andalusian
Season - Restarted
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2008
- Messages
- 15,493
- Likes
- 15,138
- Points
- 113
Same. Probably my favorite European city. It reminds me of other cities in Europe from 30 years ago (with all the smoking, the little shop owners scrubbing the store-front manually, the fruit trees all over the city streets, the old Kiosks that still display a magazine spread like you do not see anymore). There is amazing energy in that city, especially the Plaka or the Psyri neighborhoods.
We stayed right off Monastiraki square - between the crazy amounts of restaurants and bars and the fish, meat and vegetable markets - it was hoards of people everywhere - and not just tourists, tons of locals go about their life.
I just love how everyone in this city seems to be in a rush to do something - and then they take a 2 hour lunch. Fantastic place to visit, and I suspect, live.
Despite all of the activity, and the graffiti - the city is actually clean. You go in most underground / train systems everywhere else - and it smells and dirty, where in Athens somehow, it looks like as clean and fresh smelling as a museum - and while you see people begging every now and again, it is nowhere near as bad as it is in modern US or frankly, other Western European cities. Probably because Athens is still somewhat affordable to live in.
I also love how they integrate all the ruins into the cities. Sure, you see old stuff in other cities as well - but it is never as well integrated into real life as in Athens (NYC actually does it pretty well as well, it's just not as old as the stuff you see in Athens).
Example:
An old church just in the middle of the Plaka with public clementine fruit tree for everyone to eat if they choose to do so.
