Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
they chat on their mobile phones). As for the EU smoking ban for restaurants? It's as if it
never happened.
Showing solidarity in the face of austerity, enterprising locals in Volos have developed
an alternative currency unit to the EURO (the TEM), establishing a novel informal barter-
ing system for goods and services, where participants exchange anything from olive oil
to car repairs.
The New Greeks
Since the 1990s, an influx of economic migrants has changed the face of a largely homo-
genous society. Greece's official immigrant population is now pushing one million, the
majority coming from Albania, the Balkans and Eastern Europe.
It's not uncommon to find Bulgarian women looking after the elderly in remote vil-
lages, Polish workers propping up island tourism, Albanians dominating the manual la-
bour force and in many villages, Eastern European brides filling the void left by Greek
women who have moved to the cities. Undocumented migrants are also widely exploited
as cheap labour in Greece's seasonal workforce, particularly in construction and agricul-
ture.
While the early waves gained begrudging acceptance, more recent immigrants have
largely struggled to integrate into mainstream society, existing on the fringe.
The Greek year revolves around saints' days and festivals of the Orthodox church calen-
dar. Easter is bigger than Christmas and name days (celebrating your namesake saint)
are more important than birthdays. Most people are named after a saint, as are boats,
suburbs and train stations.
Faith & Identity
Families flock to church for lively Easter celebrations, weddings, baptisms and annual
festivals, but it's largely women and the elderly who attend church services regularly.
While most Greeks aren't devout, the Orthodox faith - the official religion of Greece -
remains an important part of their identity and culture.
Religious rituals are part of daily life. You will notice taxi drivers, motorcyclists and
people on public transport making the sign of the cross when they pass a church; compli-
ments to babies and adults are followed by the '
ftou ftou'
(spitting) gesture to ward off
the evil eye; people light church candles in memory of loved ones. Hundreds of
