Athens and Mykonos: For Better or Worse?

Jeff—Saturday

Two classic literary lines come to mind as I hunker down this Friday afternoon inside a friend’s naturally cool guestroom, squirreled away from the 105 degree F (41C) Athens heat, contemplating how to survive an even warmer Saturday attending the outdoor college graduation of my close Mykonian friends’ sons.  But I shall persevere and overcome.  Which brings me back to those two lines, and what’s on my nearly fried brain…make that poached.

“I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him,” is the first (thank you, Bill), and the second is, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (kudos to you, Chuck).

They come to mind because I’m honestly not sure if what I have to say is intended to bury, exhume, or praise two places I truly treasure, or whether it’s their best or worst of times.

First, Athens. 

There is no need to go into detail describing all that’s rocked Athens as a result of the worldwide financial crisis. Unemployment is still at Great Depression era levels, it faces insurmountable bailout obligations, and though reports of its death may be greatly exaggerated (a bit of a borrowing from Mark Twain), likely just as exaggerated are reports of its imminent recovery … certainly economically. BUT, there is a distinct new upbeat vibe taking hold in the city, one that I’d missed until now.

Yes, the Athens garbage collectors are on strike, and protestors in the Exarchia part of town are tossing petrol bombs at police, but that’s pre-crisis business as usual activities. 

What’s different is a noticeable lift in the spirits of the Athenians.  As if they’ve come to accept that times aren’t going to get better anytime soon, so they’re going to do what they must to make the best of it.  The art and culture scene is in robust revival, hotels are packed—with new ones coming on line or being refurbished—and the young are looking for innovative new ways to make things better for themselves and their country. 

That’s the sort of diehard entrepreneurial Greek spirit which stands the best chance of propelling Athens and the nation out of these dark times—and with just a little help from their friends (tip of the hat to the Beatles) in government, they just might pull it off.

So, is this the best of times or the worst of times for Athens?  That’s not for me to say, no more than can I for the second place on my mind, Mykonos.

Twenty years ago 

As many know, I call Mykonos home, and have felt that way for thirty-five years.  But just as Guest Blogger Lisa Alber observed here earlier this week, and others agreed, hometowns inevitably change. Mykonos is no exception.  If you go back to World War II, it was a place of starvation and struggle, but for purposes of this comparison, my baseline is just a couple of decades ago, after the island had already established itself as a tourist paradise. 

Today, it’s catapulted itself into a completely different orbit, one where Mykonos stands as an international symbol of tourist hedonism and 24/7 glitz.  I think it’s safe to say (despite Santorini’s anticipated objections) that there is no more profitable a place in Greece to do tourist related business than Mykonos. Inevitably that has attracted a myriad of investors looking to outdo one another in projects aimed at attracting and maximizing as big a share of that high-end market for themselves as they can. 

Does all that development better or worsen Mykonos?  Again, I have no answer, but one thing is for certain: As with so many other "hometowns," the old Mykonos of my contemporaries' recollections is long gone.

For example:

Paraga Beach 50 years ago (courtesy Dimitris Koutsoukas)

Paraga Beach 45 years ago (courtesy Dimitris Koutsoukas)

Paraga Beach today

Perhaps Shakespeare or Dickens can answer those questions, but at the moment what really matters to me is only one thing:

Congratulations, Nikos Fiorentinos and Spiros Apostolou on your graduations from college.  May you continue to make your communities and the world a better place!

—Jeff