Some thoughts, not necessarily linear and certainly not definitive

I loved being in Greece this time. The first time we were there (1983), I had a mild identity crisis because after being in Germany, Austria, Italy---Greece seemed less European and more Middle-East. This time, I decided that it's both. If you read the history of Thessaloniki, you can learn that it truly is a crossroads of many cultures. http://www.greecetravel.com/thessaloniki/

Regarding their economic crisis, I have a very unformed (uninformed?) opinion. Greek people are extremely hard working and also extremely generous. I cannot count the number of times we were given extra wine, watermelon, a piece of food to try, for which payment wasn't expected. Is that a problem? I don't think so. The generosity was so uniform that both of us felt certain that it was not feigned in the name of luring tourists. It is part of the culture. My grandmother used to bring pastries to the garbagemen and the mailman (and everyone else she encountered). There is nothing wrong with the Greek character. They are now victims of bad politics and international monetary policies.

The degree to which English is spoken is mind-boggling: more than any other country I've visited to date. You cannot do any job of any consequence in Greece without speaking English because it IS the lingua franca of all nations.

My spoken Greek seeped back into me as the trip went on. I haven't spoken Greek with any regularity since the death of my grandmother, 35 years ago. And it was a pleasure to use it, no matter how many mistakes I made. As in other countries we've visited, the effort is valued but it was even something more here because no Greek expects an American tourist to know any Greek.

My grandparents were actually residents of Asia Minor and had to leave there before the "population exchange" of 1923 (where Greeks left Turkey and Turks left Greece). A lot of the details in the family lore are fuzzy but all I had to say while I was there was that my grandparents had to leave Asia Minor and everyone got it without any further details.

I can't wait to go back.