About cafes and not only

Every time I pass by some of the many cafes here in Serres (Greece) I am still surprised -  unless it is an early morning, there is at least one customer; the most popular ones, situated in the narrowest streets of old town, in the evenings (and not only on holidays) are crowded and for the waiters it is sometimes impossible to get trough with the next order of, for example, Greek traditional frapés.

Why am I so surprised? Firstly, the tourism peak season is over, so the people, who spend their leisure time there are mostly people on the spot. But it is crisis in this country, and everyone should cut their expenditures, and as it comes from my Latvian point of view, firstly this would impact the eating and drinking outside the home. So here I am confused – is this the tradition of halara (Greek lifestyle of taking it easy, relaxing, which also includes drinking coffee with friends for two or three hours) that is still so strong, despite the surrounding threat; or the economical situation of an ordinary person, living in Greece, is not so bad yet; or it is even more complicated – they understand better the basic concept of fighting against crisis and are willing to help their country to repay the debt by spending more, so that government receives more taxes/more income and the lifecycle of economy can regenerate. If the last one, then this nation is smarter than others, including also governments; smarter than Latvians for sure.

Meanwhile, the other day I was talking with one of my professors, and she sadly professed, that if the economical situation does not improve, she may have to leave her native country and try to look for better life elsewhere.  And I assume that this particular person is not the only one who thinks this way. Here starts the tragedy, which is similar with the situation in Latvia as well, because when the intelligence leaves, the country loses not only a person but his or her brain as well which with knowledge could have helped it to born as a phoenix from the ashes.

At the end - a video that could allow you to see approximately how big is the Greek debt. Unfortunately, it is a little bit out-of-date - as we all know, Greece got a 50% discount.