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8 July 2015, 08:05
Many years ago I had a fortnights holiday in Greece. Spent a week in Athens and then a week on one of the islands.
From an historical angle I was totally fascinated by everything I saw. To see all this stuff in the raw was really good.
Obviously had to travel by boat to the island. While on the boat I noticed that the attitude of the everyday folk towards me, and those I was with, had changed somewhat. In fact one of the locals actually spat on me when I was talking to one of the crew on board. English is a second language in Greece and very many locals can understand you.
We later found out that the Greek Colonels had been overthrown and that, seemingly, if you spoke English then it was very likely that one was taken as American and your popularity rating had hit rock bottom because the Americans had been supporting the Colonels. There was, apparently, a huge Military base on the mainland somewhere. It became necessary for us to establish that we were English and on Holiday and therefore not the 'enemy'.
I came away from this experience with very mixed feelings, it has to be said.
My overall feeling was that here was an economy that really had nothing to back it up - tourism and a few boats seemed to be all that there was. As long as someone provided the cash to keep it all going then everything was fine - bring on the ouzo and let's have a good time.
It would appear that the time has come for someone to dig deep and start paying for this lifestyle.
From an historical angle I was totally fascinated by everything I saw. To see all this stuff in the raw was really good.
Obviously had to travel by boat to the island. While on the boat I noticed that the attitude of the everyday folk towards me, and those I was with, had changed somewhat. In fact one of the locals actually spat on me when I was talking to one of the crew on board. English is a second language in Greece and very many locals can understand you.
We later found out that the Greek Colonels had been overthrown and that, seemingly, if you spoke English then it was very likely that one was taken as American and your popularity rating had hit rock bottom because the Americans had been supporting the Colonels. There was, apparently, a huge Military base on the mainland somewhere. It became necessary for us to establish that we were English and on Holiday and therefore not the 'enemy'.
I came away from this experience with very mixed feelings, it has to be said.
My overall feeling was that here was an economy that really had nothing to back it up - tourism and a few boats seemed to be all that there was. As long as someone provided the cash to keep it all going then everything was fine - bring on the ouzo and let's have a good time.
It would appear that the time has come for someone to dig deep and start paying for this lifestyle.