Back to Greece, after a long time (almost 2 years), and i realize that some things never change. For example:

The bad

• The drive to Ioannina still sucks. I have used the so-called national road some times now, and i still have to wonder, why the hell do we call this piece of shit road a national road? Lousy asphalt, semi-decent signs, no lights and a million and one turns
• Greeks still smoke everywhere and at evert given chance, no matter how many laws i read about (last update i have is that the anti-smoking law was postponed again). Since it’s summer and we can sit outside it does not bother me that much, but still
• The traffic. I know i am bitching now, but i have forgotten how lousy the traffic was. And i am not even talking about Athens, i am talking about a small city (Ioannina) where everyone still thinks that it’s OK to drive on pedestrian roads, park wherever you feel like it and stop in the middle of the road to “just getting something from the kiosk, don’t panic”
• On one of the largest / most crowded streets of Ioannina (street called Dodonis), there are 3 major buildings: City hall, Court house and the Prefecture hall. When on ALL three of them you see graffiti with lines as “Kill the cops”, “Say no to army”, “Strike now”, etc, you get the feeling that nobody gives a damn about how the city looks like. And obviously, those are the most outrageous examples, the whole city is full of posters, graffiti and no sign of cleanness
• Greek TV still sucks balls. A quick zapping through Greece’s major TV channels demonstrated that either we like old thinks, or we don’t produce anything new. Most of the TV channels (MEGA, Antenna) were re-running old Greek shows (Dio ksenoi, Kafe tis Xaras, etc)

The good

• Economic crisis my ass. The roads (Preveza to Ioannina) and in Ioannina are full of SUVs, expensive BMWs and fast streek bikes (over 750cc of course). This is definitely NOT the image of a country which is deep in economic crisis
• At 00:30 i had to go into town to find something to eat. Besides the fact that ALL the places i drove by were full, with people drinking, listening to music and having a good time, i also had a thousand and one options on where to eat. Burgers, pizza, souvlaki (Greek junk), pastry shops, everything was open and serving people, something that i definitely have missed in Stockholm
• People seemed to be more polite. I was addressed in plural in shops (this is the proper way in Greece, but again this might be happening cause i am getting older), the service was fast and even the taxi driver almost forced me to get a receipt
• Pita gyros (Greek souvlaki) is still the best junk food around, no matter what!

The uber

I was very happy to see that Liakopoulos is still around. Apparently his best-selling series “Ο καιρός γαρ εγγύς” (Translation: the time is near) has come to an end (a fact that means that the time came, and i missed it while in Sweden) and now he is promoting his new masterpiece “Ο Πολέμαρχος γαρ εγγύς” (translation: the warlord is coming), which from the little i gathered, claims that Alexander the Great is still alive, and he will re-appear to put God’s plan for Greeks into action

Apart from his new fixation with Alexander the Great, all the other masterpieces of the show where there. “Greeks rule and we just take a break now”, “Nefelim are the bad guys”, and the epic “Φέρε την κάμερα σε μένα” (translation: point the camera back to me)

Seriously though, i will try to order some of the book,s just for the heck of it…