With a high of 88 today, it will be my, and our hottest day on Patmos thus far – and possibly of the summer. The humidity has dropped and heat has risen to what would be considered an ordinary July day in Westlake Village. Only on Patmos where in the peak of summer, the temperature usually ranges between 78 and 83, a high of 88 is shocking to people. In fairness, the humidity on Patmos is typically ten percent higher than Westlake – and like Bali, there's a huge difference between sun and shade.
On the way to meet a possible new friend, Sennen and I discussed how with the lower humidity and higher heat, it felt exactly like Westlake – which is sort of startling once you've shifted climates.
We didn't have to go far, but up a hillside path we haven't been in awhile where the Patmos Laundry sits at the top. We understood, or misunderstood that Ulysses, Theologia's younger brother would be working there in the morning. Turns out it's "afternoon" – which in the context of a business that closes for the traditional 1:00 to 5:00 siesta period, mean Ulysses really starts working at 5:00. After a nice chat with Theologia, Sennen and I went about our daily errands – produce, butcher, bakery – and headed home before the heat reached its peak.
In an ironic twist, it's our Odyssey to find Ulysses instead of the other way around. Per usual, it's another step in a path that's always longer than expected, but usually leads to a good destination.
Yesterday we may have completed our journey to get Sennen involved in basketball. We went to the basketball coach's newspaper stand at 10:30 only to be told he wouldn't be there until 12:30. So, as we did today, Sennen and I did our errands, relaxed at home for a little bit and returned at the appointed time. Sure enough Yiannis – the dad of the father-son coaching pair was present and spoke good English. Only, he really wanted his son, Dimitris, to come – so he called and we had to wait 12 or so minutes for Dimitris. So, Sennen and I took a walk to get something to drink in the heat of the day and dovetailed it with stopping by Manolis' organic shop where I could grab a needed case of kombucha – which of course Manolis had sitting off to the side, waiting for me.
A few minutes after we came back to the newsstand, Dimitris arrived. Sennen had felt his English wasn't good the other day at the basketball court – but I found it very good. I suspect between's Sennen's trepidation and Dimitris' confusion about an unexpected American boy showing up, there was a communication gap. Which is precisely what we were there – at the newspaper shop – to resolve.
In what took only a few pleasant minutes, we worked out that this week and next, Dimitris is running skills clinics for boys ages 12 to 15 at five euros a session at 8pm on nights he randomly decides at the end of the prior skills clinic. The first full-week of August, the organize teams for training and eventual competition once school starts in early September (basically right after Labor Day as God intended). Sennen is welcome to train with the teams for as long as he's around. Practices will be scheduled on a practice-by-practice basis – which would drive any American parent crazy, only here you just send your kid out the front door with basketball shoes and a water bottle – so no one minds.
Thus, in theory, Sennen will go to the basketball courts at 8pm, the coach will be expecting him and he begins his Greek basketball journey – with or without Ulysses who he will actually go to meet at 6pm, immediately after Sennen and Ailyn's training session with Coach Thanasis. The kids are going to get their exercise – especially Sennen.
And where is Ailyn in all of this, you might ask. Hard at work at Nektar. Yesterday she was putting a giant box of fresh bay leaves into little plastic bags. Today when Sennen and I passed, she was stamping paper bags with Nektar's logo – something Sennen has done for the past couple of years. Unlike Sennen, she was not covered in blue-green ink. Ailyn is a very focused worker. When playing any sport, Ailyn has a very serious look on her face as she focuses to execute whatever her coaches taught her. Like James Bond, when there's a job to do, she's gotta give the other fella' hell.
While each of these past four late-mornings Ailyn has found herself covered in oregano, or stamping or organizing bay leaves, Sennen and I have enjoyed unexpected time together. He really likes picking fresh ingredients for dinner – so it's been a cool shared interest.
"It seems like most things are cheaper in Greece," Sennen offered yesterday.
It caused me to pause and think – because I've never thought of the cost of living here as being much cheaper than home. Sure, the house cost a lot less than anything you could buy anywhere in Southern California – but it's not like Thailand or Bali where the cost of goods is noticeably different.
In fact, when Emily and I first came to Patmos in 2010, the dollar was incredibly weak while the euro was quite strong and we paid a huge differential converting. Even if a cup of coffee cost 2 euros, it wasn't much less than Starbucks – which Emily unhappily noted each morning since she drank four cups a morning, eventually prompting her to switch to Nescafe instant.
In the past several years, the costs of most groceries and restaurant meals was roughly equivalent to what I would expect at home. Sure, a few things were a better deal – like zucchini – and others cost more – such as imported produce like avocados and mangoes. Gyros or a nice seafood meal cost less on average, but a steak cost more. Gasoline cost more. In the end, it was a wash.
This year, given inflation and market instability, Greece seems to be doing much better than America. For instance, when Sennen begged to get steak at the butcher, I internally cringed because beef has reached an all-time high in cost in the US – with 12 percent inflation since last year and ground beef peaking above $6 a pound for the first time on record. I assumed Greece – and particularly on a small island serviced by ferries – would be in the same boat, so to speak. Not so! Two large filets of sirloin (the butcher cuts the steaks before your eyes) and three seasoned, prepared skewers of chicken slouvaki cost us just a hair over 12 euros – or $14. I could easily pay more than that for one steak at home and if I'm lucky, I can get two nice medallions of sirloin at Trader Joe's for $14. Sometimes. Maybe. But probably not since the summer beef price increases.
Not to dwell too long on a couple of slices of meat, but the quality was clearly better. Deep red colored meat with a flavor Sennen said was better than home. The steaks here had the same color as the organic grass-fed variety at home. Of course, I could write an entire blog post on the differences in agricultural and food safety standards between the European Union and the United States.
Which is precisely what makes the beef prices extra shocking. The United States is the world's largest beef producer with 12,379,000 metric tons last year. Amazingly, that didn't satiate America's appetite, leading the US to import an additional 2.09 million metric tons – a 25 percent increase over 2023. America's herd populations are low right now in part from a 2022 drought in the midwest – which caused many ranchers to consider keeping smaller production quantities to maintain a higher price and profitability. Historically, the United States was the country of affordable beef and steak, hamburgers and pot roasts on the American dinner table. These are increasingly becoming luxuries.
Not as much so for Greek bifteki fans. Today's purchase of two roughly half-pound bifteki patties from Tassos' butcher shop cost the equivalent of $6.71. Bifteki are a kind of seasoned hamburger steak, usually grilled. Our purchase from Tassos included the seasoning and preparation, all we have to do is grill – making this more equivalent to buying the kind of thing you put a downpayment on at Whole Foods or Gelson's.
Contrasting Greek pricing to American is perhaps easiest with a notable commodity like beef. Yet in so many other areas, the cost of living is visibly cheaper. $1.80 for a fresh loaf of whole wheat bread from the bakery. Fresh local veggies enough to make dinner for three with some leftover or three dinners for one at roughly $5. Eco-friendly laundry detergent for 42 loads at $5.50. A new Japanese (aka not Chinese) manufactured air conditioner for the living room – $1400 with installation. A nice dinner out for three – $51.50. And let me take a pause and note that I pay just $6 less for three burritos at our local Baja-style take-out place in Westlake. Yoga – $58.67 for 5 classes, compared to $159 for five classes at my studio at home – which is on par with other local studios. I pay for a monthly membership and get a MUCH better deal that way – for anyone who thinks I must be bleeding money on yoga. A carafe of house-wine equaling three glasses – $4. My electric bill in peak of summer with all the A/C, laundry-loads and dishwasher runs we want – $80. And all of this with the perennial complaint of Greeks that everything costs more on the islands because the logistics costs get rolled into the prices.
Notably, gas costs more than even California – close to $7.50 a gallon. That said, people here are driving a few miles at a time – at most. In the week since getting our rental car and despite going to one beach or another five of the last seven days – plus drives to a few outlying restaurants – my tank hasn't even dropped to three-quarters yet. The commodity price of gas is higher, but effectively gas is not such a significant expense.
None of this is to say Patmos or Greece is some magic place free from the troubles of the world, let alone the global market. To me, it says the United States is suffering worse inflation and more economic uncertainty. Inflation in the Eurozone – of which Greece is a part – is 2.0 percent – the very target The Federal Reserve has for the United States. Because the Eurozone hit its target, the European Central Bank has begun lowering interest rates, which is good for the economy. The United States has a 2.7 percent rate of overall inflation with 2.9 percent core inflation – meaning our cost of living is even worse.
For me, the weak dollar should add an extra bit of pain. I bought the house in that wonderful period where there was Euro-Dollar parity. Now the Euro is worth 15 percent more than the dollar – and a few weeks ago it was 17 percent. That's still better than Emily and I experienced in 2010, but not the four or five percent differential of the past few years. Still, even with the weaker dollar, the cost of basic expenses for my family remains better than home.
That's kinda' nuts.
All I can say is things are turned upside down when the cost of living in the Eurozone is better than in the United States.
Who knows where things will go – the world feels highly unpredictable, highly unstable. Maybe today's cost-of-living benefits here will be short-lived. Maybe, new trade arrangements and tariffs will put the EU in an unexpectedly stronger trading position with the rest of the world. Maybe not.
For now, it feels all the more like Patmos is a nice place to escape the craziness. Instead, we'll focus on basketball, summer jobs, long afternoons at the beach, barbecuing affordably and making new friends – some of which we have to go to the laundry and the newsstand to repeatedly to find.
