Greek politics, history, and economy

Our tour to Delphi included a guide who was full of interesting information (to a political scientist) about Greece.  Greece has thousands of years of history, but the guide only gave us details about the more recent changes as we made our way into the mountains:

*  Greece became a parliamentary government in 1974 when the King abdicated and a new constitution was adopted.  He lives abroad, but still visits frequently.
*  Greece has a large ex-patriot population, with the largest group being in Melbourne Australia.
*  Greece is 98% Greek Orthodox and 1% Muslim (legacy of the 400 years under the Ottoman Turks). There are a few Catholics, mostly on the outer islands that were captured by Italy over the years.  The official religion is Greek Orthodoxy, and it was interesting that the guide specifically mentioned that the others are also Greek citizens even if they are not Greek Orthodox.
*  The ancient Greek religions that worshiped the gods of Greek mythology were stamped out by the converted Christian rulers around 400 AD, and many of their temples were pulled down, or made into Christian churches.
*  The largest (or second largest, according to the internet) shipping fleet in the world with 3000+ ships.  (We got to see a few of these on our trip to the island of Poros).
*  Greek flag: The nine stripes are said to represent the number of syllables in the Greek phrase "Eleutheria H Thanatos" or "Freedom or Death", a battle cry during the revolt against the Ottoman empire.  The cross represents the Orthodox church, which played a crucial role in the fight for independence.  The color blue represents the sea which is so important to the Greek economy.  The white represents the waves on the ocean.
*  The guide noted that economic times were very hard and that they debt was higher than Greek's annual GDP right now.  She seemed to indicate that she was hopeful that better times were on the way, but that seemed a bit too optimistic from my perspective.