Three reasons for this post: 1) My phone of five years is gradually dying, so I’m conscious of the need to upload Covid-era pics (most pre-2020 travel stuff is on my dormant-but-secure Facebook); 2) Ancient Greece seems to be in vogue right now, eh, but seeing as I care not an iota for Christopher Nolan’s movies this’ll have to serve as my bandwagon-jumping instead; 3) I realise that my entries under ‘The West’ are very limited. Not sure if there’s much room to really rectify that given where I do most of my travels, but this city break in Athens is at least something!
Summer 2024 was a real one. Due to the pandemic’s deleterious effect on both my soul and my finances, I hadn’t been back to the UK for over five years (the longest I’ve ever gone without stepping foot in the country). Being separated from your place of birth for so long does things to you. With each passing year I felt further and further removed from my sense of self, my foundations, and concurrently became more and more concerned about what was happening back home. Reliant on friends’ social media accounts and the doom-and-gloom of mainstream news outlets, I was envisioning a nation that had become rife with prejudice and bigotry, and one that was polarised beyond the point of no return. And so I stepped off the plane at Gatwick Airport in late June beaming with joy – I didn’t realise how much I’d missed the place! – but also battle-ready, aware of the need to fight for not just my space in this society, but that of other disenfranchised minorities too.
The history!
Fortunately, the reality was the inverse of my expectations! The UK was, if anything, friendlier and more accepting than I’d ever remembered. I relished every minute of being back, and I loved the follow-on adventure that I’d planned: a two-week, whistlestop tour of Europe to reconnect with old pals elsewhere on my favourite continent (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany). That trip was to culminate with a five-day trip to Athens – Greece being a country I’d never been to before – where I’d catch up with one of my first friends in Shanghai, someone who I hadn’t seen for eight years!
Though I’d travelled solely by train ever since landing in the UK, getting from Düsseldorf to Athens required a flight (unmemorable; vaguely recall too many kids for my liking), and a long metro ride to our AirBnB – which just so happened to be slap-bang in the middle of one of the city’s most notorious districts! Omonia wasn’t as rough as its reputation makes out. Yes, there are a number of drug dealers/addicts and prostitutes, and its a visibly ethnic part of the city which may be why it’s construed as so problematic an area, but I never felt unsafe and always walked around after dark with zero issues. My (female) friend who I was sharing the AirBnB with felt much the same. Street smarts are required to thrive, sure, but I think that’s the case in all major European cities anyway.
The streets!
As we’d both gotten in during the evening, the fun began in earnest the next day, which was spent strolling the picturesque Plaka neighbourhood, visiting the Panathenaic Stadium, and enjoying dinner and drinks in Exarcheia with another old friend from the peak Shanghai years. The next day saw us take in the extensive National Archaeological Museum followed by a long-awaited exploration of the historic core (Acropolis included – which requires booking in advance FYI). Day three began at the Museum of Contemporary Art followed by some more exploring around Plaka and the historic centre (Ancient Agora, Hephaisteion, Hadrian’s Library, etc.). Day four was a relaxed wind-down in the colourful streets of Psyri and a chill evening before flying early the next afternoon.
There are so many reasons to return to Athens, which is every bit as enthralling as legend suggests. It was incredible to be in a location so integral to so much of the history that I studied as a youth; to literally stumble upon one ancient ruin after another while prowling its downtown streets. Athens has an abundance, a density of archaeological heritage sites that places it right up there amongst the world’s most essential cities imo. I loved the food (generally very easy to be plant-based), the people (super amiable, despite having to deal with dumb tourists like myself 24/7), the slight sense of griminess (might be cos of our Omonia base!). I loved the neighbourhood gym that was a short walk away from where we were staying, like something straight outta the 1970s and run by an elderly, delightfully eccentric bodybuilder. I loved the visible signs of resistance, defiance, and solidarity that were plastered all over the place. Athens felt progressive and so very alive, especially after dark. I kinda regret not delving deeper into the nightlife, but I’d been drinking for most of the prior three weeks thanks to the neverending reunions, and after this I was returning to the UK for another week-long bender before flying back to Shanghai. It was probably for the best that I behaved myself…
The values!
All in all, Athens felt incredibly me. My journey across Western Europe before getting here reminded me how easily I feel at home in the parts of the continent that I’m most familiar with, and especially so in the more cosmopolitan urban centres. For some reason, I was expecting Athens to feel a little different, and yet I arguably felt even more at ease here than elsewhere – which is saying something! (One of my takeaways from this grand return to the UK/EU is that this part of the world is where I truly belong, and I need to visit far more often than I have been doing if I’m to stay grounded and sane moving forward.) The fact that I missed a huge number of sights, museums, and potential excursions – not to mention the beach, in the middle of July no less! – means that I fully expect to return here some day. If only as a landing spot before venturing further out into Greece, where the islands (Santorini, Rhodes) and history (Meteora, Delphi, Olympus) present much in the way of allure unfulfilled. ευχαριστώ!
Click here for the full Athens gallery.
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