First impressions of Athens

The next day I left the hotel at 7:30am and caught the train back to Naples. The bus from the train station to the airport leaves from across the other side of a huge square, much of which was blocked off for redevelopment... and it was bucketing down with rain. I had packed an umbrella, but had forgotten that it was broken. (God only knows why I hadn't thrown it away!) So two new dimensions were added to the joys of dragging a suitcase across uneven cobblestones... ankle deep puddles and trying not to poke an eye out with the metal skewer hanging out the bottom of the umbrella. I don't know why I bothered. The rain was coming in sideways anyway.

Anyway. I made it to Athens flying via Rome and caught the Metro from the airport to a station very near my hotel (Monasteraki). The hotel had a bizarre set-up where reception and the breakfast room and half the accomodation rooms are on one side of a ridiculously busy street, and the rest of the rooms (including mine) were on the other side. Dumb...

(Blurry) view of the Acropolis from my hotel room

The street I had to cross to the other half of the hotel.
This is 10pm on a Sunday... Imagine rush hour...

My first impression of Athens was that despite the financial crisis of the last couple of years, they were positive and trying to recover. I arrived after dark, and after dumping my bags in my room I went out to find some food. It was about 9pm on a Sunday, and the place was cranking!

In Monasteraki Square there were some guys with bongos and paint tins etc drumming away with some tribal rhythms and a whole lot of people dancing and clapping to the beats. The restaurants and shops were still open and doing good business. It was a pretty good scene.

I had also noticed that there were quite a few homeless people and beggars, but they seemed well cared for. There were people going around handing out cups of hot soup to them, and most of them had a mat that looked to be woven out of recycled plastic bags (which I assume insulates them against the cold ground) and several good blankets. I saw another woman going around and asking them if there was any medicines or services that they needed.

Many buildings are closed and rundown and covered in graffiti, but there are some signs of rebuilding. It's quite weird. There is affluence and poverty all mixed in together.

This is how things are all over the city...
Those businesses that survived the crisis beside those that didn't

The next day I climbed the Acropolis...