Day 2 - To Athens! (continued)

More thoughts about driving and Greece:

Contrary to what the guidebooks say, I have found the Greeks to be fairly guarded in their interactions with strangers. Yet, no one ever refused to help and they generally did their best--with one important exception: directions. The Greeks suck at giving directions. Many times they simple won't give them or they say something vague like, "go that way, take a right, take a left then ask someone else."

There's just a completely different view of automobile navigation here than in the States. In the U.S., we are automobile-centric. Our cities and signs are all designed to cater to the driver: gridded streets, signs at street corners at the right height to be seen from the car, lots of stop signs and street lights. As a result, it is very easy to get from place to place without too much fuss and stopping for directions. With Mapquest, Google, and Yahoo Maps, it's almost not necessary at all. There is no equivalent in Greece (that I know of).

I really had no idea that the U.S. was so orderly, until I arrived here. There are rules for every situation, and people generally follow them. In Greece, well, there might be rules, but the people really don't seem that interested in following them, nor the police that interested in enforcing them. As a consequence, Greece feels in a way more free. We spend a lot of time talking about freedom in the U.S., but we seem to spend an inordinate amount of time creating and following rules which restrict our freedoms. The Greeks seem to be more tolerant of randomness, and would rather deal person to person when things don't go quite right, than try to create systems of rules to cover every potential situation.