Do NOT send to MomKat big stuff or registered mail !

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

This is a parcel notice (it is tiny and a thin paper slip) from the HELLenic Post,

from the Greek post office where there is "something" waiting for me to go

and pick it up as it is not delivered to my address.

and this is a sad and frustrating story that happened today:

No mail delivery! ...really :-(

I think Greece will soon follow the way of Denmark: no postal service, period? I have come to the conclusion that there is no more mail delivery in Athens, Greece, "by postmen". 

Instead, it seems that mail is stacked up somewhere in the central post office, and when it is a large accumulated amount, maybe after three or four weeks, it will be delivered by "eFood" or the pizza guy? So do not expect a "quick" reply to mail art you may have sent here, because I will not get it for many weeks, or maybe months?

And PLEASE, never ever send "registered mail" or a book, packet, thick box of any type or size because it will not be directly delivered to my door. Instead I will be "notified" with a tiny paper ( that easily gets lost or blown away on the entrance steps)  and it will require me to find a way to get to the center "package" post office in the city center in a rather shady area of town.

 

Plus, the notice does not state "where" it is from, "who" sent it, "what" is it, "how" big or heavy it may be! and how much it might cost me in tariff, tax, customs!...

Yesterday, 23 Sept., came such a notice ( see photo...a neighbor saw the pizza boy drop it off in the evening and she was kind enough to bring it upstairs to me.) It states that I must present this paper and my Greek ID at that center office on Aiolou Street, between 12 noon and 8:30 pm, it does not say if it is a registered letter, card, small or large package...nothing. 

In fine print it does state that this notice was printed on 2 Sept 2026, but when did this post office in the city center, located far from my neighborhood, send the notice out in-the-mail to me, as it arrived 21 days later after it was first issued!

 

Aha, the lower fine print also states: "if not claimed within 20 days, the item will be return to the sender".

2 Sept to 23 Sept = 21 days, right?

 

Now a few times in the past, when we are away on a trip or vacation, or it is a holiday season, the Greek post was never too strict and kept packages, etc., for a week or more after the 20 day limit, so it was always good policy to go to the post office and try to claim it. But not today...

This 83 year old lady had to find a way at noontime , in sunny hot Athens, to get downtown to this dirty area of town, get a number, wait in line, get to a clerk, who had to hunt up the code on her computer, to turn to me and say: "it has been returned to sender"...*&*#%&*!!!

 

Grrr, well at least the postal clerk  was able to inform me that it was "from Germany".

Soooooo, was it a mail artist from Germany? Let me know if it was "you",

and expect to get the item you sent me returned to you, though not anytime soon. (maybe by Christmas???)

And please EVERYONE*:

NEVER send me packages or registered mail...

Send only simple 20 gr snail mail, postcards or standard envelope size mail, if indeed you even want to send mail art to Athens. I am seriously thinking of going "email art" ...as I am seriously ending replying with snail mail art that cost expensive postage for slow slow service and delivery...:

Why use a horse and buggy when there are automobiles, eh?

Thank you for your attention to this matter! :-)

*Long ago I informed most mail artists to send only "small" letter-size mail art to MomKat , for various reasons, one being that larger pieces are not delivered by the Greek postman. I cannot walk-the-walk, wait-the-line, carry-the-weight, to pick up at the post office anymore (I have sold the car of course) :-(

Soooooo...keep it small and light weight , good enough to be tossed-on-the-stairs :-)

Postcards and postcard size (10x15 cm) are good, but even then it will be sloooow delivery in Greece. 

[Medwolf]

wow

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Well, the stairs are Pentelic marble from the ancient Greek quarries, hahha!

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

This is how your mail art and our Greek bills are delivered "to the entrance stairs" of my apartment building...no individual mail boxes here...no "post boxes"...no postmen either! :-( sad sad sad:

[Treah Pichette]

How frustrating for you! I hope my recent send (letter size) will eventually reach you.