Top 10+ Reasons To Love Living In Greece

A good friend of ours, and perhaps yours too (!), Lynn Roulo put together her top ten (and then some) reasons of why she loves living in Greece. We loved them for all the same reasons and have chosen some of our favourites from her list for you to enjoy too.

• All over my neighborhood, the shopkeepers leave food and water out for the stray dogs and cats.


• The entrance to Filopappou Hill is pretty much what I imagine the entrance to heaven must look like. 

  
  
• Grilled octopus, horta with lemon, loukoumades, cheese saganaki, Greek yogurt, beet greens with olive oil, fresh grilled sea bream, just to name a few….


• While living in an unstable country was never a goal of mine, an unintended consequence is that it makes me feel very alive. I don’t just read the news, I can step outside to see what’s happening…

• What I pay for rent to have an apartment with a roof deck and a view of Acropolis in Athens would get me a tiny basement studio in the Tenderloin in San Francisco.

• The next six months. Because life here is always an adventure…

• I haven’t used a dryer for my clothes in three years. I don’t know why I like that fact so much, but I do.

• I haven’t had a car for three years, and I haven’t missed it at all.


• The mailman knows my travel schedule and where to leave packages when I’m away, without me ever saying a word. It’s part of the neighborhood web of information.


• A woman who was my landlord for a total of 3.5 months over three years ago regularly sends me food she cooks for me. She lives on Chios Island where it can’t possibly be cheap to send food to Athens but she does it because she thinks about me and wants to make sure I’m well fed.

  
  
• I see very elderly people out at bars and cafes late at night. They are part of the social fabric and actively socialize just like everyone else.


• Each time I’ve needed help (and in three years, there have been many times….), there have been a thousand hands outstretched to help me. I find the Greek people to be amazingly kind and generous with their time. This goes especially for my neighbors, who have become like my family.


• When I buy vegetables from the market, they have still have dirt on them.


• Because 7:00 pm is still considered afternoon…

  
  
• At least once a day, I see a motorcycle or scooter driving the wrong way down the street. And no one seems at all concerned.


• Something about the way the sunlight hits the landscape here makes the whole place seem magical.


• My neighbors have become my friends and know and care about the details of my daily life.


• Coffee with a friend lasts two or three hours, and I have never once talked about stock options or liquidity events.


• When I walk down the street, I’m greeted with γεια σου κουκλα μου, γεια σου αγαπη, γεια σου ομορφη (hello darling, hello love, hello beautiful) by old men and women.


• Greek summer.

To read Lynn's complete list, visit: http://www.lynnroulo.com/about/

Lynn is an American Kundalini yoga and Enneagram instructor teaching a unique combination of the two systems, combining the physical benefits of Kundalini yoga with the psychological growth tools of the Enneagram.

Most of her adult life has been as a Certified Public Accountant (US CPA) working in the Silicon Valley/San Francisco technology start up and venture capital industries. In 2012, she decided to move to Athens, Greece for purely intuitive reasons.  She's not Greek by heritage, she did not have a job here, she didn’t speak any Greek (at the time), and there wasn't a Greek man in the picture either! She simply had a really clear feeling that she should go to Greece. And so she did.

 

“I remember getting on the plane to leave San Francisco. My dog and two cats were in cargo below and I had packed a suitcase full of clothes. Almost everything else I had sold or given away. There wasn’t anyone to meet me in Athens because I didn’t know anyone. But it was one of the calmest moments of my life. I was totally sure I was making the right choice.  And I haven’t regretted it at all. I love Greece.”

To learn more about Lynn and all the great things she does in Athens please visit her webiste: http://www.lynnroulo.com/