The laterna player

"Greece belongs to the Greeks" was the first thing Nikos told me when I asked him about his view on the current situation in Greece.

It was about two thirty after noon when I met him on the Gotzia Square. He was coming from Monastiraki playing his laterna all way long under 35 degrees of Celsius. He was sunburned and sweaty.

"I used to say that it gets worse every year and now I say it's getting worse from day to day.

I don't know what is going to happen but that's not going to last long.

Greece will finally collapse. That's the plan and that's what's all about. They want to buy the country for no money. They'll make us sell everything. Don't you get it?" he asks me.

Nikos plays the laterna on the streets of Athens since he was 18 years old.

He plays the very same laterna, his father did back in the 1950s. At that time the sound of laterna was still heard all over the town.

Laterna is a variant of the barrel piano. Although it is not a Greek musical instrument, as it is widely believed ,laterna is deeply connected to the old Athens.
It became popular in the latest decades of the 19th century and for many decades, it was nearly the only music heard in most poor neighborhoods .

Today, there are less than five people playing the laterna on the streets of Athens.