My Big Fat Greek… Belly

Maybe it’s because Istanbul was such a shitshow but I love Greece and I love Athens. I like to believe it’s not that and that it is because the people were so kind, nearly all were fluent in English, they had fantastic food and all my interactions with each and every person was a positive one. From my Uber driver, who picked me up in a Mercedes E Class Limo and handled all my luggage (I never felt so posh in my life), to the kind considerate people at a local clinic I went to.

It dawned on me after watching the news for past years about the Greek crisis that most of these people complaining about Greeks whether it’s the Germans or Americans had never stepped foot in the country. Instead they come up with a derogatory term such as PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) to demagogue an entire nation in hopes that you the reader or viewer will forget these are human beings with hopes and dreams and aspirations who love and hurt the same way. Just last week EU was chastising Greece and threatening their expulsion from the EU because they’re allowing these refugees to come in to the EU as if Greece has singlehandedly decided to do this without the implicit permission from the EU.

Anyways that’s politics, but it is hard to ignore in a country that I fell in love with that has been quite obviously ravaged by the austerity measures. It’s difficult to watch such kind people with such a legacy fall prey to a stereotype.

My first stop as always was a local restaurant, it’s the best way for me to gauge the culture and the people. I get to see what they consider their best food, I can see the locals interact amongst themselves and to see how they treat me. This one was a gay restaurant.

I’ve never been to a gay restaurant before, I don’t even know what that was, but it’s pretty much a very nice cafe with a bar and it caters to 90% gay clientele. Now, do we need a gay restaurant? No not really, but it’s Greece it looked like everyone was gay, and a place where anyone can go to someone and without hesitation say “hey can I get your number?” was a welcome change.

Of course Greece is more than just gay restaurants serving sangrias. It’s also a lot of history. I was amazed at how cheap all the museums were there. It made me feel ashamed that they would charge $12 flat rate for I think to see all 8 of the most important ruins in western civilization.