Athens

Above: The route we took from Samos to Athens

We were warned before entering Greece about the significant levels of racism there. Our host Eleni confirmed those rumors. A keen follower of left wing politics since the 80s, she told us how the Greek Nazis received 7% of the votes in the last election - way too many. Asian immigrants have settled in Greece hoping for a better life and unfortunately they have been subject to much abuse and physical attacks over the last 2 years, "There are incidents where nationalists have entered an immigrant neighbourhood and threatened to destroy the local shop if the business doesn't shut down within a week, and they kept their word. There was another situation where nationalists wanted a particular park to be closed to non-Greeks." Such stories of apartheid like politics are worrying, but what was really frightening was when it came to light that the police complied with the nationalists by deliberately turning a blind eye to such violent incidents. Things came to a head last year when a Greek singer was somehow killed amongst the violence, tensions have since calmed.

Maybe it was all in our head, but we felt people looked at us like some sort of museum exhibit while we were on the ferry across the Greek islands. One man asked us in passing where we are from, when we said UK he just walked off. No conversation, no hello, nothing. When we entered Athens we were put off by a few things. 70% of the population smoke and there are a surprisingly large number of strip clubs and adult stores throughout the city.

So we weren't expecting to meet some of the kindest people we have encountered on our trip in Athens, but that is exactly what happened! Eleni and Kyriakos really went out of their way to make us feel welcome. Kyriakos embarrassed us with his kindness. He picked us up from the city centre, paid for drinks and snacks, showed us around the centre of Athens, arranged our onward transport and dropped us off at the bus station . We were no where near that safe at 23 years old, in fact we still aren't! I'm looking forward to attempting to return the favor when him and his girlfriend Constantina come to the UK in October.

From left: Constantina, Kyriakos

Eleni gave up her room for us to sleep in, let us borrow her car and guided us on hike around Imitos hill, on the outskirts of Athens. 

Her house was full of wayfarers while we were there. There was Rusgard, a Turkish man who is cycling from Istanbul to Amsterdam via Athens. We had Suranga, a Sri-Lankan who has been raised in Italy. Film maker, on the way from Italy to Sri Lanka via... wait for it... Afghanistan. And there was Clara from the Czech Republic, a yoga teacher travelling from Sri Lanka (coincidence). It was our pleasure to cook for everyone while we were there, even if it was a bit too gingery :-)

From left: Rosgard, Suranga, Eleni, Clara

It was really interesting to here first hand about post financial collapse Greece through Eleni.

With a population of 10 million, we were surprised to learn that half of that is based in Athens alone. Eleni explained, "In the 60s / 70s many Greek people moved out of the countryside into the city. Now the trend has reversed as rising unemployment is driving people back to agriculture." Unemployment is high at around 30% but in Greece the state provides financial help for one year only - even if you have children. After that people are left to fend for themselves which usually means seeking support from family and friends. This kind of works as the older generation have good (albeit reduced) pensions, they can support the 30+ year olds. When today's children grow up they won't have the same privilege as their parents are not working now. Eleni is losing hope, "every year we think it could get better but it is only getting worse." Desperation easily leads to corruption, we learnt that it is common practice in Greece for doctors to take underhand payments on top of medical insurance payouts to perform operations.

As the Greek economy doesn't really produce anything, I asked what schemes the government is proposing to alleviate the crisis. "The idea is to invest in tourism, to build large casinos and tourist accommodation. They are have also reduced the minimum wage by 20%. The government wants to attract foreign investors by providing cheap labour." Eleni doesn't like the ideas, "they are going to destroy everything that made Greece beautiful." Once we started talking about IMF payouts to boost the economy, we got onto the subject of world banks and the money printing monopoly. I don't know if I will write a blog on this topic as it is something I do not fully understand but as far as I see it it is the most extensive global injustice that remains un-noticed by everyday people.

Below: wild turtle on our hike

Panorama of Athens from Imitos hill