Athens was incredible. It's been over two weeks since I left there, but it has left a distinct mark in my mind. The different areas of the city were completely different from one another, and very rarely did any of them match the preconcieved notions I had in my mind.
Upon arriving, the first thing I did was take the train from the airport to Syntaegma Square and searched for about 20minutes, with over 100lbs of luggage, until I found my way to my hostel. It was an adventure to say the least, but the help of a friendly local sent me in the right direction. Located in Plaka, an old part of the city, it was called The Student and Travellers Inn. I stayed in a small room with enough bunk beds for 8 people which had a window looking out over a small garden in the center of the hostel:
Contrary to some slight fears I had before arrival, it was actually alot of fun being there! I met a couple of the people living in the room with me and there were so many stories to tell. It actually turned out that one girl staying there was going to be participating in The Scholar Ship as well so it was amazing to get a chance to talk about someone else in the program.
After falling asleep for about 3 hours to shake off some jetlag, it was time for me to head out adventuring! I think that the best way to get to know a culture is to walk it's streets. I grabbed my trusty map (completely written in Greek!) and headed out. I decided that my best bet was to just walk until I got myself thoroughly lost, and then figure out where I was and find my way back. I made my way around for about 2 hours before deciding to turn around and make my way back, and here are some of the more interesting things I saw...
The most expected things I saw were some of the ruins of ancient Greek society:
Although I think it is incredibly important to understand the history of a culture in order to understand it's present state, I must say that the ruins were not able to hold my attention for long. I was more interested in seeing the local people in their daily lives and attempt to understand the sort of world that they live in today.
Next came the people and the local culture:
On the left are some riot police due to a demonstration/rally that was being held in Syntaegma Square night I was in town. Unfortunately, since the protestors were shouting everything in Greek, I'm not sure what cause they were supporting. I heard mumblings through the crowd that it was in response to the poor reactions to the outburst of wildfires which had overtaken the country just days before my arrival. In the center is an example of part of an open air market in Plaka. On the right is the wall of a bar in town which was lit only by the lights behind the different colored bottles.
On the left here is an example of what I deemed an "interesting" fashion choice by a local Greek woman. On the right is an image of an average street in Plaka. The road were very narrow and very few were open to vehicle traffic. Most people walked from shop to shop in order to get what they needed.
Up next is a man who was selling nuts on the street. He often had to deal with pigeons trying to get his food, so he had made a sort of whip out of a thin, supple piece of wood in order to scare the birds away when customers came by. In the center is an image from the local pet store. The entire exterior was covered with bird cages, rabbit cages, hampster cages, etc. What was most interesting though was that many of these cages were open or, in the case of these two little birds, there were no cages at all. I'm not quite sure how they kept the birds from flying away or the rabbit from hopping away, but they all seemed quite content to say on their perches as people came by to shop. The last image was quite interesting to me due to the fact that because of my education and having learned so much about ancient Greece throughout the years, I had this picture in my head that the city wouldn't be as modernized as it was. If you notice there is a Converse shoe display to the left, a motorbike to the right, and a Coca-Cola machine in the background. Talk about globalization!
I think that the most interesting thing for me in Athens was the grafitti:
"One Nation Under One Groove" and "Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow
"Fight Back"
Overall Greece for me was really interesting. Most people spoke English (or at least the shopkeepers did!) so it was quite easy to make my way around and get what I needed. Though there were alot of things that I didn't like (the city was incredibly dirty being the main thing) I would definitely like to go back and spend some more time exploring the country. I really only had about 24 hours there, and I was asleep for probably half of that! It's rich history is paralleled by it's expansive and interesting present culture and is defintely worth learning more about.
