From hays@ohiou.edu Wed Mar 31 12:29:01 1999 Received: from mxu1.u.washington.edu (mxu1.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.01) with ESMTP id MAA29232 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 12:28:59 -0800 Received: from oak.cats.ohiou.edu (root@oak.cats.ohiou.edu [132.235.8.44]) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.01) with ESMTP id MAA19895 for ; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 12:28:59 -0800 Received: from ohiou.edu (dhcp-073-042.ellis.ohiou.edu [132.235.73.42]) by oak.cats.ohiou.edu (8.9.3/8.9.1) with ESMTP id PAA13799; Wed, 31 Mar 1999 15:28:58 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <370277F7.1B8EEAA1@ohiou.edu> Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 15:31:31 -0400 From: Steve Hays X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 (Macintosh; I; PPC) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: classics@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: travel dangers References: <199903312003.PAA12809@thunder.ocis.temple.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The State Department has issued a vague warning to all Americans everywhere in the world to be on the alert. As to travel in Greece, I myself would tend to avoid the northern border region--not out of any fear, but because those communities probably have plenty on their hands already. If there is any serious tension, I would expect it to be in Thrace because at least some Greeks are very antsy that the Muslim minority in that area will try to capitalize on events to the North to make their situation appear analogous to that of the Kosovo Albanians and to push for autonomy. The Athens News has mentioned a few demonstrations--from Athens and Thessalonike to Kastoria-- and the bombing of an Athens computer retailer, but I doubt there is any danger involved. Our Greek-in-Greece program is in Athens right now, and I haven't heard a word--either from Bill Owens, who is leading the group at this point, or from any parents (who would surely have called if they had heard anything alarming from their kids). As always, I would feel much safer virtually anywhere in Greece than virtually anywhere in the U.S.--particularly Philadelphia :). I will be joining our group for 4-5 weeks in May. We'll settle on quiet islands like Kassos or Agathonisi for several days at a time and do virtually nothing but read Homer and Plato 8-10 hours per day. I expect you all to pity me and sit on the edge of your seats in fear for my safety while I carry out this daunting and dangerous undertaking. As we used to say, "Suffer, Baby, suffer!" Steve Hays Dan Tompkins wrote: > Has there been any news on potentially increased dangers to travel in > Greece, because of the Balkan conflict, and Istanbul, because of problems > in Turkey? > > Dan Tompkins .