5 live's Backpackers' Guide to the Eurozone: Greece
Post categories: Chris Mason, Twitter, politics, social media, travel
|11:21 UK time, Tuesday, 11 October 2011
We're standing in Syntagma Square, in the centre of Athens. A full moon is puncturing through the patchy cloud. For the first time all day it's not pouring down. 
Our chat with Alexander is punctuated by the automotive chorus of choice here: Athenians have a very liberal attitude it seems towards the use of the car horn, particularly on yet another day when there is no public transport, because of a strike. Alexander has been in and out of work in recent years, and is out of work again. It is a struggle even to get a job interview, let alone get a job. But in a sentence he sums up what might be this Greece's biggest long term challenge and a long lasting legacy of this crisis. Holding onto its people. "This country is now just a good place to visit, not to live in," he says. He's tempted to return to Nottingham, where he was a student.
Alexander in Athens
Hear Chris' report from Athens on 5 live Breakfast
Chris Mason is 5live's Political Reporter. He is spending the week exploring the state of the Eurozone, visiting Greece, Italy, Germany and Belgium.
You can follow his progress on 5live, here on the 5live blog, on Twitter and on the BBC News website.
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