In July, screenings at Cine Paris in Plaka were sold out, with the overwhelming majority of viewers being Greeks. At the beginning of August, Athens still pulses with movement and life. It’s not just tourists filling the streets. At bus stops on Panepistimiou, city residents form morning queues. At the Syntagma post office, the waiting time is about an hour. According to Eurostat data, 46% of Greeks aged 16 and over could not afford a week’s vacation in 2024. Half the participants in a recent survey by startup Plum in collaboration with Palmos Analysis said they canceled their summer vacations this year for economic reasons. “It’s an economic issue,” declares 25-year-old Foteini Dimitriou, a clothing store clerk, explaining they can’t manage the cost of an excursion. Taxi driver Georgios Tsakiroglou observes that Athenians are leaving, but their summer appears to have shrunk. “Once the city emptied for a month and a half – now it’s two weeks to 10 days until mid-August that the city becomes deserted,” he notes.