So we’re doing a family “long weekend” in Athens - the wife is presenting at a conference Wednesday-Friday, and I needed to be there for a two hour meeting on Friday (yes my job is that stupid, I sometimes need to fly four hours each way for a two hour meeting), so we figured we’d take the kids and make a trip of it (they’ve never been to Greece). The wife took a night flight out last night, and I’m following with the kids this evening.
So, the wife lands at Athens airport this morning… and everything is on strike. Literally everything. The metro, the trains, the trolleybus, the bus, even the flaming taxis! No way to get from the airport into town. None. When these guys go on strike, they really go for it! Luckily I was able to order her a taxi by googling (http://www.athensguide.com/taxi.html) and he came and picked her up, but seriously this is messed up. I’m angry that the airline wouldn’t even mention something like this.
It seems like the strike is going on until the weekend, so for tomorrow (when I turn up with the kids at 2am local time) I’ve booked a hire car (with a global company that won’t be on strike). Hopefully we’ll still be able to make a holiday out of it
greece is in a lot of trouble, and the striking makes no difference other than to make the sentiment volatile.
they have no money, and not in small part due to the unwillingness of the population to see the bigger picture on this, they are making it remarkably difficult for any other country to lend them money to help cope with the situation.
unlucky on your timing syzmon, looks like they’re not too concerned with their tourism revenue either
well they protest because their wages have been cut by 300 a month, they are told their retirement funds may not be paid, they had another new tax (property) introduced via the electicity bill and all this to repay a load that was forced on them
Was talking to my folks back home and apparently the new taxing system considers anyone owning a house as someone who makes money out of it (i.e. renting it out) even if they don’t…
Then you have the minister for employment going out and saying that they are lowering the minimum wage to 450 euros for youngsters (up to 25) because that will create opportunities… I wonder if she ever worked for 450 euros/ month in her life.
Don’t get me wrong, this mess was partly created by a system that was breeded out of pure greed and we (greeks) all played a part in it… however this is where the governments of years gone by should have stepped in and even set examples, rather than feeding this system, often being the worst culprits!
These loans only help fund the countries that issue them, not the ones taking them… It’s always been like that and it continues to be… I still feel we should have looked to the icelandic way of getting out of debt. I’m sure it’s more complicated than that and to implement again, but the option was never presented to the people to vote on.
Edit: To the OP: and apparently the local coaches are working to take you to Athens but to be honest you’ve done the right move renting a car as I would not travel on the coaches (KTEL)
I’m going to Athens on Friday to see my Greek mates for a couple of days. I will hopefully be borrowing my mate’s Ducati and taking a trip to the coast with them.
He’s meeting me at the airport so hopefully I’ll avoid the chaos, unless the airport goes on strike again!
I’m with Panagiotis and Serrisan on this, how the hell do they expect people to survive after all these changes?
The Greeks are hard workers and deserve to be treated better, but they have always been s**t on by the powerful nations.
No they didn’t lie… they simply changed some figures… good old creative accountants!
Laser? The worst they could do is bore me to death with bureaucracy… I still remember when I went to the tax office to do something many years ago (I think get an NI number) I had to take a piece of paper around every floor of the building, but not in sequential order because at least one office on every floor had to give a stamp or signature to authorise the floor…
Europe should have listened to Hague all those years ago when he said the “The Single European Currency will be a burning house with no exits” or something to that effect… (Never thought I’d agree with that man! )
I do feel sorry for the average greek, but I’m sick of our country paying a fortune every year to dig other countries out of the sh!t when we’ve got our own problems to sort out!
In this case it’s Germany that’s footing the bill so you can still go to Greece on holidays… hell you might even be able to buy an island if you hurry!
And let’s not forget that these are loans… not gifts - England is not bailing anyone out of the goodness of its heart. England as a whole stands to profiteer from these loans, whether it be through interest or future acquisitions instead of or improved trading conditions. You the taxpayer are being shafted on both ends just like the greek taxpayer…
You only profit from a loan if the person/country you loan the money to pays it back.
It’s pretty much certain that despite all this faffing about, Greece is so far in debt that it will default on it’s loan repayments & the markets are predicting that their creditors will then have to make do with only getting half of what they loaned back.
Of course if the Germans actually manned up to their responsibilities & repaid Greece the €90 billion that they owe them things would be a lot better.
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