Aching Athens

After lovely Lesvos, it was a bit of a sorry surprise to see Athens.  The Greek economic woes are really evident here.  The place is rundown and derelict. The pavements cracked, roads falling apart, parks overgrown and full of rubbish, boarded up closed shops and most notably all the buildings are covered with political graffiti.  You might get the impression that the place is a powder keg ready to go off at any moment (and it did explode in March this year and a few years ago) but then you look into the eyes of the people on the street and realised they now are probably too depressed to be activists.  However the areas around the tourist archaeological sites, such as Plaka, are still maintained and awesome but just a few blocks in any direction and the new sorry Greece is evident.  All very sad.

We had a few conversations with some people in Turkey who said that even though their government was trying to get into the EU, they did not want to.  Looking at Greece one can completely empathise with this sentiment.  Unemployment is about 8% in Turkey and 27% in Greece with youth unemployment over 50%.  Turkey is independent and booming and its lira strong.

Nevertheless the historical sites and the Archaeological museum were fantastic.

Bronze statue of a young boy riding a horse.  The expression so intense and done thousands of years ago.

Aphrodite, Cupid and impish Pan

 

Aphrodite

Another impish Pan

Temple of Zeus from the Acropolis

Close up of Temple of Zeus with the Acropolis in the background

One of the many mosaics around the city

Temple of Athena

The Parthenon

The Acropolis from below

More Temple of Zeus - my favourite

Lycabettus Hill

View of the Acropolis and Pireus from Lycebettus hill