Athens, Greece ...

[Soundlurker]

Your city is beyond insane

I arrived for a gig with my band and squeezing through the tiny streets with a small van while hundreds of kamikaze dudes on motorcycles do their best to jump in front of you was extreme to say the least.

Finding a place to park and actually parking are even more unbelievable. A fine example of overpopulation.

Ah well, gotta eat some Gyros to compensate

 

[Keregioz]

Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

 

[Teddyboy]

"Live your myth in Greece".... hahahahaha Yep,it's pretty terrible.

What's your band's name and where are you playing?

 

[Soundlurker]

I'm gonna be playing with Dan Koloff but I really doubt you'd like listening to a bunch of hardcore/beatdown songs.

 

[Teddyboy]

Good luck with the concert!!!

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

If I were you I would split and head for the islands.

 

[Soundlurker]

Yeah I've been to Samos and it was so much quieter, cleaner and relaxed as a whole there

 

[hsinn3r]

Athens is... well, fucked up. I wouldn't want to move out, though, haha. The weather is getting really warm again, try to take a walk on plaka/monastiraki/thiseio if you have any free time.

 

[Soundlurker]

We went to Monastiraki, it was nice, we then climbed that hill under the Acropolis, it had a cool view of Athens. I'm glad it wasn't too hot. Last year I felt like I'm going to melt when I went to the Acropolis in the summer.

Our hosts from Eden Demise were really cool dudes and we all had a blast.

The gig itself was OK but it seems the audience there isn't exactly enthusiastic, even when the local bands were on.

Gotta love Souvlaki and Gyros and the food in general I guess. Not to keen on the prices, though. Almost everything is pretty expensive but at least the food is mostly fresh and tasty.

I heard that the police pretty much keeps all the immigrants and nasty dudes in the centre of the city so the suburbs are clean, is that true? It seems you're plagued with questionable street salesmen selling all kinds of junk and pirated dvds. I wonder why you keep up with them...so they are at least not stealing perhaps?

The highways are really nice btw, even though they aren't cheap obviously. Almost no traffic there too, contrary to what's happening in downtown Athens.

 

[hsinn3r]

The gig itself was OK but it seems the audience there isn't exactly enthusiastic, even when the local bands were on.

Unfortunately that's the case with most gigs, especially on local bands. It can be a great experience with big bands, audience singing louder than the PA kinda stuff, but most of the times it's meh.

I heard that the police pretty much keeps all the immigrants and nasty dudes in the centre of the city so the suburbs are clean, is that true? It seems you're plagued with questionable street salesmen selling all kinds of junk and pirated dvds. I wonder why you keep up with them...so they are at least not stealing perhaps?

Well, not 100% the case, but pretty much. Most of them don't really care to stay in greece, they were on their way to other european countrys, but were cheated and stolen by their slave-drivers, leaving them stranded here with no way in (to europe) or out. The police can catch them with no legal papers, but in order to deport them, they have to know where to send them. Anyway it's a real problem, for themselves and us as well, the numbers of illegal immigrants in athens has grown excessively.

The highways are really nice btw, even though they aren't cheap obviously. Almost no traffic there too, contrary to what's happening in downtown Athens.

Then you were lucky to ride the few good ones haha.

 

[Soundlurker]

Thinking back I'm quite surprised at how calm the local people react to the total chaos and crowded streets. Especially drivers. Here if someone's walking down a street so leisurely, blocking the road for the cars behind him or if 2 motorcycles overtake a car on both sides you can't imagine the amount of swearing that will ensue, accompanied by sounding the car horn like there's no tomorrow.