Mykonos, before the tourist assault

I won't pay

Today I got fined. It was my own fault really, but still, I felt the blood rush to my head when I saw the piece of paper folded under the strap on my moped seat. Silly cops! OK, I shouldn’t have parked my Suzuki on the pavement – but it wasn’t the first time I’d done that. And fair enough, it may have been a bit provocative to park my black engine right next to the National Bank of Greece, but why then had nothing happened to it last time, when I had let it stand at the exact same spot for 9 days in a row?

Greek police clamp down on traffic violators – as if I didn’t know that, as if I do not tell that to the tourists in the bus, every other day or so. 65 euros up in smoke. Unless… for one, I am registered as the legitimate owner of this vehicle. They do not have an address, but they do have my phone number. And my Greek tax number. How bad can that be? Bad enough to evict me, to put me on the first plane out? What if the paper hadn’t been put so tightly under that strap? What if some local yokul thought it would be funny to take it off my saddle and let it blow in the wind? Or what if the wind, today’s strong wind that is, simply blew it away?

Stuff it – I won’t pay.