Greece - September 2010

The last time I was in Greece was April 1967. It was entirely coincidence that I happened to be there on the 21st when the military coup de etat
overthrew King Constantine & began 11 miserable years in the always turbulent history of that nation. I was young and as you can see, I was so concerned about the "ugly American" that I travelled constantly dressed as in the photo with my hired guide at the (then) entrance to the Acropolis. I loved the Acropolis, Parthenon & the surrounding ruins and area. I wish I had never gone back. The new museum is lovely. I am sure they had to change the tiny and dusty road that lead to the site to accomodate parking the huge number of tour busses. The new sidewalk leading to the site is nice. I can even accept the ugly fact that they cut into the hill so that taxi cabs can drive nearly right up to the Stoa at the top. What I cannot accept is the complete massacre of such a beautiful place. There used to be three structures (those which you usually see photos of) that were partial, but substantial with a lot of unsorted pillars and pieces all over the grounds along with some very partial buildings. Now, a wooden walkway (ugly) has been cut in next to the Stoa as the new entrance. Once on the site, there is a crane inside of the parthenon where they are attempting to reconstruct one long wall. There is a vast amount of construction material all over. The top of the hill has been wiped clean of all but the three buildings so that what formerly seemed like a nice village with ancient debris all around, now is a bleak, empty and cold construction site. It is so hideous that I would say don't bother going up - look at the postcards and save your money. Of course, many people love the view of Athens from there and that has not changed, and the ruins around the Plaka area are still worthwhile, but the Acropolis at this time is ruined.

I had read about the old Athens cemetery which is celebrated for its sculpture & setting and found my way over there. I then wished that I had skipped the Acropolis entirely and spent the extra time there. The sculpture is the most extensive I have ever seen in the grandest assemblage of trees you can imagine. I have seldom seen trees as beautiful as those in Greece. During the entire trip I was admiring them and then I saw them mixed with white sculpture in unusually fine condition often with pussy cats sprawled or posing on biers. Many people cannot stand any cemetery, but for those who can, this is a must in Athens.

Later I met a dog who seemed to bear the entire worries of his nation about the possibility of defaulting on their bonds. He was so beautiful that I shot him several times.

I enjoyed being back in Athens and Greece. When I was first there I developed a nasty distrust of all Greeks as they cheated me at every opportunity. But I have observed that as nations become more affluent, they tend to diminish that sort of behaviour. Now - much to my astonishment - prices and fares (often shows as "taxi fairs") are written everywhere & people were never even disguising matters. Athens certainly has its problems. It has the very worst graffitti mess I have ever seen and that is saying something - the entire city is defaced. I saw about 20 people shooting up heroin simultaneously. It seemed as tho a delivery of it had been made and all of them were obsessed with stabbing themselves with needles. On the other hand, the subway is far more advanced, and larger than Toronto (admittedly we did not join the EU & get billions, nor host the olympics & waste billions). The tram system is new and busses are so frequent you really seldom need a taxi or to rent a car. Certainly the political atmosphere is electrically charged to say the least. There are constant demonstrations. There are riot police everywhere in in crowds at odd places. At night in central Athens, a large group of African men capture the sidewalks and lay out thousands of (stolen & hijacked - new) purses for sale. One night I saw the riot police wave their guns and tell them all to clear out - now. The Africans collected their goods in the sheets they use for a sidewalk cloth and to move their goods, and walked around mystified & confused about what to do next. But the riot police don't play games and the Africans soon got the message and moved out of sight for the night.

The Greeks were always friendly and generous with their time and assistance. I found that the men were the most kind and especially men over 50 years almost always had something intelligent and useful to say and were never in a hurry. They wanted to talk about something and wanted to say it well and clearly. There is no doubt that all Greeks were far more polite, interesting and friendly than people in Toronto these days.