…And well it should be, considering I’m currently writing this post in a cybercafe on Drakhou Street, just down from my hotel, in Athens, Greece.
Yes, globetrotters, Johnnyboy’s on the move and back in the Balkans, his home-away-from-home. I’m here primarily for the 12th Annual SE European English Speaking AA Convention, but that doesn’t begin until the 18th, so I’ll be doing a little isalnd hopping until then. But first, Athens begs to be explored and looked into.
Athens is enormous. There are 11 million people in Greece, and 7 million live in Athens. Yet it still has a uniquely small town feel to it’s neighborhoods and streets. It is truly a multi-cultural place, but that is more or less a new phenomenon. The Baskan Civil War in the 1990’s propelled a lot of refuges here, paricularly Albanians and Serbs. There is a new, and large Arab/Middle eastern population, and for some reason a huge influx of Chinese in the past year or so. Still, 99% of the people I see are Greeks, Greeks, and more Greeks. Nothing wrong with that.
The food is tasty, and very cheap. Eating on the fly for lunch and dinner is a common thing to see and do. One can fill the belly very easily for less than 15 Euro a day here with the great tasting pastry and meaty things from street vendors. It’s all fresh, too. They pride themselves on having good, inexpensive food. It’s important to remember that most Greeks are very poor, so they pay a lot of attention to how they dress (neat, clean, respcctful) and how fresh their food is. They expect the same from their guests. Sloppy dressers get poor service. This is not say that one needs to dress up, but rather be dressed in decent clothes, with shirts tucked in, etc…
The AA meetings here are very good, with a strong legacy of traditions, sponsorship, and sobriety as a solid foundation. The first AA group started in 1965, at a US airbase. 4 years later the base closed, became a Greek airbase, and the group had to leave. The story goes that they held there meetings in an open-air cafe for over a year until they finally found a spot they called home. That was 36 years ago. Amazing.
Many of the group are Greeks and some of the meetings are in Greek, but most are ex-pats of some sort (Brits, Germans, Swedes, etc…) so the English speaking meetings are strong, but in a typically Mediterranean fashion, pretty relaxed. People come and go during the meeting and they sharing sometimes seems strained. I imagine they would find meetings near where I live very rigid and over-structured. Aside from these slight differences, the stories and bottoms are the same. What a relief to find out that I am, yet again, neither alone nor unique.
In two days I start some island hopping beginning with Mykonos and ending with Crete, and then off to the AA convention.
Next stop…The island paradise of Mykonos!
Johnnyboy