Good ol' Athens. I once had to bribe a police at the airport. Otherwise, they were gonna detain me for non-existence drugs and make me miss my flight. They had me in a room and a few of them were discussing in the room what the best story was for them to tell their boss as to why they were detaining me in case he came and asked them. The thought that I might have spoken or understood Greek never crossed their mind. Back then I spoke it well and understood it even better. One of the police suggested that he was gonna say that I was holding what appeared to be a forged passport and another one came up with this idea that a cigarette pipe I had in my carry-on luggage contained traces of drugs. This pipe was given to me as a gift and was still wrapped and sealed in a plastic wrap. I was sitting there listening to these idiots, almost wanting to volunteer a suggestion as to what would be a more plausible case for them to hold me because they were so dumb they couldn't agree amongst each other. They started cursing at each other's gods.
What was funny is they would say all kinds of stuff about me and then say to each other "this black boy probably speaks Greek" and then back to talking about me all over again. So after I paid them, they were all super nice and helping with my luggage and everything else. It was not even $100 that I gave them but it did the job.
Athens and Greece as a whole can be so many things all at once. It could be this nation that once led in civilization, great architectural sites, beautiful islands and beaches and a third world country in so many ways at the same time. But all in all, it is still one of the loveliest places that I have ever been to. It was once my home for a year.
