Listing in Greece

I love lists. They seem ordered. Grouped. Like you’ve accomplished something more than just putting words to paper. Yet, they’re easy; they provide release. So it’s that time-of-the-trip-into-foreign-land again. When the childish part of me organizes my thoughts on Greece in the following way. AQfter you get over the juvenile titles, I hope you’ll get a better idea of what it means to spend two months working here.


Things I Love About Greece

Cherries are in season, all season. Yum. My favorite fruit. You can buy them for 2 euros (recently upped to 2.50) a kilo from the stands at Monastiraki, an area teeming with tourists and shops and equipped with a stellar view of the Acropolis at all times of day.

The islands are truly magnificent. They are beautiful creations, some marred by volcanic eruptions (Santorini), some bare (Aegina), and some fantasy islands with people partying from 4 pm (Mykonos). With cheap local marts where Fage costs only 2.80 euros for a three-pack (my benchmark item to figure out how inflated prices are).

The sea. The people are defined by it. So is the land. The skies. The weather. Everything. It is crystal clear, a deep Greek blue that has changed the meaning of the color forever for me. I want my bathroom to have Greek blue tiles, my clothes to be Greek blue, my kids to have Greek blue eyes. I have even started wearing more blue and white (especially in places like Santorini) so whenever people take pictures, I match the sky and sea. The seaside beach clubs (Akrotiri, Balux, etc.) are wondrous. They are expansive, you can see the stars and Athens sparkling in the distance, and the waves are lapping up right against it. And the music is great too.

The food(The olive oil. The feta. The Greek salads. The gyros…) Where else can I get stuffed grape leaves dripping in olive oil and spritzed with lemon? Or juicy chicken gyros (gyro kotopoulo) with honey mustard tzatziki sauce? Or nutty and substantial feta doused in olive oil and rigani (oregano)? Or rigani potato chips (far better than any I’ve ever tasted)? Or loukomades—fried puffs dipped in honey? Or galaktaboureko, a pastry with a milk-based creamy filling? Are you salivating yet?

The mastiha. It’s a resin found only on the island of Chios that is protected by the European Union. It’s in your gum, your beauty products, your toothpaste (if you want it to be) and has natural antibacterial properties. But, for me, gum never tasted THIS good.

The coffee (cappuccino freddos to be exact). Cappuccino freddos kept me awake at exactly 3 pm every weekday when I would feel the zzzs at my desk at Accenture. Greeks love their coffee. And they like it strong. Frappes are the strongest, made from straight instant coffee emulsified with sugar and milk added. Cappuccino freddos at least involve some processing of the coffee into a cappuccino, which is then iced and sugared before being topped with milk that has been whipped into something quite delightful and cinnamon. After getting addicted exactly after the first instance I had one, I spent the entire month of July kicking the habit and weaning myself off. Did I mention coffee is strong here?

Things That Aren’t So Hot

Public transportation. I often judge a city by how good its (public) transportation system is. If you can get around a city independently, you’ve conquered it. As a girl who hails from NYC, I’m used to certain rules. 24-hour subway and bus. Bear right if you want to squat on the escalators. Move away from doors if your train is about to arrive at a station you’re not getting off at. Buses stopping at every stop regardless of whether the driver sees you hailing the bus down. Well, in Athens, forget all that. I take the bus to work every day from just outside the 1896 Panathenikon Olympic Stadium and it’s always a miracle if I make it in one piece (my ankle was crushed by a bus door once). The metro closes at 12 midnight Sundays through Thursdays and open only until 2 am on Fridays and Saturdays. It also opens at 5 am. And no, there are no bus route maps available on every bus/bus stop. It just doesn’t make sense when Greeks stay up so late.

The sun. Too hot. The sun is unbearable here. There is no respite; it never rains (there was a short shower once for 10 minutes) and it beats down precisely from when the sun rises until as late as 7 pm. I have never been this tan, my hair has never been this brown, and all the sunscreen in the world seems to have no effect. Don’t leave the house without: Sunhat. Ray Bans.

Terrible cell phone plans. I have spent 40 euros my first 2.5 weeks here. The Cosmote What’s Up plan, with a 20 euro refill, gives you 1200 free minutes to any other What’s Up user and 1200 free SMSes for the rest of the month. But, you have to activate this plan, which is hard to do when all the numbers you dial talk back to you in Greek. 

ExpensiveIn General. One of the few things in Greece that’s probably cheaper than in America is the coffee. And sometimes, certain clothes. But expect to fork over almost double (or more) for everything else, especially for most food items (feta, olive oil, Fage, cherries, watermelons, etc being notable exceptions).

If I Ruled Greece, I Would…

Reform the Taxi System so they wouldn’t be on strike. It’s been hard getting from point A to point B in a short amount of time. You really can’t survive without a car for most parts (I don’t know how we have), especially away from the city center. Taxi drivers are upset because they have paid 200,000 euros for their licenses, which have just become “worthless” with new regulations. The occupation is now accessible to everyone, i.e. you no longer have to pay 200,000 euros for a license. The government should come up with a plan for those taxi drivers who bought this license, say, within the past 10 years, so they repay the amount without interest or part of the cost is forgiven. The drivers should be commended, though, because I believe they are now in their third or fourth week and are standing strong!