In-the-know visitors make time for the spicy neighbourhoods where modern-day Athenians thrive.
I used to think of Athens as a big ugly city with obligatory ancient sights, fine museums, the Plaka , and not much else. “The joy of Greece is outside of Athens,” I wrote. “See Athens’ museums and scram.”
He took me to Exarchia, a student district just a short walk from Omonia Square, on the north end of the city’s centre. This area has long been the locus of Athens’ nonconformist past and fertile ground for keeping its feisty free-spiritedness alive. Slathered in colourful graffiti, it’s defiant, artsy, and full of life.
Just beyond Psyrri, Athens’ Central Market isn’t cute or idyllic, like a small-town French halles, and it’s not nearly as touristy as, say, Barcelona’s La Boqueria market. The Central Market — an 1886 glass and iron arcade and the surrounding lanes — is refreshingly real: a thriving marketplace where workaday Athenians stock up on ingredients. A walk through the market is a treat for all the senses — sights, smells, and sounds.
The meat and fish hall, the gut of the market, is a vivid parade of proteins. Vegetarians might want to skip this section. Tables are piled high with beef, pork, chicken, lamb, and goat and livestock is proudly pictured on some signs above the stalls. Little delivery scooters nudge their way past pedestrians.
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