Anything but a quiet afternoon

You may all be wondering why I'm posting a blog so soon after my last. Let me tell you why.

Yesterday afternoon at about 7pm, I had just finished my shift at the bar and with a new South African mate of mine, I was looking for a bar or pub that would play the Western Force (AUS) v Stormers (SA) Super 14 Rugby game. I'd called a couple of places already but they were playing the Liverpool soccer match. Anyhow we needed to find somewhere quickly before the game's kick-off at 8. So I had just found the contact details of our last hope when I heard loud explosions outside. Chris, the South African and I rushed out to the dorm's balcony to see what was going on. What we saw shocked us..


There was a massive group of angry Greeks rioting in the street outside the hostel!! They were all wearing motorcycle helmets and were carrying long bats with the Greek flag attached at the end. They seemed to be rallying outside under this massive Greek man wearing a stained white singlet and jeans. He was screaming out something in Greek to the crowd who were getting more and more worked up. I felt like I had gone back in time to some civil war period.

The massive group were being contained (hardly) by a line of Greek riot police who had special protocol for this sort of occurrence.

Soon we had found out from some American guys who just got back from buying KFC in the midst of it that it was a protest to the immigrants of the area who typically account for an increasing crime rate and inhabit dodgy old apartment buildings in Ommonia, reducing the appeal of the area significantly.

It was all pretty exciting and soon the hostel's balconies were packed with backpackers staying at the hostel. We all got an unpleasant surprise however, when the riot police started to fire off tear gas which tingled the sinuses and put a tear to our eye.

I managed to take a bit of video but had to be quick because the riot police didn't like their picture taken.



Just before the riot started to move out of sight further down the street, a Greek journalist with his cameraman passed the hostel and with a smile on his face he yelled out: "Another beautiful day in Athens!!"