WANDERING AROUND PLAKA.

When I first visited Athens back in 1979, it was the Plaka that attracted me most.  I stayed in an old walk-hotel on Aeolou St. and wandered the area (though for some odd reason, those first few visits I totally missed Plaka Square, choosing instead to hang out in the area around Hadrian's Library and the old Roman Agora.  Perhaps because I had made friends with the taverna workers there and they always made me feel at home.



 I decided to go to live in Athens in 1983 but a friend and I had an apartment farther away in the Koukaki district.  It wasn't until 1984 that I moved into Plaka in a basement suite at #14 Vironos St.
This appealed to me partly because "Vironos Street" was "Byron's Street" named so because at one time there was a small monastery at the end of the street where he used to stay. And right around the corner from that was Shelley Street named after Percy Byce Shelley,  Bryon's poet friend. 

My suite opened to a lovely courtyard in which there was another small house (spitaki) and over the years a variety of interesting people lived there including artists and writers.  Most of my years at #14 though it was Roberto, an artist from Argentina, who became my best friend. The owners lived upstairs, Dina and Ioannis and yiayia - lovely people, so friendly and accommodating. And in another small house behind Robert's spitaki, in a back courtyard, was a workshop of one of the curator's of the acropolis museum (the old museum) where he was often restoring old statues.

Down the street at the place where Bryon used to live, there was a milk shop. The excavation on the old monastery site had caused a lot of dust so we called it "The Dirty Corner".  Right there at the corner was the old monument of Lysikratis, a tripod monument award the chorus of a drama held long ago in the ancient theatre of Dionysus.  This are, it seems, was once the theatrical part of old Athens. That suited me fine!

I still love browsing around Plaka every time I'm in Athens. It's quite touristy with many souvenir shops, tavernas and tables crowded with visitors, but it's a fun part of town.  I used to pass #14 every day I was there and look through the gate. Sadly the owners are no longer there and the last time I went the gateway was totally boarded up.  The Dirty Corner is now a rather posh restaurant. And the dust is gone from the excavations. 

One of the things about Plaka is all the graffiti. This is a big thing in Athens - good or bad. I find it upsetting in some cases but in others it is attractive and artistic. Sometimes it's political slogans or people's names sprayed on the old walls, but often it is well-crafted artwork. What I don't like is when it's sprayed on neo-classical buildings.



There's lots to see around Plaka from the shops to the old ruins and Plaka Square is a great place to meet up and enjoy a cold frappe or a beer at one of the sidewalk tables, or to just sit inside the square on a bench under the trees to watch passers-by.

Plaka is the old Athens and that's what I like most about it -- philosophers and dramatists once walked those cobbled streets. And yes, people like Byron and Shelley too!  And once when I was sitting in Square who came strolling by escorted by her 'bodyguards', dressed all in white, her red-gold hair like a halo, but the beautiful Greek actress Melina Mercouri.  There's a museum for her now in one of the old houses.


From Plaka you can visit the Monastiraki bazaar and experience some of the Ottoman parts of the city alongside the Roman.  And towering above it all is the magnificent Acropolis crowned with the Parthenon.  If you want some quiet away from the bustle of it all walk along the pedestrian roadway beside the Herod Atticus Theatre and you'll come to the tree-covered Filopappou Hill and a bit farther than that, pathways through the trees will lead you to the Hill of Nymphs, my favorite picnic spot.

And whatever you do, don't miss the New Acropolis Museum which is one of the most wonderful museums I've ever visited. I had the thrill of watching it being built from the first excavations to the shining finished product. It's all part of my old 'hood!