Freemans in Greece: Changing of the Guard

August, 2010

Our children refused to leave their cousins to go see any of Greece. They would have stayed in our hotel for 2 weeks, alone with their cousins, if we'd let them. We were only able to drag them away if we promised their cousins would meet us later. So, we took off for Athens to see the changing of the guard, with the cousins trailing close behind.

We arrived early and had time to explore the National Gardens, originally designed to keep the kings and queens cool on their strolls in the glaring sun. Now, it's filled with striking statues and strewn with ruins -- they have so many ruins that they don't know what to do with them all. In typical Greek fashion, there was no clear signage -- no clear map or path signs to help us find the playground, just laid-back park workers sitting smoking, drinking greek coffee, and chatting with their coworkers who would vaguely wave us in the direction of the playground, only to have us get lost again.

Finally, we found the playground and it was lovely -- shaded and laden with new structures for us, creatively designed to spin kids around fast, with no legal worries holding back the playground designers. Then we ran to join the cousins at the changing of the guard that's held in front of the tomb of the unknown Greek soldier.

With lots of pom poms and fanfare, the soldiers and band put on a show of a change for us. When we got in position to watch, the military forced us to stand on the far side of the road, so we couldn't see over a crowd in front of us. After the procession passed, we all ran across the road up as close as possible to the guard changing, that is hundreds of us all ran up at once, with some vague missives from the soldiers guiding us. After the guard change, the soldiers ushered us back across the road to let the procession pass down the road again. The entire event was complete chaos, with a lot of pushing and shoving, with some unsettling moments trying to keep track of 9 kids.

It was my first taste of the easygoing Greeks, to the point that even the Greek military is easygoing and uncontrolling. Let me explain - think of how hyper-organized the Germans are, but to be so organized you have to be very controlling, as a culture. Now, contrast the Germans to the Greeks. They are complete opposites, with the Greeks being very unorganized, but you also get a laid-back, uncontrolling culture along with it. More of that to come in the following postings...