Permit Needed to Leave the House

Starting from today, if you leave the house, you are required to carry a permit and your passport. So what does this really mean? And what are we going to do?
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This measure may seem extreme. However, it is just the next step of the lockdown and expected. You are allowed to leave your house only if it is essential. This means you can still go to the supermarkets and pharmacy and you are also entitled to leave the house to do exercise. This can involve going for a walk in the park, which is pretty much all we have been doing for the last seven days since the lockdown began.

I wanted to try out the new restrictions, so this morning Elly wrote me out a permit (we couldn’t print it as we don’t have a printer and all shops are closed other than supermarkets). I grabbed my passport and went out for a run. The streets and park were pretty much empty apart from one or two other runners and a few oldies getting there shopping. Towards the end of the run, which took me past the main boulevard towards the acropolis, I spotted a squad of police officers. I thought I would see If they would check my permit. I ran past, and they completely ignored me. From this experience, I feel that the new restrictions have been made to allow the police to have more power over the population. Although if you are complying to their rules, they will leave you be.  
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At the moment, Elly and I are looking to stay in Athens. The reason for this is that, for the time being, we feel safe here. Everyone is taking the lockdown seriously, only seventeen have died so far. Despite this, the Greek people continue to be relaxed and understanding. There has been no panic buying, and the supermarkets are fully stocked. The lockdown may seem more extreme than the self-isolation tactic employed by the British government. However, I feel that it will allow for the Corona Virus to be dealt with quicker and with fewer deaths.

Another reason that we are having to stay in Athens is the fact that we cannot seem to find a way to get our cats home with us. The UK does not allow us to fly the cats directly, which means we had planned to fly to France and get the ferry over, with the only airline that allows cats to travel in the cabin with us (Aegean Air). Unfortunately, the problem would be getting the cats from France over to the UK. To get over the channel (with a pet) we would need to be in a vehicle, both ferries and euro star will now allow us to walk on with the cats. So, a big reason we are staying is that we don’t want to leave our cats behind.

Throughout the coronavirus outbreak, there has been a lot of fake news and speculation. For example, we thought that the last flights to the UK ended on the 20th of March. This was, in fact, the last day Easy Jet flew back. Airlines ARE still flying back to the UK. We were told that people coming from the UK would have to be in isolation for two weeks when entering Greece. Again, this is not being enforced by the government, it would be self-isolation not forced isolation.

To end on a positive, our university in Athens is setting up online lectures starting from this week which means we will have more to focus on and with the permit, we can still leave the house and go for walks. If anyone has suggestions for ways to stay active mentally and physically while on lockdown please leave a comment or email us.

We hope you are all healthy and safe and will keep the blog updated on what is happening here. 

(Just to cheer everyone up, have a look at the wild tortoises that I saw today while on my run, please put the video on mute I was very out of breath at this point) 

Written and media produced by: Alex Hood (@Alexjohnhood)