Writerings

This isn’t a travel blog. At least not yet. But it isn’t not a travel blog and I went to Athens recently and I have some thoughts. Probably not unique, possibly ill-considered and most certainly sweeping generalisations. But they are mine.

To get a bit poetic for a second, Athens is a city in indecision. Is it a vibrant modern European metropolis? Or is it a hustle-bustle, horn-beeping, shisha-smoking Middle Eastern conurbation. In a sense, it is both at the same time. Stuck between both, and you get a sense different residents would prefer one to the other.

This can be summed up by the view from my Airbnb. It was in a bit of a rough neighbourhood (the first night I was there I saw two people shooting heroin on the street on my way to the corner shop, or agora), but promised a view of the Parthenon. As you can see from the photo, you can indeed see a sliver of the Parthenon framed between three shabby tower blocks. What you can also see is a fourth being constructed below. The photo also works as one of those images that you see in work-mandated health and safety training. Can you click on and spot all the problems in this photo? Answers at the bottom. You must score 8/10 to progress to the next blogpost.

The indecision extends to the language. Signs are written in the Greek alphabet (I was hit by quite a lot of nostalgia for my A Level maths class on this trip), Latin alphabet or both with seemingly no pattern nor reason. Then there are the words, phrases or whole signs written in English, and not just for the tourists. A back-alley takeaway promises ‘Diamond Pizzas’ and ‘Finger Sucking Chicken’

A French president (can I be bothered to google this?) once called Britain a nation of shopkeepers. But the same could be said of the people of Athens. Even away from the tourist traps, the streets were lined with shops. Chinese food shop, 5 Euro ‘Armani’ jeans, magnets, underwear, there was a shop for everything. In the city that gave the world the agora, I both missed and pitied the convenience of the supermarket.

I didn’t buy much when I was there, but I did enjoy the koulouri. Like a giant bagel, or a giant untwisted pretzel, they were a good cheap snack. Both for me and for the pigeons of Athens. This was because they are impossible to eat without spilling sesame seeds and leaving a trail for the flock to follow you.

Obviously I went to the Parthenon, Roman Agora and all the other famous historic monuments. But what else is there to say about these that hasn’t already been said. They were the most traditionally tourist parts, but again, is Athens a city for the tourists or for the locals? Sometimes you get the sense that the locals resent the fact that these 2000 year old monuments are in the way of their daily commute.

Then again, maybe this is all nonsense and I should just relax more on my holidays. 

Quiz answers:

• No-one wearing hardhats
• No external scaffolding
• The only hi-viz vest is too grubby to actually function as high visibility any more
• The concrete is spilling down the sides, over neighbouring buildings
• The wood is not regulation, in fact it looks a lot like driftwood
• There is no supervisor with a clipboard
• There is no radio blaring out Radio 1 or Heart for the whole street to hear
• No nutrition for the workers (in the form of Tesco Meal Deals or Relentless energy drinks)