Santorini, Greece: Our cruise ship is sitting in the caldera of the one-time volcano that is now the Greek island of Santorini. We aren’t the only cruise ship here, we’re one of five or six. Needless to say, Santorini is a popular cruise stop. It is a very spectacular place to see.
The DrsC have visited Santorini before, which is a good thing as the weather this morning is the pits - light wind and spitting rain. The ship is largely deserted as most of the passengers had tours scheduled (and paid for) and so are onshore in spite of the weather. Our plans were more flexible so we’ve stayed cozy and dry.
Later…the weather cleared up in early afternoon, good luck for the passengers with afternoon tours. We’re in Athens tomorrow and there is more bad luck there. The Greeks are on strike and so we cannot go to the archeological sites and museums as they’re closed. People who planned to use public transport are also SOL as taxis, buses, light rail, etc. are all on strike too.
Greece has very little to offer except tourism, it’s like Egypt in that regard. Now the strikes are closing off the very little they do have – it’s foot-shooting time in southeastern Europe. Greeks have lived beyond their means for decades and when their government tells them they must tighten their collective belts the response is “go to blazes, somebody else has to pay the tab, I won’t do it.”
Greece is a country that very nearly went Communist at the end of World War II, would have done if not for the timely intervention of Harry Truman. We’ve described why this is so in an earlier blog entry. Those class warfare tendencies are still here, and can easily rise to the surface as they are doing now.
