Communication with the local population is an important part of the program when visiting any country, and in particular, such as Greece. What are the modern Greeks in our imagination? Studying the course school history, we are used to the fact that the ancient Greeks are described as calm, immersed in their thoughts philosophers, thinkers and scientists. First coming to Greece, tourists are a little lost, seeing in front of them cheerful, cheerful and emotional people who do not go into their pocket for a word and are friendly even to an unfamiliar counter.
Main character traits
It has been scientifically proven that a significant influence on the character of a nation is exerted not only by historical factors, but also by the surrounding climate, relief and geographical position countries. In this regard, the Greeks are very lucky - their territory is located in a warm climate zone, winters are mild and humid, and summers are hot, but not so much as to cause significant discomfort. The nature of the Greeks fully corresponds to their climate - it is just as bright, warm and hospitable, but at any moment a strong sea wind can break out in the soul of your interlocutor, which throws all the feelings hidden inside to the surface. At such moments, the Greeks do not become angry or aggressive at all - they simply begin to laugh out loud, sing joyfully or shout. The reason for such a mood swing can be anything - from an unexpected meeting of an old acquaintance, to the victory of your favorite football team.
The emotionality of the Greeks has already been described many times - the peculiarity of the nation lies in the fact that the Greeks simply do not know how to hide their feelings, and do not need to. Their language is very rich, but still it cannot express the gamut of feelings and experiences that every minute arise and go out in the soul of a resident of Hellas, so any conversation is invariably complemented by active gestures and direct eye contact with an interlocutor. Do not be surprised if an unfamiliar Greek, when talking, gets into your personal space, touches your shoulder, arm, or tries to kiss you goodbye. In any other country, pickpockets try to divert attention in this way, but not in Greece - here such behavior is considered the norm, necessary to involve the interlocutor in the topic of conversation.
We behave in a similar way, but in order to fully open up, the Russian person needs a little more time - recent decades somewhat exacerbated the anxiety strangers, and this is not unreasonable. But after talking for a few minutes, Russians and Greeks become bosom friends, finding common topics for conversations even with minimal knowledge of the language.
The attitude of the Greeks to work
From the outside, it may seem that the Greeks are very negligent in their direct duties - in the news you only hear about constant strikes, blocking airports and train stations. However, the number of people in Hellas who have reached the pinnacle of success in business refutes this opinion. The Greeks are quite hardworking, but they also like to have a lot of quality rest, enjoying life to the fullest. Often they do not think about tomorrow, living for their own pleasure today. national stereotype a typical Greek is very close and familiar to a Russian person: to spend all the money in the first few days after the payday, and the rest of the time to live in debt, or save on the most necessary, but remember with a smile on your face the pleasant time spent.
A very big problem for the Greeks is the constant hope for the familiar and for us “maybe” and “God willing!”. This often leads them to problem situations. For example, among the people there is one story that tells about a Greek who made a bet with a local judge. The subject of the dispute was that the Greek undertook to teach his donkey to read and write in a year. In case of winning, he received a significant amount of money, and if he lost, he was able to lose his head. Throughout the next year, the poor Greek lived on funds borrowed for future winnings, had fun and did not even think about the upcoming development of the situation. When he was asked questions about whether he was going to start training the animal, he invariably answered that in a year everything could change - either the judge dies, or the donkey.
How do they solve problems?
The main problem of the Greeks is unemployment and constant lack of funds. They solve this in a very specific way - they dream of quick wealth, which will surely fall on their heads someday. If a Greek has money, then they are spent for show and on a large scale - they are bought expensive watch, powerful sports cars, jewelry made of gold, platinum and diamonds. Of course, this does not apply to the whole nation, but only to individual individuals, which are enough in any country. Even here it is easy to meet people whose style of dress and manners indicate that a person does not understand the value of money, devoting his life to burning money.
But it is better not to anger the Greeks, just like the Russians - in anger they turn into an uncontrollable force, sweeping away enemies on the way. The Greeks love and know how to defend their interests by conducting constant strikes. Even if they understand that the strike will not lead to the desired result, the principle is still at the forefront. The same applies to other areas of life - today a Greek can be completely relaxed and happy with everything, and tomorrow he abruptly begins to change the established rules in his favor.
The proximity of the Greeks and Russians can be traced in all spheres of life - from economics and politics, to love for the motherland. Openness of character, inability to hide feelings for a long time, emotionality and self-confidence - these are distinctive features Greek character, which distinguish them from the background of other nations. Having met a Greek in any country, you will not confuse him with local resident, nor with another inhabitant of the Balkan Peninsula. Hearing loud sincere laughter on the street, and seeing a swarthy, joyful face, be sure: before you is the heir of Hellas!
For 4.5 years now, I have been living in sunny Greece with my beloved husband, Nicholas the Greek, and my little daughter Anastasia.
Why did I choose a Greek, and not a Ukrainian or a man of another nationality? I, perhaps, should say special thanks to my girlfriend's mother, Olga Nikolaevna, for the choice I made.
I lived quietly in Kyiv. Like many girls of my age, she was focused on her career, work, her personal development. I went on dates, but somehow it didn’t work out in personal life, even started looking for her soul mate on the Internet. To be honest, a lot of foreigners wrote, but I never communicated with the Greeks, but somehow I didn’t even pay attention to them. Until a friend came to visit me with her mother, who has been living in Greece for many years. Her mother is an amazing woman who has seen a lot in her life and is well versed in people, and, especially, in men. That's how we listened to her stories and opinions about the Greeks, about what they are good husbands and dads. She even suggested a site where you can chat with the Greeks.
The door was hardly closed behind my guests, I was already surfing the Internet and registering on the recommended site. On the same day, I looked through several profiles of Greek men, clicked a couple of likes and left. On the second day I received a modest message from a certain Nikolos. And from that moment on, everything started spinning. Daily correspondence, calls, video dates on Skype and, finally, after a month and a half of communication, the first meeting in Athens. It was my first live encounter with my future husband and with Greece. We can write a separate story about our acquaintance and 4 days spent together in Athens, but more on that next time.
After a year and a half of communication on the Internet and several of my trips to Greece, and Nikolos to Kyiv, we were tired of long-distance relationships and we had to make an important decision. Leave your homeland, relatives, friends, all the achievements that have been achieved over all the years of living in Kyiv, and start from scratch in a new country with a completely alien and strange language. When I started to communicate with Nikos, and everything was fine, I understood that one day I would have to make this decision and move to Greece. Theoretically, I was ready for this. But when the moment of truth came, it turned out to be much more difficult. Only thanks to my husband, his perseverance, his care, his patience, we have now happy family without any embellishments. And for all this time I have never regretted my decision and did not doubt my choice of husband.
Greeks are like husbands, what are they like?
Olga Nikolaevna was right about the Greek men. Of course, you yourself understand that I cannot give an assessment to all Greeks, because people are different: both good and bad in any nation. But there is an opinion about the Greeks as very family, caring husbands and dads. And indeed it is. I can tell this from personal experience, and from observations and communication with girlfriends who are married to Greeks.
For Greek husbands, the word “WE” dominates in the family! If we do something, we do it together, and there is no such thing as "this is not a man's business." At first life together it was a little unusual for me that my husband was discussing with me which curtains to buy, where to put what, how and where it would look better. After all, everything was completely different in our family: dad might not notice new furniture or new curtains.
But the most important and valuable thing for me is the relationship of Greek men to women. If he chose a wife for himself, then it’s just for him to get married, but really a very careful and deliberate choice, which is why many Greeks get married after 35.
For the Greeks, family and family comfort are very important. Indeed, earlier in Greece it was not customary for a woman to work, she only had to look after the house, take care of her children and her husband. Therefore, the Greeks are very fond of keeping the house clean, having home-cooked food, washing and ironing things, and a well-groomed and beautiful wife, because that’s how their mothers are. Do not think that for a Greek a wife is like a housekeeper. No no! On the contrary, it is customary for them to hire housekeepers to help their wife, especially if the wife works or has Small child. With our hardening, I try to do everything myself, and when my husband offers to call a woman into the house to do general cleaning, then I get offended and think that he is not happy with my care around the house, but it turns out that he just wants to help me out of concern. And they really want to have not only a housewife nearby, but also a well-groomed one, beautiful wife. For the sake of this, they are ready to invest in their wife and soul and finances, if any.
Greeks value their parents very much and family traditions. For a Greek man, mom always comes first, and then dad. After all, mother for them is the standard of femininity and home comfort. So they treat their wives the same way - with respect and love, like their dads treat their mothers. We are always happy to visit our parents, and they visit us. And if there is also some kind of holiday, then it will definitely take place in the family circle.
If a family leaves for a tavern, then everyone goes: children, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers and great-grandmothers, who are already 90 years old and can barely walk, but no one leaves them at home just because they are old. I always watch with tenderness when a large family enters a tavern and lead a bun with a stick, it looks like 100 years old, great-grandchildren hold the door, and my grandson holding her hand helps her enter and sit down at the table...
Separately, I would like to emphasize Greeks as fathers! If a child appears in the family, then this is not only the concern of the woman, it is again WE. Together we take a full part in the upbringing of the child.
Greek men can talk about their children for hours, and even brag about their successes or some first achievements more than mothers, our dad personally does this, he can torture anyone with his stories about little Anastasia. For example, if you go to the park on a day off, then it can be noted that 80% of the children are in the park with their dads, and the mothers at this time go about their business or just relax.
These are the Greeks! Kind, loving, caring, excellent husbands and fathers, and also hot Greek men who know their own worth.
A little advice to the future wives of the Greeks! Greeks are very good husbands, but they will be, if the wife loves him, takes care of him, respects him and his family traditions, does not make scandals, never, never insults him and his loved ones, then you will have a strong family and wonderful relationship. In any relationship, this is the work and compromises of the two sides, be it a Greek, Russian or French.
I would also like to emphasize that this article was written personally from my experience and opinion, it may be completely different for you and this is quite normal, since there are no identical people and identical families.
Advice and love to international couples!!!
I ask you not to throw slippers, but just read. It seemed to me that something in this opinion is worth listening to.
“Unfortunately, this hotel stopped accepting Russians,” the travel agency employee dismissed my choice.
- What a pity. And why?
- Well, after our almost burned down the room ...
“If we are not considered dear guests even now, then I don’t know,” said a friend, returning from vacation in the midst of a crisis. No wonder: in the first half of 2009, Russians accounted for most of the tourists in the mass holiday destinations, and among the buyers of Egyptian papyri, Turkish sheepskin coats and Greek olive oil were practically only our people. This year, tourists from other countries have returned. And now, please, my favorite hotel is no longer available to me.
Almost every one of us has come across this: tourists from Russia are not liked. It does not depend on the country, the steepness of the resort and the number of stars at the hotel. It is generally accepted that the bad manners of our fellow citizens are to blame for this. They drink, they say, without measure, make noise, unceremoniously. All this is true, but ... In terms of drinking, many others can give odds to Russian tourists - Germans, Poles, the same Finns. Two Italians are able to create such a noise, which never dreamed of big company Russian tourists. And so - for each item. Moreover, judging by the surveys conducted by various international companies, Russians do not have the worst reputation among tourists from other countries. Why are they not loved in resorts?
“When a German drinks, I know what to expect from him. And you are weird when you are sober,” the Egyptian guide explained to me. He is right. Well, who else, pray tell, could think of catching coral fish with a T-shirt? Who else asks in an all-inclusive bar for five shots of whiskey at once - "and pour more"? Who will goad the animator to see how he will get out of the situation? The list is endless, but the essence is clear: our people behave at the resort beyond the norms of decency.
First of all, it is a complete disregard for the rules existing in this place. If it is customary at the hotel to change for dinner, be sure: Russian women they will come in inappropriate rhinestones, and the men in loose Hawaiians and flip-flops. If it is forbidden to swim beyond the buoys on the beach, the whole family, including young children, will rush there. Once, half-jokingly, I tried to justify my compatriots: in this way they are freed from the fruits of the totalitarian past. “The Romanians had it too. Both the Poles and the Hungarians,” the interlocutor objected to me seriously. “But they are law-abiding, and you are not.” In our country, breaking the law is often flaunted, and in most countries it is shameful to break the law and established rules.
Perhaps the fault of everything is elementary bad manners. Anton Chekhov wrote to his brother that well-mannered person This is someone who tries not to cause inconvenience to others. Based on this definition, Russian tourists they are distinguished precisely by their passionate desire to make the life of those around them, and especially the attendants, as uncomfortable as possible. The reasoning here is simple: I pay money, let them work it out! But no matter how trite it may seem, not everything is measured by money - and in terms of money, it is often more profitable for hoteliers to have a constant influx of tourists from different countries rather than let Russian tourists scare everyone else away.
Speaking of money. Tours in Russia are more expensive than in other countries. It would be nice if we were talking about Europe - the same Germans, of course, are much closer to Spain. But why is it cheaper for them to rest in Thailand? Once I told an Italian woman how much I paid for the tour - inexpensive by Russian standards. "I would die of greed," the far from poor señora confessed.
For a long time I was sure that it was all about the Russian habit of splurge, because in no other country would a poor clerk go to a five-star hotel, and a rich businessman would think about it. And our stay in the "four" is justified by the fact that "in normal hotels" there were no places. I was somehow touched by a complaint on a forum for tourists: "The quails in the restaurant were served overdried!". It was not known to the tourist, who remained dissatisfied with the rest in the suite, that these birds are generally not fat. It is clear that it is a sin not to tear off three skins from such "petty bourgeoises in the nobility" - that's the Russian tourist industry and tries.
But recently I learned that Russian tourists are not a gold mine for hoteliers at all: our tour operators are reluctant to pay, they always ask for discounts and try to take cheaper tour packages, and sometimes they delay payment. You can understand our tourist business: "People eat". Fortunately, there is no special competition - in Russia, international tourist networks operate only through local "daughters". And as a result, hoteliers are reluctant to work with Russia: customers are restless and unprofitable.
And finally, there is a general belief that Russian tourists are not for long. “You will run out of oil, and you won’t come back, but German pensioners have rested and will rest with me,” a Greek hotelier once told me. He was not convinced that Russia had already survived two crises - and in last time even better than most. Perhaps because it's hard to believe that unearned wealth lasts? Or is there something that we are missing from the outside?
About how even in the minuses you can find pluses. "My Planet" talks with ethnic Greeks born in the USSR, who returned to their historical homeland and finally settled in Saratov region.
On ties with Russia
Greek courtyard. Rhodes
Dorothea
I have lived most of my life with Russians. My ancestors are Pontic Greeks, before the First World War they fled from the Turkish genocide to the Caucasus, to Sukhumi. Under Stalin, in 1949, they were evicted to Kazakhstan, where I was born. And in the early 90s, when the Union began to fall apart, they began to oppress us in Kazakhstan. We left for Greece.
Greece turned out to be a stranger to me. Yes, I am Greek, but I was born in the Soviet Union, grew up there, studied there. For the Greeks, I was Russian, because I did not know the language. True, I learned the language quickly: after three or four months I was already fluent in Greek, and after six months I learned to read.
I lived in Greece for 20 years, but all this time I dreamed of leaving in Russia. When the children grew up and the youngest daughter graduated from the institute, she decided.
Belogorskoye fell in love at first sight. First, I came here to visit a relative for three months - my God, what a beauty! Beautiful nature, picturesque places, hills, Volga. The only problem is that there is no road. You don’t even need gas, there is propane in cylinders, there is firewood. I don't really need civilization, I'm not a materialist.
About the reasons for moving to Russia
Volga. Ataman Stepan Razin stayed here with his gang
Dorothea
I traded Athens for this village. But I'm fine here. I love Russia, I have always loved it. My friends and I were all Russian. Everyone is surprised how I came here, and I say: “You just need to love your country.”
Konstantinos
I'm tired of the city I wanted to move to the countryside. Fuss, running around, you have to work constantly for someone. The apartment is a cramped box, and constant dependence on neighbors: don't interfere with one, don't interfere with another... When I first came to Belogorskoye, I really liked it here - green, quiet, calm.
In Russia it is spacious and free. I generally like big countries. If we take Greece along with the islands, then it will not be much larger than the Saratov region (100,200 km² - the area of the Saratov region, 131,957 km² - the area of \u200b\u200bGreece. - Note ed.).
In Russia, it is good to engage in agriculture, your own business. No one bothers us, no one bothers us, no one bothers us at all, they don’t even make the road. In Greece, asphalt is laid to every house, but there it is almost impossible to start a business in the countryside. For example, norms have been set for how much milk Greece can supply to the European Union. And if you deal with milk or meat, no one will take it from you. Difficult, small country, very small. It is also not easy here, but now we are climbing slowly. All products are natural.
Nature, life, life in the village
Belogorsk pastures
Konstantinos
The first thing that surprised me was nature. Large forests, the Volga - there are no such large rivers in Greece, everything is small there. It is very cold here in winter, I do not like the cold, but if the house is warm, then you can endure the winter relatively easily.
Dorothea
We live mainly on our farm. I moved to Belogorskoye in 2007, bought a house, cows, sheep. At first she came alone, then she brought her husband, but he left again, he has been gone for four years. Not everyone wants to leave civilization. Previously, I was also a city person, I did not know what my own household was. And now I have 24 head of cattle: bulls, heifers, eight dairy cows. We sell milk.
In Greece, all young people go to the countryside, because there are no jobs in the cities. And here it's the other way around - in the cities
The hardest part is the roads. They say: import substitution, you need to produce your own milk, and we can hardly export it from here. In winter, the road from the village to the highway is cleared, we drive along it, but a snowstorm will pass and everything will be swept away. There are four families in the village who keep a lot of cattle, we sell a lot of milk, but they don't make a way for us. I need to check in at the beginning of March at the passport office in the district center. And we have mud here, we can’t leave, I’m late for three days - I’m already being fined. They say: go on foot.
My house is the only one in the village with running water. I was the first to bring here a washing machine and an electric milking machine, then others also got them. Everything can be done, there would be a desire. Of course, the house is old, it is 100 years old, the roof and everything else needs to be repaired. AT next year I want to make steam heating here, while we heat it with a Dutch stove. Now we are storing firewood for the winter. And the first thing I put here is a satellite dish. Be sure to watch the news, I want to keep abreast of events.
Nature gives us a lot. I have my own potatoes, cabbage, onions, carrots - yes, literally everything. In autumn, we collect wild rose and hawthorn, mushrooms. I make jam from berries, even from pine cones - very healthy, healing. Soak young cones in water, boil, then drain the water, boil in another water with sugar, the cones become like wax.
The calf has strayed from the herd
About Russians and Greeks
Konstantinos
I learned Russian in Germany. I had a girlfriend - a Russian German. But I didn't like German, so we started talking in Russian. I just had to remember it: until the age of nine I spoke Russian, I just forgot it while I lived in Greece.
All my friends were Russian. I have not met Greek women, it is difficult to communicate with them. Russian girls are kinder, they know what they need, they are more talkative. They do not wait for you to start a conversation, they communicate themselves, ask about something. And the Greek woman sits and waits for you to entertain her.
The Greeks are kind people, friendly, helpful, trusting. And the deeper into the village, the kinder people. Now about the Russians: the deeper into the village, the more harmful people
We have a large blended family: and there are Russians, and Tatars, and Germans. My wife is a Tatar, she is a Muslim, and I am a Christian, but this does not bother us. My wife and I met on the Internet back in Greece, six months later we moved here and got married. On September 1, our daughter Magdalena was born.
As long as the daughter is small, we will live here. And when she grows up, she will need Kindergarten, school, it will be necessary to leave for the city. There used to be a school in Belogorskoye, but now it is closed. Not even in neighboring villages good schools, there are few children everywhere, young people leave the village. In Greece, all young people go to the countryside, because there are no jobs in the cities. And here, on the contrary, in the cities.
Dorothea
Of course, there is a difference between Greeks and Russians. The Greeks are kind people, friendly, helpful, trusting. And the deeper into the village, the kinder the people. Now about the Russians: the deeper into the village, the more harmful people are. Only old people remained in the villages. They seem to be afraid of something, they are protecting themselves from something. “Wow,” I tell them, “I used to live with the Russians for a long time, they were the closest to me. And you are not so Russian, where did you come from? And they tell me: “You would have lived here in the 90s.”
Over the past 20 years, people in Russia have changed a lot. They have fear, distrust of everything. They say: “They will take us one fine day and they will not give us a pension. What a country it was, and then once - and we went hungry here. The collapse of the USSR is a very strong shock, a shock, people still cannot come to their senses. In the cities they have adapted, but in the villages they are still under the impression. But I want to live in Russia, even with such people - they are old, I feel sorry for them, I try to help them. They are closer to me.
Konstantinos
They drink a lot here. I can also drink on a holiday, but just like that I won’t sit down to drink and not to the extent that they take me out of the restaurant. There are people here who I like, but if a person drinks, for me this is already a bad person.
Surprising and attitude to nature. Here, on Stepan Razin's cliff, people come from all over Russia, even from the north. But tourists throw garbage here, bottles, turn these places into garbage. We go and clean. In summer, everything is packed with tents; on weekends, from 100 to 150 cars come. It would be possible to put garbage bins, make a road, but we are told that this is a nature reserve, nothing can be built. It turns out that the reserve is full of garbage.
Most beautiful city Russia - Sterlitamak. There are greenery everywhere, flowers, bike paths, wide roads, lots of parking lots, good asphalt, perfect roads and sidewalks. I was still in Moscow, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa, but big cities I like less.
Dorothea
I'll tell you what the Greeks in Greece thought about Russia. All 20 years I fought there with the Greeks, they said: “There was such a state, such a country, it kept the balance on the planet, what they did, ruined such a country. Now Russia will never rise, and we all hoped for it. Who can we hope for now? I say: “How is it that Russia will not rise? Such a rich state, the largest country on the planet, it cannot be that it does not rise.”
When it comes to nicknames, the Greeks have a collective concept of coulofragi, which means stupid Franks or stupid Western Europeans, which refers to the whole West. In all likelihood, this expression has been preserved since the occupation of Greece in the XIII century by the Franks - participants in the Fourth Crusade. This is a real clash of civilizations, when ignorant knights in iron armor break into the sophisticated Byzantine Empire, destroying everything in their path that is beyond their understanding!
More later times gave rise to the following generalizations: the Turks are boudaladas, that is, fat and stupid, or apisti - incorrect. The Slavs, especially the Bulgarians, are gourounomites, freaks with a pig's nose instead of a nose, or kommttadzides - cutthroats who raided Macedonia at the turn of the century, inciting the Greek population (who were then tormented under the Turks) to convert to Bulgarians. Italians are good-for-nothing pasta (the Greeks have not forgotten how thoroughly they beat the Italian army in the second world war). The French - depending on the gender - are either gigolos, or cocottes, or cunning diplomats, which is not at all a compliment.
The Germans are workaholics, the Irish are alcoholics, the Scots are stingy, the Jews are also stingy, but they know how to bargain well. The Spaniards are passionate lovers, the Egyptians are illiterate fellahs, the Arabs are Bedouins who will close their fingers if you hold out your hand for them to shake hands. All Africa is inhabited by lazy blacks, which scare children; Americans are naive, and this should be used; Russian - haholi - shapeless meat carcasses; The Chinese are as incomprehensible as their language. And, finally, the lords and gentlemen are English, walking punctuality, although the people are cold.
The rest of the nations can go to hell
Surprisingly, the Greeks never make other nationalities the butt of their jokes. They keep it, so to speak, in the family, addressing ridicule from province to province, from village to village, from island to island. The Cretans ridicule the Peloponnesians, the Macedonians the Rumeliotes, the Epirusians the Thessalians, the islanders the inhabitants of mainland Greece, the Athenians all the rest, and so on, until the whole country is covered. And in the event that it is necessary to question the mental abilities of a people, the Greeks have Pontic Greeks (immigrants from cities on the Black Sea coast).
For example: Question: Why did a Pontic prostitute commit suicide after working for 20 years? Answer: Because she found out that other prostitutes get paid for it ... Or: An announcement at the airport: “A request to the Pontians not to scatter grain on the runway. "The big bird" will fly anyway. "Greek gypsies are another favorite object of jokes because of their penchant for theft, obsessive trade in all unnecessary trifles, countless children and unimaginable dirt:" Wife, - asks the gypsies, noticing in the rearview mirror, that one of his many offspring fell off the truck, shall we stop and pick him up, or shall I make you a new one?”
