As dusk settled on St. Thomas Square on Monday and children rode bicycles among the crisis-weary Greek locals decompressing over coffee frappes and souvlakia, the mood was one of resignation, even relief, that the latest threat of losing their euro currency had been at least temporarily averted.
Neither triumph nor defeat reigned over the two-block gathering place in the heart of the capital's Goudi neighborhood. Old and young alike seemed inclined to see their government's about-face on more painful austerity as the best that could be expected from Eurozone creditors bent on humiliating Greece as much as getting paid back for the $270 billion the country already owes them.