Omonia Square

As heat goes on, the heart of the city is hardly beating. Actually, I don't remember seeing Omonia Square so totally empty before.

Omonia is a central square in Athens and one of the main traffic hubs of the city.

After years of abandonment to drug dealers, junkies and prostitutes, today is clean and safe.

Omonia is the oldest square in Athens. It was built in 1846 and got its name a few years later, when the heads of different political parties met and swore Omonia (=concord) ending up the bloody riots that had burst among their supporters.

Since then, Omonia went through a lot of changes. The picture below was taken in 1903.

Omonia in 1931.

1955

1964

Eutychia means happiness

Today it's so hot in Athens. I just got back home and it feels like heaven laying under the air conditioner. But I guess this summer my air conditioner is going to be my best friend!

Last summer the 70% of Greeks did not go on vacation. This year even more people are expected to go nowhere due to the lack of money and fluid economic situation.

In 2007 the percentage of those who could not afford going on vacation was 45%.

For some people though things are even worse. One million Greeks can't pay their electricity bill while, at the same time, more and more look for food in the garbage.

In 2009-2012 homeless raised by 25%. Walking on the streets of Athens is not the same anymore.

Eutychia lives on the streets since last winter. In Greek Eutychia means happiness but that's a feeling she's long forgotten. She has no family or close friends. She feels hopeless. She didn't stop crying the entire time talking.

" I've worked all of my life and ended up like this. I have to wait for my pension to be approved for almost one more year . And 'till then what? Am I going to be alive in one year? Do you have any idea how dangerous is it to live on the street? Do politicians care about us? What have I done to deserve that?" she wonders.

It is estimated that 20.000 homeless live in Greece. Most of them live on the streets of Athens and Piraeus. Things though are expected to get worse since in the next six months public social spending will be cut by 18%.

Under the Acropolis

Yesterday I talked on the phone with a colleague of mine. She sounded so worried because it is heard that dozens of layoffs are about to come in my work.

But I don't want to think more about it. One thing I brought back from my trip to China is a proverb that says "when you still can change something there's no need to worry. When there's nothing to do about it, there's no need to worry too". So I took a long walk to one of my favorite spots in Athens: Monastiraki.

Monastiraki is located almost under the Acropolis and is one of the oldest neighborhoods in town attracting tourists from all over the world. "People look but don't buy" told me Antonis a tourist shop owner.

Most shops were totally empty. It was so sad seeing their owners all alone, watching and waiting and hoping that today would be better than the day before.

I kept on walking and looking around. Fortunately, the Acropolis is still there.

And even more there are still people that would fly from the other side of the world just to visit the Acropolis.

Chance, Tyler, Lina and Bri came all the way from Michigan, USA. They are 14 years old and have heard so much about the ancient Greek civilization. They told me that the majority of students in class voted to visit Greece on an educational trip with their teachers.

"Today we visited the Acropolis. It was more than I expected" says Bri.

"Athens is different but beautiful. We talked a bit about the economic crisis earlier. But I see no crisis. Everyone is in very good condition. I thought it would be different. I don't feel like something bad is going on here".

" I've seen it on the news and today our tour guide talked about it. I wouldn't know otherwise. I doesn't seem like it at all. It seems perfectly fine" says Tyler.I think it's really fun for the first time being out of the country so it's good coming here first. There's so much to see".

I walked back home enjoying the peaceful evening. In fact most of the evenings are peaceful lately. Streets are not crowed as they used to and traffic is less. One would guess that everyone's on vacation but the truth is that Greeks go out and use their cars less than before due to the current lack of money.