Since I first learned about ancient Greek civilization in a high school history class, I've had a picture of modern day Greece as being the homeland of the descendants of Pericles, Pythagoras, and Plato. If ever there were a city where the past is always present, it would be Athens. Walking around town, there are reminders of Greece's glorious history everywhere, whether it's the Parthenon overlooking the city, the statues of the Olympian gods that adorn public buildings, or the streets that are named in honour of various Greek heroes (real or mythological). To my surprise, the Greeks who I've met in the last ten days do not associate themselves with the architectural achievements or intellectual inheritance of their forefathers; instead of dwelling on the past, they tend to lament about the current state of Greek affairs. To paraphrase the thoughts of several individuals, they feel that the civilization that developed in Greece 2500 years ago doesn't belong to the people of Greece, but to the world, and that they have no personal claim to it. As my hair butcher stylist says, "Greeks have had more than two thousand years to come up with the next best thing since democracy..." This attitude contrasts pretty starkly with the way the French view their national history (the French Revolution, the Enlightenment, blah, blah, blah...), or even how Germans deal with their collective 'culpability' regarding events in the 20th century. In many ways this seems like an incredibly healthy relationship with history, as the Greeks I've encountered have a surprisingly deflated sense of national pride, but at the same time it's almost a little sad if they feel they can't celebrate the great moments of their history, no matter how far in the distant past they may be.

 

 According to my 11th grade history teacher (and UNESCO), this is THE symbol of western civilization.

  

 I imagine it could be crippling to toil in his intellectual shadow. (Socrates statue outside the Academy of Athens)

My last couple of days in Athens have been intense touristy days. The sun has reappeared, and so I've been spending my days running from site to site, and hanging out with K., a very cool Greek girl I befriended at Scipo. It's been a great month in Europe, but I'm really pumped up to get to Istanbul tomorrow. I'm especially excited to leave Athens because my roommate for the last couple of nights has been a British guy with some SERIOUSLY questionable standards for personal hygiene... Although I hadn't really planned anything beyond my arrival in Crete last weekend, I am feeling a little behind schedule in terms of where I expected to be at this point in my travels, so I'm going to have to pick up the pace, and start making some decisions as to places that I may not be able to visit this time around. 

And on a final, and totally unrelated note, I'd like to draw your attention to an article that I think should be essential reading for all those French people who mock North American students and their seeming obsession with finding peanut butter when studying in France.