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VLAARDINGEN/PILION – Every Sunday Vlaardingen24: Vlaardingen in Strange! Having left Haringstad to seek their happiness elsewhere in the world, the Vlaardingers alternately find the kitchen of their lives ‘abroad’. Read the experiences of Marijke Persijn (Belgium), Cora Vlug (United States), Dick van der Pijl (France) and today Wilma Holander (Greece).

There are three weeks until the new year. They fly up as usual, without really anything. Well, if you don’t call anything a big flu. New Year’s Eve hubby caught it and a week later it started with me. We haven’t finished it yet, but we’re now moving a little more carefully than the village. I had to go to Volos today. Before Christmas, I already got new lenses on my glasses, but it didn’t work for a meter. I just saw it without glasses, so something must have gone wrong. Luckily, because of the flu, it didn’t bother me too much, but I like to see something sharper than what my eyes can see without glasses when I’m driving. Last week I received a letter from CAK with a form to submit to our health insurer as soon as possible if I still want to be covered. It all has to do with the fact that I now receive a state pension and have to pay for health insurance myself and no longer have joint insurance with my husband. It’s an urgent matter, as mail from the authorities in the Netherlands takes at least six weeks, so I don’t want to run the risk of not being insured too soon.

Now going to the Greek authorities is always an ordeal, and the national health insurance company IKA is no exception. Every year, with our booklets, citizen service numbers and passports, we have to show up at the office in Volos, where you are passed from counter to counter by disinterested staff. The queue for those counters is usually long, and if you are unlucky enough to return at the last minute, you might end up coming back the next day. In that sense, the Covid period was a relief, because suddenly everything could be arranged over the phone! But I actually had to go there in person because of the format, so I got into the car this morning with a healthy dose of reluctance, armed with baggy glasses instead of nose glasses and an extra handkerchief for the same nose.

Fortunately, the viewer had time, and after extensive measurement – both with masks! – There was a problem with the current glasses as the left eye was fine and the right eye was not. One is far-sighted, the other myopic, and astigmatic, and it is very difficult to correct the combination properly. Anyway, long story short, the distance glasses have now regained the same strength as in May 2021, and if the return trip from Volos is to be believed, we can now finally see ‘normal’ again far away. Bu. It’s about time because after a year and a half I’m getting a bit tired of fumbling around with those glasses – reading glasses, distance glasses and sunglasses. The new right lens will be in the glasses an hour later, so in that time I can go to the IKA office to deal with the next issue: adjusting and extending health insurance.

I had some trouble finding the right entrance, as hubby usually deals with this kind of business, but eventually I ended up in a huge hall with all kinds of clues about floors and departments. However, I didn’t know where to go and there was no reception, so I randomly went to the counters on the ground floor. “You should ask about Kirya Sophia,” said the husband. ‘He speaks English and is very helpful.’ Completely against my nature, but from experience, I didn’t join the queue behind the waiting people, and went straight to the unmanned counter, where I called out to the people behind the glass with my beautiful smile: ‘Can you ask me a few questions? ? I am looking for Kriya Sophia. Where can I find them?’ Lo and behold, luck was with me, for the lady in question was now rummaging through some drawers in the back desk. She was already wearing her coat, so after a while I missed her completely. An assistant behind the glass immediately called her over and together they looked at my booklets and form. Sophia disappeared with the books and the man happily told me that we were neighbors because he also lived in Kato Kusiya.

But, he went hard, I’m in the wrong place. All the files for the Gatzea region were transferred to the office in Rossou from May last year and I was welcomed there only after a telephone meeting. Trusting me that they are ‘full for today’, he showed me the form in my hand and asked anxiously if I had copied it for my home file. It seems he doesn’t have much faith in his colleagues…Meanwhile Kriya Sophia came back with a stack of papers and our booklets. The last one I got was a piece of paper with the other office’s phone number and the name of someone who worked there. “Listen to that gentleman,” said she, “and tell him Sophia sent, and you will be well.” ‘Otherwise he should call me and I know what to do.’

After a while I was out again, with no concrete results, but with the name of someone who could help me further. And… that’s the best gift you can get in the maze of Greek bureaucracy… 😉

Yiazo from Pelion,

Wilma

PS On Tuesday, January 24th at ten o’clock in the morning, you can hear me in a live interview on Radio Rijnmund, ‘Vlaardingen in den Strange’. I’m interested!