Their life resembles the life of freshmen in a new city. There is excitement at the beginning, but at the same time there are difficulties. Fortunately, there will always be someone who will take a new resident by the hand and quickly teach him the secrets of the city, “put in place” the locals.

Reason for them digital nomadswho are building their new lives around the world and, of course, in Athens. After all, the Greek metropolis is among the most attractive and affordable cities for remote work, ranking 48th in the overall ranking of 80 cities in the world (according to the 2021 WorkMotion survey).

So how do they arrange their lives here? Expected answer: digital. 17,000 members of the closed group”Digital nomads in Greece”(Digital Nomads in Greece) on Facebook is proof of that.

“Does anyone know what we do with these greens?”

Scrolling through the “wall” of posts in a row reveals what digital nomads ask and most often find what they are looking for: someone asking for advice on the best private health insurance for someone who works in Greece. ; the other wants to immediately sell the car he bought at a super cheap price because he is moving to another country, asks a young woman who has been living in Athens for a while and has visited a flea market”what can be done with this herb?posting a photo of a boletus and a quarter poses a more “philosophical” question: “How to achieve a full social and personal life, moving from country to country? Do you miss your permanent friends?»

The “menu” of posts includes many other things: apartment advertisements, quick Greek lessons and invitations to “language evenings” under the Acropolis so that digital nomads can get to know each other and make friends.

“The reason for the creation of the group was the assignment of a young American woman to a small, local group for Kefalonia, with whom she was looking for information on how she could live there for six months,” says K. Fotis Tsakiroglu, the creator of the group, is himself a digital nomad as he divides his time between Northern Ireland and Greece. Well aware of the Nome’s way of life and proud, as he said, of his country, he created a group to help those who choose Greece as their destination.

“It is impressive that most of the community is made up of families who move with their children,” explains Mr. Tsakiroglu, adding: “Especially English speakers and Italians, who also easily find schools in their language.”

Football team in Rentis

36 year old Georgia Balatsis he, like Mr. Tsakiroglu, is one of several Greeks in the group. And what is “spinning” in the team, because he was born and lives in our country?

He works as a social media manager and web designer, mainly for overseas companies. The online group helps her find partners for projects she takes on and jobs she’s interested in. But the best thing, she says, is the new friendships she has made. “I have been with the team for two years. We came to organize “national food evenings” in the kitchens of our homes.”

The cohesion between team members is great. Last summer, a digital nomad from Belgium who had lived in Crete for a while made a two-day stopover in Athens. “I offered to take her even when I was not at home. Everything went well,” Georgia describes.

It also inspired the digital nomads mixed football team, which now has 25 members. According to the 36-year-old football player, the team trains every Saturday on the field in Rentis.

“We are coached by a team member from Tunisia who has experience,” explains Georgia, adding that the team includes people from the Netherlands, Portugal, Canada, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Pakistan, etc.

“Some have never played football before, but that doesn’t matter at all,” says Georgia, and emphasizes that the desire of all team members is to participate in the regional football championship when they “equalize” the team. “The sweetest thing is when our foreign friends call us ‘ball-ball’ to give them a pass,” Georgia describes.

OUR Sari Isis, 35, from Palestine, is a proud member of this group. He has been living in Athens for a year and three months and is working on his doctoral dissertation in international relations. Prior to that, he lived in Germany, where he worked and received a master’s degree.

In Greece, in parallel with his studies, he works in an international insurance company, while studying the Greek language. He says that the football team gave him the opportunity to make friends from different countries. “It’s not easy to communicate with the Greeks, they don’t like to speak English for a long time,” notes Sari, who says that he has already managed to visit many places in Greece – Thessaloniki, Volos, Larisa, Evia, Mykonos. , Zakynthos and Rhodes.

Although he is a big fan of our country, he notes that not everything is fine and dandy in Athens, and pointedly refers to the heavy traffic on the streets, the lack of parking spaces and the expensive life – “but 500 euros for just 50 sq. m in the regional area? he wonders.

However, apart from Athens, digital nomads are organized into communities in many parts of Greece. One of them is Rhodes, which is visited intermittently by the Italian Ariana Maniani throughout the year. She says professional titles that describe her work are copywriter, SEO strategist, translator, project manager, teacher, among others. Ariana has also lived and worked in Bali, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, etc.

Through the online group “Digital Nomads in Greece”, she met two girls living in Rhodes, whom she became friends with. The Roditiss invited Ariana to make the island a working base. Although the place seemed like the perfect place for digital nomads at first, she eventually found that a few things were missing to make the place “functional”.

“The only thing I found was a shared workspace at the hotel I was staying at,” Ariana describes, and continues, “Later on, I came up with the idea of ​​working with the hotel owners to make an accommodation package. and activities for those digital nomads who will be on the island for more than a month.” As a result, from last October, when the promotions began, until today, more than 30 digital nomads have visited Rhodes for more or less extended periods of time.

And what does the activity include? From food and yoga classes to volunteer beach cleaning. The latter, in fact, is one of the most popular actions in the community.

From Latvia andOn Lebanon in Athens – What do foreigners love about our country

How much Greece impresses digital nomads is something you can’t hide when you talk to them.

The Harutyunyan people are half Lebanese, half Armenian. Born in Beirut, he currently works as a communications and advocacy consultant for an NGO. As a digital nomad, she has also worked in the US, Germany, Belgium and Malta. In the latter, he spent six months in a 16-room villa with other digital nomads.

He’s only been in Athens for a month. As he says: “I feel at home in your city, maybe because it is literally close to my hometown. I love the atmosphere in Greece and the culture has a lot in common with that of Lebanon.. As soon as I am well settled, I will immediately begin my Greek lessons.” People say that those who make friends in a large Facebook group then organize themselves into smaller WhatsApp groups. What the People are hoping for is professional cooperation in Greece.

The 27-year-old is also excited. Martha, from Latvia. He works remotely in the support department of a large customer service company. He has been living in Athens for 7.5 months now, in an apartment he rents in Glyfada. Joining an online group helped her feel less alone when she first came here, and she says she enjoys reading about other people’s everyday experiences.

Captivated by Athenian beauty, Martha tells K: “I love that it’s a big city, with friendly people, great food and great weather. The Acropolis and many historical monuments are in the center. And the coffee culture is even perfect in Athens.”