Compassion in Greece

4

Save or share this post for later

I was travelling to work today on the trolley (the Greek name for the yellow ‘buses’ that run on electricity) and two things made me smile:

1) An old man gets off the trolley at his stop – looks around him and passes his still valid ticket to a person about to board.  The person thanks him very much.

(In Athens, you buy a public transport ticket for €1.20 and stamp it in the machine upon entry of said transport.  It stamps a time on it and your ticket is valid for 90 minutes of travel from the time you stamped it.  So, obviously once you’ve finished your journey and there’s still time left, it’s nice to give your ticket away – I’ve done it in the past and had it done to me too).

2) Same old man sees a homeless person on the street (an increasing number unfortunately of late), and stops to chat to him and give him some small change and a cigarette.

This display of humane compassion made me smile.  Keep it up Greece—don’t let the Troika strip you of your dignity and human spirit.

Header picture source: http://www.lifebeyondbordersblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/FileTrolleyBusPiraeus.jpg

4 COMMENTS

  1. Both nice gestures. We do the same with a two-hour parking ticket if we’ve shopped more quickly than we expected,but watch out if Hitler (sorry – the parking attendant!) catches you !