Let’s de-romanticize emigrating to Greece!

Exactly two years ago, we moved from Berlin to a small (and we mean really small) Cycladic island. We constantly see on social media how much emigrating to Greece is romanticized. We already published a blog post after 6 months and another one after 1.5 years.

Time for a new update, completely without sugarcoating!

1. Living in a tiny space

We have now been living for two years as a couple with two cats in 20 square meters, and everyone is still alive! Was that challenging? Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes.

2. The waiting continues…

Tukkie, our electric TukTuk with a solar roof, is now 1.5 years old. It still has no license plate and we’ve been told there’s nothing we can do. If anyone knows if there is something we can do after all, please reach out!!!

3. The language barrier

Our Greek is still a complete disaster. But we are not giving up. We are going to take another serious run at it as soon as Matthias is back from Berlin, where he is liquidating our storage unit this month. But fun fact: the only people who actually shame us for this are Germans. The Greeks couldn’t be more patient with us.

4. Our Greek business is developing

Our second season here on the island was stable. But even more importantly: We are now earning our first income via Insight Timer and finally reached YouTube Partner Programme a few days ago!!! This is BIG. Jenny worked on it for the last 2 years and we’re super happy that the digital part of Humble Hub is also growing and developing well.

5. Animal suffering

Now that the season is over, we have collected and counted all our Kimolos Cats tins. Together, you donated €320.33! A huge thank you from the bottom of our hearts to everyone who contributed. It really means a lot to us. We are currently working on something and hope to share more with you soon. Until then, we will transfer the full amount to the Kimolos Cats PayPal account.

Nevertheless, we still feel completely powerless when it comes to animal suffering on the island. For some reason, our Instagram channel seems to have turned into a public reporting spot. Tourists message us about animals in bad shape or kittens struggling to survive alone without a mother or water. To be honest, that is really hard to deal with.

6. The Greek healthcare system

We now have our first real experiences with the Greek healthcare system. A lot of negative things are shared online, which we cannot confirm based on our own experience. You get appointments much faster than in Germany. Preventive care, in particular, is far more thorough than anything we knew before. What is also different: Unlike in Germany, where doctors often take a wait-and-see approach, doctors here shoot cannons at sparrows with wild painkillers and really heavy medication. There is no alternative medicine approach here. That feels unusual on one hand, but it also means medicine here is not influenced by woo-woo stuff at all.

7. When capitalism kicks in

Your social value here is tied directly to your wealth. We underestimated that. Everything would be so much easier if we were rich. Buying an overpriced house for a few hundred thousand euros to turn it into a home you can live in year-round. You only have a truly good life as a migrant (we hate the word “expat”) in Greece if you bring money with you and work remotely, meaning you earn money elsewhere. Surviving here is much harder than in Germany, and we fully understand why young Greeks leave the country to build a life somewhere else.

8. The trash thing

Even after two years, the issue of trash continues to challenge us. Greeks proudly take photos of their coffee in plastic cups with plastic lids and plastic straws, sharing them on social media. This still makes us feel uncomfortable. For a long time, we couldn’t figure out why plastic straws were still being used here so excessively, even though they’re banned throughout the EU. We’ve since learned that they were simply labeled as “reusable”. No joke. That’s actually what it says on them. In Germany, you would probably feel ashamed if you shared so much plastic on Instagram. Here, it’s somehow a lifestyle people are proud of. We still can’t quite wrap our heads around that.

9. The magic of Kimolos

When we spend time in nature, everything is fine. And we live right in the middle of it. The peace and quiet are deeply good for us. No sirens, no traffic noise. Only the wind, roosters in the morning and the occasional donkeys. Kimolos is magical. Playing Sound Baths out in nature on this island is very special. The starry sky, the elements. We feel much more connected here than in Berlin.

10. The worst of both worlds

Nevertheless, we are still living the worst of both worlds. We are fighting to survive like other small businesses in Greece. We struggle with the high food costs on a small island, yet we still pay tourist prices everywhere because we have German passports.

On our last evening in Berlin, we ate one last pizza after loading all our stuff into the van. The sweet staff at Estelle wrote on our napkin: “All the best on your Greek adventure!” You might notice it while reading this text. We still love this island, but over the last 2 years, reality kicked in. We’re living in what has effectively become a gentrification paradise and that just feels wrong on so many levels.

Looking back, if you’ve been watching our journey from the outside, this three-part blog series might look like a trilogy of failure. But to us, it’s a trilogy of realism. We don’t want to go back to Germany. But we also refuse to ruin our health long-term by spending every future winter in 20 damp, freezing square meters just to keep an ideal alive. Choosing our well-being over a romanticized illusion isn’t failure. It’s an adaptation of our dream.

Things have to change if we want to have a good life long-term. Properly sealed doors and windows for the winter, for example. We also need 10 extra square meters or one more room, especially since we both work from home in the winter. And after 2 years, it unfortunately does not look like that is possible on Kimolos.

Is Greece paradise? If you use TikTok, you might think so. The answer is no. Neither is Germany. Both countries have pros and cons. The sun alone does not fix everything. Just as functionality, a strong social safety net and structure do not automatically lead to a good life. We cannot take people seriously who bash Germany and romanticize Greece, just as we cannot take people seriously who demonize Greece and see Northern or Central Europe as the holy grail. The struggles are just different.

In the end, everyone has to decide their own priorities. We chose to leave social safety and functionality behind, even if that means waiting longer than 1.5 years for our TukTuk paperwork. What comes next for us? We do not have the faintest idea. But we are open to miracles.

For anyone who wants to know if this is just plain stupid, you can follow us on Instagram or TikTok to watch it happen live 😄