Saturday, February 03, 2007

Greek Driving


Whoops! I came across this scene on Friday morning, as Emmanuelle and I drove around trying to find a parking place near the University.

In a country where traffic signs are 'optional' and there is NO police enforcement, things like this should not come as a surprise. Here, it looks like the driver tried to take a shortcut by going straight rather than following the curve off to the right.

Emmanuelle and I both felt I had to get a photo of this, but the driver was standing right next to the car. I tried to be slick about taking it so as not to make him feel so bad, but he saw me anyway. Fortunately, he laughed!

One of these days, I'm going to take some pictures for a post entitled 'Greek Parking'...oh boy!

3 comments:

layne (herman) said...

and i feel bad on those days where i just miss a regular sized curb coming out of a market parking lot.

yikes.

Anonymous said...

I never drove in Greece, but I do remember when my mother-in-law came to visit us. She arrived on March 24th and broke her ankle that night. By the next day, we realized that it was not just a sprain and took her to the hospital, on March 25th! She ended up in a wheelchair. I remember trying to navigate a wheelchair on the sidewalks of Thessaloniki. What with all the cars parked on the sidewalks and the stairwells to basement apartments taking up the places where there were no cars, we ended up pushing the chair in the street instead! You should have seen Father Stephen heading into oncoming traffic on Vassilisis Olga Avenue!

Fr. Gregory said...

Presvytera: Rest assured that nothing's changed! The sidewalks are still for parking only. Fortunately, pedestrians have the right -- to run for their lives when faced with a car!