DEFCON 2

After the Balkanic odyssey we really needed something like Greece. Right from the beginning it looked good. When you board a train full of young people back from a rock concert, with plenty of beer and willing to continue the party, you know something good has to happen.

We had two seats –or that we thought- in a compartment with the two quietest guys in the train. A guy and a girl that at the beginning we thought were a couple (but not). We didn’t talk too much until we got into Greece, but then the party started. Soon after entering Greece, the train stopped for 20 minutes. No passport control or anything else; just a strike.

Greece is suffering one of the worst blows from the world financial crisis and the government chose to cut salaries everywhere, starting with the public workers. Not many liked it and strikes are frequent. That day was the turn for the railway guys; or maybe they just joined in solidarity, but they did it anyway.

The connection between the Greeks of our compartment and us started then, when they asked us if we minded if they smoke. “No problem, mate”; open the window, kill the lights, close that curtain and pass me that beer. Neither the ticket inspectors seemed to mind we were smoking in the train. “Welcome to Greece”, as Giannis said.

So we were sharing beers and confessions when the train stopped again. And this time for good. Just besides a bar by the railways, and the first ones to get off the train are the ticket inspectors and the conductors. Soon the crowds follow them and for an hour and a half David and I were enjoying retsinas –white wine with coke- and sasikis being invited by the Greek guys. It was like heroes’ welcome to the Olympus with wine and… well, not women.

But it was time to go back to reality and the train. In Salonika the rock crowd got off the train and we boarded the coach we were supposed to be in from the beginning –it was by mistake that we met the Greeks- and after a placid night sleeping we arrived in the Greek capital with plenty of sun and no sign of rain.

Athens was waiting for us.