In my experience (in the mid-90s), Greek pipes weren't even built to handle an above-the-median #2. And while a wastepaper bin was standard-issue adjacent to tourist-frequented toilets, a decent plunger was not.
Which seems odd, given how cheap plungers are in comparison to service employees.
From my own observations and talking with lots of residents, plumbers would come unclog at the street level or somewhere inside the lower floors of multi-story buildings. Most people I asked said it happened pretty routinely, sometimes multiple times per month. I'm not sure a plunger would help much for a blockage 20+ meters away.
Which seems odd, given how cheap plungers are in comparison to service employees.