Στο ταχυδρομειο

With Christmas approaching, I needed to brave the post office or ταξυδρομιο. Hania post office has an electronic ticketing and queuing system, but it seems that people periodically take handfuls of tickets during the day on the off chance they will need the post office, so you can never really guess how long you will be.

My number was about 40 off the pace when I picked it, and this time I ended up waiting for 25 minutes. That, of course, allows you get very nervous about trying to use your Greek.

"Καλιμερα, προς Αγγλια" I burbled when I got to the desk, the equivalent of barging into a British Post Office and, with your best 'Allo 'Allo accent bellowing "Good morning towards Greece?" whilst waving a letter with ΗΕΛΛΑΣ written on it.

The clerk understood though - but I wanted stamps for more than one card.

"Και ικοσσι?" I added. "And twenty?"

Whereupon the clerk did the only thing she could do when faced with my determined mangling of her mother tongue....resort to her perfectly fluent English:

"Wow! Twenty? So many friends! Now, you need to put two stamps on every envelope..."

Oh well, at least I tried.

Comments

[Kat]

LOL, I don't know why I thought that was funny, but I did.