Greece - Athens - 37.97945° N, 23.71622° E. - early Feb. 2025 - 2043Z20MAR25

 In early February, after roughly a week in Belgrade, the fashion police had started to close in. So, to avoid being charged with crimes against fashion, I fled south to Greece. This cunning plan took shape in the way of a bus trip from Belgrade, across the snowy North Macedonian border at midnight, over the Greek border, finally stopping in Athens at around lunchtime the following day. The scenery through northern Macedonia was spectacular; snow capped hills and mountains on one side, and the Aegean on the other. It really was something.

Upon reaching Athens, the Serbian Fashion Police being nothing more than a memory in my dust, I began to relax and actually take in where I was. 

Now, from the outset, and this is not unique to Athens, where ever I stay these days, is always within what were once a city's walls. Why? Basically, it's where most of the old stuff is located. Be they ruins, bazaars or markets, museums, historic buildings, etc. You get the picture. There is a tragedy with this, in that it is not a picture of normal life or culture of what 'today' actually is for the people that live and work there on a daily basis. Adding to that, you generally only see a picture of what the country/city want you to see, as opposed to what actually is; those two bodies invest in tourism, this is tourism, and tourism is money. Enough. You get the picture.

So, I got to Athens. Firstly, it was cold and dreary, secondly, I did not have phone reception, which meant the maps on my phone didn't work. Hence, I winged it, and surprisingly it paid off.

Under the weight of my bags, and looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, I wandered about 2 km to the seedy hotel I had booked. As mentioned, I try to position myself in the city centre, nearest those things I want to see. Remembering that this is now the way of life I lead, I spend every night in a hotel, as I'm generally not in one place long enough to rent an apartment, and more importantly, I do not live the life of some one that has gone away for three weeks on holiday. Therefore, whilst I could easily be spending a minimum of $300+ per night, which is $2100+ per week, or $109200+ per year, on mediocre hotel rooms in the usual Hilton/Holiday Inn/etc, it is not a reality worth entertaining. Add to that the cost of bus/plane/train tickets, then entrance tickets to museums, buildings, and other places of interest, plus food, it all starts to add up in ways that drain the accounts quicker than is sustainable. So, how do I budget? Well, I work on the principle of accommodation at the same rate as the Australian national rental average, which thus far, remembering that it is the off season at the moment, has been a realistic figure throughout Serbia/Greece/Bulgaria/Turkiye. So somewhere in the region of $650 per week (which was the approximate average rent in Australia, as stated June 2024 depending on which articles you read), but I spend closer to $700, and this is usually sufficient to find accommodation within 1 to 2 km's of where I want to be. The rooms I find are 'on special' on Booking.com, these generally fulfil my requirements. They are usually modest, yet modern, clean, and never tacky or horrible. They always have an en suite, usually a queen sized bed, generally have a fairly good view, possess working wifi, and are always air conditioned. The linen is always crisp, and most rooms will have both fridge and television, although not always a television.

Back to Athens.

Athens in early February was cold and wet and dirty. The things that I had gone to see, the Acropolis, the Parthenon, plus a variety of other things of a similar age, whilst vastly different eras, I saw, and they were profoundly interesting. The National Archaeological Museum blew me out of the water, it was just incredible; I particularly liked the bronze pieces. 

There were unexpected surprises in this too, although from a different angle to one I had foreseen; put this in line with snippets of information and encounters. See the Parthenon, below.

The Parthenon was being rebuilt! Look past the scaffolding, this was for repairs incidentally, not reconstruction, and is not what I am talking about. As an example of what I am talking about, is that in 1647, some cunning Venetians lobbed a mortar into the Parthenon, and blew out the columns in the centre of the rows, on either side of the long sides (no scaffolding) of the building. The central columns, and segments of those columns, that you see above are for the most part new. When you take into consideration that the Parthenon was built between approximately 447 and 438 BC, this is just one incident amongst many. Think earthquakes, numerous invasions and wars, immense lack of funds for on going maintenance. There had been varied uses of the buildings themselves, where they had been used as places of administration, religion and refuge. Include from there, the different religions and peoples that occupied both the city and country, and the damage wrought upon everything they touched that was not of their own mindset or belief; the list goes on. This is not unique to the Parthenon, nor Athens, nor Greece, but every place on the face of the earth. It is life, and the smart ones learn from it, looking forward, and make the world a better place because of it, not wasting their time focusing on what once was, in the hope that it could be relived.

Personally I would have preferred to see the ruined rubble of what it actually would have been like. Yet, it makes sense that something of such importance could be returned to its former glory, into what it is meant to be seen as. Either way though it is impressive, AND, it does not stand in isolation. It is surrounded by a number of similarly age buildings, the collective making it the Acropolis, and the whole lot stands like a beacon on top of a bloody big hill, overlooking everything that is Athens. One last thing about the acropolis is that it is roughly 15 km from the coast. In my ignorance, I had thought it was located beside the sea, which you can see from there.

Most importantly, the Acropolis looks like you would think it would. Marble buildings upon a vaguely flat, bare rocky outcrop, roughly 170 metres by about 350 metres in size. At the very far end there is a small memorial to those Greek and allied service personnel that perished in the second world war; I found it to be quite moving.    

What else? The food was great, as you would imagine it to be. Everything from Moussaka, to Gyros, to vaguely identifiable, yet utterly delicious meats. All were consumed with gusto and relish. I also had Ouzo, more to try it in Greece than anything else. 

That is when things happened, and my luck took a turn in an unexpected downward direction. 

Token and Ling-Ling got in touch with me to let me know that, via Interpol, through its international Fun Division, that I had been sprung. This prompt dissemination of information, had filtered into the internal sub branch 'Fashion', which had somehow been made aware of my presence in Athens. So, when you know the writing is on the wall, and you don't want your back to be against it, you run. Which is what I did, via rail this time, and away in a north easterly direction; my geographical confusion knows no bounds.

To be continued, and yes, there are more photos that I would love to attach, and will, once I figure out how to do so.

N.

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