Differences

Other countries obviously do a few, some or many things somewhat differently to what a traveller may be used to back home. Indeed, it is often pointed out that seeing these alternative approaches is one of the major reasons to visit other countries. (Unless you're one of those pitifully one-eyed tourists who are solely interested in pretty scenery and famous landmarks and view their location in other countries as little more than an inconvenience.) And sometimes these different ways of doing things will be improvements which you'll wish could be brought back home with you; and sometimes they'll be things which make you appreciate the better way they're done at home.

Consequently, I'm bound to mention these differences whilst writing about this trip - sometimes positively, sometimes negatively, depending on the difference in question. Please note that this is not a value judgment about the decency or worth of the people living with these differences - it is commentary purely on aspects of their lives imposed on them by the particular good or poor decisions made by either the country's bureaucracy or, possibly, other citizens. It should not in any way be taken as some kind of smug mockery in the "oh how quaint" or "silly foreigners" vein.

I don't want anyone thinking that whenever I describe less than enthusiastically the laissez-faire nature of the Greek road laws or the, frankly, and I hope you won't be offended by me saying this, batshit insane behaviour of many of the drivers here that appears to be a direct result, that I am not enjoying my time with the people of Greece, or that I do not appreciate many of the wonderfully varied ways they look at the world from the background of their unique history and their place on the Earth's surface. If I mention how sick I am of restaurants and hotels regularly trying to rip us off by sneaking in extra charges (such as for bread we didn't order) and pretending not to understand when next time we try to determine the price of the meal before eating, that's an indictment on those particular institutions or particular individuals (which undoubtedly have equally corrupt and dishonest equivalents at home as well) and not the country in which they happen to be located.


This is not a carpark, this is a road we had to navigate.

Likewise I'm not going to tar Italians in general with being like the Roman taxi driver who took us to the airport AT 160KPH (in a 100 zone) whilst driving with one hand and texting on his mobile phone with the other and checking himself out in the mirror.

Because you get those sorts of people everywhere.

Now, I might in certain circumstances disagree with, and think should be changed, the government policies which have led to some of these differences - the decision not to have stricter road rules that would curb dangerous driving behaviour and take maniacs off the road, for example* - but I disagree with, and think should be changed, many policies at home as well, so that can hardly be a big surprise. I'm an opinionated bastard**. And my "disagreement" here is only relevant to this blog of opinion, since, obviously, this is not my country and I neither live nor vote here. It's not that these different laws or systems are Greek, or Italian, or Australian, it's that [what I think is] a good idea is a good idea, and [what I think is] a bad idea is a bad idea, wherever it happens to be enacted.

But as to the people - there have been lots of lovely, kind people in every country we've visited, and they have far outweighed the dodgy bastards that you find anywhere in the world.

I am loving being here - and not just for the scenery.

*Pity we can't have a happy medium between Victoria's draconian road laws and the ridiculously inflexible enforcement of same, and the perhaps a little TOO flexible approach of the southern European authorities, isn't it?

**As you might conceivably have noticed by now.

TODAY: Off to a little mountain village above Ξυλόκαστρο (Xylocastro), and perhaps pottering down to Κόρινθος (Corinth) to see the canal.