Greece and the economic crisis

‘Has Greece got the Drachma yet?’ they asked me when I returned back from Greece. ‘We’re there lots of queues?’

‘Queues? Yes in Mykonos the queues were mostly outside the clubs. Not outside the banks.’

And it was not a lie. The Greek islands seemed a world away from the mainland and Athens where the reporters and film crews were stationed to film the Greek economic crisis.

I was in Greece during the weekend that Greeks were going to vote on further austerity measures for the bailout packages. 

‘Many people were too scared to come’ said the hostess at our hotel.

‘Too scared to go on holiday rather than come and support the economy?’ I scoffed. She picked up my tone but was classier than me and said nothing.

‘And will you be voting?’ I asked her.

‘I cannot. I am from Larissa and I cannot travel back there to vote. After all I need to work.’ She paused and asked me what I thought. I told her that I would yes if i was eligible to vote. She nodded in agreement and seeing that we had the same perspective opened up to me a little more.

‘I think it was on purpose that the government planned this so. It is too rushed and not done properly.’ I understood that what she meant was that not all people who wanted to vote would have been able to vote and so the results would have been skewed.