Bureaucracy.

Today we had the kind help of some friends who drove us to Kardamyli police station for the forms required for a residency permit. A residency permit is nothing more than a document that says as a foreign national you are living in Greece and have an address where you can be found. As a foreign national you cannot buy a car without this!

Having heard that another person was having problems getting a permit, as the police station no longer had copies of the necessary forms, we were slightly worried. Also, we were told one officer in the station, who speaks good English, could sometimes be more accommodating than others. One person had the problem of needing photocopies of their passport and being told to obtain these. When they pointed out the photocopier on a nearby desk they were told this was not working. They managed to find somewhere in the village to get the copies and returning to the station were bemused to watch the forms they filled in being copied in this machine by the officer. We came prepared having heard this story with our photocopies ready.

The coffee must have been good this morning as the officer had a smile and Ashley spent 15 minutes or so with him filling in the appropriate forms that were then copied 5 times and signed by both of us. What seemed like a simple process now struck a problem, we were then told that a senior officer had to countersign the documents. As he was not due back to the station for two hours we would have to return later to collect the permit.

We strolled up through the old town and back down to Kardamyli beach whiling away the time. Returning after the two hours the senior officer had still not returned and we were told “maybe” he would be available tomorrow.

The drive back to Stoupa allowed our friends to show us two quite beaches, Delphina and Fornea. When summer returns I’m sure we will be visiting these quite often.