Ancient Athens: Graffiti, Ruins and Fun at the Meat Market

Parthenon, Athenian Acropolis, Greece

My travel plans this summer were drastically altered when news of the violent riots in Turkey first emerged. I was originally supposed to go to Istanbul and Dubrovnik (with some day trips in between). The Turkish riot police’s tear gas and water cannon use did not sound particularly appealing, so Kay-Lin (my travel companion) and I decided to make some alterations to our itinerary. (Important side note: never use Cheap-O Air, they have the worst, most inaccessible, unaccommodating customer service). Cheap-O wanted to charge us a $250 fee (apiece) for altering our flight plans in addition to the extra cost of alternate flights. The $55 flight insurance we purchased (under the guise of being able to change our flight without penalty) only covered death, illness and terrorism (not the outbreak of war or political unrest and a particular terrorist act had to have occurred within a one month window from our flight to Istanbul). So after much futile arguing with people in overseas call centers, we kept our flight to Istanbul, cancelled our flight from Istanbul to Dubrovnik and booked a flight to Athens (from Istanbul), a flight to Dubrovnik (from Athens) and a roundtrip ferry from Athens to Santorini.

Fellow travelers have warned me about Athens and their common lamentations are mainly that it’s dirty and there is not a lot to see. Taking these warnings into account, but not wanting to pass over the ancient capital city, we booked two nights in Athens and figured that would be enough to cover all of the main sights. After almost a solid 24 hours of traveling (JFK to Zurich, Zurich to Istanbul, and Istanbul to Athens with several hours of layovers in between), we finally arrived at our hostel (Students and Traveller’s Inn) in the heart of Plaka (Old Athens). I always use Hostel World to book my hostels abroad and it’s a great way to read reviews from patrons and get ratings of important things (like location, cleanliness, security, staff and atmosphere). I try to always stay at hostels with at least 90% ratings (this particular hostel had a 92% rating). Our hostel-mates were two Korean girls who barely spoke English. Needless to say, there was minimal interaction (although one of the girls managed to steal both my and Kay-Lin’s towels).

Temple of Zeus

Plaka is a great neighborhood and it reminded me a lot of Capri, Italy. The cobblestone streets are lined with jewelry, souvenir and gelato shops and restaurants complete with amble outdoor seating. It’s a 10-minute walk to the Acropolis and compared to other parts of Athens, it’s definitely cleaner. The first night of our arrival, we were pretty drained so we just showered and got dinner in Plaka (cold octopus, hummus, olives and tahini sauce) near the hostel. The next morning, since we only had one full day in Athens, we walked all around the city and visited the must-sees. The main attractions we ventured to were the Acropolis (where the Parthenon, the Theater of Dionysos and the Erechtheion can be found), the Temple of Zeus, the Hephaistion, the Ancient Agora (market), and the National Gardens. The Parthenon was a under construction and surrounded by three cranes, so that took away a bit from its enjoyment. I think that the Temple of Zeus was my favorite monument because although it was sparse, it was unadulterated and there was virtually no one else viewing it (as opposed to the Parthenon, which was flooded with tourists). Walking around the sights took the entire morning and a bit of the afternoon.

After we covered the main things we wanted to see, we ventured to the Central Market (where mainly fruit, meat and vegetables are sold). The meat market (complete with skinned lambs, chickens and rabbits with their ears, tails and feet still intact) was a bit overwhelming and the male butchers were intent on shouting various Asian salutations (nǐ hǎo and konichiwa, mostly) and touching us (I got my arm grabbed, and Kay-Lin suffered a worse fate). I bought a nectarine from an Israeli man (who grimaced when I told him we were American) and Kay-Lin got a free peach from the same vendor (he liked her better for some reason). The men were VERY aggressive. The restaurant workers try (very forcefully) to seat you at their tables and are not afraid to get very much inside the boundaries of your personal space (the concept of personal space does not seem to really exist in Europe). Athens was a good city to see for a couple of days and I feel like we successfully saw everything that we needed to see in the short span of time that we had there (with the exception of the Acropolis Museum, which I was told was pretty cool). I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed my time there considering how much most people told me that it was a bit of a dumpy place.

“We own the city,” graffiti in Athens

Athens in a nutshell: Lots of graffiti, ample ancient ruins, excellent gelato, creepy and overly-aggressive men, tons of stray cats, many headless and limbless statues and Corinthian columns for days.