| Olympic Diary |
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| Interesting facts |
| Five things you should know about Athens |
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Fact 1: Movie theatres in Athens, as throughout Greece, show movies in their original language with subtitles. Contrary to most other European countries, movie-going in Greece is not limited to native speakers.
Fact 2: Athens is one of the safest cities in the world, with one of the lowest crime rates. It is safe to walk around the city without fear at all hours, taking the absolute minimum precautions.
Fact 3: Although they are not supposed to, taxis in Athens take on multiple customers but they honor the initial customer's route. Having said that, a taxi ride in Athens is considerably less expensive than a comparable taxi ride in other major metropolitan areas, such as London, Paris or New York.
Fact 4: Greeks are heavy smokers. Although the Government recently enacted a new law banning smoking in most public areas, which also requires restaurants to set aside non-smoking sections, the law is not enforced diligently, except at the Airport, the Metro stations, and most banks, resulting in most closed spaces in Athens being smoke-filled. It is interesting to note that Greece was one of the first countries in the world to pass a smoking-restricting law, back in the late 1950s, which was never enforced. Smoking at the old Athens International Airport was supposed to be banned in 1957.
Fact 5: The stand-alone news kiosks of Greece ("periptero") are the country's 24-hour convenience stores. They sell everything, from Greek and foreign newspapers and magazines, to cigarettes, Cuban cigars, batteries, candy, gum, soft drinks, dairy products, etc. |
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