After the excitement of Turkey it was time to return to the "homeland" of Greece and see family and friends once again. It's very different when you visit a country to see family versus being a tourist - I am yet to do this with Greece and this is my fourth visit here! I have the same routine - family in Athens then family in the Zakynthos - yes I promise I will check out the rest of the islands soon!
Meanwhile lets start with Athens... I was here last time for the start of the Olympic games in 2004 when nobody thought they could pull it together in time but they did just like every country always does. This was also the same weekend that Greece made it into the grand final for the UEFA cup against Portugal and won which is every Greeks most proudest moment this last decade I think. Being in Athens then the city was alive - buzzing and I loved it! Returning after 6 years however, I found myself questioning what exactly I liked about the concrete city?! I've been dwelling on this for a few weeks now and this has resurfaced now that my sister just visited and said she couldn't wait to get out of there. SO.... I have come to this conclusion....
a) my last time in Athens I was 6 years younger when the bars and clubs of Glyfada were top of my to do list - in 2010 I found myself in a gay friendly bar on a Saturday night with my cousin and his girlfriend for a more chilled and less "to be seen evening".
b)the difference is seeing Athens through the eyes of a local versus a tourist. If you like history then you will appreciate the museums and of course the Acropolis. If you are after pretty architecture along the streets, you really need to know where to look - but it really is now a concrete jungle with everyone honking their way through the streets to get where they need to go (as with most other major cities I have visited).
This time I found everything balanced out - when there was something I didn't like such as the crap side walks with cars parked everywhere and no considerations for mum's with prams, elderly with walking sticks or frames and the disabled dont even get to leave their homes! But then this balanced out with a brilliant metro system that is super clean, efficient and so cheap (1 Euro per ride regardless of distance). I watched the Greek news one night as they showed a story about how with the economy at breaking point in Greece, Athenians are starting to think about helping thy neighbour through little gestures such as....
When you catch the metro in Athens you purchase a blank ticket that you must register in these machines before boarding on the train - it's not like Australian trains where the ticket opens the gate, you could quiet easily walk through without registering your ticket but I did see a few people get booked for not doing so. So when Athenians are doing at the moment, because the ticket is valid for 1.5 hours from when you register it, meaning you could make a return trip - at the exit they are passing the ticket to other travellers who are walking into the station or leaving them ontop of the ticket machines so people dont need to waste money buying another ticket. I know its small but its thoughtful and something a few of us in Brisbane kept doing with our parking tickets back into the machine so people didnt need to buy - pass it forward you know!
So if little things like this are starting to happen in Greece I do have hope for a country that is stricken with red tape and contradictions.
As usual with all my travels, I managed to be arriving into Athens during the heart of the economic debates and riots. Yes I saw the damage to shop-fronts, graffitti on monuments and many rallys that I even walked into without realising until I saw the riot police in their gear having a smoke watching with relaxed nerves - but nothing was that bad - dangerous I mean.
I spoke to family, friends and taxi drivers in Greece to see is it really bad as they are making out on the news and yes it is - its the GFC we just had in Australia - remember those first few months where the headlines spoke of doom and gloom and people (generally 25+yrs) started to watch where they spent and considered the bus as petrol prices got out of control. Well Greece is finally feeling this storm except due to the messed up government everyone is being impacted with the deductions coming out of their pay packet. I have friends worrying about rent next month which is something I recall feeling as a home owner a little while back when the interest rates were rocketing.
OK sorry off track - so yes its the hot topic of conversation in Greece at the moment and I did meet many people who said there's no problem at all (?). But life goes on and I still saw bars, restaurants busy, just not as full as they would usually be. Those in the tourism and hospitality sector and bracing for a quiet tourism year this year with people worried about riots, that damn volcano and the world struggling financially. Having said that my Easyjet flight from London to Athens was full and so were all planes into Zakynthos, but I'm told as many people that are coming in are leaving.
So somethings I noticed this trip that I hadn't paid much attention to previously. So lots of people or most in Athens live in apartments. In Australia your address would be a unit number followed by building number and street. In Greece it's only your building number and your name - every intercom system in Athens lists the full names of those residing in each apartment so you know which apartment to buzz or the postman knows which letter box to deliver to - privacy clearly not being at the top of the list here. So I made the comment to my girlfriend when I noticed no number on her apartment door - when I told her we dont use names she was confused as to how does the postman and friends know which one you are - numbers!
One thing I knew from last time but seems really prevalint now, is that women in Greece dont change their surnames anymore - all the apartment intercoms list the male and the females full name. I asked a few people why and they said have you seen the paperwork for divorce in Greece, so now its not so common to change your name, the children just take their father's surname.
Another interesting fact, this time about Greeks and their babies. When you have a new born baby in Greece you dont give him or her a name at the hospital, you simply call it bebe or baby until you have christened it after 40 days. Whereas the Greeks in Australia call the baby their name from the day he or she is born. So in my cousins case, they have a little girl that I will be christening in September - she will be 1 year and 9 months and still is called bebe!
This was the first time I had come to Greece so early in the year before the summer and tourists really arrived - I see why. Whilst Athens survives year round, the islands on the other hand dont have that beautiful summer sun perfect for the beach. The entire time I was there I missed out on my daily beach sleeps, instead I was wearing winter jackets and sneakers to keep warm and avoid the puddles! It's hard to imagine what life would be like of the islands outside of the summer - generally I dont think we even think that the islands could experience such depressing London like weather, but they do! But it's a different life, everyone says you hibernate during the winter then work and play in the summer - there's a concept working 6 months then relaxing 6 months!
I found myself freaking out for my family who wait for the tourists to come at the start of summer each year - it was just weird to see my little island empty and with no night atmosphere except for a few bars with English tourists getting in whilst package tours were cheap and the heat comes too.
In Athens I managed to go for a swim and jetski just a few kilometers out of town, and had my cousin not been so insistent that it wont be too cold, I dont think I would have beleived him - it was in fact perfect weather and we found the cutest little isolated pebble beach with water as flat as "lathi" (oil) as my cousin kept telling everyone.
Another favourite Athenian treat that I am now hooked on aside from the Yiros with Patates (chips) is Crepes with chocolate and fresh strawberries - mmmmm Alex my thighs thank you! On my last night in Athens we decided at around 12.30am to treat me one more time to this delicacy and took a drive which should take 20-30min but the speed that my cousin took to the freeways of Athens that evening I thought was my last day on earth. Not to mention we literally flew past a Police car on the freeway doing more than 160km p/hr and when I pointed this out to my cousin he laughed and said "dont worry they do nothing" and that they did!
One thing they are doing now though (when they can be bothered and in between smokes and frappe) is booking people (in the front only) for not wearing their seat belts - finally! So most people are paying attention and wearing them to avoid the 300 -500 Euro fine - ouch!
It was interesting to go to Greece this time as now all my cousins are basically married or with babies, so I knew this time that there would be no late night bouzoukia's - but alas thats what grandparents are for right?! And although the economic climate didnt permit for expensive nights at the bouzoukia (greek singers, live bands, dancing on tables, trays of carnations, bottles of Johnnie and leaving in time for breakfast) we still managed to visit a few bars on the island that were packed with "youngsters" who clearly thought they were posing for Vogue magazine much to my amusement when I would remind my cousin they are in a village!
One thing I have noticed this time and I'm not sure if its the economic situation, but everyone works and eats ridiculously late now. I just dont remember my cousins working so late previously, now they are starting at 9 till 10.30pm, sometimes later then having full steak dinners at 11.30pm!!
This was also the first time I managed to get my hands on a car for my stay in Zakynthos so managed to do some exploring around the island and found little villages that looked like they were out of Tuscany!! A lot of English tourists are buying houses on the island and restoring them as their annual holiday homes - the sheer number of them walking into my friends store attempting to speak Greek and purchase their groceries astounded me!
Also this time the once Albanian refugees that Greece were trying to rid are now accepted and well integrated into the community. There is definately still a stigma attached to being Albanian, but its quiet common now for the mix marriages between Greeks and Albanians who have learnt the language and appear to be happy calling Greece their new home. Instead in Athens in particular, but all over Greece there is a major influx of male African refugees from the likes of Sudan, Mali and Somalia - if you want Loui Vuitton handbags, purses, sunnies etc Athens side walks are the place to be! The police occassionally harass them but it appears they are trying to be tolerant. My gut feeling is that the Greeks are a little scared of the sheer number of them pouring in from Africa and also Afghanistan and India. It appears the Indians and Afghanis are cleaning car windows, selling tissues and this sticky goo ball and have left the designer goods and DVDs to the Africans.
The thing that got me the most is their grasp of the Greek language as one African guy accosted me to buy some bags from him in Greece saying to help him out. I hope things settle and on goods terms they too can be accepted and call Greece home as most of them have had a tough life and time to make it all the way to Greece.
One place I always visit in Zakynthos and means a lot to me is the church of St Dionysios - the island patron saint whose body is mummified and brought out on the 24th Aug each year for a major festival. The church is infact a monestary so photos inside are not permitted but I just love to go in and sit and make my wishes to St Dionyssios. It's very sentimental to me especially since it's my fathers island and the saint which he is also named after. Every visit I never fail to purchase too many St Dionyssios icons for home! I also love to go up to a special village where my father is from and my grandparents are buried to pay my respects and sit and observe the island below. This time whilst I was cleaning the grave the caretaker came over to tell me that her grandmother and my grandmother were sisters - I love family trees and small village life!
So my stay in Greece wasnt touristy, I observed alot of things I perhaps was too young previously to notice and I spent quality time with my family and their families eating copious amounts of food that I thought was mains but was only entrees! I'll be back there in September so hopefully I can catch the last of the summer sun before its winter once more.
Next blog... Morocco
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