Athens are dead
Mar. 13th, 2020 07:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yannisSo, yesterday, before the rush hour, I went for a walk through the center of the city, which is always full with tourists.
And it was quite a surreal experience, this walk through the dead, empty and at the same time sunny city.
Nobody wants to climb to the Acropolis. I spent about five minutes near the Eastern entrance, and there were about five people who came in. While usually there are lines since 8AM when it opens till the closing time, with dozens of people at every moment. But yesterday there was literally no one there.
Nobody wants to go to the adjacent New Acropolis Museum. Or buy koulouri from the street sellers. Or go to souvenir shops. Or to cafes. Or buy "three isles in one day" cruise. Or ride a hop-on hop-off bus.
No, there are, of course, some tourists, but even during the coldest winter months there are usually more people in these tourist-designated areas.
Buses, trolleys and metro carriages are also riding half-empty. Some people wear masks, but I can't say there are many of them, usually 3-7 per carriage. Others wear plastic transparent gloves, like those used sometimes in restaurant kitchen, and the smell of hand sanitisers is all-pervading, someone is always cleaning his hands with that shit. Certain places like museums, public cervices etc have these bottles at cashier desks, for customers to use them.
But there are no signs of panic etc. People are trying to keep distance, but everybody is smiling and joking (of course, about coronavirus, this kind of jokes currently seems as compulsory as washing your hands).
The weather also contributes it, yesterday it was 20C and sunny, today and tomorrow even better weather is expected, up to 23C, so maybe I will go to the beach, not sure about it right now.
So yeah, everybody seems happy and careless (or maybe those not so happy and careless are sitting at home trembling with their doors and windows shut), while "the benchmark index since the beginning of the year recorded a loss of 41.25%" as of yesterday, and I don't think today's situation will be much better.
As for the concerts etc, it seems all the major concerts till the end of March are cancelled/postponed, as well as hippodrome events. Even some concerts which were supposed to take place in May were cancelled/postponed yesterday. And who knows what will happen next, what booking agency would book concerts in such conditions? Plans are ruined. Cinemas, theatres and even courts of justice are closed.
In fact there were talks about closing the whole public transport system, but it surely seemed too much, so transport operates as usual.
All in all, the Greeks' motto today is "We won't let our country to turn into second Italy!", and everything goes accordingly.
So yeah, that's what is going on in Athens. BTW, I just woke up and immediately learned that Australian GP, with which this year's F1 season had been supposed to start today, was cancelled a few hours ago.
Fucking, fucking hell.
As just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, today, on Friday 13th, the new President of Greece will be sworn in, and this is what our new President looks like:
And it was quite a surreal experience, this walk through the dead, empty and at the same time sunny city.
Nobody wants to climb to the Acropolis. I spent about five minutes near the Eastern entrance, and there were about five people who came in. While usually there are lines since 8AM when it opens till the closing time, with dozens of people at every moment. But yesterday there was literally no one there.
Nobody wants to go to the adjacent New Acropolis Museum. Or buy koulouri from the street sellers. Or go to souvenir shops. Or to cafes. Or buy "three isles in one day" cruise. Or ride a hop-on hop-off bus.
No, there are, of course, some tourists, but even during the coldest winter months there are usually more people in these tourist-designated areas.
Buses, trolleys and metro carriages are also riding half-empty. Some people wear masks, but I can't say there are many of them, usually 3-7 per carriage. Others wear plastic transparent gloves, like those used sometimes in restaurant kitchen, and the smell of hand sanitisers is all-pervading, someone is always cleaning his hands with that shit. Certain places like museums, public cervices etc have these bottles at cashier desks, for customers to use them.
But there are no signs of panic etc. People are trying to keep distance, but everybody is smiling and joking (of course, about coronavirus, this kind of jokes currently seems as compulsory as washing your hands).
The weather also contributes it, yesterday it was 20C and sunny, today and tomorrow even better weather is expected, up to 23C, so maybe I will go to the beach, not sure about it right now.
So yeah, everybody seems happy and careless (or maybe those not so happy and careless are sitting at home trembling with their doors and windows shut), while "the benchmark index since the beginning of the year recorded a loss of 41.25%" as of yesterday, and I don't think today's situation will be much better.
As for the concerts etc, it seems all the major concerts till the end of March are cancelled/postponed, as well as hippodrome events. Even some concerts which were supposed to take place in May were cancelled/postponed yesterday. And who knows what will happen next, what booking agency would book concerts in such conditions? Plans are ruined. Cinemas, theatres and even courts of justice are closed.
In fact there were talks about closing the whole public transport system, but it surely seemed too much, so transport operates as usual.
All in all, the Greeks' motto today is "We won't let our country to turn into second Italy!", and everything goes accordingly.
So yeah, that's what is going on in Athens. BTW, I just woke up and immediately learned that Australian GP, with which this year's F1 season had been supposed to start today, was cancelled a few hours ago.
Fucking, fucking hell.
As just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, today, on Friday 13th, the new President of Greece will be sworn in, and this is what our new President looks like:
