Long unkempt, greasy hair, bushy mustaches, unbuttoned silk shirts that show off hairy chests and gold crosses on golden chains; It might not be what Greeks like me want the rest of the world to think we look like but β in the s and 80s β this was how a foreigner would describe someone Greek.
The men who popularised the archetypal image of that period were called "kamaki" β a Greek slang word for the kind of man who spends most of his time in tourist areas trying to pick up girls. Kissing a Greek girl back then would amount to asking for her hand in marriage but that wasn't the case for the English and Scandinavian girls visiting Greece in the summer.
In the years before the Greek military junta of , Greece's unique offering of sea, sun and sand covered in semi-naked bodies led to a surge in tourism. The Sexual Revolution had just taken over the West, so young people from that part of the world travelled to Greece in search of a frantic summer of love.
I was born in β around , when I was 15, mass tourism exploded. It was thanks to those foreign girls that we came of age. All the Greek girls wanted was to get married. All my friends ended up married to foreign girls. Western girls also quickly realised that it was in Greece, where they could satisfy their sexual frustrations. We were hot-blooded, audacious Mediterranean men. I asked him if he had ever had sex, and he said no. Of course his answer was yes.
It goes without saying that nothing was left to chance β the kamakis were nothing if not organised. Then, the follow-up act would make his appearance and focus on one of the least beautiful women so that no one was left alone at bedtime. When the main guy got tired of his girl after a couple days, another guy from the group would sweep in and console her.
