Yesterday we received the following email from a reader:
Dear Basileos @ Athens-Olympics:
I know you have said you feel very confident that Greece is ready for the job of protecting people at the Olympics, however what advise can you give a person who will be traveling there in the near future before the Olympics. Are there any areas of advice you can offer to help me take extra care to protect myself.
The answer to this is remarkably simple. Greece is an incredibly safe country. Those who have visited Greece before know that you can find five year old kids playing outside in the streets at 10 or 12 o'clock at night without any 'fear'. There is no routine 'gunpoint' or 'knifepoint' stealing and your life is certainly in no danger. The 'cool' spirit is something you feel as well as a visitor so almost no visitor in Greece feels threatened.
The only issue you may need to worry has to do with petty crime that every now and then may arise. This basically means that you should be taking care in metro's, buses and crowded areas of any pickpockets and you should be taking care of your bag at all times.
However, the number of police officers on duty and patrols during the olympics will be so huge that I doubt whether even this will be an important danger.
Posted by Basileios at March 18, 2004 03:42 PM