’t gone down that much. My reaction to the poison of the bite was slowing down the process. As I couldn’t put much weight on my left foot, I was limping badly and could only just get a pair of trainers on my feet. Altogether, this was not
good news.
However, undeterred, here we were back in Agios Nikolaos looking in earnest to find a house to buy that met our criteria; small, single storey and with some land. After all, we had the plan timetable to keep to and the prospect of a new life looming ahead!
On the afternoon of the first day, the search began in earnest as we headed straight to the village’s Real Estate Agency windows. We also hired a car to visit the agencies in both Stoupa and Kardamyli as they too handled properties in Agios Nikolaos.
We spent 11 days (of our 14 day holiday break) searching non-stop each and every day for a suitable house to buy.
There are many Real Estate Agencies in the Region and many properties for sale, but we could not find our ‘Dream’ home among them.
We were painfully aware that we were only here for two weeks and that the time allocated to this visit was running out, both for our break and also in the ‘Exit the UK’ plan timetable; only two full days left, what were we to do?
On the morning of day 12, somewhat a little dispirited, we decided to allocate the day to finding a house to rent. We struck it lucky! Our friend Heather told us that some English friends of hers, Shirley and Graham, were looking to rent their house located in the nearby mountain village of Neochori.
Graham is a builder and has established a business in the region building the traditional stone houses, and it transpired that he had built the house that they were living in. However, whilst living there, he had built a bungalow lower down in the olive groves behind Agios Nikolaos which was now ready for them to live in; hence the reason for them looking to sell or rent their existing house and move into their new bungalow.
We ‘phoned Shirley to make an appointment to view their house. We went straight away and we found that they had a lovely house right up in a mountain overlooking the Messinian Gulf.
After viewing it, we agreed to rent it for a year and said that we would return later with the deposit money. In renting their house, we decided that we would be getting the best of both worlds. We would have an opportunity to live in the mountains, but not with the permanent implications that we had identified, and also ‘buy’ at least a year to find our ‘Dream’ home, or even have one built, if we couldn’t find what we wanted that was ready to move into on this visit.
At a stroke, we had given ourselves the opportunity to conclude our ‘Exit the UK’ plan on schedule, and move to Greece. This course of action would take the pressure off and reduce the risk of making any hasty decision. We were very pleased with ourselves, and once again, we returned to the ‘Scene of the Crime’ to celebrate!
“Parecello (Please, what do you want)?”
We ordered our drinks.
“Theo Ouzo (Two Ouzos), Eferesto (Thanks).”
Seated back at ‘our’ table at the Fishermen’s Bar, as Nikos (the bar owner) went to get our Ouzos, we contemplated our achievement in finding and agreeing to rent the house.
We had a copy of the ‘Exit the UK’ plan with us and started to think about what needed to be done next when we returned to the UK the following day.
Whilst we waited for Nikos to bring our drinks, I said that I would go and have a look in the nearby Real Estate Agent’s window “just in case any new property had been advertised since yesterday,” and off I hobbled across the slipway of the harbour.
So, there I stood with my face pressed up against the window scanning the selection of properties displayed; Row upon row of A4 pages. All had colour photos of the property for sale, and many had identical descriptions despite the difference in price and location. It is worth noting that there is no such thing as the Trades Description Act in Greece! Still, I worked my way along each row on display,
“Seen it. Seen it. Seen it” etc.
My eyes moved left to right along each row of advertised properties on display; bright, colourful printed pages with a photo of the property and all the specifications, but none matched our specification as per the plan.
I was just about to turn away, as I thought that I had not seen anything new, when I had to do a ‘double take’ on the last page of the last row I had been traversing. This property looked like a new addition since yesterday. I looked closely and sure enough I discovered not only was it a new addition, but also that it was a small, new, single storey traditional stone property. I felt a ‘stirring’ deep down. I stared and re-read the details. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Here it was; the description that matched our plan and, more to the point, it matched our ‘Dream’ in terms of size. It was a single storey house and it had land too.
Having triple checked the description of the property; I hobbled back over the slipway to where Valerie was sitting. At that moment, she had her glass half way to her mouth when I exclaimed,
“Put that down! Come with me! You are never going to believe what I’ve found!”
Never one to respond favourably to being told what to do, Valerie took a sip before getting up to follow me back across the harbour slipway to the Real Estate Agency.
It is named Tsoumeas Travel and Real Estate their logo includes the tag line ‘Your Dream – Our Team’ and I was hoping for it to be true!
Together we stared into the window and read and re-read the description. The good news was that it looked to be our ‘Dream’ (maybe too good to be true?), and the bad news was that this was Siesta time and the office was closed. It would not be open for another two hours! What were we to do?
So, after reading the location for the umpteenth time, we thought we had worked out the location. It was just one kilometre from where we were standing and it was perfect; right in line with our plan!
I hobbled back the car and together we set off to find what we hoped would truly be our ‘Dream’ home. An hour later and we had driven up and down, back and forth, and criss-crossed all the tracks in the olive groves surrounding Agios Nikolaos and still we couldn’t find a stone house that remotely resembled the photo of the one we had seen displayed in the window. Every house that we had seen in our search had been two storey and thus not ‘our’ house.
Somewhat frustrated, and maybe a little deflated, we returned to our apartment to wait until the Real Estate Agency opened again after their Siesta was finished.
We were already waiting outside the front of the shop when Denise arrived. Denise manages the Tsoumeas office, and within seconds of her unlocking the door we were inside asking for the printed details of the house and its precise location.
“Oh yes, that’s new,” said Denise, “I only put the details in the window before Siesta time today. But, I don’t know where it is. Although I run the office, I don’t know the precise locations of all the properties and the plots of land for sale, so you’ll have to wait and ask Vassilis.” (Vassilis Tsoumeas the owner of the business). “I’ll call him now and ask him to come and show you.”
We waited and waited for what seemed like hours, but it was in fact only 10 minutes until he arrived.
We discovered that Vassilis is a very charming man, a gentleman by any standard, and possesses exceptional social graces. Added to this, he speaks faultless English and after the formalities of introduction he said,
“Please, sit at my desk. Would you like Coffee? Water? No? Well what can I do for you?”
We politely declined his offer of refreshments and went on to explain our interest in the property that we wanted to see. It was hard to hide our enthusiasm, and we just wanted to get going. He seemed to sense our enthusiasm and genuine interest, so, we immediately set off to see ‘our’ home; our ‘Dream’ home.
We went in his car and, as he drove, we passed through the same olive groves that we had traversed only a few hours previously.
However, we must have missed a small(er) track leading off the main track through the olive groves because we took a right turn onto this smaller track and 100 metres ahead of us ‘it’ came into our view.
There stood a traditional stone, single storey house.
There was a stone wall all around the plot
and within the boundary there were olive trees; Lots of olive trees.
It turned out that there were 17 in all!
Barely able to hide our enthusiasm – this is not good business practice when trying to buy a house at the lowest possible price in any country – I told Valerie to close her eyes and not look any more just yet.
Taking her by the hand, we climbed out of the car and I led her up to the terrace fronting the house.
I stood her there on the terrace and said to her, “Do you remember the description of our ‘Dream’ home in the plan and what were we looking for?”
Eyes still closed tight, she replied, “A single storey house that is habitable but probably needs work doing to it and with land around it to develop a garden, and plant a few trees; fruit and olive trees maybe.”
I replied, “OK that’s our ‘Dream’ and it’s in our plan.
So, I said, “What if I said to you that you are now standing on the terrace of the house that we are looking for? I can confirm that it is single storey and with land around it. It also has 17 olive trees, and is definitely within our budget range.
However, the variation to the plan is that it is new and needs nothing doing to it, or any maintenance for the foreseeable future. What would you say?”
She opened her eyes, looked around her and screamed out,
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” She just stood there staring.
It was unbelievable! Just what we wanted!
Vassilis broke our reverie and said “Come on, let’s take a look around,” and gestured for us to venture inside.
He explained that the house was a ‘shell’ because the builder was waiting for the ultimate owners to choose their own fixtures and fittings and finishing touches like paint and tiles etc.
It Started With an Ouzo Page 2
