Peter Barber has been living in Greece for over two decades now. With his wife Alex, they share their time between their home in Evia’s Pefki village and the UK.
It’s a “new life” they’ve built together, Peter tells Neos Kosmos.
“Whether we’re in England or in Greece, we spend every day together now.
“In effect both of us have had two lives. The second one is much better.”
The couple first met in their teens, while Alex was staying in London.
“I had a part-time job in a butcher shop and Alex would walk past the shop in the morning and just smile through the window.
“We didn’t really know each other. But I got an invitation to her 16th birthday party.”
They didn’t get to interact much there.
“She didn’t speak English then and I didn’t speak Greek, obviously.”
But the mysterious Greek girl made an impression on the native Londoner.
“When I found out she’d gone back to Greece with her family, I felt something was missing.
“It was strange that we’d met just once and remembered her since.”
‘Finally agreed to allow me to marry her’
Fate knocked on their door more than 20 years later.
“We met again by accident in Watford [town northwest of London]. Not even at the same place where we’d first met.”
It was a frosty morning, and Peter was helping a young man kickstart his car.
“He invited me into his house for a coffee to warm up. It turned out he was Alex’s brother, and the absolutely incredible coincidence? Alex was there on a visit.”
They spent as much time as they could together before Alex had to go back to Greece, and soon after started a long-distance relationship, with Peter travelling every weekend to be with her.
“I would work 18 hours a day, then Thursday night I’d fly overnight to Athens and early Monday morning I’d take the flight back to England.”
It was a tiring two years, but “really worth it”, as the couple got to know each other enough to understand they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.
Or as Peter puts it laughing:
“Until Alex finally agreed to allow me to marry her.”
‘World turned into colour’ when I moved to Greece
While in London, Peter’s minimal connection to Greece came from reading mythology and a couple of holiday package tours.
“You know the typical English holiday style, where they take you to a hotel and feed you at the hotel.
“My first taste of Greek culture was when I flew to Athens for the first time to be with Alex. And then suddenly the world turned into colour.”
During a holiday trip to Greece’s second largest island, Evia, the couple fell in love with the village they live in today, Pefki.
“We found the village by accident, actually. It was so beautiful and the people so welcoming that we decided to buy land there to build our house.”
But being accepted by locals was a bumpy ride.
“For the first year or two, we were outsiders. People were very kind to us, but we were still called foreigners, both of us, me being from England and Alex although Greek she was from Athens, so still a foreigner.”
Still, their arrest over a neighbour dispute came as a shock.
“The village wasn’t sure who to believe, but everyone turned out happy because it was proved we hadn’t caused the problem we were accused of.
“There was no ill feeling, and everybody was back to normal.”
“Slowly, people started including us in everything that went on in the village. So, it was the village that chose us as residents.”
This is one of the stories found in Peter’s best-selling Greek travel books, where he documents, with humour, his experience of adapting to Greek culture.
“I started off these memoirs thanks to my marriage to Alexandra. All I’m doing with my books is narrating life here to share my joy.
“It is why I write. I see the wonder and madness of Greece, and to make it complete, I need to share it.”
Asked about the downsides of living in a country where many of its residents complain about economic hardship, corruption and concerns over the justice system, Peter says he doesn’t deny the reality of it.
Rather, he intentionally keeps it out of his books.
“Some of my writing is idealised because this is actually how I feel now.
“I don’t want to go into the politics of it and I do feel very sad about what’s happening, but I don’t dwell on that because it doesn’t do me any good.”
For Peter, 69, Greece feels “like home” .
“It has that odd magic of making you feel both relaxed and permanently involved in someone else’s business, often in the same afternoon.”
Q&A on being an ‘adopted Greek’
As a Greek village resident, do you start the day the ‘Greek village’ way i.e. with a coffee and a cigarette?
I gave up smoking 10 years, 6 months, 4 hours, and 6 minutes ago, but who is counting. Coffee, however, is still a pleasure not yet taken from me. My ideal morning is sitting in a quiet café overlooking the harbour, watching the fishing boats return. It is calm, simple, and blissful, which is the perfect state to begin writing, or delaying writing.
Least favourite aspect of life in Greece?
Greek bureaucracy deserves its own epic poem. Government offices can sometimes feel populated by people who exist purely to ruin your day, or more accurately your entire week. Greece runs on rubber stamps, photocopies, and blue ink. In fact, if Greece ever ran out of blue ink, I suspect the whole country would pause mid-sentence. Still, perhaps free-spirited people need a little administration to keep them grounded. Otherwise, the Greeks might end up ruling the world again.
Best thing about living in Greece?
Greece itself. All of it. The weather, the food, the warmth of the people, and the kindness. There is a sense of belonging that is difficult to describe until you have lived it. Greece has a way of making everyday life feel communal, colourful, and meaningful.
How do you deal with stress?
I borrow heavily from the ancient Greek philosophers, particularly the Stoics. They believed stress is not caused by events themselves, but by how we judge those events. Their advice is simple but powerful. Focus only on what you can control, accept what you cannot, and keep your inner world steady. If I cannot change a situation, then I try to change how I hold it in my mind, accept it, and move forward.