Everlasting Athens
From its cobblestones to its high hilly peaks, Athens seems blessed with the buzz of a place that has been continually filled with the vivacious energy of the human spirit for thousands of years.
Photo by Iuliia Isakova, via Unsplash.
Athens is truly an exquisite city. Maybe not all of the time (for what can be raw and real and yet perpetually perfect?), but most of it. Maybe not from every angle, but all of its moving parts together — its shiny streets, basement shops, bars playing jazz loud enough to fill an entire pocket of the city with ambient sound — give the city a certain something. I’d argue this special quality its acute awareness of itself at all times, of its past and its present, as edgy confidence meets classic charisma. It is almost intimidating, before you come to realise that you too are capable of the same authenticity in character, the same honest willingness to tell an ongoing autobiography of your own experience in shifting time. As individuals we have the same consent to become both a relic of our pasts and a regularly reforming emblem of something new, all at once.
From its cobblestones to its high hilly peaks Athens seems blessed with the buzz of a place that has been continually filled with the vivacious energy of the human spirit for thousands of years. By day and by night alike the streets are alight laughter and conversation, illuminated with the timely glow of architectural remnants of a past golden age. The city glitters with the provocation of a hundred sparkling questions, from philosophical enquiries from days of old to investigations of what and whom was once here. Even the unknown answers seem to linger just above our heads and beneath our feet.
When in Athens, whilst getting lost in the same winding roads that the ancient Greeks treaded, seeing their acropolis looming above it all, you can feel the presence of the perpetual past wherever you go. There in the city the Greeks inhabited, I had the feeling that for the first time, they were somehow coming to life. I can think of particular sights at which this struck me the most profoundly: a man pushing his cart of fruit up the sloped cobblestones; the blue sky interrupted by the hill of the acropolis crowned with what’s left of the Parthenon; the mountains on the horizon meeting the city that I looked up, down and around at. They are the same views that served as the backdrop of the narrative of the ancient city we continue to revere.
Photo by Nomadic Julien, via Unsplash.
Photo by Tayla Bundschuh, via Unsplash.
Everywhere you look, mind you, the present spurs on, despite the city’s deep connection to the past. Athens’ evolution hasn’t been an easy one, for it has witnessed almost too much, and its golden age has been painted too pristinely for any city to ever truly live up to. Its angst and dirt and underdeveloped parts are apparent at times. Yet I think this was the case even during Athens’ reign as the cultural jewel of the ancient Mediterranean which has so greatly crowned the city’s reputation since. And at the foot of balconied buildings, people fill the streets, lined with vendors selling everything from jewellery to baked goods to newspaper, to eat and drink in the sidewalk cafes, to haggle and convene in the markets, to laugh and to bicker not dissimilar to the way I imagine the Greeks would have thousands of years ago.
I don’t think this fundamental connection between past and present is strictly reserved for scholars of Classics and history, nor to cities known for their historical legacies. However I can appreciate places like Athens are perfect exempla, because it would be impossible for any visitor to miss the inseparable nature of present and past. Not here, where the people are too aware and proud of their history; where the archaeological museum remains respected and pristine, even though situated in anarchist, graffiti-filled Exarchia. Not in a space so filled with reminders of all that came before woven so intricately into the fabric of the city that it could be a museum in itself. Not when its identity is as many parts old as it is new. Here, you could never be indifferent to the past, you could never forget its connection to the present. Nor could you be escaped by amazement to fact that we, too, are making history, right now. Lost in the streets feeling connected to the ancient past and everything after more than ever before, with the acropolis perpetually within view like a watchtower of the gods, I couldn’t help the feeling that this city must be looked after by something at least remotely divine.
Basking in Athens’ Everlasting Glow
Apart from the obvious historical sites and neighbourhoods, there is ample opportunity to explore an authentic side to Athens in past and present.
The city is tiny enough that you can walk from end to end in less than an hour. While the metro is impressively convenient, the magic of exploring the city on foot by day or night is irreplaceable. On a longer trip, I’d happily stay again in the lovely neighbourhood of Kolonaki. It’s a beautiful quiet borough of the city just tucked away but not far from the tourist-aimed heart, and I feel like a local each time I stay at the British School there. Even if not to stay, Kolonaki is worth a visit, for dinner and people watching at the sidewalk tables of Dexameni, a drink at one of the beautiful neighbourhood bars, and a necessary gelato pilgrimage to D Cafe. Alternatively Le Greche in Syntagma is nearer to the city centre and equally delicious. In central Athens, spend a morning
Photo by Iuliia Isakova, via Unsplash.
getting lost in the chaos of the Central Municipal market, where you can pick up the perfect snack of sun-warmed figs. Grab an amazing takeaway lunch at Falafellas, and wander through Monastiraki with an impressively large and incredibly cheap falafel wrap in hand. For the most impressive views of Athens at sunset, take a short hike up the Areopagus or to the top of Mount Lycabettus. Soak in the bubbly evening buzz of Psyrri and have drinks at one of the many lovely bars; Borsalino and six d.o.g.s had the best ambience and cocktails around. If possible, attend a performance at an ancient amphitheatre. We were able to catch a performance of Agamemnon at the Herodeion, which is even more breathtaking for an evening of live theatre than it is during the day.