Heading towards a total lockdown
Mar. 20th, 2020 08:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yannisSo, huh, yeah, I'm going to create a new folder "Coronavirus 2020" in my email box and I'm gonna collect there all letters I'm receiving now from every internet service I have ever registered on throughut my entire life, it seems. I will be showing these emails to my children, although I doubt I will have any.
Yesterday they have abolished fines for unpaid riding on all types of public transport till the 31st of May. So public transport in Athens is officially free for two months. A decision we've all been waiting for. Hurray.
But it isn't excluded that by Monday public transport will be totally closed down. They had already closed down all ferries routes, so nobody can escape to islands anymore.
All electric scooters dissapeared from the streets, and hop-on hop-off buses are gone too, as well as tourists, and churches are closed since yesterday (so there will be no Easter this year, it appears), and half of kiosks are closed. I have stumbled upon one place they still sell koulouri, though, so not everything is as bad as it seems, there is definitely a light at the end of the tunnell, but unfortunately they sell koulouri only until 4PM or so.
Anyway, after 6PM the city is dead, and a few days ago the government introduced a fine of €1000 for companies of more than ten persons gathering together. That's right, a fine of €1000 for companies of more than ten persons gathering together, that will teach these motherfuckers.
By the way, a few strikes were planned for the end of March, but now all this will go in vain, because all the country is on strike right now.
However, schollkids and students are supposed to return to their studies on the 24th of March, and museums and other cultural insitutions are due to be opened on March, 30th.
But I highly doubt it will happen, the events of this week made a huge difference in the perception of this fucking coronavirus by public, compared to time schools/museums were closing down.
Everybody is fucking scared, and besides, what's the point of opening the museums if the tourists are gone at least till the end of April.
I've always been a pessimist, but this time I surely was not pessimistic enough, I had undersestimated the seriousness of effects of this situation and its development.
Holy fucking shit.
If public transport won't be closed down tomorrow, I'm planning to go to the beach. What else to do. If they will close it down, it won't bother me that much, really, since I live in the center of the city, but I definitely won't walk 6-7 kilometers to the beach by foot. That will be too much.
So, what else can I say. Yesterday I went to see the Olympic flame transfer ceremony, but there is not much to tell. I arrived near the stadium at about 11:20, everything was closed by the police, but a few dozens of spectators of different ages and ethnicities have gathered around anyway, some of them caughing horribly. After the ceremony ended, the members of Japanese delegation left the stadium, showed the flame in the censer (or how should I call this thing, no idea really, but definitely not a torch) to the public, waved their hands, posed a bit, boarded the bus and headed to the airport. This was all the ordinary public could see this time, the ceremony ended at about 12:20 or so. By the way, I've seen a company of young Russians, two girls and a boy, and two older Poles next to them. But yeah, that's it, nothing else to tell. The ceremony was broadcasted by TV, so I think those interested can find it on youtube, those hanging out by the stadium hadn't seen much.
A few more old dudes had died, so Greece has eight coronavirus-related deaths as of now. Just for comparison, 94 people died of flu during this season, and nobody gives a fuck about them.
P.S. Oh yeah, the schools will remain closed till April the 10th. I've just read it.
Yesterday they have abolished fines for unpaid riding on all types of public transport till the 31st of May. So public transport in Athens is officially free for two months. A decision we've all been waiting for. Hurray.
But it isn't excluded that by Monday public transport will be totally closed down. They had already closed down all ferries routes, so nobody can escape to islands anymore.
All electric scooters dissapeared from the streets, and hop-on hop-off buses are gone too, as well as tourists, and churches are closed since yesterday (so there will be no Easter this year, it appears), and half of kiosks are closed. I have stumbled upon one place they still sell koulouri, though, so not everything is as bad as it seems, there is definitely a light at the end of the tunnell, but unfortunately they sell koulouri only until 4PM or so.
Anyway, after 6PM the city is dead, and a few days ago the government introduced a fine of €1000 for companies of more than ten persons gathering together. That's right, a fine of €1000 for companies of more than ten persons gathering together, that will teach these motherfuckers.
By the way, a few strikes were planned for the end of March, but now all this will go in vain, because all the country is on strike right now.
However, schollkids and students are supposed to return to their studies on the 24th of March, and museums and other cultural insitutions are due to be opened on March, 30th.
But I highly doubt it will happen, the events of this week made a huge difference in the perception of this fucking coronavirus by public, compared to time schools/museums were closing down.
Everybody is fucking scared, and besides, what's the point of opening the museums if the tourists are gone at least till the end of April.
I've always been a pessimist, but this time I surely was not pessimistic enough, I had undersestimated the seriousness of effects of this situation and its development.
Holy fucking shit.
If public transport won't be closed down tomorrow, I'm planning to go to the beach. What else to do. If they will close it down, it won't bother me that much, really, since I live in the center of the city, but I definitely won't walk 6-7 kilometers to the beach by foot. That will be too much.
So, what else can I say. Yesterday I went to see the Olympic flame transfer ceremony, but there is not much to tell. I arrived near the stadium at about 11:20, everything was closed by the police, but a few dozens of spectators of different ages and ethnicities have gathered around anyway, some of them caughing horribly. After the ceremony ended, the members of Japanese delegation left the stadium, showed the flame in the censer (or how should I call this thing, no idea really, but definitely not a torch) to the public, waved their hands, posed a bit, boarded the bus and headed to the airport. This was all the ordinary public could see this time, the ceremony ended at about 12:20 or so. By the way, I've seen a company of young Russians, two girls and a boy, and two older Poles next to them. But yeah, that's it, nothing else to tell. The ceremony was broadcasted by TV, so I think those interested can find it on youtube, those hanging out by the stadium hadn't seen much.
A few more old dudes had died, so Greece has eight coronavirus-related deaths as of now. Just for comparison, 94 people died of flu during this season, and nobody gives a fuck about them.
P.S. Oh yeah, the schools will remain closed till April the 10th. I've just read it.
