Greece

It has been interesting talking to a few people who live here about the economic situation. And especially about the ex prime minister Tsipras, who admittedly is young and good looking (for a politician), he did say he wouldn't accept the bailout conditions, and then had that expensive referendum. But apparently he is a bright hope in a dated and stagnant political field, and many hope he will get back in. We certainly haven't noticed Greeks taking back handlers, or not paying their taxes. Everything comes with a receipt, and the requisite 16% tax. And it's also interesting that the appointed temporary prime minister is the first female. I wonder if she will run?

For a country dependant on tourism they certainly do a great job of making everything run smoothly, and getting everyone from A to B with the least amount of hassle. I think as Angela Merkels said, that the biggest problem now is the refugees, and the local papers certainly reflect the difficulty local economies are having dealing with the influx of people who all need feeding, accommodating, processing, and transporting. And yet we have only met cheerful optimistic folk - maybe it's their tourist face.

Throughout the places we have so far travelled in Greece we have seen empty and abandoned shops and houses. Half finished buildings that appear to have just been left, and today a village where perhaps half the houses were vacant. Apparently there have been quite a few bankruptcies. And have  all the young people gone to Northern Europe for better work, or have they just moved to the city like everywhere else. There's always so much to find out, and so many stories to hear.

Today we took the local bus to a small village. The bus was full of tourists and old folk, but we were the only 2 who got off in Sangri. Touted as a lovely village of churches and cafes it sounded ideal. And it was, just not quite as described. We walked 1/2 a km down a quiet country road to a small village of white washed houses and blue doors. Lovely winding stone pathways, and very quiet. It was great to be away from the tourist trail. Most of the tourists seem to hire small cars (the music from the Yaris ad comes to mind) and zip about the place. Or the new trend seems to be quad bikes - really! But it's not so busy, and they're all rushing from temple to antiquity - actually not rushing - while we were waiting for the bus to come back I saw countless small cars stop so they could turn their maps this way and that to try and figure out where they were, and which way they should be heading.

But we had a magical few hours wandering the village and surrounding countryside. Saw a couple of very old churches - one stone one in the middle of paddocks and olive groves. We saw some old windmills, and even a donkey - to think we rode donkeys back in the day. I'm not sure that the donkey we saw today wasn't just for the tourists. We didn't find any amazing village tavernas though, and certainly didn't come across anywhere selling the type of food we smelt cooking in the village.