In the Heat of the Day: Summer in Athens (Greece 2019-04)

Athens from Anafiotica, view northwest (Leica 50mm Summicron lens, polarizing filter)

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Summer in Athens qualifies as easy living, although there is no cotton as in DuBose Heyward's and George Gershwin's famous lyrics. Summer in Greece means tourists, open-air restaurants, the sea, coffeeshops, and sunshine. Athens can be blazing hot, and I recall July days when the mercury reached 42° C (108° F). Ouch. But August of 2019 was pretty benign, and with the low humidity, it was comfortable. To escape the heat, you can stop for a cool drink almost anywhere or duck into a shop with air conditioning. As usual, when I visit Athens, I take a quick stroll around the Acropolis and through the Pláka. Here are some black and white frames from my last trip; maybe you can appreciate the summer vibe.

Walking towards the Pláka from the Acropolis Museam, you pass narrow streets, looking like they came from an earlier era. The entry to the Acropolis itself is mobbed with tourist groups, especially hoards of Chinese visitors. Thirty years ago, it was Japanese tourists. In the 1950s, it was Americans. Where do Americans travel now? Do they just take soft and air conditioned river cruises?

Creative graffiti. See my previous article for a color view of this alley.

The Anafiotica District is the cluster of tiny island-like houses clustered beneath the limestone massif of the Acropolis. I posted color pictures of this area in article Greece 2019-02.

Temple of the Winds with Mount Lycabettus in the distance, 2019

Temple of the winds, 1951, Canon rangefinder camera, 50mm ƒ/1.9 Serenar lens

Descending to the north from the Anafiotica area, you pass through narrow streets with souvenir shops and archaeological sites.

Souvenir shops abound. I stepped into one and spoke with some college students from the USA, who spend the summer tending the shop with their grandmother, Mrs. Popi. They let me sit while I changed film in my camera.

Electric scooters have come to Athens (Moto G5 digital file)

Monasteraki is a busy and popular plaza a short distance north of the Acropolis. The entrance to the Athens Flea is marked with a modern sign. In the 1950s, the Flea Market really had old machines, metal, and household junk. Now much of the merchandise is commercial and brand new. My dad took pictures in the Market in 1951, and I wrote about the Flea Market in 2013. Warning, Monasteraki is crowded; beware of pickpockets.

Walk north on Athenas Street, and you see snack bars, coffee shops, hardware and electrical vendors, luggage, plumbing, ecclesiastical supplies, and just about anything else. It is safe for tourists, just watch out and beware of traffic. It is an acoustic and visual overload.

Nut and dry fruit stand, Central Market, Athens Street, Athens (Acros film, Leica M2 camera)

Fresh grilled sardines, Central Market, Athens (Moto G5 digital file)

The Central Market is always fun. Buy some spices, nuts, and Greek coffee. And have a meal in one of the tiny tavernas tucked into the side alleys. The prices are for regular people, not jacked up as at the tourist-oriented tavernas in the Plaka.

Bored in the Metro station

After lunch, some glasses of retsina, and a Greek coffee, it is time to walk to the metro at Omonoia Square (architecturally uninspiring) and head home or to your hotel. You will be tired and grubby, time for a shower and long rest.

I took the black and white photographs above on Fuji Acros 100 film with my Leica M2 camera with 35mm and 50mm Summicron lenses. The two sepia images are from a Moto G5 mobile phone. Click any picture to see it enlarged. Thank you for reading.

Recovering and Rebuilding: Athens in 1951-1953

Background

1951 - Greece was finally at peace and rebuilding after a terrible decade of invasion, occupation, and civil war.  The Civil War had ended in 1949, during which tens of thousands died from starvation and Communist death squads. And the brutal civil war had followed invasion and occupation by German and Italian troops during World War II.  By 1950, a constitutional monarchy was in place, with backing from the United States and NATO. Athens was the capital, the economic and political center of a recovering country. Rebuilding the economy and putting people to work was a critical element of the Truman Doctrine. As written in Wikipedia, "The Truman Doctrine was an international relations policy set forth by the U.S. President Harry Truman in a speech on March 12, 1947, which stated that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent them from falling into the Soviet sphere."

In many ways, the Cold War began in Greece. The United States played a heavy-handed role in running Greek affairs from the late-1940s through the 1960s. As a benefit, Greece experienced its first two decades of peace in the 20th century, as well as an unprecedented economic boom. But there were many critics. For anti-U.S. views of the post-war era in Greece, I recommend Papandreau (1970) and Roubatis (1987).

This short introduction to the political situation in the 1950s sets the stage for my family's residence in Athens. Many American companies set up offices to design and construct civil works and infrastructure development projects, mostly funded by U.S. foreign aide. My father was a hydraulic engineer and accepted a job to help conduct watershed and hydraulic studies as part of major water supply projects. He moved to Athens in February of 1951. Planners expected Athens to grow in the post-war era, although I doubt they anticipated that it would eventually be a metropolis of 3.09 million in 2011 (General Secretariat of National Statistical Service of Greece).

Athens in 1951

In the early 1950s, Athens was still a very "European" capital, with tree-shaded streets, parks, and elegant early-20th century houses. The following photographs document some of my father's wanderings in this historic city.

This is the view from Mt. Hymmetus, a mountain range east of the city. Athens was a compact urban area with fields and olive groves on the outskirts.  Today this scene would reveal total urban sprawl, concrete, and smog. And notice the clear blue sky. My father noted in his diary that he had never been to a major city with such clean air.

Athens in 1953, Kodachrome film

The contemporary Acropolis viewpoint (Kodak digital file)

This is the view northeast from the Acropolis. In 1953, Athens was a city of 2- and 3-floor stone buildings with sloped tile roofs and just a few taller modern buildings. Fortunately, Athens was not bombed in World War II (although the Port of Piraeus was). Many elegant mansions and townhouses from the late-1800s were still standing. But most were torn down in the pell-mell burst of post-war uncontrolled urban growth. Only in recent years have Athenians realized how much of their architectural heritage they destroyed. Now much of Athens is a boring concrete mess with massive traffic jams.

Temple of Zeus with Mt. Hymmetus in the distance

Temple of Zeus

The Temple of Zeus and Hadrian's Gate have always been popular tourist sites.

In the early 1950s, you could walk right into the Parthenon and clamber among the rocks. Now tourists are restricted to wood boardwalks.

Syndagma Square and the Grande Bretagne Hotel

Changing of the guard, Syndagma Square.

Syndagma Square, in front of the Parliament Building, was the tourist and political center of Athens. Parades were held here and families brought their children on Sundays to walk around. The hotel in the background is the Hotel Grand Bretagne (Ξενοδοχείο Μεγάλη Βρεταννία), in business since 1874. On Christmas Day, 1944, while Winston Churchill was a guest (the German Army had been driven out only three months previously), British army engineers discovered a huge dynamite bomb in the sewers below the hotel (Churchill, 1953). British sappers successfully defused the bomb, sparing the hotel and its illustrious guest.

Note the yellow tram. I remember when the tracks were taken out in the late-1950s, one of those misguided "modernization" steps to substitute smelly diesel buses instead. I wonder if General Motors had a hand in this as in U.S. cities?

The older parks and city squares were beautifully planted with palms and gardens. Many now are paved.

Omonia Square, Athens, 1953

Omonia Square was the heart of the commercial city, close to markets and factories. The Metro to Piraeus and Kiffisias ran underneath. Notice the blue sky....

Paltea Kotzia, in front of the National Bank of Greece Building

From Omonia, you could walk south on Athinas Street towards the Monastiraki District and the Acropolis.

Central Market, Athens

Central Market, Athens

Walk south from Omonia, and you soon reached the famous Central Market. It has not changed all that much to this day. We have explored the Central Market before (click the link).

Athens Flea Market, 1953

Athens Flea Market, 1953

Further south, one would have entered Monasteraki Square, in the Plaka district. On a narrow street to the right was the flea market. It is still there, although rather modernized. We have explored the flea market before:

1951 (black and white film)
2013

Somewhere in the Plaka, Athens (Kodak digital file)

The Plaka area also has not changed too much, but it has been gentrified over the decades. For a more recent view, click the 2013 link.

References

Churchill, W.S., 1953. The Second World War, Volume VI, Triumph and Tragedy.  Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, NY., 717 p.

Papandreou, Andreas, 1970. Democracy at Gunpoint: The Greek Front.  Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 365 p.

(Note, this is the same Andreas Papandreou who was Prime Minister of Greece in the 1980s. He had a troubled relationship with the United States when it suited his political needs, even though he served in the U.S. Navy, had U.S. citizenship, married an American wife, and taught economics at Berkeley.)

Roubatis, Yiannis, 1987. Tangled Webs, the U.S. in Greece, 1947-1967. Pella Publishing Company, New York, NY, 228 p.

Camera notes

My dad took the 1953 photographs with a Leica IIIC rangefinder camera with 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens (I still use this lens regularly). The Kodachrome film was processed in the United States or France with difficulty because of the undependable postal service in the early 1950s. I scanned the Kodachrome slides on a Plustek 7600i film scanner using Silverfast Ai software.

Revisit to the Pláka of Athens, Greece

When visiting Athens, one of your first destinations should be the Acropolis and the Pláka District. Compared to the noisy and congested modern city, in the Pláka, you have a sense of village life before the cars and mobile phones and pollution.  To refresh your geography, the Acropolis is the limestone hill on which temples and sacred precincts have existed for 3000 years.  Classical Athens was situated around the Acropolis, and the Pláka is the last remnant of the 1800s village that clung to the slopes before 20th century urban sprawl.

First, here is a 1951 photograph of the Acropolis taken on Kodak Plus-X black and white film. The big temple is the Parthenon.

View from the University of Athens History Museum (site of the original 1800s university).

Walk in the Pláka, look up, and the Acropolis looms above you.  History is everywhere. The two photographs above were taken from The University of Athens History Museum. The building is one of the few remaining from before the King Otto era. From 1837 to 1841, it served as the first university of the independent Greek State.  The museum is free, and the building is air conditioned if you need a cool break.

The narrow lanes wind up and down, and are really pleasant.

View north with Mount Lycabettus in the distance

Sadly, look in the distance, and the frenetic, uncontrolled post-World War II urban construction is all too evident.  Thousands of elegant homes, mansions and early 20th century Art Nouveau buildings were demolished and replaced with rapidly-constructed concrete boxes.

Still, take your time, look around, and stop for a relaxing drink or meal under an umbrella.

Temple of the Winds, 1951

Here is the Temple of the Winds, another 1951 scene.  This view does not look very different today.

I have written about the flea market in the Monastiraki District before.It is a bit dull compared to the 1950s (see the link) but still worth a visit.

It is definitely worth a visit to see lovelies like these two.

Emerge from the flea market, and you are in Monasteraki Square, now a popular meeting spot with easy access to the Metro. Beware of pick-pockets.

Turn around and look south, and there is the Acropolis dominating the skyline.  The building in the foreground is a former mosque, one of the few remaining from the Ottoman era.

Editorial note:  The US media is full of ominous stories about the terrible state of the Greek economy, strikes, civil disobedience, and general gloom and decay.  The stories may be true to some extent, but as a tourist, you are mostly sheltered. The Greek people are as friendly as ever, the restaurants a bit less expensive than five years ago, the food as good as ever, the wine better, the scenery as magical as ever, and the ladies weigh less than 300 lb. Moral: don't believe the scare stories in the media.

Update, October 2016:  Conditions have deteriorated badly in Athens. In 2015, it looked almost "normal." One year later, the city looks distinctly grungy, as if buildings have not been pressure-washed or painted in years. In rural Greece, trash is everywhere. Street repair is of a much lower standard than before. Graffiti has been sprayed on almost all flat surfaces as well as on busses and trams. The area between Omonia and Monasteraki has a distinctly Middle-East flavor and crime there has increased. I am changing my previous opinion and now recommend tourists not travel to Greece until it can sort out its financial and security issues. It's really sad.

2013 digital images were from July 2013 with a Nexus 4 phone, reprocessed with ACDsee Pro software. The 1951 photographs were from a Canon rangefinder camera (possibly a model IIB) with 50mm ƒ/1.9 Serenar lens.