Tourist information - Athens
Athens isn't a graceful city. It looks ungainly from nearly every approach, its air pollution is dire, its postwar architecture is a disaster, and traffic still clogs the streets in spite of the recent growth of the metro. For many of the four million-plus visitors who go through yearly, Athens can seem a dutiful stop. Their priorities usually include travels to the Acropolis and the National Archeological Museum plus an evening or two dining in the tavernas of Pláka, one of the few surviving old quarters. Most tourists then get out fast, disillusioned with such sparse evidence of the past and so little apparent charm.
Such include the basic facts - yet somehow the city possesses the character to transcend them. An exhausting but constantly stimulating mix of metropolis and backwater, First and Third World, West and East, Greater Athens has seen its population soar from 700,000 to well over four million - more than a third of the nation's people - since World War II. The pace of this transformation is reflected in the city's chaotic mix of urban and rural: chickens roost in yards with state-of-the-art cars parked nearby, while eastern-style bazaars vie for space with outlets for Armani and Benetton. And the city's hectic modernity is tempered having an air of intimacy and hominess; as any Greek can tell you, Athens is actually the largest village in the country.
Once you accept this, you will find that the ancient sites as well as the Acropolis - supreme monument though it is - are merely the well-known of Athens' attractions. You will discover startling views to be had from the hills of Lykavitos and Filopappou; and, all over the foot of the Acropolis, the Plaka has scattered monuments of the Byzantine and medieval town that seemed so exotic to Byron and the Romantics. As you may anticipate, the city also provides among the best dishes that can be found in Greece, along with a number of beautiful cafes, garden tavernas and street markets - as well as the most varied nightlife, including traditional music and films in the winter months, and open-air cinema, concerts along with classical drama in summer.
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