Siesta anyone?

I’m slowly learning about the way of life here in Greece. What is quite interesting is that even though the country is in turmoil and the people don’t have a lot of money, they still want to preserve the quality of life they’re used to. What’s that mean? It means that even though they work hard and find it tough to make ends meet, you will still find them enjoying life as much as they possibly can. Part of that is taking a time out during the middle of the day to have coffee with their friends at their local café or just taking a nap or having rest.

I’ve noticed that it’s not all of the stores here, but mainly the small ones that are closed in the middle of the day. I asked my aunt and she calls it a siesta, kind of like the Spanish word. I guess they don’t have a word for it here in Greece, but they certainly do it. Take time out to rest.

I took a photo of this one store’s hours to show this siesta time. Of course being in Europe, their sign is in military time. So it’s open from 9am to 2pm, then it’s closed from 2pm to 5:30pm and then it’s open again until 9pm.

So far I’ve only been to the small stores in the local area, but I hear that the big chains and malls don’t hold these hours, but then again the holidays are just around the corner so things are a bit different too.

Till next time!