Athens : A Beautifull - Terrible Town
By Markus Weisenhorn
Helios is already awake for some hours and shines on the city of Athens. The inhabitants hate this stupid orange ball up there in the sky. Thanks to that it is so terrible hot down here. Also there is another problem: In this city where about 4.5 million people live with each at least one car and a motorcycle there is never a strong enough wind or a rain to clean the dry and dirty air. This makes living in Athens specially in this period of the year a Horror-trip. Autumn and winter are the best times to come in this “I-try-to-be-modern-city”. But for some reason in the last years there was snow in Athens. A novum. It’s all fault of this global warming. Thanks to that Athens falls regularly in a chaotic shape because the Athenians first don’t know how to prepare slippery streets and second don’t know how to drive on them. Spring on the other hand is a terrible time because Athens is full of Tourist.
But this are all things which don’t interest Ben who come here in this hot week of July. He enters Athens with his motorcycle on midday. The first thing he sees are all the trees on both sides of the street. He had imagined Athens more like a big grey cube. A very nice surprise. The streets are full with cars. He looks in front of him and all he can see is a big yellow ocean. Taxis. The most dangerous things in Athens. The Athenians learned in the last years to follow street rules, even to stop when the traffic light shows red. Well, all except the Taxis.The traffic doesn’t move and Ben who already had heard a lot of the terrible Athenian Traffic before coming here decided that he will put away his motorcycle for this week. But not without involuntarily learning first some basics of Athenian Street-Life. Ben looks at the street and the cars which don’t move and the other motorcycles which drive like in a slalom between the cars or even on the sidewalk. He is not doing that. So he shows that he is not Athenian. But Ben doesn’t care. He hates himself that he had to come in this city right at the time when there is the biggest rush hour. Well, he doesn’t know that Athens never sleeps and that there is traffic twenty-four hours a day. So he follows the Patission-Street, one of the most important streets in Athens to reach the Omonia-Square. In a side-street of that square there is his destination. A little Hostel called “Athenian Easy Hostel”. He heard that it is a bit little, but cheap, good and near to the centre.
When Ben reaches Omonia he meets the second largest population in Athens: the dogs. There are to many in this city. And everyone hates them. None understands why they even exist. Before the Olympic games 2004 they were all captured and everyone thought that Athens is now Dog-Free. But no. After the Games they were set free again and today there exist more dogs than ever. How can someone buy a dog and than put him on the street? The government just captures the different dogs to clean and sterilize them. After they are set free again. All this wouldn’t be such a big deal if the dogs wouldn’t do what the like to do. And Ben discovers what they like to do. They run on the street and try to bite in the wheels of the driving cars and motorcycles. Athenians get used to that but Ben as a stranger never experienced something like that and so he almost crashed but he was able to overcome this little crisis.
While searching for the Hostel Ben discovered something else important for the Athenian traffic. Cars are parked everywhere, even in front and next to others so that they can’t move anymore. Because both sides of the streets are filled with parked cars, sometimes even in two lines, on the street itself is only space for one car even if it would be a two-lane street. However, Ben will not have this problems anymore because he parked his motorcycle in the garage of the Easy Hostel and is now ready to discover Athens on his feet. On the reception of the Hostel he had received a map where they signed for him the main streets and the centre. The modern centre lies within the three squares Omonia – Syntagma – Monastiraki. But is better to say with including a big radius around this triangle. Following a tip of the receptionist he follows the Panepistimiou-Street to Syntagma. From there he should enter the Plaka, which is the touristical centre with a lot of restaurants. What the receptionist didn’t know and what Ben discovered was that on that day there took a typical Athenian event place. Which means, like quite every-day there was a demonstration. Normally they are in Syntagma and so the main streets are blocked which leads to a chaos. Nobody ever knows who is demonstrating for what. Because there is always someone else for something different. Most probably even the politicians don’t know which requests are made on the streets. However, you know when the students demonstrate. Because they always move to the university which is half-way between Syntagma and Omonia. And also because they are always followed by a lot of policeman. And Ben run exactly into such a Students-Demo. But at the moment he reached the university there was only a big cloud of white fog. He couldn’t see anything. He only heard shots. So Ben run in a side street where a lot of other people were waiting and looking.
“Excuse me?” Ben turned to a young man. “Can you please tell me what is going on here?”. The Greek smiled. “See, there are students demonstrating for something. But nobody understands what they want. The only problem is that there are always some anarchists hiding between the students. And they are regularly provoking a street fight. So now the police shot some teargas. I even saw that a garbage bin was burned. But don’t worry. Such an explosion of violence is very rare and happens only here. The rest of Athens is very secure. But go down here than you will reach the Stadiou-Street and you can follow your way without problems.” – “Thank you very much.” Even if Ben was very interested in the social life of the inhabitants of the different towns he had no intention to get involved or even hurt in a fight. So he followed his way to the Plaka. Sadly it was filled with Tourists and Ben had no intentions to see such places. Nonetheless he decided to follow the Apostolou Pavlou Promenade which leads around the Acropolis so that he can see the main archaeological stuff. For the first and last time he will do tourist stuff in Athens. But he had to confess that the Acropolis was really impressive and that following this promenade was very nice. In Monastiraki he found some touristical restaurants but at the moment he had no other choice or ideas. Another nice surprise for him was that the streets are so clean. He had imagined Athens more like a big garbage bin, but in contrary this city was quite clean
He had hoped that he could find some typical Greek places without his Lonely Planet but as it looks beginning from tomorrow he will follow the advices of that book. But his luck changed when he met his roommate. Markus was his name. This Austrian guy was here to visit a Greek friend of him but because the apartment of that guy was to small he had to live in this hostel. Markus invited Ben to join him and to see Greek Athens. Well, if there exists something like that.Not far from Omonia there is Exarchia. One of the centres for Pubs and Bars. There they met Kostas, the friend of Markus. He also brought some other Greek friends. They sat down in a bar next to Exarchia Square. “Exarchia is known to be the home of the anarchists”, warned Kostas the two foreigners. But somehow Ben was not able to see any Anarchist. Just some drunk guys sleeping on the banks surrounding the square. But the sideways were filled with people, with life. Kostas ordered for everyone a Mythos and explained than the Greek beer culture: “Mythos is the Greek beer. Funny thing is that this beer was brought to Greece by the Germans and is still made today after a German recipe. So it is a German beer made in Greece. But nonetheless everyone says that the German one is better although they are the same. Other beers in Greece would be Alpha, the second largest after Mythos. Vergina which you can find in North Greece and of course in supermarkets also in Athens. And there is also Peiraiki. This delicious beer you can find only in very few places.” After this introduction Ben told them what he has already seen in Europe and the other told him some stuff about Greece and Athens: “ ‘Chaos’ is not only from its origin a Greek word, ‘Chaos’ is the Greek Lifestyle.” The Greeks laughed. “Bureaucracy is terrible. The traffic is terrible. The policy is terrible. Athens is terrible. Quite every Greek hates Athens and loves Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece. Because Athens is so dirty, so archaic, so conservative. And Thessaloniki is heaven. Ok, the Olympic Games 2004 were a Renaissance for Athens. There they really modernised Athens. New Metro lines, the finest in Europe and new buildings wherever you look. And today Athens has really a vast cultural program. Yeah, somehow the old picture of a shitty city is no-more maintainable. This idea of Thessaloniki as paradise and Athens as hell derives from before 2004 and seems now to be overcome. Times have changed. None the less many Greeks still prefer for good reason the beautiful harbour town of Thessaloniki.”
The next day was spent with experiencing Athens. Like real Greeks the two new friends woke up at ten, left the hostel to buy for breakfast in Omonia a Koulouri, which is a big ring of corn-batter. Kostas explained them the last evening the street-selling-culture: “Koulouri are sold buy old man on the street. You can find such man every ten meters. Like the Peripteroi. This are little houses like a Kiosk where you can buy everything: Newspapers, Beer, Milk, Aspirin, Souvenirs, Clothes, tools. Whatever you imagine. Also there sit every few meters a man who sells lottery tickets. But there exist also a lot of other man who sell different stuff like jewellery, fruits and other things.” While eating this strange but good tasting ring they walked down the Athinas-street where they found a big market. On the left site vegetables and fruits, on the right side meat and fish. It really looks like one of this Arabic markets you can always see in the movies. And the prices are unimaginable. One kilo of tomatoes for fifty cents, a kilo of apples for one euro. And so on. The two spent a lot of time there just watching what the people buy and how they argue about the quality and the prices. Than they moved on to Monastiraki. There they sat down in a Taverna with a view to the Acropolis, ordered a Frappe to what all the Greeks are addicted and played than in good Greek manner Tavli, what is Backgammon, the national sport of Greece. After sitting there like typical Greeks for two hours they moved on to Thissio. Next to the Elektriki-station (which is the some as a metro but this line is called different because it is the only line from before 2004) Thissio there is a Gyros-shop. Gyros means meat that turns, like Kebab. In this shop you can eat the best Pitta Gyros from Athens. This is Pitta-bread with Tzatziki, tomatoes, onion, Gyros and French Fries. Delicious! Of course, as typical Greeks they had to eat two. Sitting there on a bank they saw something very interesting. Because this is a nice Square with trees and the Acropolis in the background here they are always making filming for the television. Sometimes just publicity, other times an interview with a big Greek Star. What they saw was an interview with a person they didn’t know. So they asked some Greek but Nobody knew who he was. Yes, Greek Stars. They exist but Nobody knows them. After the two travellers had finished their meal they followed the Hermou-Street, the main shopping-street back to Syntagma. After just walking around to see some stuff of Athens they found in the Plaka in the Kekropos-Street 23 Tom’s peace coffee shop. A project of an artist. It is not an actual coffee shop but just a façade. The menu for example includes Gordon Brown Balls and George Bushes Head.At the evening they met again with the Greek friends and went again to the Exarchia square. There in the Arachovis street exist two delicious taverns. Good, cheap, Greek food. “Students come here to eat before they go out. Just like we tonight. Now lets order some good Greek food.”
After eating Koriatiki, Keftedes, Souvlakia, Tzatziki, Saganaki and other Greek specialities they left Exarchia and went to Psiri, the other centre for pubs and bars. There they drunk the well known Ouzo, than Raki. “What is now left to do to experience Athens?” asked Ben the table. “Oh, there is a lot. But can you do all. I don’t think so. However there would be going to a Rembetiko, a Tavern with life music, to a party in the Polytechneio, the technical university next to the National Archaeological Museum. Visiting the hundreds of museums. Ah, and drinking a Rakomelo in Thissio. Going to eat fish. Trying the thousands of different sweets we have here in Greece. Specially the Loukoumades. Well, you can do a lot. However, I would suggest to travel trough the countryside. It is far nicer. But now drink your Greek Ouzo!” answered Kostas.
And so Ben spend the next days with his new friends. They went to Gypsades, the nicest beach in Athens. Also they ate delicious fish in a restaurant in Piraeus. So going on the week in Athens passed before Ben moved further to the next town.
Ben realised that the word ‘Chaos’ refers very good to the situation here in Athens and that also the word ‘terrible’ describes quite good some things. But none the less he likes this city. While many other towns in Europe seems so sterile here you can really feel the life. And that is great.
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