I know somebody who is supposed to go to Greece for a beach vacation on Saturday. This is a working class person who had to work a lot to save for the trip. Obviously, she’s better off than the folks who experienced the fires but I still feel bad for her.
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65% of Americans NEVER travel abroad in their entire lives, so your friend is doing better than two-thirds of her countrymen.
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Sorry, I think I’m missed your point — your friend had to cancel her trip because of the Greek fires, and lost some/all of the money that she paid for the trip??
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It’s non-refundable because it’s so much cheaper when it’s non-refundable.
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It’s impossible for me to imagine. I love traveling.
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Only part of the country was affected, was it to one of those areas? Because if it was to another area the best thing they could do for all concerned is to go anyway.
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I’m seeing her tomorrow and I’ll ask.
I’m.so sad for Greece. The country just can’t catch a break. And as you said on your blog, it’s a shame nobody is exploring the connection between this tragedy and austerity.
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If she can go (that is the place isn’t affected and the flight is still on) you could point out that the best thing for the country is for people to still arrive for vacations (I speak as a person from a place where tourism was a major industry – people staying away doesn’t help).
Austerity has almost reached the status of religious dogma – it cannot be questioned because questions upset the entire foundation of the faith (unlike you I think religious attitudes are as strong as ever, just directed towards different ideas).
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I’m very curious what will be said about austerity at this German conference I’m going. It’s a mix of Spanish and German academics, including economists. I also wonder if anybody will claim that the crisis is over.
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A Spanish (technically Catalan nationalist but not from Catalonia proper) was visiting where I work a couple of years ago and kept repeating that Poland should never, ever accept the Euro (which make me suspect that getting kicked out of the Euro is one of the covert agendas of the independistes… which I can almost get behind).
Also… there was one random reference I heard on Spanish tv about people being paid in pesetas… it took a moment to sink in, do you know what that means? I’ve seen prices calculated in pesetas on some receipts in Spain too, does it still exist in some form as an ideational currency?
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Wow, really? I had no idea. This is fascinating.
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As a point of reference, flights to Kos (where I’d been before) were back and running a day or so after the earthquake last year, it was on my short list of places to go just for that reason (before events prevented me from going anywhere last summer).
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