What is it really like "on the ground" in Athens right now?

[nick_arch]

It's all a bit of well set up drama.

 

In the same time, EU claims they did not know Greece was on a course set to colission, we will finally "discover" during following months that Italy has borrowed nearly 2 trillion euros.

Then it will be the turn for France, where we will "discover" again that banks have been exposed to private loans.

[iancal]

From what I read, Greece, Ireland, and Portugal are 'five alarm' fires followed by Italy and Spain. The latter two having a much larger industrial and tax base- hence a better chance of moving through it.

 

The various lending institutions knowingly assisted some countries in camouflaging this debt from EEC over the past number of years. Hopefully these same lending instututions will be forced to bear some of the financial losses from this fiasco.

[Jade13]

We are in Athens right now and there is a lot of traffic. The public transportation was shut down today, but fortunately the taxi's were not on strike and we made it to Delphi.

 

We are at the Athens Gate Hotel and there is free internet service.

[jmps]

We were in Athens off the Equinox on Oct 27th. The city appeared normal and no strikes affected us. The Acropolis is a wonderful sight and I hope the financial crisis doesn't prevent tourists from visiting.

[johnb0529]

We have two kinds of strikes:

 

 

nick_arch -

 

We are in Greece three times in November...any insight into how the strikes/protests impact cities outside Athens? All we hear are the stories from Athens.

 

We are in Chania Tuesday 11/22, Rhodes Wednesday 11/23 and Athens 11/25. Sounds like a Friday in Athens should be OK. but a little concerned about Chania and Rhodes. Any insight into how the smaller cities/ports are impacted would be appreciated!

[nick_arch]

Speaking generally and based on previous experience only, i 'd not worry about the islands or smaller places.

Personally i 'd not worry about Athens too.

 

I explain myself:

 

Related to the fiscal crisis things that can affect your trip are:

i) a strike of some kind. Strike itself is not a huge problem except if you have to fly from the airport. Flying on a day of strike is the only thing that really can wreck an itinerary, at its start or end. From the start of the year it happened 2 - 3 times, for varied time windows, from 4 hours to 24 hours. Other than that, a strike can affect sites openings or public transportation. This has been the ocassion 5 - 6 times this year, for 24 - 48 hours each time. In this ocassion, ramifications of the situation do not really affect you in smaller towns. Ok, in the unlikely ocasion of a sites strike in Rhodes you may not be available to visit the Castle, still town is in walkable distance, shops are open, restaurants too, so i see no problem.

Strike related situations can be more confusing in Athens though, mainly because public transportation is included in the visit, or taxi transportation etc. In this ocassion, which takes place 5 - 6 times a year, most of these ocassions on Wed - Thu, altervative plans are needed. In contradiction which what is described in the newspapers though, even this is not an often ocurrence. Site affecting strikes take place 5 - 6 times a year, at the same time they take place all around the country.

 

ii) Another possible scenario is this if civil order related problems. Reading the newspapers someone thinks Greece is a freaking war - zone with people riotting all over the place. Reality is not like this though. Large scale demonstrations when problems may appear are coinciding with strike days. To say it simple, we, more or less know when demonstrations will take place and these are the strike days, which are again 5 - 6 times a year. Demonstrations are peaceful but things may go out of hand, for 1 - 2 hours in a limited area, around 150 by 150 feet. That's the area most tv stations are focusing and this is a tiny particle of a huge metropolis, sprawling for miles from this point.

Is any strike planned for the immediate future? No.

Do we expect some other demonstration that could possibly trigger problems in the near future? I 'd say November 17th is a definite date when large scale demosntrations may take place.

Where this can be a problem? This can possibly be a problem in Athens. This is sensibly expected because Athens is a large urban center. No demonstraion can create a problem in a small town really, still situation in Athens is different.

Doe a demostration affect the area where visitors are heading too? Under sensibly expected circumstances, no.

 

All in all i 'd not worry. All you have to do is to hook on some online site like CC here or TA ( Trip Advisor ). Strike related demonstrations are announced in advance, so we make our best here or over there to spread the word for probability of problems. Usually, Athens is on the spotlight and specifically Syndagma Square, it's like Wall Str in NYC, clearly defined area and 2 - 4 bloks around it, so you just avoid this area and are done. Right now, under any sensible expectation, i 'd expect a large march - demonstration on November 17th only.

 

Keep in mind that Syndagma Sq. is the very center of the city. Acropolis and tourust - related area is a bit off to the South West, mainly Plaka area and Acropolis area. Syndagma is a very central, lively spot inthe city, main transportation hub, main commercial hub, full of people 24-7. It's an area we go all day - all night long. It's just these 5 - 6 times a year someone may choose to stay away. Otherwise it'd be like saying "don't go to Times Square cause Ocuppy NY went up there once" :) It would not make sense.

 

Every day, Athens is the normal fast moving mess any big metropolis in the world is.

[austinlw]

We were in Athens off the Equinox on Oct 27th. The city appeared normal and no strikes affected us. The Acropolis is a wonderful sight and I hope the financial crisis doesn't prevent tourists from visiting.

 

We were on the same ship, Equinox, enjoyed our limited time in Athens last Thursday, and wished we had had a few more hours there. Enjoyed the Acropolis, Agora, and Plaka. Prices were reasonable, had a great souvlaki at Monastiraki Square, and really enjoyed strolling, shopping, and snacking on Adrianou St in the Plaka. When we drove by Syntagma Sq on the bus, there were no problems that we could see.

[portcbob]

Hi Guys.

 

Bob and Chris calling from AUSTRALIA...

 

Will be visiting ATHENS hopefully on the Norwegian Jade cruise ship in early June, 2012. Although it is a long way out ( 6 months plus ), my wife and I keep hearing these sad stories about how Greece and Italy will go into deep recession which appears to be unavoidable.. I really hope that this doesn't happen for the sake of Greece and Athens. Most of our cruise ports are in Italy and Greece ( Islands ) ard we are monitoring the situation daily and really anxious about cruising in that region. What do you think we should do, cancel or take a risk and do the 20 hour plus flight and hope for the best?????. We appreciate it's difficult to look into the future to ascetain what is going to happen in 6 months however we are really concerned about the situation and if it is a nasty recession would it adversely affect our holiday in any way...I am trying not to sound selfish however we want to see Greece and Italy at their beautiful best.

Regards Bob & Chris.:):):)

[austinlw]

Hi Guys.

 

Bob and Chris calling from AUSTRALIA...

...

Regards Bob & Chris.:):):)

 

Just got back last week from 4 nights in Salerno, Italy, followed by the 11 night Celebrity Equinox cruise to Greece and Turkey.

 

The question is, how severely would their economic problems affect you as a cruise ship passenger? For the most part, not much. The Acropolis and Agora will still be there. Rome and Florence will still be there. These places have faced bigger problems than these over the centuries and are well worth seeing, regardless of their country's economic problems. As a traveler, you may not notice anything abnormal at all - we didn't. If you wait for things to be all hunky dory in Italy or Greece before you go, you will have a long wait. The only accommodation I made for our visit to Arthens exactly 2 weeks ago was to change our original plan to use public transportation and sign up for the cruise ships "Athens on your own" excursion, just in case of public transportation strikes that day. As it turned out, that was not necessary. The metro was running normally. In Mykonos and Santorini economic problems are not really visible. Go, see, enjoy. Life is short.

[portcbob]

Hi AUSTINLW.

 

You are most probably right in what you are saying. I suppose if I cancel our cruise and sit back for the next 6 months thinking about it without going I may miss a lifetime opportunity. I suppose I have to think like that. I suppose if it gets really bad in some of the ports they will just close them and the ship most probably will go to other ports?????

Thanks and Regards .

 

Bob.

[suzski]

Bob, completely second what austinlw posted. It's going to be a (long) uphill battle for Greece but they are resilient and have been around a long time (to say the least!:D)

 

We were in Italy and Greece in September and enjoyed every minute of our time ticking things off our proverbial bucket list. The fact that we experienced such wonderful hospitality from people going through so much internal strife just made the whole trip so much more special.

[austinlw]

Hi AUSTINLW.

 

You are most probably right in what you are saying. I suppose if I cancel our cruise and sit back for the next 6 months thinking about it without going I may miss a lifetime opportunity. I suppose I have to think like that. I suppose if it gets really bad in some of the ports they will just close them and the ship most probably will go to other ports?????

Thanks and Regards .

 

Bob.

 

There are always going to be problems, now, 6 months from now, and 6 years from now. The news media didn't show us casually strolling through the Plaka shopping and snacking or arriving by ferry and eating a delicious lunch in beautiful Positano. They show the occasional outbreak of violence and make it seem like a whole city or country is in chaos. That's just absolutely not the case. 99.9% of the people in these countries are just going about their day to day business best they can. Even the protesters in Greece and Italy are not generally angry at you in Australia or me in the US or even at our countries. They are upset with their own governments more than anything. In the meantime they are glad to sell us a cappucchino, pizza, or souvenir regardless of their country's economic mess, and are happy for the business we bring them. At least that was my experience. Everyone was very nice to us.

[John Bull]

I suppose if I cancel our cruise and sit back for the next 6 months thinking about it without going I may miss a lifetime opportunity. I suppose I have to think like that. I suppose if it gets really bad in some of the ports they will just close them and the ship most probably will go to other ports?????

Thanks and Regards .

 

Bob.

 

Can't help thinking the same about Israel

(proper Israel, not remote & touristy Eilat)

We've been wanting to go for decades, but the political situation has never been right. Eventually decided that if we waited for the situation to be right we'd never ever go, so we cruised there last month.

Wonderful. :)

 

Athens was also on the itinerary, we were there on a strike day :rolleyes:

But hey, it worked out ok.

 

Just a thought.

Visiting places with current or intermittent problems - what better way to visit than by cruise-ship.

No last-minute cancellations, with lost vacation, wasted costs etc etc.

Just suitable change of itinerary :)

 

JB :)

[portcbob]

Hi guys.

 

You know what, all you guys are exactly right what you are saying. Go and enjoy which now we are determined to do.

 

Regards and Thanks to all.

 

Bob & Chris.:):):)

[marknan]

My husband and I just got back from the Celebrity Equinox cruise that stopped in Athens and at least on the day we were there everything was very calm and we had a great tour of the Parthenon

[texancruzer]

We were just in Athens on the 11th. Everything was fine. All things up and running.

 

We were going to take the metro like we did our first visit. But decided to use the ship tour as we were worried that metro might be a problem and perhaps taxis too....

 

 

but all was normal and Athens was wonderful. No signs of problems except we did see some red paint (from protests) on some walls and a burned billboard in Syntagma square. All other damage was repaired and cleaned up.

 

Go and enjoy - it is a fascinating city.

[Railer]

We had 3 extra days in Athens at the end of our cruise, Nov.8th-11th. The people were very friendly and we enjoyed our time there. One night while sitting on the roof of the Plaka Hotel having a drink while enjoying the view of the Acropolis, we heard some chanting and yelling but that was it. We never saw any riots or anything else. We felt very safe and comfortable during our stay.

 

Russ

[plking]

We had 3 extra days in Athens at the end of our cruise, Nov.8th-11th. The people were very friendly and we enjoyed our time there. One night while sitting on the roof of the Plaka Hotel having a drink while enjoying the view of the Acropolis, we heard some chanting and yelling but that was it. We never saw any riots or anything else. We felt very safe and comfortable during our stay.

 

Sorry to reopen this thread, but there is no way to private message that I can find and I wanted to ask Railer/Russ his opinion on Plaka Hotel as he is about the only one who has mentioned staying there.

 

Russ, if you have a minute, please leave me your impressions on this thread... thanks!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=34518301&posted=1#post34518301