Over the past few months, several colleagues have asked me about visiting Greece this summer for vacations. The questions ranged from “Should we go to Greece, is it safe?” to “Where in Greece should we go?”

Since i have been away from Greece for almost 1.5 years, my answer was: “Let me go first, since i am taking my vacations at the start of July, and when i come back i will let you know”

So, i have been to Greece, for a week, came back, and now i am ready to answer. And my answer is:

Don’t visit Greece

or let me rephrase this

Don’t even consider visiting Greece

Here are some good reasons

Greece is expensive

For a country with such low salaries, it is amazing how expensive goods / services are. Let me illustrate my point with an example. We took our vacation at Ioannina (a city in the western part of Greece). Quite close to Ioannina is Dodoni, which besides behind one of the most famous ancient oracles / theaters, is also the place where the factory that produces my favorite feta cheese is located (we are talking like 20 km here). Now, for some inexplicable reason, the feta cheese “Dodoni” is more expensive at a super market at Ioannina than it is at a super market in Stockholm. Go figure…

Another example: We visited a park, which had a playground in it (so that Alexander can enjoy his favorite hobby, have a swing). A kiosk in this park was selling coffee and orange juice. Now, paying 5 euro for an orange juice, at a random kiosk at Ioannina seems a bit lame

And the final blow: When watermelons are more expensive in a Greek super market than they are in a Swedish super market, you know that something is seriously fucked up!

Are you sure you will get there?

One the key requirements of visiting Greece is the ability to actually get there. I know that it sounds trivial, but trust me, nothing is trivial when it comes to Greece and strikes. And boy, do we have strikes this summer…

Background in a nutshell: Greece’s economy is shit, and therefore we asked help from the EU (European Union) and the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Those guys were “happy” to help, but they will only help if they can impose their terms and that basically means that the Greek government now needs to actually “fix” all that crap that led the Greek economy to suck donkey’s ass. Most of the terms have a direct impact on the income of people employed by the state and therefore almost every division of the public sector is on strike (or has been, or plans to be). So keeping that in mind, let’s see how this affects a visit to Greece

Airplane: This is the proffered and most often utilized mean of getting to Greece. Unfortunately the air traffic controllers are on strike and therefore your flight may never land in Greece or even worst, your flight may land but then may not be able to depart from Greece. The funny thing here is that the air traffic controllers are not on a regular strike but on a “white strike“. I am not sure if such a thing exists in any other country, but i will try to explain what this is. Apparently there are regulations on how many planes can land and depart in a given hour at an airport. The air traffic controllers claim that up to now they were breaking the regulations and they could service all arriving / departing planes with no problem. But now, while they are on their “white strike”, they go by the book and they service only the number of planes suggested by the regulation. Obviously, i have to ask:

1. Does anyone care about them suggesting that they have been breaking the rules for … forever?
2. Does anyone care to update the regulations to depict the current capabilities of Greek airports?
3. Isn’t it a bit weird that they remembered the regulations when the government wanted to slash their privileges?

Ship: Now i am sure that you are thinking: In a country surrounded by sea, it will be easy to go there by ship, right? No my friend, wrong. Apparently the latest trend is that a workers’ union (Π.Α.Μ.Ε), blocks access to ships when try are trying to dock at specific ports. So for the past months, more than once, people were not allowed to get of cruise ships, and they were forced to stay on the ship, even if their cruise holiday described something like: “We dock at Piraeus at 08:00 and then you get the chance to enjoy a magnificent visit to Athens‘s ancient monuments”. Tough luck, if Π.Α.Μ.Ε is there. The only thing you get to enjoy is to stare at a port that you can’t go to and wonder why 30 people are capable of denying you the pleasure of enjoying your holidays. If you care to read more, here is the report from Zenith, one of the biggest cruise ships that docks in Greek ports. Obvious questions again:

1. How is it even possible for 30-40 people to make such a mess?
2. Are coast guard, policy, district attorney on vacation?
3. Do we even care about getting tourists to Greece?

Car / bike: Last chance for you would be to get there by car / bike. And yes, that works, but there is a good chance that you won’t be able to leave Greece. You see, the Greek truck drivers are on strike, and this means that: a) The people who deliver gas to the gas stations are on strike and therefore 90% of Greece’s gas stations are now out of gas, and b) Just to make things even worst, the drivers on strike have decided to “park” their vehicles in “random” spots to maximize damage. For example, they have blocked all exits around the oil refinement facilities (in order to block all company trucks to deliver gas), they have parked on the emergency lanes (on national roads), etc. Judging on an update i read 1 hour ago, it doesn’t seem that they will end their strike soon, so if you actually go to Greece bring some gas from your home country! And this time i won’t even bother to ask the obvious questions

I managed to get to  Greece, now what?

As Dante said, in his Divine Comedy work (Inferno section) , “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here“. I have already discussed the fact that Greece is expensive, but let’s see what other problems you might face while being there.

One of the most traditional things to do in Greece is to visit some ancient monuments. Acropolis, Delphi, Olympia, something. And again my friend, you are wrong. You see, there are two possible scenarios you may stumble upon:

1. Π.Α.Μ.Ε might have decided to lock the place down and block entrance to anyone. Here is a typical example (if you can’t read Greek just “enjoy” the pictures)
2. The public sector division, responsible for maintaining the ancient monuments might be on strike. The result is the same, you don’t get to visit the monument

You are now done with not visiting the monuments, and you decide to find a nice place to eat / drink / rest under the nice breeze of an air condition (since the weather is Athens especially tends to get really hot, 40+ C are not uncommon during the summer). So, you have found a nice restaurant, crashed under the air condition and gave your order. Nothing can go wrong now, right? And once more my friend, wrong. Remember, you are in Greece, and our favorite hobbies are: discussing football and politics, swimming and strikes…

So, the employees at ΔΕΗ (national power company, mainly owned by the state), decided that they disagree with the terms imposed by EU and IMF and therefore they will go on strike. This by default is not a bad thing, but you have to keep in mind that:

1. During the summer the power network is already problematic, since every house and office heavily utilize air conditioning during the longest part of the day. As a result, during the summer Greece needs to “import” power from nearby countries, since its own production does not suffice
2. No strike in Greece is “successful” unless it causes problems. Therefore going on strike means that first we will ignore any complaints / problems and secondly we will “force” a blackout by not taking any precaution actions

To cut a long story short, that means that if these dudes go on strike, expect in the middle of the day (when it’s hottest) to lose all power

Closing

I am quite sure that someone will ask: “Are you sure you are Greek? – You seem to hate Greece“.

The answer is: I am definitely 100% Greek, raised in Greece, from Greek parents and lived there almost all my life (excluding the first 4-5 years, and the last 2). So yes, i am quite confident that i am Greek. I am also quite confident that my writing is accurate (since i lived in Greece, i have seen these things happen in the past) and i am also confident that most of my Greek friends will agree that this situation is not enjoyable. I don’t like the fact that Greece has fallen so low, but on the other hand, after seeing how a state should work (aka Sweden), i can’t but laugh with the things currently happening in Greece

Bottom line: I would love to love Greece, but right now Greece is in a state that it can’t be loved…