[Disclaimer] I wrote most of this part back in summer of 2015 on Blogger but found it to be a good memory to include in my Medium stories. The original post was extended and edited slightly.
In the summer (edit: of 2015) we went to Greece and stayed there for, unfortunately, only a few very fine vacation days. We were invited by friends of ours that were based in Greece at that time. A lot of people from around the globe were coming together at their holiday retreat to celebrate their little boy’s baptism. And when one says baptism it has to be made clear that baptism is one very special thing in greek culture. Some may even suggest that baptism is even more of a celebration than a wedding. Which I really cannot confirm as we had been invited to our friend’s wedding several years ago and that celebration was a spectacular event, ideed.
Arriving in the middle of the Greek debt crisis
We arrived in Greece in the middle of the already escalated debt crisis in Greece (edit: it was back in 2015). However well received we were all around the places we got to, the whole situation with the Greek debt crisis overshadowed the week, nevertheless.
I am not an expert in international economics or even history but it came to my mind that all the richer European countries are trying to get out of their responsibility for this disaster. Actually, this is also what was on the minds of a lot of Greeks, too, and not only people influenced by nationalist propaganda, but also well educated and open-minded people.
As could be foud in many a conversation the main line goes something like this: In the beginning we Europeans sold the Greeks weapons and other stuff they did not really need and definitely could not afford. Then we sent in our bankers to lend them money incurring interest they also could not afford. And if that wasn’t already enought, we then got our pension funds and other investment funds to invest in greek government bonds which got them some nice extra profits because of the garbage rating and, the therefore, high payouts from high interest rates.
So this situation makes me very confused, somehow — and a little sad. All these people in Greece, especially in rural areas, are trying to make ends meet and there comes this armada of foreign (and maybe even domestic?) “money rippers” that funnel all the capital out of the country or at least into the pockets of a few already mega-rich people.
One might ask: why the heck don’t we get together as the empowered mass of the “99%” (the “poor” or “lower” part) of mankind and just rip all these high-risk investors off their money they obviously invested with a bad taste for macabre risk avoidance by externalizing costs to whole societies (i.e. government budgets) — and get them leave the greek people and other tormented lots around the world alone. A very simplistic view, indeed, but only simple things work out in the end. Of course, it is not an option to do that by force as was done, e.g., during the French revolotion. But sooner or later we have to find a way to get over this increasing inequality in buying power on our planet.
Of course, the greek governments of the past years (or even decades?) did not light up with a lot of competence in getting their budgets in check and der debt within bearable limits. But EU politicians nowadays also demonstrate some lack of real leadership, as was even expressed in writing by a nobel laureate lately (see, e.g., reference [1]).
Biking along in an ancient olive grove
So to come back to the story of our vacation I had the pleasure of experiencing the wonderful landscape of the vicinity of the Itea and Delphi are. From the town limits of Itea a large valley full of ancient olive trees stretches up to the mountains near the Delphi region. In winter that area is a winter tourism hotspot in Greece and it appears to be comparable in size, and, even in its skiing facilities, to some smaller ski resorts here at home in Austria.
A very special experience was a very pleasing bike trip with our greek friend and his friend. To save some time and maybe also spare some muscle power for the gorgious downhill part throughout the vally of olive trees the locals decided to go up the mountain by car. So it was arranged that my companions’ fiances took us by car straight up to the plateau above Itea.
After getting ready for a little “uphill battle” our small group of three started that day’s tour. The weather was more than fine but the high temperature demanded all of my two biking comrads’ physical power and forced them into moving very slowly. And that was actually a very welcome situation for me, as I was able to fully experience the landscape and the wildlife — obviously I could better cope with environmental conditions (heat!) than my greek companions, which surprised me and, at the same time, also got me a little flattered.
I’m not sure how long we went on up that small hill but it was less than two hours. Right on top of that heavily vegetated hill my greek guides wanted to show me a special site of ancient greek history. Acutually, it was a cave on that hill where ancient greek tribes commenced their holy rituals. It had surely been a lot of mysterious action that had been going on many decades ago down in that large dark hole in the rocks. Any further consideration of festivities celebrated in that spot is left to the reader’s imagination.
But one thing ran past my mind all the time during our bike tour. In Greece, they have this impressive ancient history; there one can find literally the cradle of modern European culture and science. Nevertheless, it didn’t work out that well for the greek people over the long run. As I understood from the almost desperate analysis of the ongoing debt-crisis by my well-educated biking companions, somehow, Greece took some wrong turns in the past.
Once a prospering nation of proud philosophers and the kindergarten of modern democracy, now the greek people even felt a little humiliated by their miserable state of affairs given — one could even sense a feeling of them being treated as second class Europeans. My friend suggested that these dynamics were set in motion by decisions greek politicians made decades ago. Other European countries and decision makers leveraged those decisions and their effects for fostering their own good.
Kids and the chaos
Besides being in a country while it was almost falling apart financially, there was another aspect of this vacation that made it very special for us.
It was the first longer trip with now two kids. The flight from Vienna to Athens was no problem at all. But handling all our luggage including a baby trolley gave some challenges along the way. Modern security practices at international airports really help to keep parent’s blood pressure worryingly high.
At the airport in Athens we rented a car and hit the road. With only short brakes for feeding the kids and taking some pictures of the gorgeous landscapes we arrived at our hotel in Itea after a few hours. The hotel was nice and we had a very decent view down to the sea. As Itea, the village we stayed at, is some little marvel without the usual bustling touristic activity, we had a really great time.
Over the whole vacation Leia did a good job in being the big sis and Elias was relaxed being the lil’ bro. Which in plain language means they had a good time unnerving each other, and, therefore, their parents. Cultural differences like eating late and staying up late were hard to cope with for our still very young kids. They regularly got keyed-up and did a lot of crazy stuff. It took Anna and me some time to get the right intervention strategies in place and after that it went on much more smoothly.
Together these two guys are their parents sleepless nights, even on vacation. But they are also our pride and in the end we enjoyed every hour being with them.
Thoughtless but consequential steps
One day I experienced the beauties of the sea from their not so funny side. At a bay some kilometers away of Itea we decided to enjoy the sunny afternoon at the beach. It was a very nice spot provided with a small restaurant and bar to cater to our basic needs of food and drinks. It was not a sand but nice little stones for the kids to play with and, most importantly, clear and refreshing sea water one could easily see through to the sea bottom in the whole bay area.
Leia couldn’t swim yet and so I went along with her along the coastline a few meters away from the beach. The water was quite shallow there and I could walk on large rocks laying around on the bottom. What I did not consider at that moment was the possibility of special dangers that are imminent in clear waters with rocky bottoms. So, imagine what, I accidentally stood on a sea urchin!
Realizing that there might be more than one of these creatures down there I hastily took my feet off the ground and swam back to the beach pulling Leia behind me and painstakingly observing the bottom underneath myself before setting foot on ground again. At first I didn’t feel much pain, it even felt a little distant — as if it were another person explaining to me how it felt when one’s skin was pierced by tens of sea urchin stings. But it took not that long before the pain got a little nasty and it was clear that something has to be done to remove all the little remains of many sea urchin stings from my skin.
Limping up the beach to the restaurant it came to me that there were some parallels of my unfortunate misstep in the greek sea and the miserable decisions greek politicians made that led to the ongoing debt-crisis. For both cases the danger was visible in principle but somehow was not noticed until it was too late. In my case the water was clear and the sea urchins could be spotted when one consciously looked at the rocks in the water. But distracted by the joy of paying with my daughter in the refreshing wet I did not really pay attention to possible dangers. Similarly, the Greek politicians and the establishment did not pay attention to the unfolding bad dynamics because they enjoyed the benefits of spending — encouraged by their peers in the northern parts of the continent.
But back to my perforated and infiltrated skin. It took Anna and me some fiddling with an acupuncture needle to get all these tiny fractured stings out of my foot. It hurt a lot and I’m glad that my doctor wife got me the right treatment right after the accident so I did not develop serious inflammation. All in all it took till long after our return home that the wounds healed completely an the rest of the pain really ended.
Wrapping it up
In summary, our vacation in Greece worked out quite well. We had a lot of fun despite the unusual and also disturbing geopolitical situation that definitely affected the whole greek population. In every encounter with locals we could sense their fears for a financially viable future that does not lead them into complete dependence on the mercy of foreign nations. Nevertheless, we always were treated as guests even though we were visiting from one of the other European countries that had at least some accountability to bear for the Greek’s current situation.
We also had some very special family time. It was our first holiday as a family of four. At the baptism and on all the day trips we undertook together we learned a lot about travelling with kids. These learnings will definitely help us in the future — we are surely longing for travelling in all of Europe and showing our kids the world. A world that is not only holidays but also hardships and uncertainty. Hopefully, our kids can help to make this continent an even better place with less crises like the one we just experienced.
References
[1]: Businessinsider.com. 2015. https://www.businessinsider.com/afp-germany-showing-lack-of-solidarity-over-greece-stiglitz-2015-7, last visited 04/07/2020.
A shorter and slighly different version of this post was originally published at http://doblander.blogspot.com back in 2015.
