Ladies of Athens

Everyone knows that Greece produces beautiful ladies. Is it true? Well, let's see some proof. Here are my examples (I know, I know, it's a cliche, but I could not resist).

Athens Flea Market

This is the modern flea market, not the interesting and organic one that my dad explored in the 1950s. I think much of the merchandise in the modern market is from China, made for the tourist trade. But a few vendors sell military uniforms, and at least two vendors sell LP records and CDs. I bought some Maria Callas CDs in 2023 to take on my cross-country drive.

Let's look at the lovelies of the market.

The nautical look, ready for a shipowner to come along with his yacht (or oil tanker)

The scooter look, when a shipowner is not available.

The Little Red Riding Hood look?

The mysterious look

The Soviet nostalgia look. I saw this odd phenomena in Cartagena, Columbia, as well.

A wolverine ruff for those brutal Arctic winter days in Athens

Oops, wrong outfit. Just a fur ruff atop a sheer blouse and tights. 

Here's looking at you, kid. I may try yellow frames the next time I renew my glasses.

Nea Ionia

Nea Ionia is a suburb about 7 km north of the Athens city center. It is a vibrant commercial area originally settled by refugees from the defeat in Anatolia in 1923. Today, it features great restaurants and a large Pakistani community. 

That is a tough and sassy lady. But her guy does not look too tough to me.

Well, this guy does not look much tougher, either. She is putting him in his place.

Halandri

Halandri (sometimes written as Chalandri) is a hip and trendy suburb about 12 km north of the downtown. Some of the streets in the central area have been converted into pedestrian walkways. I have eaten in some excellent restaurants in Halandri. My elementary school is still has its Halandri campus, but the former surrounding farm fields are now an urban sprawl. But Halandri has its beauties, too.

Blond in the wind

Brunette in the wind. 

Hat as large as a sail or parachute

Is this Julie Christie in Dr. Zhivago?

Forgot to trim my bangs

Pireaus

Piraeus is the port of Athens. It is a bustling marine and commercial/industrial city. Although still a separate city, today the urban sprawl covers all the land between Athens and Piraeus. It is always interesting to explore. The original 1970s Metro line will take you there, as will the newer tram. I have written about Piraeus before. 

It must be warm in the showcase

Ready to party

I captured many of these lovelies with my Olympus E-330 digital camera. It was "only" 7.5 megapixels, but for web display or printing 11×14 inch paper prints, that is more than adequate data. These digital files were easy to manipulate. The E-330 is gone, but I should revise my Fuji X-E1 camera soon.

On the Waterfront - Piraeus, Greece

Piraeus (in Greek: Πειραιάς Pireás) is the port of Athens. Piraeus is a separate municipality from Athens, but the two are now merged in one sprawling urban area. But it still has a different feel, that of a seaport, as opposed to a cosmopolitan capital with a sophisticated veneer. If you have ever taken a ferryboat to Crete or some of the islands south of the mainland, you probably embarked from Piraeus. During my last trip to Greece, I only had time for a short visit, and here are some observations.

If you come in from downtown Athens, you probably take the SPAP train, which is now part of the Metro. The tracks were laid in 1882 as part of the Piraeus, Athens and Peloponnese Railways or SPAP (Greek: Σιδηρόδρομοι Πειραιώς-Αθηνών-Πελοποννήσου or Σ.Π.Α.Π.). This was the first electric metro in Europe, quite progressive for a poor country that had only enjoyed independence for half a century.

The station has been restored and retains its late-1800s architecture. But today, you use a coin-operated machine to buy your ticket rather than these queues.

Walk across the street (without getting squashed), and there is the port. In the morning, this inner basin is lined with ferries and it is quite the scene of lorries, jostling people, and lost tourists.

The Library of Congress has some historical Piraeus photographs in their holdings. This is a view of Piraeus taken between 1850 and 1880, from an albumen print.

This is a view of Piraeus from the sea, approx. 1900-1920, scanned from a 4×5" nitrate negative.

This is a 1907 scene of "Modern shipping in the ancient Athenian harbor at Piraeus, Greece," half of a stereo card from the American Stereoscopic Company.

Stevedores were loading supplied on an American Red Cross ship, from an undated 5×7" glass negative. These supplies might be heading to the war zone in World War I.

This a 1922 print showing, "A section of "barber's row" Enterprising refugees among the hundreds of thousands of Greeks and Armenians who fled from Asia Minor to Greece have set up stools, boxes, chairs and everything that can be sat on in a long row on the quay in Piraeus, the seaport of Athens, and shave and cut the hair of customers." TIFF files of these and other fascinating photographs can be downloaded from the Library of Congress web page.

In 2015, I did not see any outdoor barbers, but there is a fish and produce market. It was rather quiet on this September weekday, actually rather dull. Much more interesting is the big Central Market on Athenas Street in downtown Athens (click the link for details). 

I can never resist photographing the sophisticated local ladies. These lovelies were on Sotiros Diros, a pedestrian street lined with cafes, fashion goods, and telephone shops. The ambiance was clean and reasonably prosperous, certainly not reflecting the stories of economic decay that we hear in the US media. Piraeus is worth a visit, even if you are not planning to board a ferry.

I met an American, a former New York hair dresser, who retired to Piraeus. He said you can live relatively comfortably on US Social Security in Greece. Interesting idea....

All 2015 photographs taken with a Panasonic Lumix G3 digital camera, with RAW files processed with PhotoNinja software. The ladies are out-of-camera jpeg files. The map is from ESRI ArcMap software.

Village in the city: Pláka, Athens, Greece

The Acropolis hill has been occupied since Neolithic times. For millennia, people lived around the base of the hill because it was blessed with natural springs. But when visiting Athens today, other than the Acropolis and various other classical remains such as the Agora, most of what we see is a modern city. The first post-Turkish-era king of the modern state, King Otto, brought in his Bavarian architects to design an elegant European capital city with a palace (now the Parliament), parks, and broad boulevards. Greece and Athens suffered terribly during World War II and in the brutal Civil War that followed. But much of what we see today was the result of frantic uncontrolled urban expansion that followed the end of the Civil War in 1949. Beautiful old mansions and municipal buildings were torn down and replaced with concrete boxes. Now they look like mass-produced, tired 1960s concrete boxes.

First some geography. The Acropolis is the limestone hill in the middle of the view. This is a photograph taken from Lycabettus Hill facing west at sunset. The port city of Piraeus is in the upper right, and ferry boats and container ships are in the roadstead off the port. The big temple on the Acropolis is the Parthenon.  Look at the base of the limestone bluff below the Parthenon, and you can see a cluster of small houses. This is known as the Pláka district (Greek: Πλάκα). The uppermost houses are the Ano Plaka or upper Plaka. This area has been inhabited for centuries, and this is all that remains of medieval Athens.

Now let's reverse positions.  This is the view east from the base of the Acropolis towards the Lycabettus hill. The post-World War II city fills the entire valley now.

This is the view from the Acropolis in 1900. The royal palace (now parliament building) is in the distance, and the city spreads out in the foreground. I scanned this from the left side of a stereo card. The only printed information stated, "Webster & Albee, Rochester, NY."

Walking in the warren of lanes in Ano Pláka, you almost think you are in a village (if you ignore the din of the traffic in the distance).  On a sunny day, the area has an island look.

Most of the houses have been restored since the 1960s, when this was a hippy haven and pretty grungy.

Cats love it up here, especially on a warm sunny day.

There is a lot more graffiti now, worse then I ever remember it. This is one consequence of the Greek economic crisis.

There is also widespread disgust with the priesthood, but, to its credit, the church runs many soup kitchens and helps the hungry and poor.  (The priest above is carrying a bag of Euros).

There are still some dilapidated lots in Pláka, just waiting for a rich American to bring funds and start restoring. Ever hear the term, "money pit?"

As you descend into the Kato (lower) Pláka, you enter the popular tourist area, rife with restaurants and souvenir shops.

This is the Temple of the Winds, in which a water clock once measured the time. The Acropolis is in the distance.

Finally, the Athens flea market is worth a visit. In the 1950s, I remember this being filled with vendors of car parts, mufflers, old clothes, toys, used tools, and junk in general. It has been gentrified, and many of the stores sell pseudo-designer clothes, souvenirs, and miscellaneous modern junk. I did find a music store with a good collection of Maria Callas CDs.  We will explore the flea market in more detail later.

The equally colorful Central Market is only a 10-minute walk away towards Omonia Square.

Best wishes for a prosperous 2013 to all readers!