Up in the Air: Greece

It’s probably too late to mention this, but I’m not very comfortable flying.

I’m not sure if it’s control issues or the fact that I’ve had some really horrible flights in the past. Take for example, the flight we took home from a National Cheerleading competition in high school. During the landing, that flight dipped, dived and shot back up into the sky so frequently and so violently that a flight attendant had to hold a trash bag out at the end to collect all of the puke bags.

Or take the flight my husband and I were on to Denver. He wasn't my husband then and we had purchased our tickets seperately. Unfortunately, he was upgraded to first class and of course ditched me in coach, where I was the only adult in the back amongst three rows of Girl’s Scouts. (I promise you that I cannot make this stuff up!) The weather was so bad that after a four minute death defying attempt to land, the pilot aborted the landing at the last possible moment. I still remember screaming so loudly that the Girl Scouts began consoling me. “Lady, it’s okay. We will be alright.” I was supposed to be the adult in that situation and it still shames me that it ended that way.

Someone once told me that you have to watch the flight attendants to know if something is wrong. So once on a flight to Tokyo, we hit a really awful patch of turbulence and the pilot screamed over the microphone in English, no less, “Flight attendants take your seats!”  When those heffas took off running to their seats like NFL wedge busters… Well, you can imagine that I was convinced that that was going to be the very last flight I would ever be on.

With all of this said, you have to understand that at this very moment, I’m freaking the hell out! After one cancelled flight, we are finally on our way to Athens from Istanbul and the pilot has just announced that we will have to take off ten minutes later than scheduled because the Greek air traffic controllers are on strike. ”Strike?! As in not working?!” In my mind, I’m raising my hand… “Um… out of curiosity… aren’t air traffic controllers an important component of flying?” We are on the runway, I can’t go anywhere, I am sweating and having day dreams of a free for all of planes gunning it for the runway in a blind attempt to land themselves in some orderly manner similar to a Black Friday sale at Wal-Mart. Nothing good can come of this.

Fortunately, the strike was just ending, not beginning, and we actually made it to Greece in one piece; but boy was the airport empty. I mean EMPTY! I could have carried a kilo of coke on my back through customs, like a real mule, and no one would have been the wiser. What is going on here?

Answer: Protests and Strikes!

The Greeks are pissed and although I’ve had my head in the sand, in regards to news, for much of the last five months, I do know that it has something to do with the austerity measures the government had put into place to attempt to control their debt. I asked our host, Stelios, who owns the fabulous B&B Chad and I stayed at, what the specific complaint was and he broke it down.

He stated that Greece’s entrance into the European Union opened the flood gates for international trade. “The local manufactures cannot compete with the low costs of Chinese goods and have had to close their companies.” Like all snow balls, when one industry falls it affects the buying power of the people working in that industry and that affects other industries (e.g. retail) and the ball keeps rolling. In his opinion, this situation in corroboration with what was occurring in the international markets, lead to the downslide of Greece’s national economy. Unfortunately, the government had run up a large deficit during the “Golden Year’s” and now that the money wasn’t flowing they were having a difficult time paying their debts. In order to “help” Greece keep paying its debts, the IMF offered a bail out in exchange for changes (austerity measures) that Greece would have to implement in order to cut spending etc.

This is an over-simplified version of the situation there, but the gist is that the austerity measures the government has agreed upon have reduced the quality of living in Greece, drastically increased taxes and also lowered salaries in some industries. As a result of this, the Greek people are rightfully upset that they are left “holding the bag” because of government overspending, corporate greed, and corruption and they want change; thus the protests and strikes. Sounds familiar, right?

Chad and I were only supposed to be in Greece for six days, but as tourists we have to succumb to what is happening in the environment we are in, so our plans changed. For example, a year ago when I was planning my trip, the initial plan was to take the train from Istanbul to Athens. However, as a result of the austerity measures, Greece has cut all international train service in and out of the country; so ferries, buses, and planes are the only way to reach it. Mr. McKelvey was not sitting on a bus for 20+ hours, so we flew. The first flight was cancelled due to the air traffic controllers strike; the second flight was late. The next day the buses were on strike and the following day the trains were on strike. Figuring out which day we could leave the country on the cheapest possible route was proving difficult.

Despite the protest situation, we enjoyed our time in Athens by visiting the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and the Temple of Zeus. We also visited the beautiful all white marbled Panathenaic Stadium where the first modern Olympics took place.  We walked for miles around the city and enjoyed Walking Street, where we ate like crazy people, and Syntagma Square, also known as "Constitution Square", where many of the protests in Athens began. There is so much to see in Athens and in the surrounding areas, but the transportation issues took a heavy toll on our planning, so we ended up only staying three days and attempted to make our way west to Albania as soon as possible.

After a marathon bus ride through little coastal towns and along miles and miles of beaches, we eventually made it to Patras, Greece. This little town is a main port between Greece and Italy and we were so tempted to just hop on boat and spend the rest of our time in Italy. However, we stuck to the plan and Patras proved interesting enough, as the town was essentially DEAD during the daylight hours and the businesses, bars and restaurants all opened after dark around 8:00 pm and stayed open until dawn. I have never seen anything like this and I think this would be a great town for Edward and Bella to live.

But I digress…

Like Athens, Patras had its own fair share of protests and protest concerts, which are far more fun, but can get just as rowdy; so, Chad and I don’t stay long and keep moving. As we continued our way towards Albania, I couldn’t help to notice the irony in this entire situation. At this very moment, there are protests in the streets of New York for much of the same reasons that they are protesting in Greece.  The world is so small and very interconnected; but, while I’m naively moving around it, educating myself, things are happening in my own country that will have a major impact on me. Although these issues are having such a strong influence on both my home country and my host country, I feel like an observer, rather than a participant in both. Much like my bad flights, this time through Greece was simply like hitting turbulence on your way to somewhere else. And for the first time, I’m starting to realize that the landing back home may be just as rough. My future is, figuratively, up in the air.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as we start our descent, please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position. Make sure your seat belt is securely fastened and all carry-on luggage is stowed underneath the seat in front of you or in the overhead bins. Please turn off all electronic devices until we are safely parked at the gate. We will be landing in the world of reality shortly. Thank you.”