How is Jolanda and Peter’s Greek adventure going now? – I leave

In the broadcast of Saturday April 16, 2022, we follow the adventure of Peter and Jolanda who want to transform an old bishop’s residence in the Greek city of Kilada into a luxurious Bed & Breakfast. A gigantic job and the total renovation will take a year. Has their dream come true now?

Update Villa Hylas Kilada

Hey viewers and interested parties, we like that you follow us through this road after seeing the episode. It has been quite a journey over the past year and we have discovered and got to know Greece in different ways. Of course, this was not always positive or without bumps.

A lot of things work very differently in this country. We have carefully researched many things in advance and here we also had to find out a lot. This was reasonably successful after a year and the renovation is ready for rental. Fortunately, we are both very handy and have been able to do a lot ourselves. Not only in terms of renovation that we are suddenly dependent on each other and it turns out that working together with each other does not always go smoothly. You are suddenly on each other’s lips 24/7. What you used to be able to chat about with a friend in the Netherlands, you now have to solve together. But it certainly turned out all right.

Social contacts

We have had our contractor Gazi with his Pakistani employee Zaheer for 9 months. They did a wonderful job and we definitely became friends with them. We didn’t have much time for social contacts. Despite that, we still have a group of dear friends around us. From Greeks, English to Dutch.

Discover the area

We have also learned to discover much more beauty in the area. Now and then we go to the canyon with an old monastery nearby. It is a wealth of tranquility and beauty. From our garden we overlook the highest mountain in the area. We walked it for the first time. With a little bit of fitness, which I didn’t seem to have, you can walk to the top in 45 minutes. What a gift to be above that. You can see the entire area up to and including the islands nearby. It’s a wonderful experience. We also discovered Spetses on the scooter. The island is breathtaking, with a beautiful coastal road you pass romantic bays.

Greek rules

Our latest experience is importing our car. Well that didn’t really work out. In Greece it is not possible to privately drive a car with a business character. We have been working on this for months and now we have brought the car to the Netherlands and sold it. A new car doesn’t just happen. For this you have to sign all kinds of papers for the police, this is also allowed at the fire brigade. Without it, they can’t apply for the license plates.

Now that we are almost done with the renovation, we are very proud. All suites of about 60m2 are ready. There is a beautiful swimming pool and the surroundings of the pool have become beautiful with beautiful Greek tiles, beautiful planters, palms, grass and a veranda that is almost finished.

it was overwhelming, on all fronts

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Would we do it over? Definitely! Being outside so much, near the beach, swimming a lot in the sea, no traffic lights, traffic jams and planes gives us a super happy feeling that we would never go back to the hectic Netherlands. Greeks are super helpful and friendly people, which makes us feel more and more at home here. Tips for other people thinking about it:

• make drawings of the rooms that you want to renovate, how will the furnishing be done, attach a price tag to it and make a realistic budget
• But take your time; in practice things really take longer to get realized and buying stuff in another country really takes a lot more time and there are always setbacks.

For us, on to a new phase, how many bookings will there be? Slowly we have received the first bookings, which gives a somewhat calmer feeling. We look forward to receiving guests and providing a fantastic holiday. We are really looking forward to it!

Jolanda and Peter

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