The writer in me wants to impart everything I've witnessed these first few days exploring Athens, but for this post I will focus on the city itself and the neighborhood in which I will call home for the next three months.
It's 6:30 p.m. on Monday evening, and I'm sitting on the balcony of my apartment at Filolauo and Asteropois streets in the Pangrati neighborhood of Athens, to the southeast of downtown Athens and the Acropolis. Two floors below is Home Cookies, a bakery run by a Greek gentleman named Kostas, his wife and son who treat my three roommates and me to fresh bread and cookies when they see us walk by. Also on the corner is a fresh fruit and vegetable market with decent prices, and every Tuesday the street behind our apartment fills with a myriad of vendors selling fruits, vegetables, flowers, and a number of other items. All of the apartments and houses are designed with balconies with flowers, potted plants, and more often than not a stray cat or dog. One of the balconies directly across from ours has a bird in a cage that chirps beautifully in the morning. Most, if not all, the buildings here also are built vertically; they are not very wide but extend five to ten stories high.
Just two blocks to the north is Imitou, a main road that is quite Americanized--you can find Pizza Hut, Starbucks, TGIFriday...and a KFC that offers delivery via moped. This is the road along which I travel to the Athens Centre every weekday; the first day I was initially shocked to see so many American restaurants in a neighborhood utterly vacant of tourists, but then I grasped that it's simply a product of globalization. American music is also quite prevalent here; so far while walking I've heard Katy Perry, the Eagles, Pink and Supertramp playing inside shop entrances. There's no doubt the food at KFC and Pizza Hut tastes vastly different here, and fast food altogether is a different concept than back in the states (for instance, you can order beer or wine with your chicken wrap to go). However, the countless Greek cafes and taverns definitely offset any American joint. Traveling along Imitou, I walk by a gelato shop and have contemplated stopping each day so far; today I finally stopped for a scoop of mango on a cone. The owner speaks English rather well and explained his gelato is made on the premises every day. He has about 20 other flavors, so I'll probably stop about once (give or take...mostly take) a week. Imitou is just one street though; it seems every road is filled with a variety of shops. You pass a flower shop, and a few doors down is a shoe store. No one-stop shopping in Athens! That's definitely an adjustment, but it's a lifestyle to which I'm positively attracted and do not mind becoming accustomed to.
No matter where you walk, the streets are incredibly narrow, yet double parking is quite rife. Because space is such an issue in this tiny (in square footage terms) city with such a massive population, the police simply can't enforce the parking. All rules are literally dismissed. Also, pedestrian do not have any right of way. On the main streets, there are crossing signs, but even then, taxis and mopeds will turn right on red even when they see you beginning to cross. I made an observation today that I have yet to see one Greek walking and talking on a cell phone; and I've resolved it's simply because you cannot be distracted when walking in this city without sacrificing your life.
My walk to the Athens Centre, located on Archimidous Street, takes about 15 minutes, and the walk takes me through the Pangrati, Pr. Ilias and Varnava squares. Every few blocks you find a square with cafes, kiosks and other shops, so that makes it easier to gather your bearings if you get off course.
From the Athens Centre, it's just about a 20 minute walk to central Athens, Syntagma Square, and the Plaka area. On Friday night, a group of us ventured to the Psiri section of the Plaka to explore Greek night life. Although most of us were ready to leave by 1 a.m. since we were still recovering from jet lag and just general exhaustion, that's about the time most of the Greeks, age 18 to 30 or so, just begin their night out on the town. A typical night on the weekend, and even during the week, for a Greek is a slow dinner at 9 or 10 p.m., followed by venturing to bars and clubs at 1 or 2 a.m. In the Psiri area, there are at least one hundred bars and taverns, and each one was full and hopping; most of the revelers sit outside. At the first bar we went to, the bartender taught as the Greek word for cheers: Yamas! On a side note, on our walk through the Plaka, this stray dog (the city is full of stray dogs and cats) of some sort of beagle/lab mix, whom one of the other ladies named Apollo, followed us and when a man would be walking toward us, Apollo would walk up to him and start barking until we passed. It was wholly adorable and strange at the same time.
Overall, people are very active and sociable here; they are always walking somewhere and sitting outside eating, drinking and chatting. A siesta is practiced every day from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., so most shops close during that time and open up again around 7 p.m.
It's really interesting to see the difference between the areas near the Acropolis, where masses of tourists congregate. Of course, I'm a tourist at heart and cannot wait to visit the Acropolis and surrounding monuments; but I'm so excited to actually be living in a neighborhood where my roommates and I are virtually the only Americans around--what a tremendous opportunity to really immerse ourselves in the Greek way of life and culture away from the vacationers and vendors.
On Thursday I will make my first visit to the Acropolis with the Monuments of Greece class. Just the thought of sitting atop the Acropolis gives me goosebumps, and I know very well I will be brought to tears. Today I had my first two classes, The Athenian Acropolis and The Greek Language. During the first two-hour lecture, we received an overview of the history of the Acropolis and why it's so significant compared to other acropoli in other areas of Greece and even in other countries. About 40 minutes into the class, Professor Hurwitt gave us a 5-minute break before we delved into the myth and stories of Athena ... and I walked up the black spiral steps to the roof of the Athens Centre to view the Acropolis, right there. I can do that every day! How incredible is that? I simply cannot fathom my great fortune.
Speaking of chills, on Sunday a group of us visited Kerameikos with one of our professors, Dr. Jeffrey Hurwitt of the University of Oregon. Kerameikos is the remains of the gateway to ancient Athens, as well as the Sacred Road. What a feeling to walk across such hallowed, millennia-old grounds. I sat atop one of the stones, closed my eyes and tried so hard to fathom that men built the walls to protect the city over 2,000 years ago; and the ruins have overcome time and the elements so a constant nexus to the past subsists. Before you enter the ruins, you walk through a museum full of artifacts, statues and pottery collected at the site. I was particularly struck by this tiny clay horse on four wheels, a toy that made children laugh in 250 B.C. Observing a piece of history like that made me realize despite evolution of the mind and technology, when it comes to fundamentals, the human race has not changed all that much after all these years. Children's energy needed to be channeled through toys and entertainment, and that innate curiosity paved their way to the future and ultimately to where we are now. I couldn't help but wonder if 2,000 years from now when the ruins of our civilization are uncovered, a Nintendo DS will be on display in a glass case...an exceedingly distressing thought.