Athens

Riot shields, masked men and debt statistics have consistently scarred television sets throughout the United Kingdom during summer, 2011. Disturbingly normal news headlines have created a possibly biased yet still realistic, new imprint which proves contrary to that previously emitted and existent stereotype, which has become so familiar to the past and present tourists mind alike. So what is the city of Athens now, is it on the brink of self destruction, economic breakdown, will the Acropolis come forth and ironically serve the temples original purpose once again in the 21st century? Or will it come under attack from the modern day equivalent of the battle with the Ottomans, only this time the projectile being a Heineken bottle set on fire. It is rare and often challenging for the news channels to emit a correct report from all perspectives when referring to other countries affairs. For a MEDC country such as Greece to have its Olympic and special Olympic title holding city, whereby it's income saviour is its bread and buttered tourism and its framed homage to the classical period is presented to the world in such a manner whereby decaying alleys, derelict building, prostitute and needle ridden city centre streets ignorantly wash out any remaining positive views to the varied spectrum of viewers is surely the most devastating blow to the country and its people that Greece could endure. For a country in turmoil with 'the people' attempting to take back 'power' for their own, would they be so proud of their prized city after they reclaim it whilst presenting their victory as a dirty and dangerous graffiti ridden city to the prying eyes of international television viewers and newspaper scourers across the world? I hope they have decided what wall they are going to graffiti their 12 commandments on. So the above represents some of the opinions I formed during August, before I travelled to Athens. As the famous quote goes; Do not judge a book by its cover, so we shall move on to how I experienced the city first hand. After I made my way through the many damp backstreets in Athens own version of Elephant and Castle (so accurate that it also comes with the snail-pace regeneration), a district surprisingly large and shocking in regards to essentially being smack bang in the centre of the city. Imagine switching the square mile for an impoverished Manchester estate, throw in a handful of diseased brothels from High Wycombe, import some used heroin needles and some LA racial tension for good measure and you should start to have the perfect visualisation. I configured the grand scheme in my head. Each road was crammed inbetween two (ghastly clad) neglected six-storey apartment blocks. The ground floors act as commercial outlets and upper floors dutifully play their role as inner city slum dwelling where characters mostly lacking in self worth unceasingly inhabit every square foot of space. Streets zigzag across the city, with no purpose other than to avoid the steep mountainous areas yet are so erratic one cannot imagine there was a board of Architects or planners in the process, hence the mountains defined the layout of the city instead of the city planning itself around the mountains therefore the landscape is not utilised one iota. Dust covered marble clad balconies climb atop balconies blindly staggering into the polluted air of the street space parallel to the congested roads below, allowing inhabitants to peek into the other flats only a hands length east, these are often filled with unemployed couch sitters.

It is only upon taking several steps back you realise how the gravely this city is close to turmoil, when one so far fails to see just a single graffiti free wall or one street without some unkempt character moping on a street corners. The lack of favourable street planning does not stimulate the zeitgeist of Athens; the Architecture has presented no options or solutions other than begrudgingly lining the dirty streets unknowingly blocking all fresh air and sunlight out. It allows the inhabitants to seemingly transform into demented real life vampires who prey upon the innocent. As you have probably concluded already, Athens is not the safest set of streets; I do not recommend anyone other than a confident character, preferably in groups to walk them at night, certainly not alone. However in the midst of this depression, confusion, unrest and filth, resiliently, resides the real heart of Athens, the epicentre of the images conjured today is alive as much as it was over 2000 years ago, albeit bombed and polluted. Smiles spread across faces without precaution as the tourist finally turns the correct street corner and catches a first glimpse of Iktinos, Karpion's and Kallikrate's work, their visit to Athens suddenly makes sense, worries of an all too late aesthetically unpleasant holiday dissolve and the ancient classical Architecture which crowns Greece fulfils the trip unassisted by any irrelevant physical illumination, only the mythology of the past and the genius of the Architecture majestically elevate the experience. A substantial proportion of Athens income comes from the tourism industry, and often in countries where this equation is apparent, it is due to the spectacular Architecture of past-centuries, allowing the city to relax on the its past ideologies and stand idle on the topic of forming new, working methodologies regarding needing to create new and exciting 'possible' phantasms to entertain the tourism industry (often including locals) and make it seem like the location offers something different and bring the economy up to date. However, Athens appears not to, relying instead solely on the classical Architectural monuments, unfortunately this was not a calculated choice but instead an unwritten decision made by a group of ignoramuses.