Less than two weeks after the inauguration of Thessaloniki’s long-awaited metro line another “first” was posted, but this one in a distinctly negative vein, namely, an arrest for vandalism outside the main station.
Authorities in the northern Greece metropolis announced that a 19-year-old man was arrested for spray-panting walls and glass fronts of the exterior of the Thessaloniki Metro’s iconic Venizelos station, the site that has garnered most of the world’s attention due to the significant archaeological finds on display in its subterranean levels.
According to reports, the man was arrested while in the actual act scrawling graffiti or “tagging” – a ubiquitous scourge affecting many mass transit systems the world over, including Greece.
A “tag” scrawled with black marker on an escalator a day before the metro opened was widely disparaged at the time, although no arrest or detention was made.
