I like taking pictures of airplanes... all different kinds of planes. I find them fascinating!
Especially if I can combine it with holidays in beautiful places...
It seems the Greek authorities don't like this weird hobby of mine...
They see it as a potentially terrorist activity. I completely understand. We live in difficult times.
I was arrested.
There was a court trial... which took for ever! Initially I was found guilty and thrown in a prison along with real criminals... murderers, rapists, drug dealers... etc. Appealed. The Greek government intervened and interfered (independed justice) after pressure from the UK and finally the charges were dropped. Of course all this long long time i was away from my family, my work, everything! My life was on hold.
When everything was back to normal I went back to the same beautiful place... I started taking some more pictures of planes... The anti-terrorism mechanism (army, police etc) was back on the job of protecting the world from plane spotters. They came over to me and started questioning me in Greek. I was panicking! What could I say this time? I gave it a go anyway. During my previous long stay (court case, prison, etc) in Greece, I had the chance to learn the language. The men in uniform were surprised to hear me giving an explanation in their language! They seemed to pay more attention to the fact that i could speak Greek (not fluently of course) rather than to the actual reason why I was plane-spotting (again). They smiled. They were happy a foreigner could speak their language. Now I was one of them. They let me carry on plane-spotting. I was even invited to go to the local taverna with them. The Greek language saved me. I love Greece.
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