The Berkeley Guides:
Berkeley Guide to Europe:
Greece:
Background Information for
Greece
By Lillian Boctor and Joshua Skov, with Lauren Herz
One of the best things you can do when you arrive in Greece is take off your watch. Service is slow, schedules are often blatantly disregarded, and businesses open and close on a whim. If you can't resign yourself to the Greeks' sense of time, you may just go mad. But only in a country where time isn't money and deadlines don't exist can you stare at the sea for days (or even months), find illumination in a remote outcropping of wildflowers that took you a lifetime to discover, or watch the sunset from the same beach night after night, marveling anew at approaching dusk each time.
Greece is an enchanting victim of a split personality. You'll find vestiges of the country's four hundred years of Ottoman occupation everywhere. Mosques, though crumbling and ignored, still support graceful minarets; towns reverberate to the seductive pulses of traditional music; and cafés serve mezedhes (appetizers) while men congregate outside playing backgammon and swinging their koboloi (worry beads). But it is the ancient Greece of Plato's philosopher king that has formed the foreign perception of the country. When imagining Greece, outsiders think of myths and oracles, brilliant seas and sacred mountains, and a rich civilization that gave birth to much of European culture.
Since gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1829, Greece has endured western-appointed kings, invasions galore, and struggles between political parties. Greeks have long endured a volatile political atmosphere, especially since the civil war in the 1940s, and are now entrenched in the conflict between the country's two main parties: PASOK, a socialist labor party that operates in rhythm with the Greek way of life, and the New Democratic Party, which advocates foreign investment and long-term economic improvements to help Greece catch up with other European nations. In 1993, Greeks opted for PASOK, electing an ailing Andreas Papandreou prime minister.
Greece's entrance to the European Union (EU) has been controversial; with the weakest national treasury in the union, Greece is floundering in debts and grabbing for the EU life raft. With prices steadily rising, however, Greece is no longer a dirt-cheap backpacker's haven. But, for a few thousand drachmas a day, the traveler can still revel in the Greek dreamworld of extended siestas and parties till dawn, often unaware of the tensions beneath the surface. Weathered locals invite you to their secluded villages, offering you wine and figs and pungent cheeses, while the country as a whole, and the Pelopónnisos in particular, recalls a time of gods and centaurs and ancient wonders.
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