“Greece 🇬🇷 ~The Hoops We Choose to Jump”

• June 6, 2020
• By Pen
• 0 Comment

After an unexpected, full-day of hoop-jumping, to try to get our interview lined up with the Syros Police, to extend our visa, we started wondering about out sanity for putting ourselves through this,

We started off ill-prepared for what our day would be like, though. We began our morning, by driving down to feed our fur babies, like weve been doing. Nothing really opens up around here till 10AM. We had not showered, and I was wearing a dirty dress (for the feeding area is dirty).

BUT, after feeding the kitties, it suddenly became show-time, so off we would go for the next seven hours to complete our mission. No time for showers, as we were running against the clock. Fortunately for us, throughout our day, we had another local friend of a friend, do all the conversing with Syros police, so we did not have to figure those conversations out.

The steps involved to complete our mission, actually began with surgeon orders for ‘no travel for 30-days;” on the day before, after our surgeries. On this next day, we had to pay 30 euros pp for the application process of extending  our EU Visa. Since Syros Police will not handle the money, we had to prepay; here in Santorini. “Where” this pre-payment was to be made, became a huge complication. 

We would go to the municipality offices, customs offices, and the town hall. Not enough English to get clear understanding about trying to find the right place, but locals tried to help, and we appreciated this. This alone took a few hours. It was hot, we were sweaty, and getting nowhere, fast. We even sat at the municipality offices, where we were told to wait for a man who would be back; a supervisor. After 40 minutes, there, with no success, we were advised to go to a place called KEP. This is an office for Greek citizen services, so I’m not sure they could help us with our needs. Anyway, the payment application had to be documented  “online” by a place called KEP. Where is the KEP office at? We found an office called KEN.. close enough 🤣🤣. By providing our passports, and our parents names, to the person at the counter of KEP (KEN), we were provided a printout for each of us; an invoice of sorts. We began to pay, but were told “no pay here, but can pay at any local bank.” We were also told, that if there were any misspellings or inaccuracies on the invoice, we would lose our 30 euro payments. I scanned the documents which were mostly in Greek, sans our names, our parents names, and dates of our births. I saw my first name was spelled incorrectly, so back in line to get another printed invoice. With our, now, perfect invoice forms, we headed for the bank.

I walked into the bank, and was told; “We are closed, so leave!” The woman was So rude! I asked if I could do this quick transaction, since I was there, but she said no. (it was only 2:30PM) and I was sent on my way feeling defeated, as our interview with the Syria police would most likely come, before the banks reopened on Monday. Our visa expires on June 9th, so this was cutting it too close, as Syria Island is a long way from Santorini. Fines for overstaying visas in Europe are around 1400 euros pp!

Did I mention we have a full moon going on! 🙄

By this time, we are at a complete and utter loss, and we are are beginning to question our own sanity for pursuing this, but once again, I call upon our sweet Greek friend and interpreter; Valentini. How do we pay for our visa application? She would speak with her husband, and we agreed to meet back at their house, after we were done in town.

Before we left for Valentini’s house, we had to make photo copies of all documents required by Syros Police.  Luckily, I had already pulled all these required documents of proof together, in advance. We were so grateful to have found a place to get copies, without drama.

Next stop, was the Ferry ticketing office, where we learned there were no ferry’s to Syros on Saturday, but there was one on Sunday at 7AM. Unfortunately, there were no fast ferries, only the slow one, so it will be a mind-numbing six-hour ferry ride. (cheaper at $15 pp vs $80, though). Normally we love the boat riding, but on these ferries we are not allowed on deck. We bought our ferry tickets to Syros, as we were advised, because a police officer may need to come in over the weekend to conduct our interview. So, we sent copies of our ferry tickets, then got word, back, we did, in fact, get our interview date and time for Monday at 10AM!

Great news to finally get our interview, BUT, we are suppose to return to our surgeon on that same day, to get our stitches out 🤔, and we are suppose to be out of our current villa by today, actually.

We would learn, before we left the ferry office, we would need to stay two nights in Syros, since the direct ferry back to Santorini would not be available till Tuesday. (direct being six hours again). If we fail to catch this ferry, it would be another four days to get back to Santorini; but then again, another six hours to get back to Santorini?

Still, if we can not pay the fee, there would be no interview. As agreed, we headed back to Valentini’s house. Her husband, Apostolos saved the day. Apparently the fee can be paid online, through a local bank. Not being Greek ourselves, we do not have an account at the local bank. So we paid Apostolos and he paid the fees online! We appreciate our friends sooooo much, as they are great and caring people!

Now, since we are not leaving today for Athens, and then on to Albania by the 8th, I would once again make a ton of changes to our itinerary, but we got our interview for extending our visa!

Are we going to Albania, next? We want to, but we have a lot of plates spinning again, as we have to figure out what we will do now, if we are granted our visa extension and have extra time.

We will know more after our interview on Monday.