Street Wandering!
We had planned for and paid for a small group tour north to Meteora to see the very elusive six active Eastern Orthodox monasteries which have been built on top of individual rock pillars.
I’ve literally wanted to visit this UNESCO site for over 40 years. Three weeks ago we booked and paid for a small group 14 hour tour to drive up from Athens to see them.
Unfortunately, heavy rains are hitting the region today. A day ago at the last possible moment to get a full refund of €145 we made the decision to cancel. Such is life. You can’t see everything.
So our plan confined to the trash bin, we decided to simply walk the streets today. I really enjoy doing this, so off we went, first to find a simple breakfast and then to see what we could see.
The Plaka and for that matter Athens has evolved significantly since I first walked these streets in 1975. The Plaka shopping area has evolved from 4-5 blocks long to literally a kilometre in length. The streets attached to the original Plaka just continued to stretch onwards with ever more sophisticated stores. Where once stood simple shops with a skilled craftsman in the back making for example leather sandals now stand stores with tourist-geared trinkets made in Asia. There are Starbucks if you want it and each of the three Athens football clubs has a store to sell you their uniform gear. There are beautiful jewellery stores and the other usual high-end stores.
This isn’t of course just an Athens thing. You find this everywhere people travel. It’s just an evolution. I guess having visited here often over the past 50+ years makes the changes a little more apparent for me. It also dates me! However, not everything is gone. You can still find the sesame bread rings being sold in little carts on the streets. They are just as good as they have always been and still a relative bargain!😋
However, in just the past 9 years the young folk who made beautiful leather wristbands and sold them below the Acropolis have all but disappeared. Now most of the wristbands bands are industrial versions. I did find one stall on the far side of the Acropolis that was selling them. A woman from Argentina. She and her husband and now with family have been travelling for the past 25-30 years. She told me that they had once purchased a car in Montreal and driven it across Canada. They had previously travelled to 150 countries on their motorcycles. They also got stuck in Guatemala during the Covid years. Real free spirits!
As I’d said before, my family who has visited Athens all have their photos taken here.
We decided to walk up to Syntagma Square, the main square in Athens across from the Greek government buildings where everything, and I do mean everything political happens. I’ve seen both peaceful and riotous protests happening here. A few years ago when the riots caused by the financial crisis happened and Greece was known as one of the PIGS countries, I watched at home as the police fought with protesters here. Last time I was here in 2017, not long after all that happened, I noticed that every building in the central area was tagged from ground level to as high as a person could reach. It was something to see. There was a lot of anger in Greece at that time, as many jobs disappeared and people were restricted from taking out more than a few dollars from banks. The country was in a deep financial crisis.
However, before we reach the square, I wanted to show Annmarie the amazing central church located just below the square. We arrived to find a large procession getting ready to set off. I suggested to Annmarie that these would be the Oxi Day celebrations that we watched on Crete last Wednesday. I had read online that the weather was so bad on the mainland that the events were postponed for much of Greece. Our timing was impeccable, and we walked alongside the progression as it moved up to the front of the parliament buildings
Men and women were beautifully dressed in traditional costume.
We then walked down to see the tiny church that had been left in place when construction of an office tower occurred. The tower has been replaced by a high- end hotel, and it’s nice to see that they left the church intact.
As in many other major cities, inside food courts, complete with restaurants and bars, have made their appearance in Athens.
With heavy rain forecast, we found a route back to our apartment
No matter when you see the Acropolis, with the Parthenon sitting on top, completely cleaned and rebuilt, it’s always an impressive sight
That’s about it for now. Another nice day. Tomorrow I’ll post some photos I’ve taken of the Acropolis at night and a few other night shots of Athens.
Cheers!
Geoff🍻
