does anyone have info on whether moving/buying in Greece is a good option at the moment.
Its difficult finding info on how the countries troubled economy is affecting ex-pats.
thank you!

hi i'm in Elounda, crete an we came here 7 months ago, worst move ever - half our savings are gone jus in day to day living, as due to the situation in greece at the mo everything has gone up in price now badly, the tax on everything has gone up to 21% as an example a tin of beans is now 2.60 euros, half a pound of pork mince is 6.00 euros! so you can imagine a week of basic groceries for a family is at least 100 euros, we go through, with rent bills food etc it costs us just under a 1000 euros a month and we dont go out socialising jus the odd barbecue at freinds and we dont have a car.

the job situation here is bad - only i can find work my partner cant, he had a driving job lined up but it fell through a couple of months after him starting, i got a job as soon as we arrived but 5 months on my ex employer still owes us over 600 euro's thats why i left as he wasnt paying - always next week next week! and theres nothing we can do about it.

we have a 12 yr old son and after a recce to the island and visiting the school he has to attend the greek kids (contrary to what the teachers told us) do not like the english kids an my last straw was he was pushed under a car outside the school which of course no one saw!

we brought our two dogs over here and theres not many places we can take them cos they put poison down all over, we know someone whose dog was aimed at, hit and killed by a car - it was still on the lead! i myself have been threatened while walking my dogs with them being shot (and we never let them off the lead as its too dangerous) but then i'm female - they would never talk to my parner like that!

if you come here on holiday the cretans/greeks bend over backwards for you cos your putting money in there pocket, if you live here they look at you like s***! women are not respected whatsoever, i'm not allowed bills in my name only in my oh's name - when i wanted my name on the rental contract i got told no its man business! dont get me wrong all the cretan/greeks are not like that - jus about 80%

if your retired and have plenty of money your laughin, i dont know about buyin property i never would here, we're now movin to canada as my son, and us deserve a better life than this and we cant wait to get out, none of us will never visit this island again, its hell.

Hi, thanks for giving such an honest opinion on your experience in Crete. You raised a lot of the things i feel concerned about if we were to move. We have a very slight advantage as my husband is Greek, so he always gets 'inside' info from the locals when we are in Greece, & they all tell him do not move, just holiday!!!
We also have a 12 year old son (& a dog), so we can empathise totally with your unhappy situation. I know some people make the move & have a fantastic time, but overall I think its best for those who are finacially secure & do not need to work, or have children in school, or require health support.
Coincidently, I have been wanting to move to Canada for about 5 years as i think there are far more opportunities there (although as anywhere, it has its own problems).
Where about in Canada were you thinking of? do you have job skills that they are looking for?
We were put off by the ridiculous processing times - 4 years in some cases, (i think the times are around 1 year now?) hence the reason we thought of Greece.
Thanks again for being so honest, hopefully things will improve as locals accept you more.
Let me know if you decide to go to Canada!

morning .. we've already decided to go to canada - we're looking to go to new brunswick, oh is a lorry driver so its a case of as soon as job offer (which we're jus waiting to hear so ) he'll fly out asap pick up his work permit at the airport then i'll follow in a couple of months and cant wait! then when out there we;ll apply for pr, i wont be able to work for 6 months, stipulation of the work permit but after that i can apply for my own wp, (no great hardship to me lol glad of the rest!)

Is your son fluent in greek then if your hubbie is greek, ours will always be an outsider here, the kids all have to have extra lessons after school as well as the education isnt the best, but its the interaction he;s missing, he's missed 7months of schooling and canada are a year behind so when we get out there it should balance out, what do you or your husband do? we started looking seriously for work for him bout feb time sendin cv's off to bout 300 companies! but i wanted to go there rather than here - now oh agreeing with me an wishes he;d listened (should know by now i'm always right )

dont forget i'm talkin about crete, apparently cyprus is a diff kettle of fish! but i've never been there, jus amazes me that even in turkey there are 4 international schools in budapest alone, here theres one in heraklion but they only take kids up til the age of 8!

Hi again,
you are right about the schools in Greece, although there are quite a few International ones in Athens & one in Thessaloniki.
Unfortunately (& much to their annoyance!) none of our 4 children are bilingual. This obviously causes problems.
My husband works in social care (residential youth worker), i work with pre school children - neither is a skills demand in Greece! Even if they were, wages are ridiculously low & the cost of living has risen dramatically over recent years. We have been going to Greece for 20+ years, & there have been many changes in that time (some good, some not). One of my other concerns is relying on a health system that is not reliable.
We have also found the more 'touristy' the area the less interested Greeks are in helping, we go where the tourists don't go! In the North for example the locals are much more genuine, friendly, & helpful to 'outsiders'. Thankfully we have found overall most Greeks are nice people, & are struggling as much as the rest of us.

Coincidently, we also considered Cyprus, thinking it would offer us Greek culture with enough facilities in English that the children would be able to adjust. Unfortunately, we felt it was too commercialised & wasn't for us.

We first thought of Canada 5 years ago, i am kicking myself for letting the long immigration waiting list put us off, (which is why we then thought about Greece) we could have been there by now!
We like BC, especially the Vancouver area.
What made you choose New Brunswick? Have you visited before?
My only concern is that we may not be accepted due to a serious health problem in the past (i've heard they can be a bit funny about that), not sure how to find out. Apart from that i genuinly believe that it is a country with loads to offer.

yes its very expensive here, like i said i can only go by our own experience and it was a bad choice, but we're doing somethin about it, i was goin to mention turkey to you cos they're not euro, have good schools for english kids is cheap as chips - property everythin .... but i dont think your hubbie would appreciate that so prob best not to mention that to him! my dad retired an moved there an moans cos his "council tax" as such has gone up to the equivilant of £25 a year as an example!

so far touch wood we've not needed any medical help with stuff hospital wise, my oh had a bout of "man flu" which he then ended up having a chest infection - the prescription charges are higher than the uk he got antibiotics which were 15 euro's! there is private of course but there prescriptions start at 35 euro's!

i should imagine your husband would be ok findin work him being greek and the profession he's in maybe on mainland? i was an engineer administrator and i've been lucky to find work in a tourist cafe! my oh as i said cannot find regular work so we've gone from £55000 a year to what looks like gonna be 6000 euros as its seasonal an im the only one working - so as you can see be very careful, if it wasnt for our savings we'd be knackered, so 7 months on thats why we want out asap while we still have some savings left.

my oh has been doing a bit of filmin victoria hislops "the island" yu know on spinalonga thats created huge excitement and the locals here in elounda are hopin it'll generate some tourist interest which i hope it does, but yeah everyones struggling all round. its just not for us - me mainly for my son.

new brunswick cos thats where my oh's job will hopefully be based, i've never been but my oh was posted there and loved it.
can you not go down the skilled worker route??? are any of your professions on the skills needed list for canada?
what you should do is go into the canadian forum on here and ask the questions bout canada, there are tons of people who will bend over backwards to give you all the advice you need - medical, immigration tips the lot, it might not be as difficult for you to get out there as you think .... have yu looked at the wikki bar at the top theres loads of info for you to look at - also have a good scout round these for starters; www.cic.gc.ca and www.canadavisa.com all to do with immigrating to canada and these will have some good job site links too

Hi,
i know the Canadian sites from before, but thanks anyway!

My husband could probably get a job in Greece, but to be honest i dont want to lose my independence, or put our son through the whole intergrating thing. If all of us spoke Greek it wouldnt be an issue.

I guess long holidays will have to do for now!

Going to check out some other sites (Canada for one!!), its very difficult making a move when children are involved as you want to make it as easy as possible on them. We do feel the UK doesnt have anything much to offer anymore, our older children dont like being here, but are unsure of where to go. Sadly the worlwide recession is affecting everywhere.

it is difficult, none of us want to go back to the uk even son! i have an 18 year old who stayed behind in uk he's at music college, has a band and a girlfriend etc an i am desperate for him to come with us, says he'll obviously come out for hols but may move out when he's 21, if he had come to crete with us he would've left by now,

as for me i'm looking forward to -20 rather than 40+ but seriously tho the one thing as a mother im really looking forward to is my son having friends that he will be playin with in and after school like in the uk, decent education for him too, being able to take the dogs to a field lettin them roll in the grass, zipping to the local supermarket for a few bits without it costin the earth, thats all i miss an yu dont realise til you havnt got it.

maybe as your so unsure of where you want to go its best to stay where you are or think about movin within uk but as you say with the recession its hard everywhere, think your prob lucky to have work too goin by the job situation in the uk, carry on and have your hols, we have decided that if we're not out of here by the end of aug then we will be back to the uk but keep pluggin with the canada thing, oh has contacts that should get him work lorry drivin so wont be stayin here regardless.

as i said here i personally think if your retired with a wad of cash and no kids to worry about you'd be fine.

Budapest is in Turkey? Maybe Istanbul? As Britains last colony, Cyprus has a better infrastructure than Greece but I think you would find some of the same underlying problems, especially when buying property. Generally, much of southern Europe is the same, different way of doing things.

no that'll be istanbul i meant ... as yu can tell my geography is crap and my navigating is even worse this is why my oh wont let me go lorry driving with him - i amaze myself sometimes!

i've heard this aswell tho a few people who looked at cyprus have said its too westernised! i've never been so cant comment, jus going by what i've heard, we were mentioning schools in cyprus.

Forget it for Greece, for about the next 10 years. A lot of Brits have gone home because they can't afford to live here, my husband is greek so we live more 'as greeks' but it's now really, really hard for us.

I have seen Brits move out here with their kids who don't speak greek, and I really feel sorry for the poor children, it's a terrible shock for them, not only that they can't make friends but that the schools here are about 30 years behind UK.

No employment prospects, no social security, no business opportunities, and even our Eurovision song this year is rubbish. It's all a bit of a disaster really.

ScottandSel. I am very very surprised at your posting earlier this year (have only just found this website); we live in Greece, not too far from Crete and the things you say are not true where we live: I have taken out telephone, water and a few other things in my own name, even when my husband was in the offices with me they listened to me, and asked if we wanted to register with my name/his name or both our names. Beans cost nothing like 2.6 Euros - even the British variety. They are extremely friendly overall, we've never ever felt we shouldn't be here. Even the Church and Pappas have been welcoming on the odd occasion we have gone to a service. They love to speak in English, especially the youngsters, who go to evening school for English. Petrol is expensive, that I will agree with. During this week I purchased 2 pork chops and half a kilo of minced meat, and the bill was 7 euros. That was in a butchers, not a supermarket. We have bought our 5 cats from England, and they are still with us, plus a few adopted Greek cats. You do have to be careful, but have you read the English newspapers lately with all the torturing etc that is happening to animals there - so different to when we left UK. So you have either been extremely unlucky or maybe it is your attitude? You must forget you are English and just try to blend in. 7 months isn't long but you appear to be having too many problems.

What I've observed is that if you don't need to work, or run a business, or put your kids through school, or need healthcare, then Crete is fine. But then, under those circumstances, so is everywhere else.

The english people I knew in Crete, lived rather in their own little cocoon, and didn't really understand much about the society they lived in.