Diary Athens: Nov 05-25, 2013

Nov 25: Athens - Amsterdam - The Hague
One flight, one train and 2 subway rides today. 3 days in The Hague and then a flight to Phoenix.

Nov 24
Finished packing my suitcase, flying tomorrow for Amsterdam. Grey sky and rain. Snow storm in Flagstaff....

Nov 23
Nice weather today. Didn't go out today, got up around 6am, had a siesta at 1pm. Need that because I'm going to a birthday party which will run way past my normal bedtime...

Nov 21
Warmer again, but cloudy. Took the subway from Omonia to Akropoli. Walked around the backside of the Akropolis.

I don't know if it was because it was lunch time, but there were lots of people everywhere.

Walking, sitting at the taverna's around Monastiraki.

Nov 20
Ran in the rain this morning. Reading time today....

Nov 19
The weather is nice, so I took the subway to Piraeus.

 Around the harbor are very ugly shipping office buildings, but there are 2 very impressive Byzantine churches. Here is one of them.

After a couple of hours took the subway back to Monastiraki. Shopped in the Agora and went back to the hotel.

Nov 17
It is Sunday today, and, for the time in a couple of days, sunny.
I went back to the Polytechnion. I have mentioned that in 1973 I was in Athens when the Colonels regime was overthrown. I was working as drawing model at the Polytechnion.

Lots of police and military on Septemvriou and Oktovriou. Nothing bad happened though today.

Walked to Omonia and bought a week pass (14 euro) for the Subway. Walked around Plaka and Monastiraki,

Nov 16
Stll cloudy, but dry.  Went for a walk to Aeros park
Statue lane

Nov 15
Walked past the Polytechnion building, where tables were set up to remember the student uprising on Nov 14-17, 1973.

The communist party (still alive in Greece), capturing the imagination of young, middle class students.
On Nov 14, 1973 I was in Athens, was living on Anafiotika.

 Nov 14, 1973

Students at the Athens Polytechnic (Polytechneion) went on strike and started protesting against the military regime (Regime of the Colonels). As the authorities stood by, the students barricaded themselves in and constructed a radio station (using laboratory equipment) that repeatedly broadcast across Athens.

In the early hours of November 17, 1973, the transitional government sent a tank crashing through the gates of the Athens Polytechnic. Prior to the crackdown, the city lights had been shut down, and the area was only lit by the campus lights, powered by the university generators.

A Tank crashed the rail gate of the Athens Polytechnic at around 03:00 am. In unclear footage clandestinely filmed by a Dutch journalist, the tank is shown bringing down the main steel entrance to the campus to which people were clinging. Documentary evidence also survives, in recordings of the "Athens Polytechnic" radio transmissions from the occupied premises.

In these a young man's voice is heard desperately asking the soldiers (whom he calls 'brothers in arms') surrounding the building complex to disobey the military orders and not to fight 'brothers protesting'. The voice carries on to an emotional outbreak, reciting the lyrics of the Greek National Anthem, until the tank enters the yard, at which time transmission ceases.

Nov 14
Yesterday it started raining around 6 in the evening, rained all night. But this morning it was dry. Ran to and through Aeros Park, over Akademias to Syntagma.
The building on the corner is now a Greek National Bank office, but in 1993 it was the American Express office.

In 1973
A small coffe bar off Ermou Street.
 The coffee bar is where I spent time. One of the regulars was Liam, an Irish man. He had fantastic stories (about the IRA) and even in those days I did not believe most of it. Liam drank a lot.
1979
My first tourisme job was in in 1979 for Hotelplan Escolette, Club Kalypso in Greece.
1993
I was working as an animator for a club in Kos.
I was paid in drachmes. Hotel management had promised that at the end of the season I could exchange surplus drachmes back into dollars. (Drachmes were worthless outside Greece). At the end of the season that promise was not kept. I ended up in Athens, standing in front of the American Express office, asking anyone going in, if they wanted to dollars into drachmes, at a better rate than inside. It worked.

From there I walked to Monastiraki and after buying groceries at the Agora Market, I went home. Laundry day, again.

Nov 13

The sun is out. I think I am going to finish my book, sitting on the balcony.

Nov 12
Ran in the morning. The streets are drying up, after all the rain last night.
Back in the hotel, showered, and started to read a book on my e-reader: Robert B. Parker's "A Savage Place".

1972

I was living in the Plaka, on Anafiotika.
Most nights I went out to the same taverna. Sitting outside you could see the Akropolis. It would be lit up.

Most of my friends would show up.

One of them was studing to be a doctor, he would bring his guitar and most of the time he would play some classical spanish. In his twenties he was a gigolo.

My friends were a mix of greek, dutch, british and american.

 Later in the evening I would walk back home. Going uphil, slightly drunk and pass Greek and Roman columns and buidlings.

Sobering up before I got home, I felt in place, and at home. History repeating itself, endless.

One time I walked by a basement, music and singing came out of it.

I went down the stairs and in. Inside nothing but wine barrels along the ceiling and old men sitting at tables.  I stayed there for 3 hours. 

A lot of the "feeling" has gone. Athens is fast, like other big cities I know.

But tonight I went for a souvlaki on a square near the Polytechnion, on the way back to the hotel, on Stournari street, I heard music coming from a basement.  I went down the stairs and in.
Inside were 3 customers, 1 owner and 3 musicians.

I stayed for 2 hours drinking ouzo..

Nov 11
Clouds and wind today. Walked from the hotel to the Plaka.
On Venizelou the Academy of Athens

A view of the Akropolis from Plaka

View of Lykabettou from my old house in the Plaka (Anafiotika)

Back on Ermou Street, not just lots of cars in Athens, but also scooters and mopeds.

Christmas display at a 99 cent store

Nov 10
I found another route today for running.
Athens run2
From Vathi Square over Odos 28th Oktovriou and Amalias through Aeros Park. Back to Vathi Square over 28th Oktovriou, Ipirou and Archanon.

Both I can do in about 30-32 minutes.

Nov 09
I watched the sunrise from the balcony and also sunset. In between. I went to the Agora Market to get groceries. I am reading Tim Powers-Hide me among the graves and worked on some videos.
Oh, and perfect weather today.

When I lived in the Plaka in 1973 I went to the Herodus Atticus Theatre. I saw a classic Greek tragedy there with actors in masks.

On the pedestrian walkways there are stones with grooves lined up. This is to guide blind people who are walking with a cane.

Buying song birds and putting lots of plants and trees on balconies is a way for Athenians to feel like they are living on an island in a small village.

 Nov 08
Blue skies and no wind today, around 25 degrees....I went out for a run at 07.10am. Less people out, and faster than 2 days ago. Walked back home from Monastiraki.

I have only 1 electrical outlet in my room , so I bought an outlet multiplier. Back in the hotel, laundry day.

Nov 07
Partly cloudy, but dry today. Went for a walk, camera in my pocket. I want to make pictures of old apartment buildings from the 1920's.

Most are in bad condition.

Modern apartment buildings are like this

 and were built between 1955-1965, after the Greek population of Turkey was forced to leave in 1955. Mass produced and built fast.

In September 1955, in Istanbul, an organised mob was turned against the ethnic Greek community in an orchestrated riot, destroying 1,004 residences, 5,000  businesses, two cemeteries, 73 churches, 23 schools and 5 athletic centres. The number of ethnic Greeks who were forced to leave Turkey by 1960, as a result of these events, is estimated at around 9,000.

In March 1964, Turkey reneged on the 1930 Greek-Turkish Ankara Convention. Within two years, more than 12,000 ethnic Greeks residing in Turkey were expelled from the country and deprived of all access to their real estate, goods and cattle. This was subsequently followed by the exodus of 40,000 ethnic Greeks of Turkish citizenship (along with their relatives). However, it should be noted that Greek citizens residing in Istanbul had the right to stay in the city their entire lives pursuant to the 1923 Agreement on the exchange of populations, and were in no way affected by the bilateral Convention of 1930.

Went to see my fiend Hara today. She mentioned that there are 2 small apartments for rent in her building. Rent is about 250 euro per month. With utilities comes to about 350 euro's. That price opens up some possibilties....
The 2 cleaning ladies and one of the managers of the hotel are still the same as last january.

Nov 06: Athens
I woke up because of lightning and heavy rain, closed the balcony door. Internet access from my room is good. Should be able to skype.

At 09.am I ran from the hotel to Syntagma, Adrian's Arch and Monastiraki.I walked from Monastiraki to the hotel.I saw this building last year. Amazing, garden growing vertical.

On the way back I stopped at the Agora market.

Olives, bread, and cheese.
Close to the hotel is a small supermarket, where I bought yoghurt, honey laundry soap and a plastic tub. It is cloudy, but about 22 degrees celsius.

Nov 05: Amsterdam-Athens
Well, I'm back at Schiphol airport, flying to Athens in 2 hours.
3 weeks I'll be there. Same hotel as last january, the Aristoteles hotel.

This time it was night. At the airport there is a metro station. A special metro ticket into town is 8 euro.

 I got on the blue metro train at 20.33hr. Changed train at Syntagma square at 21.13hr, took the red train to Omonia Square. Walked from there in 10 minutes to the hotel. I'm on the 6th floor, facing the street.