The Gritty City

Jeremiah and I went on one of my exploratory walks.  We are taking the students to markets on Saturday, first the Greek Agora and then the modern Central Meat Market.  They've already seen Syntagma, the governing center of modern Athens, and now they will see the commercial center.  It is one of my favorite Athens excursions.  So Jeremiah and I decided to scope out a route and a restaurant in advance, since our final class meeting will be the lunch at the end.

We found lots of pedestrian streets that I hadn't found before, and many streets or parts of streets were dedicated to one kind of product.  There was a section of Aeolu that was just clothes, another that was for cloth (people still know how to sew and there are a lot of tailors around, two in my neighborhood!).  One part of Athinas was tools, and the top end was spices and foods.  Much of Evripidou was spices and meats and cheeses, with a far eastern section at one end with a lot of Asian stores.  There was one section with a lot of musical instruments and metal items.

I'm not moving the camera...the snails are moving the price tag.  

All sorts of dried vegetables, spices, and beans and lentils

Sheep heads, 4 for 3 euros.  The students thought they looked like velociraptors.

Many things are sold in bulk.  The dispenser on the left is tahini.

This was an amazing deli.  So many sausages, cheeses, and meats. Euripidou 45.

A string and warp store.  Yup, that is it, just string and wraps (like plastic wrap, aluminum foil...)

I love the mix of cultures:  Asian/Greek.  Xin Long Clean Goods, wholesale - retail.

Beautiful but crumbling neoclassical buildings mixed into this neighborhood.

This was a unmarked restaurant in a basement of a dilapidated building. Next year we are going!

Dried mountain herbs.

This creeped out Jeremiah.  All the mannequins had the same face and hair, and most were looking at us.

These are from our neighborhood.  Graffiti is everywhere.  One student did a great report on it, and put it into four groups:  individual tagging, sports teams, political protest, and art.

Art graffiti

Poetry graffiti!

Our neighborhood has a lot of political protest, and is quite interesting. Our students are always shocked by the amount of graffiti because it has a strongly negative connotation at home:  gangs, violence, unsafe neighborhoods.  Here it is not just everywhere, but some of it is downright heartwarming.  Phil noted that most in our neighborhood is anti-Fascist and anti-Nazi, but these, which are around the corner from our apartment, are poetic and inspiring.

In the world of the Effendi (foreign/powerful bossman),  we are all foreigners

The call to national unity is the unity of the Effendi.

We work together, locals and  immigrants.  We destroy the Nazis