In Athens, cars wait often for the green traffic light inside the pedestrian crossing area (the building in the background is the Athens traffic police headquarters).

This is the rule in the case of motorcycles, because they move between the waiting cars and stop in front of them inside the pedestrian crossing.

Parked cars and motorcycles block very often the pedestrian crossings (here outside Victoria Square metro station) 

This is the usual situation in residential areas (this happened to be in Kalithea, a district of Athens, but it could be found as well in any other area of the city)

Garbage bins are very often drawn until the street corners in order to make room for parked cars. You may even consider yourself lucky if you find yourself in this situation, because...

... in the case of the often strikes of garbage collectors, or waste deposition site closures incidences, you may be found in front of such a garbage wall - garbage always block pedestrian spaces, never street pavement where motorised traffic is legally moving (odours and contamination not included in the picture)

Whenever construction works are undertaken, no alternatives for pedestrians are provided. The legislation dictates that additional measures must be taken and provisional sidewalk must be constructed for the safe pedestrian movement, but the administration deliberately neglects to produce specifications and enforce them. The only pedestrian safety measure for the administration is the persecution of pedestrian activity, like fences and tickets for pedestrians.

In this case pedestrians are forced to move in the middle of the road pavement (Syntagma Square, in the centre of the city - the building on the background is the parliament)

Police has of course no objection to this situation. According to them, whenever a driver fails to find a parking place (preferably free of charge), it is considered as a reasonable behaviour to use pedestrian spaces. Traffic policemen like the one in this picture have as only purpose to  facilitate motorised traffic movement, sometimes by "stealing" green pedestrian light cycles.

This picture is from the service roads of Kifisias avenue, when it was turned into an urban motorway cutting through densely populated residential areas. When the administration was asked where should the pedestrians walk, they responded on the sidewalks you see (at least they seem to see sidewalks!). The points where a pedestrian can cross to the opposite side on this avenue are placed at distances 650 and 920 meters apart. Many urban motorways of this kind were constructed last years and on the occasion of the year 2004 olympic games.