We are staying in a hotel which provides breakfast which is frankly not great with John opting for Cocoa Puffs and toast. I tried what I thought was yogurt but suspect that it was some sort of runny cream cheese. They have HUGE pots of jam. There are 3 or 4 of these and they must be a gallon each. Good news though...coffee with refills.
Headed out on Sunday to find one of those ‘hop on...hop off’ buses and found not one but two. We got a two day pass and did the first complete circuit to get the lay of the land. The heat on the top of the bus was extreme. We were both dripping within minutes of boarding but persisted for an hour and a half.
We headed back to the hotel to cool off and recuperate. I had a nap and John went on a further recon trip of the neighbourhood. Later, figuring it was much cooler, I went along to visit the streets. I was dismayed by the level of decay visible everywhere. Our hotel is off Omonia Square which is the cross roads to 6 major streets in Athens so is it in no way the bad part of town (which has not been true for all the hotels we have stayed at). So it was sad to see, people with their goods spread out on the ground. Every type of thing you can imagine: underpants, bras, socks, sunglasses, toys some of which looked like their own possessions ... all cheap and awful. There are signs everywhere that the economy is in really a bad state.
Early in May, the Greek government announced debt reduction programs which included reduction of services and compensation and benefits to civil servants. There had been a very large protest to these cuts with an estimated 30 – 50,000 marching on Syntagma Square. As part of this protest, a bank was fire bombed and 3 people including a pregnant woman were killed. While on the bus, we saw the bank which still has faded and wilted flower tributes at least 4 feet deep. This exacerbated their situation as tourists are staying away in droves. Reading on the Net, the day after this protest, 5,800 rooms were cancelled in Athens by tourists and convention organizers.
We wondered quite a distance from the hotel and got to an area where it appeared a flea market was being held. John wanted to visit what he thought was a memorial in a fenced off park but I was quite uncomfortable as there was evidence of people sleeping in the park and two or three single men were inside. I was a single woman in Vancouver and learnt to trust my instincts so I opted out of this side trip. After a bit of discussion (any my refusing to go) John agreed with this decision.
Police and military personnel but this may be enhanced by the fact that our hotel is next to the main Athens’ police station.
There is a picture of the formal military guards who stand guard at the Parliament on Syntagma Square and the official residences. They have a distinctive march and style of dress. The uniform's kilt has 400 pleats; one for each year of Turkish occupation. There are varying levels of complexity of uniform as the most complicated style take over 80 days to make. The barracks have professional presses and each solider is required to maintain their dress to an impeccable standard. While on guard, they are not permitted to move so there is someone tasked to wipe the sweat off their faces. This must be incredibly difficult as it has been hot with minimal clothes never mind layers of wool.
Walking back, we were looking for dinner when John noticed the police arresting someone on the street. The other policeman ran around the corner and started searching the contents of a garbage can. This was only the start of the evening’s entertainment. Within 10 minutes, we saw 30 or so motorcycle cops and a bunch of police cars congregating in front of us and then down a side street. Remember all those folks with their stuff spread on the ground? They scooped up their stuff which is usually on a large cloth so they just grabbed the corners and scattered like cockroaches into the night. There was yelling and squealing tires. Dragging John away, we went to our room which is only about ½ block away. We told the desk clerk about what we had seen. He speculated that it could be about stolen goods; some of which could be on those blankets on the ground?? From our room, we could see the cars driving around the block, see the police lights and the street hawkers gathering and scattering two more times. Then we hear 4 gunshots and more yelling. Two things of interest: only a few people in the apartments in the neighbourhood come out to see what the fuss was about and the police never blocked off the entrances to this side street. Both ends were visible to us and regular traffic continued throughout this incident. Could not drag John off the balcony until he was certain nothing else was going to happen. Claimed it was better than Coronation Street.
Interesting times for the Greeks. Tomorrow we are off to see the Acropolis and, depending on the heat, a couple of other sites.
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