Greece:- ( in continuation ....)
Entered Athens and the first breath of warm air felt really welcoming. Nice greek songs were playing in taxi radio. Sometimes even if one doesn't know the language still one can like & understand the music. Our taxi driver was a girl. I was totally impressed by her attitude, behavior, respect for her profession. She was very well dressed & really enjoyed sharing beauty of the place she lives in. One could see the pride she felt.
The trains, people, noise, dogs & cats on the street, hotels open till late night, generally greeks eat food kind late after 9 ( just like india)
One of the best part of travelling , riding metro or driving, was roads were fabulously maintained in nooks and corners. For places where maintainance was going on, they had toll booths.
The remote places with few people living have best quality of roads, the infrastructure was great. Main land and Peloponnese regions are filled with many ghats, but at every corner one would find gas station and cantin to eat small snack.
One best ( kind of diff) part to notice was many girls were taxi and truck drivers & they were equally respected. Most of the jobs were felt to be on construction front & rest on petrol pumps, tourist shops,
tourist places. Looked like it was holiday time for schools as most of the kids were working in Pizza shops, museums etc.One of the hilarious experience was discovering there is no connection between what we call"hummas" in USA , no one knew the word. For vegetarians like all places many options " pizza, spaghetti Napolitano, lima beans, greek salad, stuffed peppers, cabbage salad, stuffed tomato with rice, french fires, onion rings, sweets, Baklava (Katz bakery most noted for me) ,cakes etc ...
Country has abundance of olive farming, oranges, melons ,apricots, grapes. Valleys and fields & scapes are beautiful. Sometimes when U are not used to that laid back life style we as an outsider tend to wonder "what is life there?" From our visual perception everyone is smoking , eating drinking coffee, felt like as if everyone was on permanent break, vacation. Especially for city person its a common perception.
One of the best ways the city has kept its look beautiful is the use of fragrant plants, They tend to bloom
in summers or hot seasons like in India too. In reality these simple things can really make your walks so pleasant inspite of heat. Since it was flowering season, the boganvelia, terda, sayli, mogra, roses all plants were in full bloom. Smells nice.
Islands are even more beautiful, just went to Hydra. people soaking in sunlight & taking a dip in the water.... Some islands don't allow cars.. so nice.. Cobbled roads with small shops & houses keep the village look really welcoming. Every household has a cat, they all gather when U eat in restaurants like people their life is very relaxed too.
People were very helpful and nice to talk to.It was only once we really got lost while driving in ghats &
what U would see there was only Sheppard's. Kind of very late in the evening and had lot of mileage driving wise & other wise too , so tempers high inside and temperatures outside (we all experience them :) ). Even thought the individual didn't have much clue in English, he could direct and we could ask and tell U where U were. At some restaurants they would sit with U to know what U want to eat & make something spicy if U need it. I guess what it takes to make something worth while is a warm smile & they had plenty of it.
Since some things were going on that time around, it was common topic of discussion amongst locals and tourists. Current state of country's economy...
We as an outsider have different ideas from media of some kind but I like the answer given by an individual to someone "we can sit & cry , but how would it help us?? Things will get better".
It was a nice experience deciding to visit "Santorini and mykonos" later .. Especially after watching movie "Mama Mia" Listening to "Abba " songs which i have been since college times.
