Konsultan SEO Surabaya

I always look forward to returning to Athens,Greece to see my friends and all those old familiar places that I have grown to love as my own 'adopted' city/country.  I made my first trip to Greece in 1979, arriving by bus to Thessaloniki (from London) and then by train to Athens. I fell in love with Greece immediately. It was almost as if I had lived there before and on that first trip, plus other trips since,



I have had so many deja vu experiences it really does make me think I lived there in another lifetime. In fact, my Celtic novel DRAGONS IN THE SKY is a first person narrative of a Celtic girl who gets kidnapped and ends up in Greek Macedonia. In researching it I have discovered so many connections between the Celts and the Greeks.  The whole idea of the novel (which I started writing in the '70's before I had actually visited Greece) was because my first historical novel, written when I was 17 in high school, had an Alexander the Great theme. I became fascinated with him when I was 16 and often people asked if I had lived in Greece before because I was able to write such vivid descriptions of the country and the characters.

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!

Just west, beyond  Monastiraki and Thissio along Ermou Street, is the ancient city wall of Athens and the great Dipylon Gate, once the busiest part of the city.  The road from Pireaus and Eleusis lead here. Next to it is the Sacred Gate, a ceremonial entrance or "Sacred Way" used for the Panathenai and Eleusinian processionals. Between the two gates are the foundations of a building known as the Pompeion where preparations for the processionals were made.



Along the area near the Kermeikos is where the potters of ancient Athens had their shops and plied their trade (ceramics= keramikos) .  The area, called Kermeikos, just outside the gates, is where the Street of Tombs was located.  Here wealthy and important families buried their dead marking the way with elaborate statuary.  Many of these still survive making it an interesting place to walk about.



The site, along these important roads that led into the city, was a prestigious one. Among the grave markers are the flat, vertical stele of the Classical period and sarcophagi from later Hellenistic and Roman times. Some of the monuments are memorials to soldiers killed in wars such as the large tomb with a semicircular base as you enter the pathway, a Memorial to Dexileos, a 20-year old who was killed in battle in Corinth in 394 BC.  Adjacent to it is the Monument of Dionysios of Kollytos, a pillar stele supporting a bull carved from Pentelic marble.



I love wandering around the Kerameikos, exploring the many grave monuments and imagining life as it must have been, the bustle of people coming and going on those roads.  One of the roads leads to Plato's Academy. Imagine the philosopher and his followers walking there on their way to the Agora.















The site is open daily April - Sept 8 am - 7.30 pm, Oct - March 8.30 am - 3 pm. The museum opens at 11 am. Admission  2 Euro or it is included in a joint Acropolis ticket.

Just behind the National Gardens in Athens city center, a short walk down Rigilis Street from Vassilisis Sofias Avenue, a newly excavated green space offers visitors a chance to stroll in the footsteps of the Peripatetics, the "walking philosophers" of Aristotle's Lyceum.
I first came across this two years ago when I was visiting Athens, but that day the gates were closed and it wasn't until this past September that I was able to go inside and spend a pleasant hour wandering the pathways where once Aristotle lectured.


The pathway circles this green retreat. In the center area are the excavated gymnasium and other former structure that made up the philosopher's school. A meeting place in a grove of trees, it was named "the Lyceum" after its patron Apollo Lyceus ("Apollo in the form of a wolf") It was actually in existence before Aristotle founded the Peripatetic school there in 334/335 BCA and it continued long after Aristotle fled from Athens in 323 BC . It was eventually  sacked by the Roman general Sulla in 86 BCE.

The remains of the Lyceum were discovered back in 1996.  I was aware of the location somewhere 'behind the National Gardens' and often had wondered if they were actually within the gardens.  So now that mystery is solved.  And today you can find it easily (behind the Byzantine museum) and spend a pleasant quiet time meditating or strolling.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite4_1_03/06/2014_540206

I've visited all the places where Athens' famous philosophers frequented.  In the Agora you can find areas where Socrates was known to hang out and not far away from the Agora is the cave that is said to be "Socrates Prison".  You can also take a bus to Plato's Academy, another interesting quiet place where you can wander and contemplate life.

You can read about my walks with the philosophers here in an article that was published in EuropeUpClose
http://europeupclose.com/article/walking-in-the-footsteps-of-the-philosophers-in-athens/

And next time you're in Athens make sure you take time to visit them.