In-Country Experts - British Expat Forum

Hi folks
Just a thought
I have an ex colleague who now lives on Kos for the British winter and has done so for the last 4 years.
He tells me that during the summer months, it’s a great place to live and the locals are very friendly, however, once the tourist season is finished and hes there as a resident the locals are not quite as ..friendly! and he has trouble getting tradesmen to work on his house and gets the impression he is not particularly welcome as an “immigrant” on the island
i.e. its actually been said to him that ….he is in a house a local should have and also the influx of northern Europeans has driven house prices up.
My friend is a well mannered person I may add, and not the type to ….cause offence or fly the flag improperly. He has also, to my untrained ear, learned greek reasonabley well.

Personally I can in some way understand the train of thought of the locals on Kos.
So my point!!
Do any of you folks have similar feelings reference Crete.? or greece in general?

Im planning to move to Crete myself hopefully over the next few years, so this is just a little homework.
Ive been to several Greek islands (not kos)and the mainland many many times over the last 10 years and have yet to trip across an unpleasant Greek, but …ive always been a tourist ?
what do you folks living in the sun feel?

I cant talk for Kos, but certainly in Crete we have been made very welcome. We have a holiday house on Crete, between Hania and Rethymno in a small village. The locals in both THE shop and THE cafinion have welcomed us literally with open arms. In the cafe in particular we are treated as part of the family, year round. My wife speaks a little Greek, I struggle with the basics.

In Hania, we have one restaurant in particular that in summer we get "special" treatment as the owner knows we have a house and in winter when he is only open 2 days a week, he always tries to find us a place, which is not easy as the restaurant is always full of locals.

There have been a few less friendly people, but mostly in remote villages and because we have a German registered car....Germans are hated on Crete. Usually, when they find out we are not Germans, the attitude changes a lot. (During WW2 the Germans murdered a large number of village people, and the resentment still run very deep).

many thanks for reply Victor.
that is more or less what i would expect from cretians, but nice to have it confirmed

While I agree winter is a different feel than summer, I wouldn't say it's less friendly. Often in summer, when locals speak to us, I'm not so sure they actually realize we live on the island the whole year.

After 8 years, it irritates me somewhat when we get greeted at a restaurant or other business by 'Is this your first time on the island?'.

Our island (pop 6000) has many permanent foreigners (several hundred from the EU), also about 100 Egyptians, some Eastern European nationals, Americans, etc. What's odd is there is no foreign ghetto. We're scattered throughout the villages. I think that's a better situation.

Our village (pop 150) has families from Austria, France (summers only), Germany, Italy, the U.S. and someone from the Netherlands building. It's a faming community. Yes, some of the older people stare or make strange comments. Not everyone is friendly (not anywhere!), but I'd say 8 out of 10 here are.

Yo!

We live on Kalymnos - just across the water from Kos and everyone here is really friendly. Our Greek is absolutely awful but if we try it - they like it.

Be a nice person and they will love you!

yup agree karpathos
intigrate rather than settle in a ghetto, we know how we feel about ghettos in our own country'
and again agree Dr paul, a pleasant personality and a smile does a lot to get you by.