Post offices and Banks

Banks
Once upon a time there was no bank in Katapola, but there was a bank in Chora.  The bank in Chora closed some years ago, and there is now a bank in Katapola.

There is a cash machine at the bank in Katapola.  For a short time there was a cash machine in the window of the building behind the cafe Akroyali.  There is now a cash machine in Chora, near the main bus stop.

Getting money in Greece today is so easy - just stick a card in the slot.  It was no always thus ......................

When I first came to Greece I brought a handful of Greek currency, and travellers' cheques.  With travellers' cheques you need to decide how many to bring, and some extra for "emergencies".   Changing travellers' cheques was nort always straight-forward.  I remember going to one bank, and being told that that day's exchange rates had not arrived and I should come back later.

Then there were the eurocheques, that you could change at post offices.  If I remember these correctly, these took money from your bank account at home, so you did not need to decide in advance how much to bring with you.  But you did need to find a post office.  I remember being on Amorgos one Easter.  The Scopelitis (the original Scopelitis, not the Express Scopelitis was away for her annual maintenance.  The Scopelitis arrived back in Katapola the Wednesday before Good Friday.  We`had been planning on going to Chora on the Thursday to change money at the post office (there was then no bank in Katapola, and no cash machine).  With the Scopelitis back, it would be nice to go for a day trip.  We had not been to Koufonissi.  We had what was then a reasonably up-to-date Groc guide to the Cyclades, with a map showing the post office in Koufonissi.  We hunted high and low in Koufonissi, and asked locals and showed them the map.  We didn't find the post office.  The paths in Koufonissi were being painted with white decorations in readiness for Easter.  We tip-toed around some of the paintings many times in our hunt for the post office.  Eventually we spoke to a lady from a travel office who offered to change the eurocheques for us, so we were not destitute over Easter!

Today using as cash machine in Greece just as easily as at home, does make getting cash so much easier!


Post Offices
There has been a post office in Chora since my first visit to Amorgos in 1985.  Once upon a time there was a post office in Katapola, somewhere in the square behind where the new periptero is.  Some visits stamps have been on sale in Katapola.  Some shops (a different shop each time I visited!) had a "postal agency" sign.  But not now.  The last two visits I did not get up to Chora (there were no buses) and I bought no stamps.  And sent no postcards from Amorgos.

One visit there was a bus. but it arrived in Chora after the post office was shut.  On another visit I arrived in Chora when the post office was open, but was told that the postman was out delivering letters and there was no-one available to sell stamps!

I sometimes have stamps left over from a previous trip.  But the postage rate may have gone up.  Sometimes I have been sold three separate stamps to make up the price of posting one postcard.  Some of the stamps are large, and do not leave much room for your message!

My latest visit to Amorgos was in July 2011.  There were buses timed to get to Chora before the post office shut.

In the post office there was a sign explaining in several languages that stamps without a value on them cost 75 leptas and were for posting a postcard.  I bought some of these "stamps without a value".  What a good idea, I thought.  When the postage rate goes up, just charge more for the stamps - new stamps don't need to be printed; and we don't have to try and squeeze two or three stamps on the back of the postcard.  the stamps were medium sized, smaller than other stamps I have tried fitting on to the postcard.

I went back to the post office on another day to buy some more stmps.  This time the stamps had 75 lepta printed on them, and were bigger than the stamps without a value.

A backward step, I thought.  but there is one good thing about these stamps - they double up as adverts for Greece!  The design is an abstract of architectural features, and the website http://www.visitgreece.gr/  - the website of the GNTO.  The stamp without a value had a typical Greek view of steps and a door.  Now - how about merging the two - a stamp without a value and a http://www.visitgreece.gr/ url.

Update 4 August 2011

Back in England I have been reading the "Greece in Crisis" series in the Guardian.  In today's Guardian Greek tourism hit by recession but still seen as recovery hope 

On the Cycladic isle of Koufonisia tourists were left stranded last month, not because the local boat failed to show up but because its one and only cash machine at the outpost's only bank had run out of money.

Ouch!  On Amorgos I was alert to the possibility of the only cash machine in Katapola running out of money.  On an earlier visit there was a computer fault, and the cash machine was only working intermittently, and the bank staff were unable to process any other transactions because the computers were not working.  It isn't only cash for the ferry that you need, it is cash to pay for your accommodation as well as general living costs.