Wednesday 16 June 2010

The Danger Zone?

Well, it's a day late, but I think I'll finally get a chance to post!  Regarding my internet connection, it's just been really flaky for a long time.  Calling Rogers has proved futile as they just tell me that it's all in my head and close the ticket.  Since there's literally NO competition in the area I guess they can get away with that.  Could be some of the hardware in my house, but I doubt it.  I have performed some diagnostics that point to the problem being on Rogers' end, but I won't go into that here... this isn't a tech blog.  So, on to the main show:

What I really wanted to talk about today (err.. yesterday...) was the concept of a trip to Greece.  It's something that Aunty J had asked me to look into, and the topic came up in a casual discussion at work last week.  I haven't done the full research necessary to recommend an actual itinerary, but what I'm most interested in right now is whether or not you guys think it's a good idea to be travelling to Greece right now.

For those who haven't been following the news, Greece is going through major financial troubles right now.  Like many other places in the world their economy is on the verge of collapse, and the Greek populace has been protesting the measures their government has taken to prevent this.  Things have got a bit rough in Athens as protests and general strikes erupted throughout last month, sometimes ending in violence.  The Canadian Government's travel advisory page lists Greece as "Exercise high degree of caution" which falls between "You're fine" and "Do you really need to be going here?"  Yeah, it's not really a very fine-grained scale of warnings...

Okay, so there have been disruptive strikes and violent protests in the capitol, so does that mean that we shouldn't go there?  I'm thinking quite the opposite.  I highly doubt that I could have gone to Iceland last summer as cheaply as I did if not for their economic downturn, and I really see the same thing happening with Greece.  I believe that at the time of writing the Euro has recently lost some value against the American Dollar, which is always a good thing for travelers.

It may be intimidating to visit a country that's recently faced (and may continue to face) civil unrest.  That said, if ever there was a country to visit at a time like this I have to think that it would be Greece.  We're talking about a civilized country... in fact you could call it the birthplace of what we consider civilization, and our much loved democracy.  I don't envision this turning into an all-out street war.  I think that now is the perfect time to visit Greece.  It might not be a bad idea to avoid the capitol, but there's a LOT of country outside Athens.

A recent travel article in The Guardian talked about how deserted the beautiful villa and beaches along the coast were.  These normally bustling tourist destinations are feeling the hit of the globally slow economy, as well as fear of civil unrest.  So now we have hoteliers dropping their prices to compete, and a lot less crowds to deal with.  I smell a perfect time to travel...

The Canadian Government's travel advisory website recommends avoiding large gatherings in Athens at the moment since they could turn into protests... which could turn ugly.  Honestly that's never bad advice.  If you're in a major city and you see a big group of people shouting and waving signs you may be tempted to go have a look at what's going on, but you're far better off giving them a wide berth.  You never know when things could get out of hand, and you may find yourself getting swept up in a sea of people who are all about to be tear gassed.

So, avoid large groups, or Athens all together, but I say don't avoid Greece.

11 comments:

Aunt J. said...

Well rats! You're thinking about going to Greece when I finally decided it wasn't the time to go. What with the civil unrest and possible volcano eruptions, I figured that flying to Europe was out of the question.
I've already made travel arrangements (Grand Canyon) for Aug. but if you want a fellow traveller I'd be interested for next year.

Colin Young said...

Ooooh, Grand Canyon, very nice! :) Actually, I wasn't thinking about going to Greece this year either, I was just trying to talk one of you into going so I could live vicariously. :) No money for anything extravagant this year. I'm game for next year though!

Aunt J. said...

Have you decided yet if you're coming here this year? If so, we can discuss Greece.

Corey Blosser said...

Well.. funny you should bring up the topic.. since I'm currently in Greece on holiday with my family. I have seen zero problems anywhere, but our time in Athens has been limited, and will be until Tuesday. As soon as we arrived, we flew to Corfu (which is absolutely beautiful) so we could acclimatize to the time zone and weather. It's a 7 hour change, and roughly 35 most days, so having 6 days by the beach/pool was a good way for my 3-year-old and 6-year-old to get used to the time zone. But anyways, we flew back to Athens yesterday and have driven up to the bizarre and amazing Meteora, which is worth Googling.

In Corfu, I started to talk to a local about the problems, and he says people are worried but more stable outside Athens. Everyone owns their own home, has a garden and some chickens/rabbits, so they know they can eat. But in Athens, if the grocery store closes, "they can't eat asphalt". He says there are 1 million civil servants "doing nothing" in a country of 10 million, so of course they are broke. Taxes aren't collected, but now laws are being enforced, and after such a long period of lax collection people feel the impact a lot harder. Taxes on most items are 10%, but on alcohol, it's 21% and going up to 23% in July, unrelated to HST :)

Now, without this turning in an even longer post, we took a day-trip to Albania last Thursday, which is not a modern country at all. It was extremely dodgy, but I guess this post is more about dealing with civil unrest - not a country with no infrastructure.

Travel in Greece is incredibly easy, the media shows the unrest but that occurs in small pockets. So I would recommend including Greece in travel plans.. with the Euro being relatively cheap right now this may actually be a good time to go..

Jabbles said...

Yeah I think you are right. Just avoid the crowds and all will be OK. That being said I still don't think Greece is high on my list of places to see, not sure why though I am sure it would be quite interesting.

Colin Young said...

Wow, that's awesome Corey, I didn't realize you were over there right now. That's really good of you to head over there just to do research on this week's blog topic. ;)

Thanks for all the input, and hope you and the family are having a great time on your trip.

Corey Blosser said...

>>An urgent update from your on-the-ground correspondant in Athens..

Ferry workers have striked this morning in an attempt to block the Blosser family from reaching Santorini. We got up this morning for our 7:25 ferry and when we got to the port, we were told there was a strike. Many travellers were waiting by the boat and the workers just told us to wait. A sharp man with a briefcase (sharp nose, sharp eyes, sharp chin, etc) came off the boat and got on a motorcycle and disappeared. A Union rep from the Communist party arrived with a flag and blocked access to the ferry. They declared a 24 hour strike, and people started yelling in Greek, although they had learned some simpler English words as well.

This correspondant deftly entered an WiFi location and booked a flight for later today to Santorini, avoiding the ferry mess.

Update to my recommendation - be ready for your plans to change and to pay extra when they do.

I think they're just grumpy they lost to Argentina and have been eliminated from the World Cup.

Colin Young said...

Wow, that's incredible Corey! Thanks for the update, and I'm glad to hear that you were able to adjust your plans. Hope your lovely little girls didn't pick up any naughty Greek words from the disgruntled sailors.

Corey Blosser said...

Final update from Greece - once outside of Athens, the civil unrest is a million miles away.. it's dodgy getting out, but compared to the mayhem in Toronto, it's a piece of cake.

Off to Turkey tonight (I think)..

Corey Blosser said...

I am ın Turkey.

I've saıd too much.

Corey Blosser said...

Well, we've returned to beloved Canada, and just to finish my comments from the last few weeks -
Turkey was a very challenging place to travel - Istanbul is truly the crossroads between East and West, and I loved it (most of the time). There were times when we were very aware that we were in a country that shared a border with Armenia, Iran, Syria, and of course - Iraq.

Greece continues to struggle, but once outside of Athens those problems seem a million miles away. My final recommendation: I would continue to recommend Greece & Turkey to anyone who is willing to deal with changing itineraries and challenging places.