Sloane Elliott

The heat had a great deal to do with it. On at least one day in August the cultural capital of Europe was the hottest capital in the world including Baghdad and Abu Dhabi.

For a decade July 24 has been observed as a day of national celebration. It commemorates the restoration of democracy which took place in 1974.

The six-month festival ‘Athens -Cultural Capital of Europe – 1985’ had its grand opening on June 21.

Due to its relatively recent entry into the Common Market, Greece has been a latecomer into many pan-European affairs.

The first of May has been described as the day when conservatives split up and go off to steal flowers from suburban gardens and leftists gather in town to make political speeches. This May promises to be different. Everyone will be listening to political speeches all month long.

Please fasten your seatbelts and extinguish all smoking materials. We may be experiencing an interval of turbulence: Greece is moving into a high-pressure election front.

Fad words, like fad fashions, have a way of arriving late here, though the outbreak of sidewalk break-dancing last summer shows that the time-warp is narrowing. Yet when these words or fashions appear, they are taken up with unbounded enthusiasm.

For the fourth year in a row now – and ever since they entered the Common Market in 1980 – the Greeks are the most optimistic people in the EC.

Just a year ago there was uneasi-ness in the air about the new year, led by the warnings of George Orwell and the prophesies of Nostradamus. The latter is popular among Athenians who lose heavily at cards during the holidays. It’s then they’re certain that Santorini will pop off again and Crete will land up on top of Mount Olympus.

There have been rumors of friction lately between President Kaamanlis and the Prime Minister.