Which brings us to the number one reason why people want to live in Greece. Great weather.  Rhodes has over 300 days of sunshine per year according to the statisticians.  Unfortunately, great weather alone does not make a place necessarily a good place to live.  You want friendly people, reasonable prices for goods, affordable housing, easy access, good health care and a minimum of bureaucracy.  Rhodes has all of these except the last.

In most countries in the world dealing with bureaucrats can be annoying.

Take for example getting your Residence Permit.  Generally speaking, if you are a foreign national, you will only be allowed a six month visa and must leave and re-enter the country after a few days if you wish to stay longer than that. 

These brief exits are called "Visa Runs" by everyone in Greece and the world over. However, if you have EU citizenship, then you are entitled to live and work in Greece permanently.  Accordingly, you can get two kinds of Residence Permit.  One is good for six months (intended for raising money from seasonal tourism workers), and one is for five years. 

What would take a couple of visits to a government office over a couple of days in some countries, will probably take something like eight or nine visits over two weeks in Greece.

So, off you go to buy a stamp which can only be bought at one of the little cigarette stands on the street because they have the concession to sell government stamps.  You buy the necessary amount of stamps (usually around 50p or 50 cents) stick them on your form and return.

It is ll.45am.  The offices close at noon.  You get to Room 6 and the gentleman has left for the day.  Noon is a flexible concept.  The following day you return to Room 6 bright and early at 9am with your form stamped.

The woman signs your form, thumps it with a rubber stamp and tells you to take it to Room 4.  What happened to Room 6?  In Room 4, a gentleman looks at your form and throws it into one of his trays.  You stand there looking at him.  He finally says, " OK, you go now.  Come back 3 days."

As you wander home in a daze, you figure it all out.  The job of the gentleman in Room 6 is simply to tell you what other rooms to take your form to.  He also has the responsibility to tell you  if you need stamps.   That is quite unusual.  In Greece the rule is "One man, one job," and this is often taken to extremes. 

The woman in Room 2 is responsible for signing your form.  The gentleman in Room 4 is responsible for collecting it.

This description is not an exaggeration, and this kind of process applies to everything involving any kind of government paperwork.  Many foreigners moving to Greece find it so frustrating that it becomes a major problem for them.  If you are going to live in Greece you have to learn how to accept these kinds of things and go with the flow.

For example, never expect to finish transacting a piece of business with the government.  When it is finished, it will come as a pleasant surprise.   Head out in the morning intending to visit that office and perhaps manage to achieve one more piece of the process, or not, as the Gods will.