Made in Greece

Here is a collection of pictures I've gathered in the last month, capturing... a bit of Greece.

Church in the middle of the road

This is a print screen from Google Maps. I figured you'd get a better idea seeing it from above rather than from the road. So, what you are actually seeing is a church popping out in the middle of a highway and making a four lane street a three lane street for a few meters. If you miss to see it in time - and let's face it, who expects to see a church in the middle of a highway - you will learn the meaning of "instant delivery" because the entrance of the churce is facing the direction of traffic.
How did this happen? Nothing simpler...in Greece. The church was there before the highway. When they started building the car road, the church wasn't moved on the principle "it was there first" and considering that "the Church" is more powerful then the state in Greece, who would argue with the church?On the other hand the road builders probably needed to rethink the whole project in order to go around the church ...so they didn't. And there you have it!

Blind walk in Thessaloniki

Greeks have always been

resourceful people. They somehow manage to find an utility even to things they shouldn't find an utility to. Like this blind walk that is just suppose to be there in case, god forbid, an actual blind person would use it. Until then though, some visionary person with a great deal of initiative decided it looks better as a flower stand.

The car doesn't even rise any attention anymore. Lots of people park their cars on the blind walk, on the bicycle road, on the wheelchair road pass, it's already "normal" (for abnormal as it might be) but the flower stand? that is really something new. I mean that requires imagination and a strong dose of... stupidity, of course.

Opened Store in Greece

 In case you were wondering this is an opened door of a store. Yes! That's what it's written on it."We're open". That goes right along with the iron door protection and the big lock on the door. this situation is not unique, there are lots and lots of others here in Thessaloniki and not only.

It obviously has no working hours on the door and no contact number of any kind, it's constantly closed but it says it's open. Well, you can't really blame them, Greeks are logic people: "If I'm getting payed anyway why would I bother working?"

Flexible Working Hours

From the same chapter as the previous picture,this is a notification from the Greek Postal Office, ELTA.

Please notice the delightfully delicate omission on the paper. They say what time they open but the closing time is... uncertain. In order to not be bothered by clients the program is up to ".00". You never know what could be before that .00, it could be 16.00 or 14.00 or why not 12.00.

So it's kinda the same as the previous one. We work when and if we want and we get payed as if we work.

Keep Greece Tidy

This last picture is more of a funny translation. On the transaction receipt from Alpha Bank Greece you will find the message "Please keep Greece Tidy".

I suppose they intended to say "Please keep Greece clean" because tidy is kinda hard for a country to be.