Cold!

The day I took this photograph it was so cold - we actually cut our walk short as we were so cold.  And yet, this woman went in the sea.

Two others were already in. Brrhhh!

From Syntagma to Exarheia

This was literally the first thing we saw when we got off the bus at Syntagma square: a police van - a klouva (cage) as people call them here - the police armed and with their shields. We saw quite a few more in the next few hours, but I did not photograph them all.  A definitely increased police presence in Athens, and I don't know why - it's a right wing government, yes, but this does not fully explain it.

Waiting at the lights to cross

the Parliament building (the old palace) in the distance

a protest on the steps

against government corruption in Serbia.

The Parliament building.

The vigil we had come for was not happening, so we retraced our steps and made our way towards Exarheia.

We started walking down Karagiorgou Servias Street

It's a really interesting street, full of specialist shops - firstly jewellery and bead shops (I used to come here to get beads when I was making jewellery), then fabric shops - if you want to make clothes, or curtains or anything else that involves buying material, this is where you come. I wanted to take photographs, but the pavement is so narrow, it's impossible because there is a constant stream of passers by.

We then turned right into Aiolou Street - this used to be a specialist street too, selling predominantly household goods from hardware to kitchen accessories, china, etc. Now, all of that's gone, and it's full of cafes, bars and restaurants - it's also pedestrianised which is lovely

There is also a church here,

the church shop

and the chapel.

A bit more commercialised towards the end of Aiolou

The headquarters of the Bank of Greece on the edge of Kotzia Square

at the entrance to the building, antiquities found when they were building have been preserved for all to see

and loads more under glass pyramics on the street itself

Kotzia Square

and more antiquities on the other end of the square

This excavation, which is opposite the Athens City Hall, was conducted in 1985-88, during the construction of an underground parking area. This area is located directly outside the ancient city's fortification, part of which was also revealed and is currently preserved in front of the National Bank of Greece building which we had just passed. The excavastions revealed three ancient streets, a cemetery dating from the 9th century BC until the 3rd century AD, a complex of pottery workshops and houses.

Busking.

Stadiou Avenue

up a small side street

Wonderful Art Deco building - Rex cinema

We have arrived in Dikaiosinis (Justice) Square which is off Panepistimiou Street and stop in front of the statue of Alexandros Panagoulis.

Panagoulis was a Greek poet, resistance fighter and and political activist. He became involved in the resistance movement against the military junta that ruled Greece between 1967 and 1974. He was responsible for an assissination attempt against the dictator Papadopoulos on 13.8.1968, for which he was arrested and tortured. He once characteristically said in an interview: 'I did not seek to kill a person. I am incapable of killing a person. I sought to kill a tyrant'. After the dictatorship, he was elected Member of Parliament and inspired many artists, including Mikis Theodorakis, who set his poems to music. He died in 1976 in a car accident, which many suspected was caused deliberately to prevent him from bringing to justice a file with names of politicians who collaborated with the junta, something he had allegedly been planning to do in the days following the accident. These allegations have never been confirmed.

(You can listen to some of Theororakis' music here )

A bookshop, which means we have entered the Exarheia area. There are, of course, bookshops to be found everywhere in Athens, but in Exarheia, every other shop seems to be  a bookshop or a publishing house.

Exarheia is different to any other part of Athens. It has retained its old world Greek charm while also being host to a new generation of young, left wing, quite often anarchist population. Many Greeks still steer clear of the area, widely known for its politicised riots and molotov cocktail-throwing far left groups. I remember asking a friend to meet us at one of our favourite tavernas in the area and he came, but later I found out that he had been terrified of entering that neighbourhood. I laughed out loud. Yes, things have happened there, but it feels like one of the safest neighbourhoods in the city with a real sense of community.

Exarheia has long been a symbol of opposition to the establishment. It was here, that in 1973, the Athens Polytechnic uprising took place, when students demonstrating against the dictatorship were met with tanks that killed 24. Because of the uprising amongst other factors, the junta fell soon after.

More recently in 2008, violent riots exploded here, with residents setting police cars alight in anger at the police shooting of a 15-year old boy.

The area is full of bookshops and publishing houses as I mentioned earlier, trendy bars and cafes, traditional tavernas and a wonderful mix of people: ladies in twin-sets and pearls, gentlemen in old fashioned hats and pocket watches, young trendies, arty types - just a wonderful mix, all living together in harmony.

Neoclassical buildings with wrought iron balconies host a plague of graffiti. Tags mark each and every wall - the reminder of the area's anti-establishment ties always there.

and political posters everywhere

Police presence is a permanent fixture here

A small garden/park tended by volunteers

Love the railings on the balconies of this music store

so many bookshops - wonderful for browsing

We were walking on a relatively main road leading north as we wanted to go to the weekly outdoor market - but on either side of us are these smaller, pedestrianised streets: a feature of Exarheia

Attracted by cheap rents and plenty of studio space, a new generation of creatives is giving Exarchia a new buzz. 'There are empty shops and abandoned buildings' says artist David Robert Fenwick, who left London to open a studio here. 'Exarheia is in an important European city but it has the feel of a more far-flung guerilla republic'.

The district is full of trendy cafes that are always full

but this is a more traditional kafeneio - a place where predominantly men would go to drink Greek coffee and play with their koboloi (worry beads)

We arrived at the laiki, the open air market with the orange umbrellas - in this district it happens every Saturday

it's huge, much bigger than our local one and it's packed with wonderful produce

honey

plants and flowers

so much veg!

oranges are plentiful and people don't just eat them but also squeeze them for their juice - for most families this is a daily staple

and it was packed - sometimes it was difficult making way

a bit of humour

purple cauliflower - not seen very often. I had some once and thought it was the most delicious cauliflower I ever had: we must go back soon and get some. We still had lots of walking to do and as we bought lots of persimons and did not want to be overloaded

It's quite usual to see people selling leftist papers here - this is Worker's Solidarity

Hundreds of lettuce and herbs

pulses

olives

if you don't want a whole pumpkin, you can just buy a piece

People sitting on the steps - the graffiti reads 'I just love saying All Cops are Bastards'

and it goes on and on...

a nice coffee shop

looking in

hot freshly-made kebabs

We had reached the clothes and fabric section

Having finished with the market we were ready for lunch so we started heading towards one of our favourite tavernas

a queue and lots of people eating outside this bakery/cheese pie place

heading South

a nice old house

political posters everywhere

and bars and cafes

the summer/outdoor cinema

and its bar

bars and cafes everywhere

and we had arrived

Rozalia - this taverna seems to have been here for ever

It's in one of these pedestrianised side streets

We like to sit outside, weather permitting - lots of people go by and it's nice people- watching, particularly because of the diversity of those going by

This is the inside - it was packed, the empty tables were reserved.  We had a delicious lunch as always

There are 4 eating places in this street and they're all under the same management, and some share the same kitchen which is on yet another building. They are all very successful.

Another bookshop on the way to the bus - 'we read so that we can become what we dream of'

Another coffee shop, and eventually we got to the bus stop.