Got back from Athens, Greece last night. The trip was amazing and terrible at the same time. The initial reason for the trip was to visit with the Sabotaz spraypaint company. In the United States, I distribute their products to art supply shops and graffiti shops. I had been distributing for about 3 years, so it was a trip that was long over due. I departed for the trip optimistic and excited to see Greece. My girlfriend is Greek, so I felt that I had at least some tie to the country. On this trip, I was joined by Demer, our sales person for Sabotaz. Demer has been working with us for about 7 months, so we felt it important that he come and see the factory, see how things are made, and get a feel for the brand.

Since I was going to be over in Athens, I had decided to hop over to Istanbul, Turkey for a quick visit after the trip. I have always been fond of traveling, so my reasoning was that since I was in Athens, it would only be an hour flight to Istanbul. I had heard amazing things about Istanbul, and felt that the architecture, the city, and the people would make for an amazing visit. Since Demer would be unable to join me for this part of the trip, I had contacted my good friend C215 in Paris to see if he would be interested in joining me. Chris is one of the few people that travel more than I can stomach. Last year he told me that he had visited 25 countries and this year was on track to visit the same number. Just in January and February alone, he had already visited Senegal, Berlin, Athens, and Istanbul. The man is a traveling machine. I had the luck of meeting C215 about a year, maybe year and a half ago, and we have gotten along really well. So the schedule for this trip was to visit Athens for 8 days, then Istanbul for 7 days. I couldn't wait!

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DAY 1
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Demer and I arrived in Athens around 5pm after a 7 hour layover in Germany! Fucking hate layovers. When we arrived in Athens, we were greeted by Sandra, the product manager for Sabotaz, and Nicholas, the exports manager for Sabotaz. It's always great when you can put a face to the email address you have been communicating with for the past few years. After a 30 minute ride into Athens we arrived at our hotel. Along the way, I took notice of several dozen abandoned buildings. Given my interest in these kinds of places, it was like seeing a mini Disneyland every mile or so. We grabbed a quick shower, nap, and then joined our hosts for dinner.



The place we went to dinner was owned by the Greek mob apparently. Something just seems a bit out of place about the Greek mob. To me, the mob will always be an Italian thing, but I guess there is always room for racketeering, drug running, and extortion in every country. At dinner we were joined by Achilles, one of the 3 brothers that own and operate Sabotaz. Achilles and I have typed out dozens of lengthy emails over the past few years, so I felt that I knew him fairly well to some extent. For dinner we ate a feast fit for a king. If it was on the menu, it was on out table, at least it seemed that way. Even in my most hungry days, I couldn't eat this much food, but I was excited to devour some of the Greek delights that I knew. About half way through dinner I felt my eyelids start to hang heavy, so we finished up dinner, and headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.


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DAY 2
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I woke up to light pouring into my room this morning. When we checked into our hotel last night, i could tell that the water was across the street, but I had no idea of the view. When I pulled back the curtains, there was a view of the Mediterranean sea. It was amazing. As far as you could see were was turquoise water dotted by an occasional island off in the horizon. Even better was the constant trail of huge shipping vessels off in the distance. I love industry, so seeing cargo freights dance back across the horizon was cool for me. Right across the street though were people taking a dip in the sea. In the middle of February this was unbelievable but I guess the Greeks really like their water. The air temperature was around 40 to 50 degrees, so I couldn't imagine how cold the water must have felt.





Demer and I stepped down the street to get some pastries before our day began. About an hour later, Sandra and Nicholas arrived at the hotel. Today we were traveling about 40 minutes outside of Athens to the manufacturing area where the Sabotaz factory is located. In addition to Sabotaz, the company also produces several other lines of paint, abrasives, adhesives, and every other thing you could imagine for home improvement. This was one of the most exciting parts of the trip. Ever since Demer and I knew we were going to Athens, we both talked about how cool it would be to see the factory and see the paint rolling off of the assembly line. I have always geeked out on those 'how it's made' shows on the Discovery Channel, so this was the real deal for me. When you first enter into the warehouse it's overwhelming. Shelves that are about 25 feet tall line the warehouse floor. Hundreds of pallets of paint, as far as the eye can see. I almost teared up, it was so beautiful.






First we were shown where the latex paint is mixed. This consisted of huge mixing pots with an underground cooling room so the paint did not dry out as the mixing process heated up things. It's hard to get an idea of the size of these things, but each of the three could easily hold about a thousand gallons of paint. This is where the Sabotaz bucket paint is made.




Next we saw the filling and packaging areas for the latex paint. Unfortunately the day we visited, they did not have any paint scheduled for production, so the awesomeness of this area was limited. Then we visited the nerve center of the factory - where the spraypaint is made. For 99.9% of the people in the world, this would not mean a fucking thing. But for that .01%, like me, this was the coolest thing ever. This day they had scheduled the Cosmos Lac production. Cosmos Lac is the parent company of Sabotaz. The Cosmos Lac line of paint is second in quality and is meant for more general use things like painting your patio furniture and stuff like that. Regardless of that it was still pretty cool. Achilles walked us through the process. First the paint is squirted into the empty can. Second the valve is put into the can. Then it is clamped down, and filled with the propellent to pressurize the can. Then it starts its long journey on the assembly line towards the pallets.



The guy on the left is Vascilles, one of the brothers and owners of Sabotaz. You can't tell it in this picture, but he looks exactly like a Greek version of Dana White, the owner of the UFC.













First it is weighed to make sure the correct amount of paint is in the can. Then it gets dipped into the hot bath. The hot bath is to ensure that the can is structurally sound and that the contents are safe when heated. This hot bath reaches a temperature of 130 degrees and the paint is held in the bath for 10 minutes. I asked Achilles how often one of the cans ruptured and he said maybe once a month. Better to rupture in a secure container here at the factory instead of in the back seat of your car in the sun. Next, the cans are pulled out of the bath, the water is blown off, and the cans are dried. From here they are moved to the cap and nozzle part. The nozzles are put onto the can and a cap is put on it for shipping. Then they travel to the labeling and boxing section; once they are labeled with the name of the color, each box gets packed with 12 cans. Finally we get to the coolest part of all: a robot. No factory is real until you have a japanese robot, right? Well, this is the real deal! Once 3 boxes are run down the assembly line, the robot picks them up and puts them on the pallet. Once the pallet is full, it runs down to shipping and the robot picks up another pallet for itself to start the process all over again. Cool shit.




After the factory, we visited a newly built warehouse, about 30 feet tall and at least 400 ft long.





The outside of the warehouse is smooth as a baby's behind, made out of concrete. Although it's too early to announce anything, we have discussed taking a few writers and artists down to Athens next year to paint the warehouse. This new warehouse is where the cans are stored. When you first walk in, it'd deceiving, cause you see all these pallets, but you don't realize how many cans on on each pallet until you walk up to them. Tens of thousands of cans are stacked, 5 pallets high all around the warehouse. Here are a few pictures of us standing next to the Sabotaz cans.





After a day of ooooh's and ahhhhh's, we headed back to Athens for dinner. We went to this place that was right on the water and again it was hard not to be struck with how amazing the blue green the water is. The dishes came pouring out from the kitchen in one steady stream. We had lobster with pasta, deep fried fish, more feta than one person can eat, tons of grilled octopus, and other things that I can not remember because I was half in a food coma. One of the more surprising things was a visit from the Sabotaz girl. The 'Sabotaz girl' was a woman who I had a picture of, but had no idea exactly of who she was. About a month earlier I had sent out a newsletter to the Sabotaz mailing list, and included a photo Achilles sent me of this girl holding a can of bucket paint. Under the photo, i had the comment 'Sabotaz bucket paint', but also included the cheeky line 'attractive Greek girl not included'. Little did i know that this girl would be sitting across from me at dinner one day. It was a tad bit awkward, but she as an absolutely beautiful woman, so I figured the awkwardness was worth it. Plus looking at her was better than starting at Demer's ugly mug all dinner. haha. We finished dinner, headed home, and crashed for the night.







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DAY 3
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Today we were going to the new Sabotaz shop. The Sabotaz had decided to open it's own shop here in Greece so people could buy directly from the store instead of having to go to other shops trying to find the right colors. The shop was still being built, but it was clear that this was going to be an amazing set up once it was done. After the shop, we walked around the neighborhood. This neighborhood was clearly one of the more grimy areas of town. Plenty of graffiti, drugs, and shady characters lurking about. Just my kind of place. Got some great flicks of street art, alleyways, and cluttered buildings. We stopped by the shop again and went to dinner at some traditional Greek place. We were served a large plate of porkchops that were grilled with herbs. In addition, we had a Greek salad piled with tons of feta. It was the perfect dish after a day of walking around. After this, we walked around more and then headed back to the hotel to rest.





The plan was that we would rest up for a bit, then the guys at the Sabotaz shop were going to pick us up to go to the train yard to paint. I am not much of a graf artist, so I was just tagging along to take photos. Unfortunately the guys never showed or called. By the time we realized they were not going to show, it was 10pm, so not much time left for anything. Instead, we decided that we would walk down to the abandoned buildings we saw on the way from the airport. We knew it was a little hike, but I think that we both under estimated the distance. It took us about 2 hours of walking before we finally arrived at the old airport. I tried like hell to find a way into the airport, but to no avail. We decided to check out some of the other buildings and then we would come back and give the airport a try again. The building I wanted to see was about 15 minutes away, so we walked a bit more.











This building was wide open and was easy as pie to get into. I am not sure what type of building it was, but because of the size and the layout of the place, it appeared to be a hotel of some sort. I took as many pictures as I could, but the darkness didn't offer many good opportunities to snap pics. Instead, I used my AF Illuminator on my point and shoot to 'paint' the room with light. This produced some pretty cool results, but they were a bit inconsistent. We left there and went to another building that we saw across the road on the beach. Not sure what kind of building this use to be either, but given the large area in the back and the layout, it could have been a nightclub. This building sat alone in a field, with nothing around it, so we felt secure that no one would sneak up on us. I was snapping pictures when Demer said 'we have visitors'. I looked back and out of the middle of nowhere this guy is standing about 50 ft away. Then, another guy pops up behind him and then a third. We were a bit freaked because we didn't see or hear them approach at all. The one guy walked up and said something in Greek. It felt like more of an Old West showdown than a conversation. I said 'No Greek, English?' hoping we could communicate with him on some level, but that didn't work. We all stood there for a few seconds, staring at each other before I said, 'photos' and made the clicking noise and sign. With that, he gave some grunt and walked back to his friends and disappeared behind a shipping container on the outskirts of the structure. We would later find out that these guys had been squatting in the shipping container and had their beds set up in there. That is why we never heard or saw them coming. We made a swift exit and figured out how to use the trams which ran 24 hours a day. We ended up getting back to the hotel at 4-am and were sleeping in no time.


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DAY 4
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This is the day where it all goes bad. The day started off good, but the night was terrible. Got up and decided to return to the buildings we had visited the night before. They were too interesting not to get more pictures of. We went into the same buildings, but also found 2 more that we didn't see in the darkness. These were a high point for me. The architecture, the decay, were perfect for photos. I snapped hundreds of pics. The first building we went into was cool, but the over abundance of human shit was a real buzz kill. Felt like I was walking in a mine field the whole time. Got the pics I wanted and stepped into another building. The second building was a bit less interesting. At least until I walked into a room and realized that a few guys were squatting in the house.



They were not there, but I walked into their bedrooms. For a split second, i was struck with horror worried that they were waiting behind the door with a club or something. Apparently they were out foraging for food or something, so I snapped a few pics then got the hell out of there.















After the building expedition, we went to visit Sandra in her neighborhood. She lives in the Anarchist part of town. I had no idea that Athens was so full of Anarchists. It's fucking nuts. I was told that the week before I arrived they took a Kalashnikov and opened up on a police station. The police didn't get them so the anarchists did it again a week later. 30 years ago, Greece was a dictatorship. The students at the university started a radio station calling the people to action and that was the seed of revolution that overthrew the dictatorship. So to honor the students role in the revolution, the new government promised that they police would not enter the universities under any circumstances. So the anarchist have found a way to exploit this: they open up fire on the police, then run into the university. The police won't and can't enter. I don't understand it too well, but because of this loophole, they always have a way to get away.

So in the anarchist part of town there is tons of anarchy graffiti and stencils. Very inspiring to see the conviction of the anarchists, even if it is a bit misplaced. We saw several buildings that were burned out. It was explained to us that these were either banks or multi-national corporate stores that had been firebombed. They were completely gutted. I found it insane that they were taking things this far, but still, very cool to see when you dont have to live next to it. Lots of 'regular' graffiti also.



Bad picture, but see that melted metal facade of the building? That was a new balance shop before it was firebombed!

























Walking around, I noticed a huge house up on a hill that was abandoned. Sandra confirmed this, so I scaled the fence for a quick look. Since the window was wide open, I crawled inside and began to poke around. The building was cool, the view was phenomenal, but the one thing that freaked me the fuck out was the syringes. I had no idea, but Athens has become overrun with junkies. Everywhere you go you see syringes. I had seen a few syringes over the past few days, but nothing like this house. There literally dozens and dozens of used syringes in here. I also saw charred spoons, bloody tissues, and other remnants. I dont ever recall being so careful on where I stepped or touched. The most insane thing about this junkie house is that it had the best view of Athens I had seen so far. I snapped a few pics, then headed back down to Demer and Sandra.













I know you can't really see the picture above too well, but there are tons of syringes in this pile of trash. Take a look at the photo below. I drew a red line over each syringe. How fucking nuts is that? There are 22 syringes just in this one corner. The whole house was like this. It gave me the fucking creeps.



Back to the hotel for rest, then Achilles picked us up for a night of drinking. This is where it all goes down hill. Achilles took us to some bar that I forgot the name of and we were greeted with one full bottle of J & B whiskey.



I love me some whiskey, but by the end of the night the bottle was empty and my memory was fuzzy. After this bar, we went to some place called Hard Rock Frappe. Don't ask me what it means. The Hard Rock was fucking awesome though. I know i was drunk as fuck, but this place was still awesome. Everybody that was in there or working there reminded me of Otto from the Simpsons.



It was like a retirement home for roadies for Iron Maiden. We had a drink there, then headed to a street food vendor that they kept referring to as 'the dirty'. Yes, that should have been a sign, but I was not in my right mind at this point. We finished out the night and went back home. who knows what time we got home, but it was late.

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DAY 5
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The morning came and I felt like an elephant had shit in my mouth, then pissed inside my skull.



It was my least favorite morning of the past 5 years. Had the worst hang over that I can recall. Spent most of the day in bed drinking liquids and shitting my brains out. Late in the day, we met Achilles for coffee and some toast, but I could only take one bite. Went back to the hotel and slept more. At 10pm we went to Achilles' house to watch some basketball, but even that was still a challenge. We stayed for a bit, then I headed back to the hotel to call it a day. Note to self: don't drink a half bottle of J & B in Athens next time

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DAY 6
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Feeling like shit that i wasted the previous day we headed into the heart of Athens again.

Demer and I did some of the tourist stuff - went to the Acropolis and took a bus tour. Unfortunately it was freezing cold and raining slightly, so it was less than optimal for sight seeing.











This time I wanted to get some pictures of the Athens subways.





I had a splitting headache though and had the shits pretty bad still. After we came up from the subway, we got a text from this photographer named Freddie who I had met a few days prior. He invited us to eat lunch w him. The place was pretty cool. It was in a basement. The entrance was hidden so back in the day, the Nazi's couldn't find it. We had some of the most amazing white bean soup, pot roast, potatoes, and Greek salad that I have ever had. Also drank Retsina.



If you have not tasted Retsina, try it sometime. It is an acquired taste to say the least. I enjoyed it, but my headache was pounding, so the prospect of drinking didn't really appeal to me. Retsina is a pine sap wine. It is sort of like if you drank white wine and stirred it with a pine tree. It's a good taste, but I couldn't imagine getting drunk on it. At this point in the trip, i couldn't imagine getting drunk on anything really.









We ate, headed back to the hotel, had dinner with Achilles, and then called it a night. My stomach had been bothering me all day, but by this point it felt like I had a tiny man inside my gut stabbing me every time i took a bite of food.

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DAY 7
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Woke up twice last night to make a mad dash for the bathroom. I have a full blown stomach bug and a headache that feels like my brain is trying to claw it's way out of my skull. I don't have a thermometer but I have a fever that is so high that I can feel my eyeballs when I blink.



Met Achilles and Sandra for dinner though and barely ate one bite. Achilles got me some medicines and I took them immediately. My fever dropped immediately which I was thankful for, but my headache and stomach were still pretty rough.

Today C215 arrives. I had hoped that we would be able to run rampant in the city together, but in my state I am afraid to step away from the hotel for more than 20 minutes. He got in during the evening so we mostly got caught up on old times and hung out in the hotel. Called it a night and hope the morning would be kinder to me.

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DAY 8
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still sick, still have the shits. still miserable.

Had breakfast with Demer, then he had to catch his plane home. Went with C215 to the center of the city to explore a bit more. Tried to take him back to the anarchist part of town, but we couldn't find it. We walked a good deal, but I finally couldn't fight the stomach bug that I had. Headed back to the hotel for rest. Met Achilles and Sandra for drinks and food, but again, I couldn't eat.



The worst thing about being in a country with a stomach bug is the you can't eat the food. I love Greek food and I couldn't do anything more than sniff it. Then again, even sniffing it made me feel ill. The food came though and I was an amazing assortment of meats and kabobs. I did take a few bites, but for the most part I just sipped on liquids.

Back to the hotel for more rest.

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DAY 9
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Today I still feel like shit, but I didn't come all this way to stay in a fucking hotel. Decided to go into the city regardless of how I felt. C215 and I tried to find the really fucked up areas of town and we did. I saw this area at the end of this walkway alley type of place, so I snapped a pic.



C215 saw that I was taking a picture and said, 'lets see if we can take pictures inside'. This is one of the reasons I like traveling with other people. I am a bit reserved in my interactions with people, but C215 has traveled so much and his interactions are so numerous with people that he obviously feels more at ease with people. We walked down the alley, and it opened up to this decaying oasis of doors and structures. I am still not sure what this place was, but it looked like some sort of storage place because there rows of doors, and each one had a huge lock on it. The only exception to this was the guys that stood at the front. They had some sort of home cafe thing going on. I snapped a few pictures, and C215 asked if he could paint one of his stencils. Through the broken English the guys gave their approval and soon he was doing what he does best. The guys liked it so much that they were soon pointing out areas all around the place that they wanted C215 to spray his stencil. By the time we left, he had left his mark on 4 places and I got some amazing pictures.



















We left feeling good and continued our walk. We were getting into one of the more interesting parts of town. Unfortunately the more interesting usually means more dangerous too. We walked down one alley and I noticed this cute girl looking at me from inbetween two cars. She didn't look like a hooker, so I smiled as we walked by, but then as we walked parallel with her and the cars no longer blocked our view, i noticed that she had a needle in her vein and there were two other guys on their knees cooking up more heroin. It was a real shock to go from thinking this cute girl is flirting with you to realizing that she is shooting up heroin in her veins and she is just looking out to make sure she doesn't get busted. I walked a bit quicker; passed a few hookers and even more used syringes.

We crossed the corner and we noticed a pretty large mass of people. I thought maybe there was some car accident or someone was getting busted. I was partially right. The police had this guy in a choke hold trying to get him to spit out the crack or whatever he swallowed.





They had him choked out pretty good but he didn't give it back. C215 had pointed out that all these guys around us had bottles of water so they could swallow their drugs if the police chased them. There were hundreds of people. Even after the police took the guy away, no one moved. This was an open air drug market. hundreds of people and every single one of them (except us) was either doing drugs or selling drugs. I started to refer to this place as 'little Mogadishu' because it had the same lawlessness and frenzied pace that I saw in the movie Black Hawk Down.





I felt my pockets get hit twice as I was walking through. I knew that this was how they size up you to see what you have to steal. I know this because I learned this lesson the hard way in Prague back in 2001 when I got taken for my money, credit cards, and was left stuck in Prague with no way to get out, and no way to call back home. Luckily I found 2 Euro in my pocket and got 15 minutes of internet time at the local cafe. I emailed and had someone wire me money to get out of the country. It's a lesson you only need to learn once, so I walked quickly to get the fuck out of there. We got a block down, and I took a very quick photo of the scene. The only reason i took the photo was because cops were standing next to me. As soon as they saw me though, they grabbed me and said 'why are you here, do you have papers, what are you looking for' We explained that we wandered into the area and they swiftly walked us to the end of the block and told us to get the fuck out of here. I think his exact words were 'take pictures of the acropolis, do not come back here ever'. Clearly we had underestimated the situation.

Here is the picture I took before getting scolded by the police:



Ate lunch, went back to hotel to sleep. C215 went out painting and met the owner of our hotel. He loved his work and insisted that we eat dinner for free at the restaurant. I love it when art pays.

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DAY 10
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Today was my last day in Athens. Only problem is that I still feel like shit, but at least my headache and fever are gone now. Still can't eat though. Got some meds for the shits and took them, but nothing seemed to work.

We checked out of the hotel and walked around until we were ready to head to the airport for our flight to Istanbul. After a light breakfast, my stomach started again. i was doubled over in pain. After talking with C215, I decided it would be best if i just returned back to the US and skipped Istanbul. It was a heartbreaking decision because I was looking forward to traveling with C215, but the reality of having a stomach bug and not eating for 5 days was beginning to set in. Nothing was changing and the idea of eating oily Turkish meats only amplified my fears. We both agreed that I would return to the US and we would travel together another time.

Checked back into the hotel, slept for the night and left the next morning. Spending 12 hours on a plane (including layovers) with a fucked up stomach wasn't fun, but being home with familiar food and my own bed is just what the doctor ordered.

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DAY 11
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Now It's been 7 days and I am finally able to eat again.
I loved Athens, but I wish I didn't see so much of it from my hotel window. I vow to return next year and have a better time. Even if it means I will have to bring my own food and water!!!