The real Athens

Meters later the top of a hill combines the tasteless contemporary with a nature's gem in the background:

Contemporary shit	Lycabettus hill

Not all contemporary stuff is gross obviously. One of the exceptions is the following, a nice architectural example on how to combine old and new elements with taste:

Looks much better in real, way much better actually. Now see how it looks as soon as you cross the road to the other side:

Graffiti, semi vandalised signs, some guys feel obliged to make things look absurd.
Did I say graffiti again? Wait for it...

If nothing else Athens is the city of contradictions so right behind me on the above image is the following park where older people like to gather to chat and play games under the generous shade of those trees:

I get mixed feelings when I see elements of the past around the city. On one hand they put a smile on my face as they're most of the times way more cute than the contemporary average but on the other makes me sad to imagine how the city would be if there was a class of people with taste to defend her from the invasion of the greedy crude crowd who populated this historic capital just to make money as fast and easy as possible. Look at the curves of this typical old Athenian balcony:

Looks were better before the invasion of square. Also before the invasion of wannabe street "artists":

I think the following image has so much to talk about that I'd better say nothing. Take your time watching every detail and feel free to do the talking in the comments:

Not all old beauties are neglected, some are under renovations like the next one:

Ancient sites are anything but rarity around Athens. This next one is among the smallest, least attractive but so weird at the same time - look how the birds shape the edge of the house that used to be in its place:

Far from attractive but just in case you're interested you can read details about this 5th BC site here:

Some renovation attempts are left unfinished like the next one which is like this for so long that all the support metal frame is fully rusted by now:

On the contrary, only a few steps away is the cocomat hotel with its super cute wooden bicycles:

Athens can offer heaven and hell in the very same block as you just saw. Speaking of heaven here's the new museum of Acropolis (on the left) opposing the Acropolis research center (on the right) in this beautiful green court under a classic bright blue sky:

Only a few steps away one can see the wall of Acropolis and the beginning of this cobblestone pedestrian street which offers a pleasant walk connecting several antiquities on its way:

I'm already inside the historic center of Athens and I am more than happy to enjoy the narrow backstreets of Plaka in the absence of crowd as it's a bit of season and kinda early in the morning:

One more from those lovely old balconies:

The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, 334 BC:

I enjoy my walk around those vehicle free empty streets in the old city center:

Sweet house isn't it?

Ι used to visit this cafe hidden behind the trees often in the past:

Next block you find a view like this:

Two abandoned houses while Tom who lives in one of them has turned the spot to "Tom's corner" with his political humour and handmade stuff.

I super love little cute stores around Plaka like this one:

And also the humour of some store owners like this one:

Or this one:

In case you don't know, Athens is a biker's heaven. Not that the traffic is biker friendly but everything else is including the weather and the vast dedicated market. Hence the following images:

Curious how a random picture of the parliament from far looks like? There you go:

FYI this is not the first Greek parliament. It used to be the Palace till the mid 30s when it was first used as the parliament. The former parliament is not far and is this one built in 1858:

Curious what the parliament is looking at on the opposite side? This bare gross thing waiting to be dressed again:

A block later is the unlucky building of "Attikon", burnt during the riots of 2012, also waiting to be properly dressed as it well deserves:

We should never stop being impressed by the fact that there's people living on the street:

There are many "Stoa" around the center of Athens and I like most of them, like this one:

It's a small world inside those things that never see the light of day.

It's been a while since we last saw those nice old balconies right?

In the next ones you can see some of the most emblematic buildings of the center of Athens, built around the mid 19th century most of them from the Austrian architect Chiller with respect to the Ancient Greek heritage as you can see:

I really like the National Library with its curvy pair of stairways:

A few steps down the same street is where the Constitutional Court of Greece is:

Vandalised old beauty is not rare unfortunately:

So, speaking of Graffiti before I told you to wait for it right? Time to have a bunch of them:

I really like the one with the hands combined with the sky above. Let's give it one more look:

The next one is among the very first condominiums of Athens, built in the early 30s, the famous "Blue Condominium":

I also spoke about old houses brought down leaving an empty space behind them. How about this one?

Now how gross is this?

Eye pollution. Time to have a bite on something:

Of course you can't tell by a picture but in Athens you can effortlessly find great pies of all kinds.

One more old curvy architecture in the center:

Pictures of how the city used to look like almost a century ago:

A rare moment without traffic of this less curvy than its "brothers" but still nice old building:

I told you I love those old balconies didn't I?

Orthodox parenthesis in the concrete jungle:

How cute can a telecommunications box can be? This guy has the answer:

I love curvy stuff as you probably know by now:

I definitely don't the relics of the riots that took place in 2008. Yes, believe it or not, in the center of Athens this building is left like this since then:

Apart from the obvious gross looks, what impresses me is the totally unacceptable job that was done by the guys who put the marble on its walls back in the day. Look how much concrete is missing!

Intentionally this time, there's even older scars on buildings around there like these ones from the civil war:

They have repainted it of course but never filled those bullet holes.

The Roman arch of Adrian has no scars from bullets fortunately:

One more poor thing left alone at its slow death:

While others grow huge:

As I am almost back home I close with this cat that found shelter in this tiny pathetic balcony:

The look cats give you are priceless.

That's it folks, hope you managed to make it all the way, I didn't try to avoid parts of the city or emphasise on others, I just wanted to give you a raw idea of what you might see while randomly walking around. I had more photos to share but I think you already "got the picture" about the contrast this city has so didn't want to make this post an even longer one.

Hope you found it interesting, see you on the next one :)