I’ve been in Athens for about 3 weeks now and since my command of the Greek language could be described as something less than masterful, I’ve been trying to meet some young english-speaking people or expats I could hang out with. I was a little surprised to find that there is a craigslist for Athens, but it seems pretty deserted with only an one ad for a brazilian dating website and a few desperate american singles playing the odds by spamming the world with their pleas for attention.

I’m trying not to become too jaded, but every time I try going anywhere or doing anything in Athens I become more and more convinced that the entire city is full of scammers and con artists (no offense intended to my one athenian reader).

Last night I decided to head to one of the local bars and see what I could find. There was one bar that’s pretty close to our office that I walk past each day and it looks like it’s usually full of people, so I decided to go check it out. It was a sunday night so I didn’t expect that it would be very full, but when I showed up and went inside it was packed. The first thing I noticed was that there were only 3 guys in the whole bar (myself included) and there were about 20 gorgeous women who seemed to be there by themselves. I thought this was a bit strange and made a mental note to ask one of the locals if this was a lesbian bar, but I sat down to have a drink anyway.

I started talking to a few of the girls at the bar and I discovered that all of them worked at there. Literally every single girl in the bar worked there! What is their job, you ask? To sit in the bar, make it look crowded, and when guys come in try to con them into buying overpriced drinks. Even more mind boggling, they’re very up front about this and don’t even try to hide the fact that they all work there!

And the worst part? Before I realized the extent of the setup, I did get conned into buying one overpriced drink for a cute romanian girl. I tried some of it when it came and I’m pretty sure that it was just lemonade because there was certainly no booze in there. Sweet! I guess that way as soon as I leave she can move to the next guy and keep going all night without getting drunk. After one 7 euro lemonade, I felt the need to go elsewhere.

It’s really amazing to me that this is so commonplace, everyone treats it as if it’s a normal occurrance. I suppose I made the mistake of going to a bar in Piraeus, since that place has a bit of a reputation. Nevertheless, the whole experience seemed very fake and very rehearsed, going through the motions without meaning or feeling. Surely there are better places to go with people that don’t exist to rip off the tourists, so I’m trying to give the city a chance.