9th July 2025: I went to London on 10th June. The UK is almost completely cashless. I didn’t use any coins or notes in the 19 days I was there. And I didn’t see anyone else use cash either. Greece seems to be going the same way. Since returning on June 29th, I have used cash only once or twice.
It’s July so it’s hot. Unforgivingly so. The day after my return we drove to Toroni. When you leave the dual carriageway to head for Nikiti, there is a wonderful place to stop for coffee and a bite to eat. It’s called Secoupa (Σε Κούπα). It has a comfortable semi-open sheltered area where you can sit, drink your coffee, and get ready for the slower driving from this point onwards. On 30th June the shite truck was in business sucking up human effluent from the shop’s cesspit. Halkidiki doesn’t have a sewage system. When the trucks are hoovering up the shite, the stench is enough to bring tears to your eyes. The other thing is the noise from the shit-hoovering machinery is deafening, a two-pronged assault on one’s aural and olfactory senses. When the shit truck calls near our house, we move inside, close the windows and switch on the a/c. At Secoupa, unfortunately, there was no escape. I had to say to the staff that it was unacceptable that shit was being hoovered up during opening hours. They said that they had tried to complain, but that those buggers came when it suited them.
There is not much to see between Secoupa and Nikiti, but once you enter Sithonia there are the dark-blue and teal waters to your right and dense fir and pine woodland to one’s left. Some of the views are truly spectacular as the road is mainly high above sea level.
In Toroni, while the tourism is still mainly Balkan, there is evidence that visitors from the countries we used to call Eastern Europe are growing in number. One notable absence is Croatia, but I guess they content themselves with the Dalmatian coast.
I have alluded to the ubiquity of cesspits. It is also true that the water in Halkidiki is undrinkable. There is no need for this as Halkidiki gets plenty of rain. Government neglect and corruption again. The regional road between Toroni and Porto Koufo has been closed for several months now because a bridge collapsed due to flooding (no lack of water!) last autumn. This means traffic heading for Koufo, Kalamitsi and beyond has to go through Toroni. My guess is that the bridge will not be rebuilt for several years. Tourists will see the beauty and extent of Toroni’s beach, stop for food and drink, shop at the mini markets, and maybe decide to find a place to stay. Kerching! There will be no pressure from businesses to reopen the road.
In Greece the latest scandal has to do with an organisation called ΟΠΕΚΕΠΕ which, according to AI, is “ο Οργανισμός Πληρωμών και Ελέγχου Κοινοτικών Ενισχύσεων Προσανατολισμού και Εγγυήσεων, είναι ο αρμόδιος φορέας στην Ελλάδα για την διαχείριση και εκτέλεση πληρωμών που αφορούν κοινοτικές ενισχύσεις στον αγροτικό τομέα”.
Google Translate offers the following shaky English version: “the Payment and Control Organization for Community Aids for Guidance and Guarantees, is the competent body in Greece for the management and execution of payments relating to community aid in the agricultural sector.”
The name screams fraud. Every word apart from Πληρωμών/Payment makes no sense in either English or Greek. For the Prime Minister, there is the additional discomfort of a disproportionate percentage of the payments going to beneficiaries in Crete, the PM’s home base. More about this when I get a better handle on it.
Moving back to Halkidiki, a bar here in Toroni has been shut down by the authorities for a host of violations. The story is here: https://www.ertnews.gr/video/louketo-se-beach-bar-stin-toroni-xalkidikis/
Nearer to Thessaloniki, there has been a bit of a kerfuffle in a small seaside village called Epanomi. It seems that ΚΑΠΗ (Κέντρα Ανοιχτής Προστασίας Ηλικιωμένων) in Thessaloniki have been running free excursions for senior citizens to Epanomi only for three café bars to refuse entry to the oldies on the grounds that it is bad for their image. There are, to my mind, three problems with this: the ageism is unacceptable; it’s pretty fucking stupid as senior citizens might have more disposable income than cash-strapped young people; and, finally, the punchline to a joke – σιγά την πόλη – who the fuck do the “Epamonites” (sounds biblical) think they are? Places like Epanomi are for people who can’t afford a holiday in Halkidiki. The bar owners should be kissing the old people’s arses. The story is here: https://www.news247.gr/ellada/thessaloniki-apekleisan-ilikiomenous-apo-beach-bar-stin-epanomi-to-minima-angeloudi/
aaaa!!!! Greece… greece…. The “country of miracles” it was described (millions of years ago, maybe….) but for the last centuries it should be called “the country of miraculous corruption”. Luke, these moments you write about in your blog should be published!!! They create an original, unusual line of modern Greek history (no matter you define it “Northern Greece”) seen though a vivid, warm and very very human perspective!!! I enjoy much reading you!!
Writing at 4:51!!! You are burning the candle at both ends. I’m in Toroni right now.