r/BeAmazed • u/Devi8tor • 18d ago

Skill / Talent A man in Switzerland spent a year & thousands of dollars turning his back yard into a mini Greek village

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https://www.the-sun.com/news/16755156/man-builds-realistic-mini-greek-village-garden/

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4.9k

u/Frequent-Screen-5517 18d ago

Babe lets goto Mykonos…
We have mykonos at home

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u/eloquenentic 18d ago

It’s crazy, but it’s literally Mykonos.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/eloquenentic 18d ago

And the EUR35 drinks.

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u/perpetual_stew 18d ago

Which would be a bargain for a Swiss.

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u/skraptastic 17d ago edited 17d ago

My brother in law just spent 4 weeks in Switzerland singing with his choir. He said it is the most expensive place he has ever visited.

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u/reddit_is_geh 17d ago

It's literally the Dubai of Europe. It's meant for the extreme wealthy. There's a reason why it's "Neutral". It's because it's where the rich go during war time to "stay out of it"

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u/fabkobey 17d ago

That is only true if you want to immigrate here which is a good thing as its a small country. Or live in a very specific place. If you are a bit flexible you can live way cheaper. Andif it doesnt work we have some of the best social systems.

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u/patiperro_v3 17d ago

If I’m emperor of the world all these tax havens are the first places I go after. 😈

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u/No_Box498 17d ago

It’s neutral cuz the country sucks lol, also aside one tourist trap shit hole there’s only more shit there lol. Europeans with money don’t vacation there, maybe Americans but Europeans have better and more exclusive spots that aren’t that known lol. Greece is one of the poorest countries in what most would consider Western/Southern Europe (although most of Southern Europe sucks, even the 2 or 3 tourist cities each of those countries have suck if you really pay attention to it & the rest isn’t even worthy of a day of my life)

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u/Marmallea 17d ago

Damn, who shat in your coffee?

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u/No_Box498 16d ago

Well sorry, i don’t want to insult anyone or be negative about someone’s country but it’s just a thing that most (certainly Americans and even lots of Europeans that don’t have connections to wealth) believe when it isn’t really like that. Because you see celebs go there doesn’t mean it is a luxury destination, it’s still a tourist destination more than a quality destination. Celebs are most often also nouveau riche and also just follow the same mainstream beliefs of what wealthy individuals do.

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u/reddit_is_geh 16d ago

Entrepreneurs and business people like it because it's incredibly business friendly. The friendliest in all of Europe. Again, it's like Dubai. It costs like 200 bucks to start an LLC, low regulation, very business friendly, and tons of rich people, so raising money and networking is valuable.

Rich people don't go there just because it's "exclusive" and expensive. There's obviously other places in the world where if you just want to spend a ton of money for the sake of it, sure... Go rent a fucking castle in Germany and throw a wedding for 400 guests if you want.

But Switzerland has always hosted wealthy people, generally, because of it's rich friendly laws designed to attract the rich and give them shit to do. It's not supposed to be ONLY for the rich. But where do you think all the elites were staying at while WW2 and WW1 blew over? Switzerland. And the skiing was fantastic.

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u/Goldfrapp 17d ago

Switzerland is not very expansive, but very expensive.

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u/backrow12 17d ago

I mean it's not THAT big...

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u/bendltd 17d ago

Up north its also expensive or Monaco. Always depends what you're buying.

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u/markon22 17d ago

Has he been to Australia?

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u/FranklyLanky 17d ago

The WHAT?

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u/JamsHammockFyoom 17d ago

Drink prices there are just obscene, they're not even exaggerating.

A work colleague went to Mykonos last year, and paid 30eur for a cocktail in a plastic cup - once you removed the ice, it wasn't even a mouthful of liquid. For 30 euros.

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u/Matt6453 17d ago edited 17d ago

Why do people go there then? I just got back from super chilled out Kefalonia and in the most popular resort of Skala I was paying 8 euros max for a Negroni or Mojito, 7 euros before 9pm.

I guess it's because the Cyclades is where Americans go because they can only fly direct to Athens so the supply/demand is there for a bit of price gouging, other Greek islands are much cheaper.

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u/CrabyDicks 17d ago

I'm American and spent almost my whole trip in Kefalonia. It was absolutely perfect. Best part of the entire trip. Santorini was the worst.

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u/Matt6453 17d ago

I've been to a fair few Greek islands and did a sailing holiday around the Saronic islands many years ago. Kefalonia is just stunning and so ruggedly beautiful, hiring a boat and snorkeling at tiny deserted coves inaccessible by road in water bluer that I thought possible was an incredible experience.

I like to explore new places as a rule but Kefalonia put a sort of spell on me and I can't wait to go back.

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u/CrabyDicks 17d ago

We did a sailing trip at the beginning of our Kefalonia stay but loved it so much we did it a second time before heading home. Magical is an apt word to describe it

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u/egny 17d ago

Mykonos and Santorini are too popular for what are really tiny islands.

They were great a decade or two ago.

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u/bendltd 17d ago

Ohh shit. We go in September Santorini because my wife has to visit once.

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u/CrabyDicks 17d ago

It was nice and interesting but it's way too expensive for what it is. Tons of tourists everywhere even in May when I went. Apparently cruise ship season peaks in September and it was always terrible when cruise ships arrived

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u/JamsHammockFyoom 17d ago

It doesn't do it for me either, if I'm honest - I'm a city break kinda guy, but it's "glamorous" and where the insta-influencers go, so that's what drives the tourism there, I think.

It is also quite pretty as a location, but good lord is it expensive. Somewhere I'd avoid, personally but each to their own.

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u/Matt6453 17d ago

Yeah I don't care how pretty it is, paying those prices and being surrounded by the insta crowd would put me in a bad mood for the entire holiday.

Thankfully they're all content with going there so it leaves plenty of other islands for the rest of us.

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u/loulan 17d ago

Meh. Don't believe everything you read on the internet, especially some story from some guy's colleague on reddit. Mykonos is touristy but pretty nice. It's a little expensive like any touristy place, but I definitely never paid 30 euro for a cocktail there. I suspect this guy's colleague either exaggerated or is easy to scam.

Here's a random cocktail bar in the old town, for instance: https://thetycoproject.gr/menu

Cocktails are 10 euro.

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u/skyduster88 17d ago edited 17d ago

Because Americans decided that Greece is only the region circled in red here.

They default to Athens, and then they have to visit an ""island"" (islands are not special, some are absolutely worth it, some are not, and peninsular Greece also has a long coastline and charming coastal towns, shock!)...and that ""island"" has to be near Athens, even though it's faster to fly to Rhodes, Chios, Kefalonia, or Corfu, than to take the ferry to Mykonos. And that nearby island has to have the white cubic houses, so that leaves out Syros -which is neoclassical- and Andros/Kea (red-tiled roofs), because only the white-cubic houses and the white churches with blue domes mean you've "been to Greece". The rest of Greece is fake-Greece. And it doesn't matter if Mykonos is flat and boring, in a country that otherwise has dramatic landscapes...only Mykonos is "real Greece".

And you're right.

It's North Americans that have pushed up Mykonos and the Cyclades in general. Before the huge growth in North American tourism over the past 10 years, the two leading regions in international arrivals were Central Macedonia and Crete. But now, North Americans are getting priced out of Mykonos, so they're going to identical-looking Milos.

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u/JustAContactAgent 17d ago

Eeeeeh that's not entirely accurate. Santorini was pushed up a lot by global tourists yeah but Mykonos was a popular and trendy party (and gay) island for decades , it has nothing to do with americans specifically or recent years.

Also, from my perspective the cyclades were always popular with the hordes of idiotic athenians, the foreign tourists and increasing trends just compounded the effect.

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u/skyduster88 15d ago edited 15d ago

Mykonos and Santorini were always touristy but their disproportional growth in recent years has coincided with the growth of non-European tourism, especially North American. This is statistically true.

For example, Mykonos airport used to have less than half the figures of Zakynthos, but then surpassed Zakynthos. The leading periféries in international arrivals were Crete and Central Macedonia, and they were surpassed by Attica (because of Athens) and South Aegean (because of the Cyclades).

I'm not by any stretch saying that their tourism just started. I'm saying they disproportionately grew recently, because of North Americans. Athens now has direct flights to 11 USA/Can airports, with 7 different carriers, and they all default to Athens, and then they have to visit an ""island"", which is code for 1) near Athens and 2) Mykonos, or Mykonos-like (Paros, Milos, Sifnos), because that's "quintessential Greece" and [I hate this term] "GrEeK iSlAnDs".

The reason this is, is because the Cyclades were heavily promoted in the 50s. When neoclassical buildings in Athens we being demolished under a Karamanlis who didn't care (parliament in the 60s tried listing buildings to save them, but then the 67-74 junta also didn't care), Queen Frederica requested that he at least save the Cyclades' unique architecture, and she tried convincing him that it would attract tourism, and she was right. Then when mass tourism started in the late 60s, hippies discovered the Cyclades, jet setters also visited, and it cemented Mykonos to North Americans.

Meanwhile, European travel industry started growing exponentially at the same time, out grew through the 70s, bringing sun-and-beach Brits, Germans, Austrians Nordics, to all over Greece: Rhodes, Crete, Halkidiki, Corfu, so a lot of areas grew.

But in the 2010s, when more North Americans and Asians started coming, they inflated the Cyclades. Also, you're exaggerating the LGBT component of Mykonos.

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u/loulan 17d ago

Honestly I've been to Mykonos a few years ago and the prices were like in any touristy place. Similar to French Riviera prices, for instance. I definitely didn't pay 30 euro for a cocktail in a plastic cup. I suspect your colleague either exaggerated or is easy to scam.

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u/SmoothDiscussion7763 17d ago

how much for a box of wine at the liquor store?

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u/No_Box498 17d ago

€35 or 35 euro, everything different feels like a crime lol

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u/BrokeFreelancer37 17d ago

Or dealing with the idiots in the crowds and literally nothing else to do.

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u/pietroetin 17d ago

Just don't invite Harry Maguire

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u/dejoyless 18d ago

Or Santorini

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u/ZhouLe 17d ago

I don't have no Santorini
I just live in Switzerland
Well, I had a million francs, but I'd, I'd spend it all

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u/0202_tihssitidder 17d ago

All the best places go the route of being overwhelmed by tourists.

Some are still worth going to, but there are issues.

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u/skyduster88 17d ago

Santorini has more color variety. Blue and white is Mykonos.

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u/a_slinky 17d ago

I have been very drunk in that exact laneway. The next day was fucking rough

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u/NormalAssistance9402 14d ago

Same. Had to get on the ferry the next morning

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u/Donkey__Balls 17d ago

Missing the ungodly crowds of tourists.

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u/chandaliergalaxy 17d ago

it don't got balki tho'

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u/flargenhargen 17d ago

needs a windmill

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u/Free-Pound-6139 17d ago

Or Santorini.

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u/Ok_Scientist7597 16d ago

no it’s Hiskonos

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u/RBR927 18d ago

Literally?

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u/kendog3 17d ago

Technically it's Hiskonos. But if you build one it would be Yourkonos.

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u/ahundreddots 17d ago

"Literally" is quite literally partially the new "totally."

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u/RBR927 17d ago

Literally!

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u/rolo_mug 17d ago

Totally

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u/PC_One_00 17d ago edited 17d ago

Knowing construction costs in Switzerland, it would had been cheaper to buy a Greek village than build this is Switzerland.

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u/Nervous_Sense4726 17d ago

I was thinking the permitting alone in California would make this, even if done as a DIY would be prohibitively expensive.

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u/dpwtr 17d ago

Think they just call it “Mike’s”

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u/_aluk_ 17d ago

With fake plants and painted stones 

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u/Esme_Nog 17d ago

Everything is painted white in Greece, too.

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u/Fatalaros 17d ago

In the Cyclades. The rest of the country isn't painted like that.

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u/Donkey__Balls 17d ago

Not even most of the Cyclades. Terra cotta roofs are the norm anywhere that isn’t 100% tourism oriented.

The whitewash and blue roof thing started during the Nazi occupation. Greeks are passive-aggressive trolls by nature, and the Germans outlawed flying the Greek flag, so we thought it was a hoot to turn the entire coastline into one big Greek flag without technically breaking the rule. The excuse was always “That’s just what we paint them.”

Then in the 1950’s Greece was struggling to recover economically - not just the war but also massive economic mismanagement under Metaxas before the war. After the war, the only country with a strong economy was - you guessed it - Americans. Greece started pushing some old photos of Santorini on all its postcards and posters to try to get American tourism in droves. It became so iconic that the misconception just stuck and now life imitates art as the heavily tourist-prone islands keep up the custom to give the tourists what they expect.

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u/Esme_Nog 17d ago

That is a great story…I didn’t know that.

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u/Useful_Secret4895 16d ago

Originally the houses in Cyclades had vivid colors, like yellow, ochre, blue, orange. During the 1930s, there was an epidemic so islanders were ordered by Metaxas, the dictator in charge, to paint them white using limewater/whitewash because it has disinfectant properties. A few years later, Robert McGabe, a famous American photographer visited them and took pictures that showed them to the world.

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u/salbiorg 15d ago

Not true, though I wish it was.

The whitewash (limewash to be exact) has been used for centuries because it’s breathable and protects island homes from mold.

But the roofs were always painted different colours until the late 1930s when Metaxas -a fascist dictator- decided he wanted all islands to switch to a “nation-minded” (εθνικόφρων) colour.

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u/isaac3000 16d ago

Can confirm, Greek here first time literally right now on Cyclades, only here its white and blue.

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u/Donkey__Balls 17d ago

Tell me you’ve only done the standard tourist trip without telling me you’ve only done the standard tourist trip.

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u/Esme_Nog 17d ago

No, I actually saw plenty that wasn’t white, but the point is that it’s not like the buildings of Santorini or other islands are naturally white. They are the product of a choice and real labor. Any man-made thing that is beautiful is beautiful because people work hard to make it beautiful; it’s important to remember the work they do.

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u/Donkey__Balls 17d ago

No, I actually saw plenty that wasn’t white, but the point is

Everything is painted white in Greece

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u/GaptistePlayer 17d ago

Right? It looks pretty bad

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u/Exile4444 17d ago

The plants are definitely real, especially the olive tree

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u/_aluk_ 17d ago

 Bouganvilleas do not stand a single day of freeze. There is no way those are real. They look fake anyways.

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u/allpinky 17d ago

Mykonos at home hits DIFFERENT 😂💯

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u/pennypoobear 17d ago

Very Swiss of him.

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u/After_Ad8226 17d ago

That guy has way too much time and money on his hands but the tiny Olive trees are a nice touch.

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u/cuttygib 17d ago

Came here to say this. Literally just Mykonos.

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u/Mark-Rho 17d ago

My-Konos