Thessaloniki, February 15th, 12am - 3.30pm (eet/gmt+2)

On Friday, I changed from the girl who would rather stay in even though she thinks 'no war' is a very good idea to the girl who doesn't mind getting up a few hours later to go and stand around in the cold with people she generally disagrees with. This is what happened to me next.

Bear in mind that this is a fairly big (about 1.000.000) but introverted to the point of being navel-gazing, northern-greek/southern-Balkan town that occasionally pretends to aspire to be a part of modern Europe. Thank you very much.

The banner reads: "No to war - yes to the peaceful co-existance of nations"

I found myself standing in the bright sunshine and the cold breeze. My cousins, with whom I went, were funny; people watching-and-spotting was fun, and the weather was uplifting. This quite made up for the fact that there was a considerable lack of taste in everything -music, literature read out loud, spokespersons- and everyone shouted about different, quite irrelevant things.

The schoolkids shouted about education funds. The university students shouted about getting jobs (not university funds, which goes to show something). Old school communists shouted about their usual stuff: Greece should leave NATO, their military base (in Suda, Crete) should be closed down, the Prime Minister is Bush & the European Union's employee. I didn't hang around other sorts of people for long enough, but I'm pretty sure that they, too, shouted about the things they usually shout about, if they are the shouty sort.

I liked the people who stood and watched and didn't seem to fit in with anyone best. Because everyone else seemed to be trying to take advantage of it, in a way. They saw it as a chance to convince people for the rightness of their purpose. Or at least a change to take a photo of themselves shouting about the rightness of their purpose in front of a big audience. They don't get those very often.

The flower reads: "A different world is possible"

The only thing everyone seemed to agree on is that Americans are evil. "Go home, killers!" they shouted and I kept murmuring, that's slightly beside the point. (The point isn't whether Greece will be involved or not. The point is whether the war in question will happen or not, and, in the long run, how the world is governed, and by whom).

I stood in front of the American Embassy for some time. I saw the fear appear in people's faces when they walked past the armed policemen, who looked more like they were going to war than guarding an office building. I watched the fear turn to anger. For a while it looked like someone would start a fight – it would have been just too easy.

There was a tear gas, a fire in a rubbish bin, another one in the middle of the street, rolling of barrels that made a horrible noise, some girls lying down on the street representing the victims and what can only be described as an angry mob. I can tell you I've never sensed so much hate before in my life, and that it was pretty pointless. It made me wish we didn't need to have enemies and hate them. After all they were just shouting at a bunch of young people with an unfortunate idea of what is a good career… not to someone involved in decision taking.

Fortunately nothing bad happened in the end.

Everyone walked by, shouted their bit and soon afterwards headed home looking tired and -at least a bit- happy.

It could have been the long walk in the sunshine, the traffic free day in the centre, or it could have been the calm that comes after shouting. It's very probable that some of them were even diluting themselves, thinking that everyone agreed with them. But in the end, I don't think it matters. What matters is that all those different people got together, and they got together for the same cause. They did their little bit in making a difference and it made them feel good. I wouldn't ask for more.

I do still hope, however, that for some people, it was being part of and trying for something a lot bigger than yourself that made them happy. It's something that we should all do and feel more. And I should add that my hopes are with the silent, standing-on-the-side, not-fitting-anywhere-in-particular people.

Dimitra Daisy