Crazy drivers? consistent, at least!

People say that Greeks are crazy drivers, and that might even be a reason for going by bus rather than hiring a car: but I felt safer driving there than in Russia or Estonia; and it's much easier to feel an ambient style and to fit in to it than even in Sweden or Britain.

They drive consistently 20 km/hr faster than I think is safe, and consistently ignore speed limits and double white lines; but they don't overtake on blind bends.

Anyone whose car is so old that they drive slower than the maximum speed which the road allows, keeps very clearly to the edge; and if you do the same and coöperate in allowing everyone you see in your mirror to overtake, there is no need to feel threatened or tense.

They use every space there is and they drive to get there, but it didn't feel dangerous and when there are no traffic police it's natural courtesy and a sense of self-preservation which rules; this was specially clear in town streets which are too narrow for two cars to pass, given the load of stuff which is parked everywhere ... and I haven't been anywhere else where people make it so clear when you have right of way over them, and don't simply rush in front of you when you hesitate trying to work out who goes first ...

I was fascinated that the sign which in other countries means ‘no stopping' is on Crete evidently used to indicate a car-parking area ... though it seems that the same sign combined with a picture of a car being towed away evidently means that this is the one place where you don't park ...

The problem in Sweden or Britain, or France or Germany, is that you never know whether other drivers are going to follow the law or not; and people are so lulled into relying on regulations that they actually aren't competent to manage without them - and so are actually more dangerous than the Cretan cowboys; and the preoccupation about whether or not a policeman is going to haul you up for breaking against some regulation which didn't feel appropriate (like speed limits on your way out of a community) is a negative factor in a driving culture.