Athens

Poor Athens. Suffering along with the rest of Greece, some of its modern buildings are nearly as dilapidated as the ruins from two millennia past, and beggars (many of them children) are all around. The road between the port (Piraeus) and the city is lined with strip clubs and sex shops. Graffiti is everywhere; our guide, Maria, said that most of it relates to political protests. She also noted that the unemployment rate is nearly 30 percent and, at the rate things are going, there will be no middle class in another five years.  Against this somber background, we visited the Acropolis, the National Archeological Museum, and the Plaka. 

Soaring over Athens, the Acropolis is a landmark of Western civilization, and its temples show their majesty even through the ubiquitous scaffolding.  

Unfortunately, the suffocating crowds dampened our appreciation of the site; despite Maria’s exhortations, I just couldn’t “close my eyes part way and imagine myself back 2500 years” while being whacked by camera bags and backpacks.

The National Archeological Museum is phenomenal, with a collection of well-presented relics going back to Mycenean times (the second millennium BCE). There are friezes, statues, vases, weapons, mirrors, household items, and more. It’s a nearly overhwhelming collection, but Maria adeptly explained how the items interrelated. Her discussion of changes in Greek statuary from its earliest days (when it was influenced by Egyptian styles) through the Classical period was particularly illuminating.

Following the Museum, we stopped briefly at the Panathenic Stadium (an enormous, impressive structure) and then passed the changing of the guards at the Parliament building. The latter is an absurd spectacle, with deadly serious guards sporting what appear to be clown shoes doing their best imitation of Monty Python’s John Cleese in the Ministry of Silly Walks skit.

The Plaka is the traditional market area. It is filled with souvenir shops, not all of which are tacky. Several stores sell handsome bowls, backgammon sets, and serving ware crafted of olive wood, and others offer exquisitely colored, hand-painted plates. Unfortunately, the area is overrun with aggressive peddlers.

Athens should be a treasure, but dilapidation and despair mask its charm. Our guide was painfully candid about the future, which in her eyes looks bleak. I hope she’s wrong.