Day 1
The first day of our week in Athens we started with a short bus tour. As most of us were traveling from Boston, it was a good decision, much better than having a walking tour. Those who were extremely tired could take a rest or nap before the dinner. We stopped at the bottom of the hill to see the Acropolis. We were impressed, and excited to see it, as we are planning to have a tour of it during our stay.
For the welcome dinner, our host reserved a restaurant close to the Acropolis, in a very touristic place. I was told that the food in such places is not always the best quality. During the high season, owners emphasize on quantity, not on quality. And that was also observations for most of our group. However, I can admit two things which are common for restaurants in Athens: speed and quality of the dishes. Some people are saying that food has to be provided very fast as Greeks are impatient, and it has to be a lot of food as they love to eat in the evenings.
Day 2
The second day we started our academic sessions with the visit in the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM). The Chamber is one of the largest and most active American chambers in Europe. It was established in 1932 to promote economic and business relations between the United States and Greece. Our host, Elias Spirtounias, executive director at AMCHAM, talked about the opportunities, problems, and challenges which Greece is dealing with.
To make the long story short, Greece is a beautiful country with huge potential. If you can imagine, there is enough uncultivated soil to fill roughly 30 percent of European demand for fruits and vegetables. But it can’t be used for many reasons, which one of them is a quota set by the European Union.
Among many other challenges Greece faces, the biggest problem is the lack of reliable and stable leadership. You can’t lead a company if you change the CEO eight times through the last eight years. And that was the case with the Greek government.
In the afternoon we visited the Athens University of Economics and Business, where Professor Tryphon Kollintzas talked about how we may understand Greece nowadays. It was a very good summary of various statistics referring to the economic situation in this beautiful country. Combined with the morning session, I can say that we roughly understood the challenges and opportunities one may find in Greece. It was also a valuable introduction to the sessions we are expecting during the week to follow.
By Pawel Czoczys