Το φιτρί αγόρι (colourful life)

If you’re a European citizen and you want to stay in Greece for more than 3 months you’ll need a residence permit (άδεια παραμονής). In theory (take a look here and here), if you stay more than 3 months you should request a residence permit. And remember that it’s not mandatory in order to work: you have the same rights as a Greek citizen in a job opening (yes, in theory).

The real facts are that in Greece you don’t need the residence permit unless you start dealing with high level bureaucracy. You can work, have insurance and pay your taxes without the need of a residence permit. Even in some police stations they will tell you what I state here. But bureaucracy is sacred in Greece, so let’s get started to obtain our white/yellow card.

Prerequisites (or what you need):

These are the papers that you need to prepare:

• If you work: a certificate from your employer stating that you are working. This certificate must be signed in a police station or in a ΚΕΠ. It’s called  Η γνησιότητα της υπογραφής.
• If you don’t work you must have sufficient financial resource (Don’t know exactly how you can demonstrate that, I believe that a paper from the bank stating your savings will be enough).
• Insurance: any proof that you’re insured. If you have IKA: your IKA number and your Health Book.
• Passport: with your ID is supposed to work but a passport is always more trusted than a card with “strange words”.
• A copy of the contract of your house, apartment, … . You need to prove that you’re living somewhere.
• 3 passport pictures.

And remember to carry at least TWO copies of these papers. Bureaucracy is bureaucracy.

Where to go:

Go to your nearest police station and ask for a residence permit. Usually they will send you to the right main police station, but perhaps you live near the right one!.

Also ask for the phone number of that police station. You should call them before you go in order to know exactly what papers are needed and when you can go there.

How long it takes:

Usually the same day after you wait the queue and stand the bureaucracy show.

Remember that is automatically renewed. So you do it once and then forget about it

My personal experience in Athens

I had to get the permission because I needed it to get a Greek driving license (why do I need a Greek driving license is a matter of another post). I visited 3 ΚΕΠ (bureocracy offices) before they could point me to a police station. Also I visited my local police station and they pointed me to the nearest place where I could go to do the papers (+1 to Psixiko police station).

The two police stations I know you can go to do this paper are: (But remember to go to your local police station first!)

• Marousi. Behind Ygeias Hospital. (I went there).
• Petrou Ralli. I was directed there first, but then I asked in my local police station and they sent me to Marousi.

I required the help of my gf to deal with the papers. So if you have a Greek friend, well, you’ll have to invite him to frappes during all the month

They day I went there the first person was waiting since 6:55. I arrived at 7:30 and I was the 4th in the queue. Because the holidays it took them a while to warm up (50 minutes the first person). So prepare to wake up early.

My gf called the police station to obtain a list of papers to prepare. They only told us one copy (you need two) and two pictures (they asked me for 3). Lucky me I always carry a huge pack of passport pictures when I do bureocracy .

Remember that they don’t do photocopies! So bring your copies if you don’t want to look for a place with a photocopy machine near the police station (they’re going to milk you). Also bring enough pictures.

The most annoying/funny thing was when I needed “a stamp and a signature” from the office director. We went to the place he/she should be, and of course nobody there. We asked his secretary, and she “kicked us out” like “not here! not here! ask there!”. Thanks god a male secretary in the same room shouted while we were leaving “wait! wait! wait! It’s here!” and kindly he took the stamp from the table of the woman (Incredible, she said “it’s not here”) and he put his signature. By the way, the woman was making crosswords: so the scene was a woman with a magazine and a stamp in her table, scaring people out of her eyesight.

That’s all. Good luck with your permit.

More Information:

• Visit kat’s blog, she’s has lot’s of really good posts for non-european citizens.
• European union website.

Beautiful, isn’t it? Today the Parthenon was open at night and it was for free for tourist like people. Also it was full moon an also moon eclipse (The next one will be on 2010). Nice opportunity to appreciate Athens at night from one of its symbols.

As far as I know the Parthenon opens only once per year at night, so today was the day for me to visit it for the first time (Yes, more than a year here without visiting it). The only bad thing was that the Parthenon was full of people.

At least I was a poor expat carrying a point and shoot camera. I saw a poor tourist couple being stopped because they were carrying, not a tripod but a mono-pod. I heard something like “If you want to carry that for professional pictures you have to pay”. Good, you open once and you want to get money if you carry good photo equipment.

My photo issues were fixed with stones to stabilize the camera and some fighting with the camera menu to find the right settings. I don’t know how to take pictures (Sascha, I have to learn from you), but I’m quite happy with the results.

In order to overload a bit your poor internet connection, here there are more awful pictures

• Mount Lycabettus from the Parthenon:
  
  
• Dark parthenon at night:
  
• Parthenon and full moon:
  

Beautiful, isn’t it? This marvellous image that identifies the evolution of the human kind. Glass, ice, metal and 0,3 litters of chemicals with bubbles. Cost… 3 Euro . What?!?!?!

Last saturday night we decided to go to the cinema in the famous (and only?) shopping mall in Athens: The Mall. As always we were a bit late but hungry so we stop in Ruby’s Tuesday for some food. Starting with a coke can for 3 Euro, then like a dozen of shrimps for 13 Euro and chicken steak served like a hamburger for 12 Euro. Last night we had dinner (2 people) for 19 Euro including coke and beer and we couldn’t finish! (Ladokola rlz).

After the overpriced dinner (and service), we went to the cinema. More surprises were awaiting us.

The cinema in The Mall:

• 9 Euro per ticket (ouch!).
• At the beginning of the film the assistant decided to move places, so we lost the start of the film.
• Of course the credits with light and without volume for a while, so if you like to see the credits at the end. Nothing for you.
• A guy put his feet in front of Stella. In the back of the seat just in front of her. What the…?!?!
• Some people people laughing, playing with the mobile phone and commenting the film.

To this you add that the film was the new X Files one, not very good. In this moment I was asking myself why I went to the cinema. At home I can enjoy more and watch “all the film” or even pause it if is really needed.

And to finish the night: 22 Euro for 1-1,5 litters of something they called sangría: sweet wine with some traces of fruit. At least it wasn’t the well known “Sangría Don Simón“.

Moral of the story:

• Be careful where you go, Athens can be quite expensive.
• Some times we swear about politicians not doing anything to fix this high prices situation, but we should look at ourselves because  we are paying these prices and therefore accepting them.

After long Friday and Saturday finishing some java and xhtml jobs, Sunday was the perfect day to take things easy and spend the day with friends. We (Sascha and me) decided to go to Markopoulo, Panos base camp, and try to relax.

Panos was repairing his iBook. The harddrive of that beautiful piece of technology broke, and he got a new one. But disassembling a laptop is not easy: lots of screws around, manuals, drafts and of course the uncertainty of “will it work? or I’ll break it?”. So that was the reason we decided to give him some company and support.

But panos is very capable of doing that job. What will we do meanwhile? Well, I wanted to learn about Zope, and he works with Zope: perfect combination (no, not a “secret combination“). So Sascha prepared a tutorial on how to install Zope, and some examples. Also he introduced me to Darcs (code management system), and we were playing a bit with that and the local area.

Also I introduced him to Git (another code management system). But I’m not so expert on git, and also Git installation on Mac OS requieres patience and be able to stand MacPorts installing everything on your system (even if you had it). Anyway, you should check this video about Git with Linus Torvalds talking in Google. It’s about git, but it can be about any distributed source control system.

We did a stop for lunch, and perhaps because the planet was bored (it happens from time to time), an earthquake happened. I didn’t feel it, perhaps the two pizzas we ordered left me a bit numb (I fixed that with a fresh frape).

After the iBook surgery was complete, we went to the nearest beach (Markopoulo has no sea, but it’s near) on “Porto Rafti” for a quick and fresh swim. The water was a bit cold, but at 6 in the afternoon, there was no one there We were talking about how would be life doing the same job we do, but doing it in a small island in the Aegean sea. A VPN to the main office, no traffic jams, living near the beach, good food and cheap coffees.

Nice things to note from today.

• Zope seems a powerful web application server for python. I have to give it some time.
• Darcs also seems good. I’ll continue my experiments with Git, but now I know that I can work with Sascha really easily using Darcs.
• MacPorts behaves in a silly way when he wants to install software that it’s in your system. (The next step is to compile the Darwin kernel in order to install bash).
• I do not feel earthquakes when I’m sleepy.
• Love to have a swim late in the afternoon.

Now we continue slacking off while Panos installs Tiger in his iBook. I guess it’s time to return I still have to clean the dishes from yesterday and prepare dinner (Well, breaking news, we will have dinner here). Tomorrow more boring office job not doing much, just a bit here and there and waiting for the typical “We have to fix this for today” at 5:30 in the afternoon.

Easter holidays are totally over. They started (for me) on April 23th, but using the official calendar on April 25th (my birthday). I decided to stay away from the office, starting on 23 till 29th, and go to a small village in the north. A nice green place where you can sit outside in the morning and see green hills. Also you eat fresh food and some times vegetables from the house garden. In there I found myself again. I also found a turtle eating a whole lettuce in the garden. I guess it found itself too, eating healthy food.

These holidays are mainly used by people to return to their home places. Reunite again the family and have some relaxing time. I shared my time with Stella’s family. Mostly they get on really well, and all the family is like a group. I enjoyed a lot going with the “young” generation for coffee or for a walk.

But in order to reunite the lovely family… a long trip. Usually everybody travels, and in a big place like Athens, is an exodus. There are not so many highways in Greece, and the 1 lane per way national roads don’t help much during Eastern. I left early (in the week) so I arrived safe and on time

The traditions here are a bit different from Spain. There are no religious parades carrying huge sacred figures. But there are important events where people gather. One is the “death of Jesus Christ” where in the end there is a small parade around the church.

The other is “The holy light” after sundown on Holy Saturday. Here after mass, the priest lights a candle that is supposed to carry the holy light. Then, people lights their candles using that one or other people’s. After that you get one boiled egg painted in red and “play” with other people to break it. If your egg survives you’re supposed to have good luck.

And on Sunday after the Holy Saturday: meat. Meat in huge quantities. The tradition is to roast a goat, and prepare other meals with parts of the goat. The bad it’s that i don’t like liver, and some of these foods are based on it But tzatziki can fix almost everything

Appart from that, only relaxing in a small village. About the village I’d like to point that a lot of people returned there, so it was quite full. Full of people and cars, but not only normal cars also expensive ones. The most expensive was an Aston Martin parked in the Kafenio (sorry no pic, I was so astonished I forgot to take one). But others where:

• Really new Mercedes.
• Beautiful Audi TT.
• Big Mercedes.
• Some young guys with their Easter Present.
• Mercedes cabrio.

Do people spend all their money in cars? Or in petrol for their cars?

Is Eastern in Greece these days. It means: a lot of religious stuff, a huge amount of people returning to their home villages and food lots of food. I don’t have a place I can call “my village” here in but I “inherited” one from Stella (one in Arta).

So these days I’ll be eating a lot and having coffee and not worrying about many things (only about people I care about). No office, no 2nd job, no pollution (Internet via GPRS). Just fresh air and natural food.

When we arrived to the village we were received with fresh cuttlefish (it melted in my mouth) and some fresh vegetables. I wasn’t hungry but I had dinner (I couldn’t avoid it).

Now it smells to…. Χοριό/Village/Pueblo.

It’s the first hour of the Saturday and I’m still awake listening to the rain beating on the floor of my alley.

It’s late but I’m still finishing some “job” tasks. This happens when you go commando in programming (but with underwear), and if everything goes well you´ll only make another 4 extra hours, but if something fails you´ll be doomed. A 7 instead of a four made me to stay until now connected (The good and the bad of the Virtual Private Networks).

As always I leave my Blog a bit abandoned. Some times it’s because the lack of free time, but other times it’s because I’m lazy. Not in the mood these days to do much.

I’m still in Athens and still working for that marvellous company who helps me to pay the bills every month. The good of working in a big IT company is that:

• You learn how to move between multiple manager levels.
• You can play the hot potato game with the problems. There is always someone to forward the email.
• You improve your skills in how to solve problems quickly.
• Your definition of dirty coding changes.
• Yeah, it’s my first job here, so it’s experience for my résumé.
• I have in the office 2×20″ screens, making a total resolution of 3200×1200 pixel.
• You save the company with your skills.

The bad:

• You learn how it feels to arrive home at 2:30am after all the day working.
• You receive hot potatoes and you run out of addresses to forward them to.
• You improve your skills to solve problems quickly and in a dirty way.
• You forget about good coding.
• You realize that your résumé needs the experience, not you.
• It tooks 3 months to get a computer.
• After you saved the company. You don’t see a part of the profit.

About friends and life. From time to time I meet the “International Pizza” to go for ouzo and food. The “International Pizza” is a mix of greeks and foreigners who meet to have good time

As objectives to accomplish:

• To learn Greek. C’mon! One year here and I cannot speak it. It’s not so difficult.
• To go to the gym. And also add an excuse to escape from the office.
• To continue some personal projects/ideas. Not only talk about them when going for beers.

And from here send greetings to:

• Sascha, Panos and the International Pizza.
• Kat, her mac, and her 1001 stories. Life is long but I guess she lived twice or three times more experiences than anyone.
• Nazgul2, from Palencia but working and living in another two different places.
• Graci, and his amazing adventures in Belgium.
• Alberto, and his never ending PhD problems.
• Seattle and Andoni, or the two guys who got the job they were waiting for.
• And you, who are reading this.

Note: Believe me if I tell you that I pressed the publish button like 5 times, and 5 times the post appeared in the front page. Then I leave, check the next day and It’s not there. Grrrrr.

The weather changed a lot during the week. Last weekend I took pictures from Katehaki bridge full of snow and talked about sliding cars. But this weekend the sun shines and you can feel it warming your face while you are walking in the street. Today was a beautiful day. I enjoyed it playing music, preparing a tasty lunch (with a stolen recipe), and fixing an ill powerbook.

The winter seems to come to and end, and the weather forecast talks about 17º/18º C here. It’s gonna be better until the burning summer arrives.

The image speaks by itself. 3 o’clock and 6 people in our floor. Using the snow as an excuse, almost nobody came to the office today.

The good of this massive absence is that the office is quiet. No phones ringing, no people speaking loud or interrupting your work. Only the noise of CPU fans and some people teetering their fingers on the keyboard.

Enjoy your snow day off

If you have seen the news or you are right now in Greece. Yes, it’s cold.

This weekend has been one of the coldest I my life in Greece. This time it was snowing (not like my last post) a lot. I started to feel the cold and the first snow flakes on Saturday when I was leaving for Markopoulo to spend the night with some () friends. We arrived and the wind was really cold. The weather was “shouting” snow!

Hours later it started. In the beginning it didn’t stay, but after all the night snowing we woke up with a white landscape and thinking on staying there (Panos, I love your place, but I have to go to work ). We moved with a car to the nearest Proastiakos station, and after some time waiting in the car (to avoid to die frozen) we were on the way to Athens.

I didn’t expect what you can see on the pictures. But when I got to the top of the bridge to with the elevator, the image was that (bad quality picture, I know). I couldn’t believe it. Snow everywhere. And not a bit… enough to organize a nice snow battle.

The return trip to home was a bit difficult. Without the right shoes I was walking using small steps to avoid to eat snow But even with that weather, there is always someone who believes that his/her 4WD car can do miracles and drive over 20cm of snow without chains (or similar device for ice/snow) or even good wheels. So a crazy driver almost killed me. I saw the reflection of a yellow light in the snow, and I thought: In this street that goes down the hill… I’m almost sliding, therefore a 1 ton car should be like a huge sledge. Of course, the car just slid down the “hill”. I had time to jump between two cars and see the car following the way of the road (even its wheels were saying otherwise).

At least I’m alive. It’s cold. It’s late, and tomorrow nobody will go to the office. I’ll be the only stupid there because I live 1 minute from my place.

Have a nice freezing week