Lockdown

When we get up at 6:30 that Monday morning, the Greek lockdown has just started half an hour ago. From now on we must have a statement with us to be out on the street. Walking Jackie I quickly do illegally. While drinking our morning coffee on our sailing yacht Coco, we find out exactly how it all works. When I read the statement that goes with it, I imagine myself in a scene from Orwell’s famous book ‘1984’.

There appear to be various options for completing the statement of which the SMS seems the simplest to us. You send a message to a toll-free number containing the number of your reason (category 1 to 6), name and address and you receive a response that is then your permit to be on the street. We send an SMS so that Ron can go to the bakery and to our surprise we do get a response back immediately. Armed with this text message and his ID, Ron sets out to get bread. And yes, the baker confirms, this has to be done every time. There is a fine of € 150 for each violation.

This also seems to be the biggest change of the lockdown after one day: we can still continue to do the same things as during the previous measures, but now we have to send an SMS before doing so. It has become a bit quieter on the street, but there was not much activity in the hamlet of Ormos Marathokampou anyway. Furthermore, we are not allowed to leave the port until April 19th and the possibilities for traveling in other ways are also limited.

This gives our adventure an Orwellian twist that we could never have imagined ourselves. Although some may say we are crazy that we haven’t quickly returned to our ‘safe’ homeland the Netherlands, we are lucky to be here with all the pros and cons attached to it. We have plenty of time for doing odd jobs, writing and hiking, summer is coming and we are far away from the real Corona craze out here. Of course, healthcare here is less than in the Netherlands, but for the sake of convenience we assume that we will not need it. After all there is no life, let alone an adventurous life, without risks.