Athens
April 27 – May 12, 2007
Not so Smoggy Anymore
Somehow I had the image of Athens as filled with traffic and smog. Reality was a pleasant surprise: At least in the prime tourist area around the Acropolis large sections have been converted into pedestrian zones, reducing traffic even where it’s still allowed, and so the entire area is very pleasant to hang out in and explore. Outdoor restaurants have replaced the cars in several streets.
The Ancient...
The big draw in this 3000 year old city are the ancient sites and
the archeological museums. The Acropolis towers above it all, and looks very
impressive from below, but close-up the views are marred by lots of scaffolding
and construction cranes. According to some signs, earlier reconstruction work
wasn’t done well, so it has to be corrected - makes you wonder what archeologists
will think of the current efforts in a few decades. The ancient theatres on
the south slope and the agora stretching to the north add interesting sights
and no cranes. A bit further out, Keramikos is a pleasant site that provides
peeks at the remains of the ancient city walls and the cemetery stretching
outside.
The exhibits I find most fascinating at the National Archaeological Museum are the Cycladic statues and figurines, which look like they could have been designed in the 20th century AD, and indeed are busily copied in the 21st, but in fact are from the third millennium BC. Interesting are also the small tablets in Linear B, the oldest European writing that has been deciphered (Linear A is still waiting). And then there’s an amazing array of statues, steles, and vessels. It takes an entire day to get through the museum.
...and the New
Most of Athens of course is a sprawling modern metropolis. I only got to see
a few parts. Monastiraki and Syntagma are two areas that still heavily serve
tourists, Monastiraki with the sprawling flea market, Syntagma with department
stores and other shopping as well as the hourly changing of the guard outside
the Parliament. Another highlight is further away: The Benaki Contemporary
Arts Center, which houses temporary exhibitions in a pleasant modern environment.
Melissinos Art
Thanks to a note in my Lonely Planet, I walked into the Melissinos Art sandal
store. They had some good-looking sandals, not in the shape of my feet, but
offered to make them to measure, for a modest markup, ready by 19:00. The sandals
weren’t ready when I came back, not even started, and so I got to watch and
photograph the entire process of making sandals from cutting to final assembly.
The Melissinos family has been doing this for three generations, still do
most of the work by hand, and are also proud of being artists (the father a
poet, the current owner a painter and playwright).