Preamble: In the Spring of 2017 I made a couple of blogposts designed to help my readers with communication and transportation systems in Greece. So much has changed in the last six months that it neutralizes most of that advice. But here's an update, may it be of some small use. . .
Late in 2017 I returned to Greece to finish up the Ten Senses workshop - a project that got shelved last year as family obligations prevailed. Upon arriving to Athens in November, I discovered that Greek communication systems had been bought and sold and bought again, so new dispensations were in place.
Getting the car was moderately complicated (yes, you will need that International Driving Permit as well as your license and passport - and carry photocopies!), but CarNMotion still serves the larger cities. Their people are funny, kind and efficient - so I continue to recommend them for a quick rental.
Phone/net service was strangely difficult to obtain. Six months earlier I had purchased SIM cards from Cosmote for my iPhone and iPad, but the iPad wouldn't recognize it. I went to Cosmote stores and found pretty close to sheer chaos... workers looked tired and anxious, questions were shrugged off and technical support non-existent. Moreover, Cosmote (and most carriers) had broken their data and minute packages into tiny, specialized slivers so you pay 5€ for social media, 7€ for music, 3 for 'general data' (which can only be sent out as hotspot data), etc. Oh and everything purchased expires in 1 day, 3-days or a week. Nightmare.
Vodafone works well in the cities and small towns, and seems less dysfunctional as a business. The stores have enough personnel and no one appears to hate their job. The data packages are a wee bit less expensive than Cosmote, but marginally. They have an introductory packet of 5GB on a 10€ SIM card, but be aware that they burn up around 60-100 MB per hour - if you are not streaming video or music. Then it shoots up to 200mb per hour.
I make my living as a writer, so keeping a line open to the Net is essential for a number of reasons. This trip had another family emergency pop up as well. My exasperation was bottomless for a good bit of this journey, as Net access was stymied again and again, and my only quasi-reliable communications system was a wifi hotspot (through my iPhone) which burned out the battery.
About two months into this fracas, Vodafone saved the day, sending a tech named none other than Soterio ("Savior") who set up an inexpensive wifi hotspot and sold me an introductory data pack. Total: 50€. I had to buy another 22€ of data for the next three weeks, but it has been well worth it. Be sure and look for the Pre-pay pages.
Funny thing is, you won't find this router or service on their Vodafone Mobile Network website, you have to ask for it in person. But here's a link. I paid about 22€ for the router, 18 to set it up and 10 for the first data packet. I strongly recommend getting some form of wifi independent of your hosts or hotels while in Greece. Cosmote has the biggest network in Greece, but they are dropping the ball, big time.
(PS... if you *do* go to Cosmote, be aware that as of this writing Cosmote will not set up the router for you and they will NOT allow returns/refunds if their hardware doesn't work with your systems. Caveat emptor, on steroids.)
Friday, February 9, 2018
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Travel Knots - Part II
Last week --48 hours after my return from Europe-- I doggedly pushed a few words into this space; upon reviewing that post, I see the fragile mortar between ideas, infelicities of word choice, awkward alliterations. Oh well. I wanted to get it done, no matter how crappy I was feeling.
And I gotta tell ya, coming back is always about as much fun as I can have outside of an Iron Maiden. Not that I do not feel love for and from my community here (starting with the Darling Companion, then on through the sortafamily who show up smiling and warm). But the atmospheric difference can be tough to negotiate. My body's reaction is predictable: develop some kind of transient infection and pull it all down for a few days. (And then we throw Mother's Day into the mix. Yeah. Good times.)
But onward: Last blog gave a few key ideas about timing your journey, what to expect food-wise, how to move across Greece, the availability of lodging. This post will look at acquiring connectivity and maybe some language.
There are a half-dozen phone companies in Greece, and while I did use Vodaphone briefly last year, for the most part I have stayed with the Ma Bell of Greece, Cosmote (unlike ATT, they are not affiliated with the CIA). Wind and Vodaphone are ubiquitous, but Cosmote seems to serve the most remote villages (and beyond, while crossing the Pindus mountains or 800 kilometers out to sea) almost without interruption. Their offices are in every town square, and there is usually a tech/salesperson on the floor who can configure your devices. The two prepaid plans are What's Up for your phone and Kosmokarta for tablets/iPads. The links provided here will take you to the webpages, but do yourself a favor and just go to the Cosmote store. Once you've bought the SIM card (10€ includes installation/configuration), you can register the account online and top-up through PayPal or credit card. The total to set up new SIMs in your phone and tablet with about 1 gb on each them should be less than 30€.
In the event that you run out of phone-data before getting back online to top-up, your alternative is to buy a top-up PIN from any kiosk - the storelettes that dot sidewalks all over Greece. You just say: Yparkhi Cosmote? Do you have Cosmote? and the guy (usually) behind the counter will assent with a little diagonal headbob (he's not saying 'no' - 'no/okhi' is a nod). "Deca evro, parakalo." Ten euro (card), please.
You then send a text to 1314; in the body you key in the word ANA, then the PIN you just purchased. That puts the entire value (minus taxes) on your phone. To convert to data, you text 1330 and send the number '200' in the body of the text. In a minute or two you'll get a text back from Cosmote saying that 600 mb has been added to your phone, with about 10 minutes of talk time left (you'll be able to receive phone calls beyond that limit, but outgoing is restricted to 10 minutes).
Also, I gotta say, customer service with Cosmote (well, until the tourist season) is sterling. Kind, patient, cheerful. And their techs are actually competent. But really, do as much as you can in the store itself. It will save you a LOT of time, and costs about the same as trying to shimmy through the website.
~~~
As for language study, I must confess that during this most recent journey, I let lapse most --if not all-- of my daily practice. At some point I grew weary of 'chasing' the language like a reluctant romance, so I just stepped back and said: maybe --one fine day-- it'll just appear inside of my mind. Hah. Greeks know, and were constantly commenting on, the fact that theirs is a curiously resistant language, especially for people raised in the Saxon sounds. Now that I am back in the States, the study has begun in earnest again.
Here are a few of my favorite apps...
Duolingo •
(arrrghhh... Blogger just dumped half of this blog, and I don't have it backed up yet... So now the language section will have to be pieced together again next week. Sorry!)
And I gotta tell ya, coming back is always about as much fun as I can have outside of an Iron Maiden. Not that I do not feel love for and from my community here (starting with the Darling Companion, then on through the sortafamily who show up smiling and warm). But the atmospheric difference can be tough to negotiate. My body's reaction is predictable: develop some kind of transient infection and pull it all down for a few days. (And then we throw Mother's Day into the mix. Yeah. Good times.)
But onward: Last blog gave a few key ideas about timing your journey, what to expect food-wise, how to move across Greece, the availability of lodging. This post will look at acquiring connectivity and maybe some language.
In the event that you run out of phone-data before getting back online to top-up, your alternative is to buy a top-up PIN from any kiosk - the storelettes that dot sidewalks all over Greece. You just say: Yparkhi Cosmote? Do you have Cosmote? and the guy (usually) behind the counter will assent with a little diagonal headbob (he's not saying 'no' - 'no/okhi' is a nod). "Deca evro, parakalo." Ten euro (card), please.
You then send a text to 1314; in the body you key in the word ANA, then the PIN you just purchased. That puts the entire value (minus taxes) on your phone. To convert to data, you text 1330 and send the number '200' in the body of the text. In a minute or two you'll get a text back from Cosmote saying that 600 mb has been added to your phone, with about 10 minutes of talk time left (you'll be able to receive phone calls beyond that limit, but outgoing is restricted to 10 minutes).
Also, I gotta say, customer service with Cosmote (well, until the tourist season) is sterling. Kind, patient, cheerful. And their techs are actually competent. But really, do as much as you can in the store itself. It will save you a LOT of time, and costs about the same as trying to shimmy through the website.
~~~
As for language study, I must confess that during this most recent journey, I let lapse most --if not all-- of my daily practice. At some point I grew weary of 'chasing' the language like a reluctant romance, so I just stepped back and said: maybe --one fine day-- it'll just appear inside of my mind. Hah. Greeks know, and were constantly commenting on, the fact that theirs is a curiously resistant language, especially for people raised in the Saxon sounds. Now that I am back in the States, the study has begun in earnest again.
Here are a few of my favorite apps...
Duolingo •
(arrrghhh... Blogger just dumped half of this blog, and I don't have it backed up yet... So now the language section will have to be pieced together again next week. Sorry!)
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