Chapter 7

7.   Trip to the USA

 

A week or so later, after the Nobel ceremony, I went with Barbara to the United States. To be able to go there during that time, I needed a visa. I was a Greek citizen and in Greece there was a strong anti-Americanism feeling. We had planned the trip much earlier and Barbara contacted the American embassy in Stockholm to book an appointment.

We went together to the embassy. The embassy would interview me first and then I would fill out a form that I agreed to the following three conditions: (i) I am not a communist; (ii) I am not a drug addict; (iii) I have never raped any woman. I had no problem whatsoever with these conditions, all three were obvious to me. The visa was then stamped on my passport and we were ready to travel.

As I mentioned earlier, I was quite conservative before I came to Sweden and I liked both presidents, the former Jimmy Carter and the current Ronald Reagan. I grew up in a family where my father fought with the British against the Germans and Italians in the second world war and later during the civil war against the communists. And I still remember that when John Kennedy was assassinated, a national mourning was imposed in Greece and we learned to sing a song in his memory! We often sang it in the elementary school, after the Greek national anthem.

I also remember when, as small children, we waited for hours for the black limousines with Jacky Kennedy/Onassis that drove past my hometown Amfilochia on the way to Onassis' private island, Skorpios. I also remember how happy we were when the Greek radio informed us about the great successes that American soldiers had in Vietnam.

But even afterwards, when I started at the School of Business and Economics, I was a USA friend. A couple of years later, however, I reevaluated my views and became more critical after I had understood that the United States had supported the dictatorship in Greece and in other countries in Latin America. But when we went to the United States, I still had a slight positive attitude towards the country.

We left just before Christmas and we were going to stay with Barbara's parents, outside Boston. Her parents were of course happy when we arrived. They were very kind and did everything possible to make us feel comfortable there.

A few days later, they invited some acquaintances to their home to meet Barbara and her Greek boyfriend. It was a pretty nice event with excellent food and socializing. Afterwards, we sat in front of the fireplace and conversed about all sorts of things. They asked us and wanted to know everything about Sweden. There were also direct questions to me, such as why I went there and not, for example, to the United States where there are so many successful Greeks. They mentioned, among others, the former governor of Massachusetts, Michael Doukakis, whose parents had emigrated to the United States. Some of the guests told me that they had voted for him. They probably wanted to make me happy and feel proud of such a successful Greek in the United States.

Then they asked me what I think about the US and the like. Of course, I expressed myself very positively towards Sweden and quite neutral towards the United States, a country that I had not experienced. I remember being asked by an older man "what do you thing about America?" I replied simply, that it was an OK country.

Barbara stared at me a little surprised because my answer wasn't really satisfactory and I should have said "it's a great country". Sure, I could have been a little more generous or diplomatic and delighted them with such an answer. But I am not a diplomat, and I am always straightforward with my answers, especially if I don’t know the specific subject I am asked about.

The older American I was told afterwards was a conservative Republican and expected that I would have answered "it's a great country". His follow-up question was whether I preferred Sweden to the United States and then I answered, "of course", i.e. a second mistake! I noticed that the tone of his statement became a little sharper when he stated "considering that a couple of million Greeks live in the United States, it should be strong proof that the United States is better than Sweden, since only a few thousand Greeks lived there!" I didn't want to continue the discussion and ruin the atmosphere. Did he expect that hundreds of thousands of Greeks should live in a small country to be in the same proportion as the couple of millions of Greeks living in the US? I said that I might be wrong when I chose to move to Sweden, but that after my studies I might move to the United States, a statement that made him happier.

Another day we visited an elderly couple who were friends of Barbara's family. They invited us to dinner and we had a nice company. The man was in a wheelchair and was very interested in weapons. In the cupboard he had a few shooting rifles that he was happy to tell me about; how good they were in case some thief or criminal would try to enter the house.

Talking about shooting rifles with me, as if I had never held a weapon in my hand, was pointless. I pretended that I was listening and did not want to start a discussion. Then he asked me if I had a gun license and weapons back home in Sweden to defend me and Barbara. I lied to him and I replied, unfortunately, I had to go to a course first and had not had time for that, but I promised that I would do it! Then he was happy and before we left reminded me not to forget to get a gun license and buy some weapons!

New York

A few days later we were going to New York to visit Betsy, a rich friend of Barbara's, who lived near the central park. Barbara drove a car from Boston. It was a fascinating trip and I experienced the world's strongest contrasts between the Bronx and Manhattan. Barbara was a little scared that we would get stopped at some traffic light when she was driving through the Bronx and be attacked by some African Americans. Next to the highway were old buses and boats where people lived and aired or dried their sheets and clothes. Along the fields there were some signs "for sale" and the price per square meter was ridiculously low. But even on the buses and boats where people lived, you could see large signs "for sale".

The closer we got to New York, the cleaner and nicer it became. In downtown New York, I got the feeling that the glamour and luxury of the whole world must have gathered there. Never before had I seen such large and beautiful shop windows of all the world's fashion houses, such tall skyscrapers, such long avenues and such wide sidewalks. In a couple of hours from New York, in the Bronx, there was the hell of capitalism, while the paradise should have been in Manhattan, I thought. 

One day we went out for a walk. Everything felt so incredibly big. You notice that when you come back to Sweden, and realize how small everything is here. I couldn't help but not look at the top of all the skyscrapers we passed by. Only when I was going to sleep at night did I notice how much effort I had made. I was in so much pain in the nude and hardly slept.

Another day we went to the World Trade Center's cafeteria at the top. The view was magnificent. I actually got a little scared when I looked at the buildings nearby that were rocking from the wind and Betsy told me that even our building was rocking without noticing it.

Up in the cafeteria, it was strictly forbidden to take photographs. But I couldn't help it. I took my little simple Camera out of my pocket, and asked Barbara to take a quick photo when there were no guards in sight. Unfortunately, a guard noticed it and we got a real warning when he came to our table. No more photos, otherwise he would take my Camera and ask us to leave the cafeteria. Betsy tried to reassure him that we were guests from Sweden and apologized. The photo didn't turn out so sharp, but I still have it as a historical memory, taken in a building that several years later was razed to the ground.

One evening we went to the theater in Broadway and saw the well-known musical Annie, which a few years earlier, premiered there. The musical was a gripping story and was about a little orphan girl, Annie, who tried to escape from the orphanage during the Depression in America. It ended at one o'clock in the morning and we took the subway home. Compared to the subway in Stockholm, it was much dirtier, scribbled down, and very worn. Betsy lived a few stations away. When we got off the train, Barbara and I went to her apartment while Betsy went to a nearby grocery store to buy some breakfast.

When we arrived at the main entrance and Barbara tried to open the door with Betsy's keys, we were stopped by an armed guard inside the foyer! I was very scared when his rifle aimed at us. He thought we were criminals. While he pointed his gun at us, he asked through the microphone who we were. Barbara told him that Betsy would come at any minute, she showed the keys and after a search we were allowed to come into the warmth. But we were going to wait for her down there to ride the elevator together with Betsy to the apartment. Betsy told me that the armed guards guard the entire buildings around the clock, everywhere in Manhattan. We stayed there for a week or so and visited several interesting places. It was actually a great experience in New York.

Washington DC

Around January 10th we went by train to Washington DC. There we were invited by her best friend Annie. Annie had planned a big party, at her parents' villa in Georgetown, where many old friends had been invited. Her parents were in North Carolina and Annie had the whole house herself. Her father, by the way, was a retired diplomat and had served in the U.S. Embassy in Athens. [For security reasons it is illegal to mention her last name].

Just before we arrived at the station, a serious plane crash happened. There was snow chaos and a plane crashed on a bridge over the Potomac River, in the middle of town, and fell into the icy water. Many died and there was terrible traffic chaos in Washington DC. Our taxi got stuck in the huge queue and we got to her house quite late. Annie understood this because all TV channels broadcast live from the accident.

The next day we walked around the capital. It had snowed at night and it was really cold, but sunny. Just before we arrived at the White House, I discovered some homeless people lying on newsprint, protected by cardboard boxes, outside a metro-station. There it was a little warmer because hot air came from the subway. I stopped for a while and took a couple of photos.

Barbara and Annie walked ahead of me and they shouted for me to continue. I asked Annie how on earth one can allow homeless people to sleep outside in the cold and near the White House too. She smiled at me and said that the United States is a free country and no one cares if someone chooses to sleep outside. I tried to argue that the verb "choose" she used didn't fit the context because homeless people might have no other choice. Barbara also participated in the discussion because I, who had never been to the US before, could not understand that this is normal there, but obviously not in Sweden.

Annie was a happy, open and well-educated girl. She told me that she had been to the embassy in Athens several times to see her parents, and once she actually went there with Barbara. Barbara had also told me the same story before in Uppsala, when she and Annie went around Athens with the embassy's armored cars.

Annie also told me how shocked she was during Christmas 1975, when the Greek police chief rang at their home in Athens and informed them that the CIA's top official, Richard Welch, was brutally murdered. It was actually she who opened the door when the police chief called. She was really sad because she had talked to Richard Welch a couple of days earlier, when the American embassy had a Christmas party for all employees. Several years later, the murder was finally solved. It was a terrorist organization that had carried it out, and its members are still in prison in Greece.

The next day, Annie was going to have a big party and she invited at least fifteen people. Some lived in Washington while others in New York. We had a fantastic dinner and afterwards we were of course going to socialize and relax with some music, dancing, and booze. The atmosphere was excellent. We danced in the big living room and many people started drinking a lot. I myself drink moderately. Many noticed it and they offered more and more booze. A couple of half-drunk girls invited me to a dance to relax, as I looked quite stressed and isolated

After an hour or so we went down to the basement to smoke some marijuana or cannabis. I asked Barbara in Swedish if it was true and she reassured me that I didn't have to smoke, just go to the basement like everyone else.

One of Annie's guests was a little older and had been in the Vietnam War. He had brought some marijuana with him that everyone was going to try. We formed a circle and we all sat on the floor. Some were already very drunk. The same marijuana cigarette would go around to everyone, be sucked in and then passed on to the next person. When the guy next to me smoked and gave it to me, I took it right away and passed it to the girl next to me.

The Vietnam guy who was sitting across from me, noticed it and screamed. "Hey, you from Sweden, you have to try, you can't ruin the party". I kindly protested that I was free to choose and preferred not to smoke. Then he got quite angry and said that I should not obey the Swedish authorities in the communist country I lived in, because they had lied to us that marijuana was harmful. A free person must try for himself to decide, otherwise we would be living in a totalitarian society in Sweden, he said. Then he continued and wondered if our king in Sweden was also a communist, like Olof Palme was. Of course, Olof Palme was a communist to him, because he had protested with the North Vietnamese ambassador in Stockholm against the Vietnam War while he himself was fighting against the communists there!

No one tried to calm him down, or defend me. Probably they were drunk and excited and didn't care, or maybe afraid of him. Some actually thought I should also try, including Barbara, so as not to spoil the mood. I got really angry with her, said something mean in Swedish and I left the room. I went straight to bed to sleep.

When I woke up, everyone else was asleep. I had no idea how many stayed overnight. I opened the door and walked towards the kitchen. In the living room some girls were laying half-naked. In the kitchen there were a lot of half-empty glasses and leftovers from the party. I tried to boil some water to drink tea, without waking anyone. I sat there for at least an hour and wondered what I was going to do. Then I decided that it might be better to visit my fellow student from the School of Business and Economics, Christos, who was doing his doctoral studies in Ottawa.

The train journey to Canada

It was past 12 o'clock when people started waking up. Everyone was more or less hungover. Annie asked if I had had a good time and I replied that everything was wonderful. I apologized for leaving the company and went to bed, with the excuse that I was tired. Maybe she believed me because, like everyone else, she didn't remember much of what happened in the basement. Then I told Barbara that I should take the opportunity to visit my friend in Canada and we would meet again at her parents' house, when it was time to fly back to Sweden. She had no objections; I borrowed Annie's phone and called Christos. He was happy that I was going to visit him and the next day early in the morning I took the train to Canada.

At the train station in Washington DC, I bought a Rubriks cube and a small solution book. It was a long journey and it was going to be boring. After several hours of trying, despite the solution method recommended by the book, I gave up. Both the cube and the little solution book I still have on my shelf as a memory from the United States. Thirty-five years later, Andreas, my son, laughed when I told this story and he has mocked me because he can get through it without help in a couple of minutes.

After I left the cube, I began to look up to the beautiful snowy nature that the train went through. At the borders with Canada, I noticed that the temperature was -26 degrees.

My friend was waiting for me, and I told him about what I had experienced in the United States. He had heard other stories from other friends who went to the United States to study and said that he chose Canada because, unlike the United States, Canada is more civilized and similar to the Nordic countries in Europe. I stayed with him for a week or so and I experienced the big difference between the US and Canada.

A few days before we flew back to Sweden, I took the train to Boston. At Barbara's house, I was going to tell her about my experiences in the United States and Canada. Of course, I lied when I thought it was wonderful and promised that we would move to the US when we finished our education in Uppsala.

When we got on the plane to Stockholm, Barbara also asked if I was serious about moving to the United States. I didn't want to answer, even though she insisted. An hour or so later, after we had left the American airspace, I brusquely said to her: "Never again in my life”! We had a heated discussion until it got really late at night and fell asleep.

On the way to Uppsala, we continued the discussion at a slower pace, but I repeated what I said on the plane: "Never again in my life”! At the same time, I asked her that maybe we should go to the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm and ask them why they were asking such questions in order to get a visa to the U.S. Did the Americans want guarantees from us who applied for visas that we would not destroy their country? It was rather the opposite. My six-week stay in the United States could instead make me (i) a communist, (ii) a drug addict and (iii) a rapist!

I have kept this promise: "Never again in my life!" for over 40 years and missed many opportunities there. Perhaps I am too straight with my opinions and I don’t like to compromise. I've lived quite well in Europe and don't miss the US. I have never understood why so many Swedes adore the United States and strive for us in Sweden to adopt a lot from it. For my part, I believe that Sweden is a much better country and the Americans should instead learn from us.