I've generally felt quite bad for smokers. Exiled to a pitiful little chamber at the back of restaurants, or forced outside in the cold or heat, they seemed like a miserably oppressed minority, tormented for their addiction and kept away from decent society like so many lepers. I hated seeing them suffer. What had they done to the rest of us, really, that deserved such a cruel punishment?
Having now spent a couple of weeks in lands where there are no smoking restrictions, and being reminded of what life used to be like in Australia, I have no sympathy for the selfish bastards whatsoever. Without being restrained by the heavy hand of the law, left to their own devices, they inflict their foul pollution on others, and force the rest of us to choose between cancer or exile. There's no apology, there's no effort to keep the smoke to a minimum or try to aim it so it doesn't go straight in other people's faces; they simply choose not to give a damn. You don't like my repulsive, deadly fumes? Well stiff cheddar, old cheese. They enjoy not giving a stuff about the people around them, being kings of their own little worlds.
Well, they used to. Australian smokers don't get away with it any more. And Greek smokers have another year of getting away with this before they're going to find out just what it is like for their victims. The general consensus here is that there will be much unhappiness from amongst their ranks.
I find it difficult to feel too sorry for them.
PS The above was written whilst in Greece. Now we're in France it appears that, in the words of Our Nicole in Moulin Rouge, "the French are glad to die, for cigarettes..." as well. Mais le cancerous wracking cough n'est pas sexy, mes amis.
Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts
Monday, September 08, 2008
Friday, September 05, 2008
Milos: pros and cons
CON: No internet. Well, dial-up, but I wasn't that desperate.
PRO:
CON: Mystifyingly confusing signage and surprisingly overpriced seafood.*
PRO:
CON: Some extremely dubious animal treatment practices (see next post, which will be uploaded later this afternoon your time).
PRO:
We're now back in Athens. Next stop (early tomorrow morning): Paris. FREAKING PARIS. C'est difficile de believe je will finalement be la. En France! Ah weell show you ze photos verah soon, mes amis.
*Although the Tania villas at which we stayed were reasonably priced and run by very nice people indeed.
PRO:
CON: Mystifyingly confusing signage and surprisingly overpriced seafood.*
PRO:
CON: Some extremely dubious animal treatment practices (see next post, which will be uploaded later this afternoon your time).
PRO:
We're now back in Athens. Next stop (early tomorrow morning): Paris. FREAKING PARIS. C'est difficile de believe je will finalement be la. En France! Ah weell show you ze photos verah soon, mes amis.
*Although the Tania villas at which we stayed were reasonably priced and run by very nice people indeed.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Farewell mainland Greece
We have now pretty much completed our circuit of mainland Greece - driving from Athens to Delphi to Kalampaka to Patra (over the spectacular modern engineering marvel the Charilaos Trikoupis bridge from Rio to Antirio) to Melissi to Mycenae to Epidavros and finally back to Athens. Tomorrow we will disappear for a few days off to a Greek island which probably won't have internet access.* We look forward to staying in the same place for more than one night and never having to drive on the wrong side of the road ever again. (Fun experiences from this morning included overtaking an ambulance with its lights flashing at 120kph** and witnessing other drivers overtake a police car at 40kph over the limit without any reaction whatsoever.)
We've seen some amazing sights that we intended to see, too. The ancient theatre at Ἐπίδαυρος (Epidavros) yesterday, for example, has such perfect acoustics that you can in fact hear a coin drop on the centre of the stage from all the way at the top of the seats. You really can. Similarly, a patriotic "I come from a land downunder" carries further than you'd think.
I call this: Hat Hair At Ancient Epidavros
And the little monastery of Aya Maria high on the cliffs above Ξυλόκαστρο (Xylocastro) occasioned the most spectacularly terrifying drive I've ever experienced. Now I can look at the photos and know that they were not followed by a grisly plummeting-style death, it's something I'm very glad we did.
It was at this inopportune moment that the Scissor Sisters' "I can't decide whether you should live or die" came on the car stereo.
Μυκῆναι (Mycenae) was, it turns out, less worthy of a visit - being, essentially, a pile of old rocks scattered around in the shape of what may conceivably once have been some kind of building. Or not. There's a reason the postcards only show the "Lion Gate", because that's the only thing that isn't a random pile of rocks on the ground...***
Mykenai: rocks and shit we found on a hill, yo, for which you can pay us eight (8!) euros per person (maps and useful directions not included)
As with Stonehenge, the Parthenon (twelve euros and it's still covered with scaffolding?), the Colosseum and numerous other ancient buildings modern Europeans found left behind by their ancestors and thought HEY IF WE BUILD A FENCE AROUND IT WE CAN FVCKING GOUGE THE TOURISTS, it is not entirely certain that your average visitor gets value for money from the deal.**** Still, there's only one of each of these things, so what are you going to do? Come to Athens and NOT climb the Acropolis? Don't be stupid.
Anyway, we came, we paid, we saw, and it was pretty cool. Now we're going to spend a few days doing the relaxing kind of travelling, before things ramp up again in Paris at the end of the week. See you at the next wireless access point.
*Perhaps not the first thing the guidebooks note, but important to some.
**This was in fact the speed limit, and for some unfathomable reason the ambulance was puttering along 20kph under it.
***Alright, that's not entirely fair: some of the rocks are in fact stacked on other rocks in a way you can imagine is wall-like. If you squint.
****Although if you ARE going to be gouged for something the gougers didn't build and don't intend to do anything for, make it the theatre at Epidavros - that one's both spectacular AND still works.
We've seen some amazing sights that we intended to see, too. The ancient theatre at Ἐπίδαυρος (Epidavros) yesterday, for example, has such perfect acoustics that you can in fact hear a coin drop on the centre of the stage from all the way at the top of the seats. You really can. Similarly, a patriotic "I come from a land downunder" carries further than you'd think.
I call this: Hat Hair At Ancient Epidavros
And the little monastery of Aya Maria high on the cliffs above Ξυλόκαστρο (Xylocastro) occasioned the most spectacularly terrifying drive I've ever experienced. Now I can look at the photos and know that they were not followed by a grisly plummeting-style death, it's something I'm very glad we did.
It was at this inopportune moment that the Scissor Sisters' "I can't decide whether you should live or die" came on the car stereo.
Μυκῆναι (Mycenae) was, it turns out, less worthy of a visit - being, essentially, a pile of old rocks scattered around in the shape of what may conceivably once have been some kind of building. Or not. There's a reason the postcards only show the "Lion Gate", because that's the only thing that isn't a random pile of rocks on the ground...***
Mykenai: rocks and shit we found on a hill, yo, for which you can pay us eight (8!) euros per person (maps and useful directions not included)
As with Stonehenge, the Parthenon (twelve euros and it's still covered with scaffolding?), the Colosseum and numerous other ancient buildings modern Europeans found left behind by their ancestors and thought HEY IF WE BUILD A FENCE AROUND IT WE CAN FVCKING GOUGE THE TOURISTS, it is not entirely certain that your average visitor gets value for money from the deal.**** Still, there's only one of each of these things, so what are you going to do? Come to Athens and NOT climb the Acropolis? Don't be stupid.
Anyway, we came, we paid, we saw, and it was pretty cool. Now we're going to spend a few days doing the relaxing kind of travelling, before things ramp up again in Paris at the end of the week. See you at the next wireless access point.
*Perhaps not the first thing the guidebooks note, but important to some.
**This was in fact the speed limit, and for some unfathomable reason the ambulance was puttering along 20kph under it.
***Alright, that's not entirely fair: some of the rocks are in fact stacked on other rocks in a way you can imagine is wall-like. If you squint.
****Although if you ARE going to be gouged for something the gougers didn't build and don't intend to do anything for, make it the theatre at Epidavros - that one's both spectacular AND still works.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
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.
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.
I would never mock
Other countries obviously do a few, some or many things very differently to what you're used to back home. (Seeing these alternative approaches is without doubt one of the major reasons to travel - unless you're solely interested in pretty scenery and famous landmarks.) Sometimes these differences will be improvements which you'll wish could be brought back home with you; sometimes they'll be things which make you appreciate the better way they're done at home.
And, consequently, I'm bound to mention these differences whilst writing about this trip - sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. This is not a value judgment about the decency or worth of the people involved - it is commentary purely on aspects of their lives imposed by either their bureaucracy or, indeed, other citizens, and should not in any way be taken as some kind of smug mockery.
I don't want anyone thinking that whenever I describe less than enthusiastically the laissez-faire nature of the Greek road laws or the completely batshit insane behaviour of many of the drivers here that appears to be a direct result, that I am not enjoying my time here with the people of Greece. 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 (which are undoubtedly corrupt and dishonest at home as well) and not the country in which they happen to be located.
Likewise I'm not going to tar Italian drivers 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 disagree with 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 or take maniacs off the road, for example* - but I disagree with many such policies at home as well, so that's entirely consistent. It's not that they're Greek, or Italian, or Australian, it's that good ideas are good ideas, and bad ideas are bad ideas, wherever they are 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 their inflexible enforcement and the perhaps a little TOO flexible southern European equivalent, isn't it?
TODAY: Off to a little mountain village above (Xylocastro), and perhaps pottering down to Κόρινθος (Corinth) to see the canal.
And, consequently, I'm bound to mention these differences whilst writing about this trip - sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. This is not a value judgment about the decency or worth of the people involved - it is commentary purely on aspects of their lives imposed by either their bureaucracy or, indeed, other citizens, and should not in any way be taken as some kind of smug mockery.
I don't want anyone thinking that whenever I describe less than enthusiastically the laissez-faire nature of the Greek road laws or the completely batshit insane behaviour of many of the drivers here that appears to be a direct result, that I am not enjoying my time here with the people of Greece. 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 (which are undoubtedly corrupt and dishonest at home as well) and not the country in which they happen to be located.
Likewise I'm not going to tar Italian drivers 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 disagree with 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 or take maniacs off the road, for example* - but I disagree with many such policies at home as well, so that's entirely consistent. It's not that they're Greek, or Italian, or Australian, it's that good ideas are good ideas, and bad ideas are bad ideas, wherever they are 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 their inflexible enforcement and the perhaps a little TOO flexible southern European equivalent, isn't it?
TODAY: Off to a little mountain village above (Xylocastro), and perhaps pottering down to Κόρινθος (Corinth) to see the canal.