Athens

My nose was the first thing to arrive in Athens. Sweet, tangy, salt from the ocean was my first thought. This was momentarily followed by a very distinct smell of garbage. That's Athens, old and new, good and bad, sweet and sour.





Athens is truly different than any city we've visited this far. Between the cities of Western, and even Eastern Europe, I have been able to draw parallels finding consistencies in the smallest places.

The comingled wealth and poverty is quite astonishing. We'll be walking on a main avenue, cross one road down, and be in one of the ritzyest and most outrageously priced places we've been yet. We'll go a street in the opposite direction of the main road and it will be filled to the brim with litter. Litter in the gutters, garbage on the steps, piling out of the cans, billowing through the streets. Dogs in purses to stray dogs crossing themselves through traffic. A 5 euro single espresso overlooking the Acropolis or a .50 cent single espresso over looking the meat market. (Why you'd want to grab a relaxing coffee in the middle of a fish/meat/hacking extravaganza is beyond me)... It's all wonderful, and wild, and nonsensical. I can't quite put my finger on it, and so far.... It's got me hooked.



The city doesn't flow with ebbs and tides, yet is toppled about like a ball of rubberbands. The rich clustered together to create burroughs a voice's song from a homeless shanty alley. Each road has its own course would be an extreme understatement. And despite the hodge podge-ness of it all, it's amazingly easy to enjoy.


The colors are mind blowing. Everything is vivid. The blues of the sky, the lush greens of the flora, the rainbows of flowers.. It is effortless to appreciate. Everywhere, everything. It is no wonder this would be Zeus' playground. By the time you reach the top of a mountain, you are literally 'walking among the clouds'. And as we both gulped the windy ocean air (free of ground level smog and gyro garbage) we were in total awe of the magnificence that is Athens. The mountains meet the sea and are interspersed between thousands and thousands of buildings. And atop an occasional mountain- an auditorium, Acropolis, and or thousand(s) year old monument.



And at the end of the day, you're doing one of two things. Kinking your neck to view the Greek Gods and Godesses and their creations, or kinking your neck to the ground to wonder WHAT IN THE WORLD it was that you just stepped on (praying it wasn't something that could be a day ruiner).