An Athens that is not the Acropolis

It's kind of hard to imagine Athens without immediately thinking about the Acropolis. But there is another, different side to Athens - although whether or not it is an Athens that I entirely like, I am not entirely sure.

There are other bits of the old and ancient world that pepper Athens. Tumbled columns and time-weathered marble, old and collapsed structures, temples dedicated to the gods of the ancient Greeks.



[caption id="attachment_1594" align="alignnone" width="700"] The temple of Zeus.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1595" align="alignnone" width="700"] Of course, you can see the Acropolis from pretty much everywhere.[/caption]







But there is something about all this that is just sadly empty. Old though it may be and despite its thousands of years of seeing people having come and go, there is a tangible lack of people at places like these today.

Once a sacred site and the heart of dedication and worship, these columns today are not much more than stacks of marble and dust. Especially in the hot Athenian summer heat, where people try to avoid the open sun and head for anywhere with shade - there can't have been more than 15 people at the Temple of Zeus when we were there.



Just because they're not the Acropolis doesn't mean they're good for tourist photo poses though.



Something else I noticed is how indifferent the Athenians have become to tourists. Even resentful at times - like any big city that has become a major tourist hotspot, I seemed to sense that the locals wished for the absence of tourists. Yet so much of the city depends on tourism that Athens really wouldn't be Athens without its tourism industry.

People, it soon became evident, were very different here than they were from people in Thessaloniki where I had been just a couple of days previously. In Thessaloniki, people are wonderful - cheery inside and out, always friendly and willing to help out a bunch of lost tourists. They talk to you with a smile, and even if their English isn't absolutely the greatest you can always tell that they make an effort.

In Athens, it was off-putting the number of times we got waved away before we even finished our sentences.

Visually, Athens is of course much more beautiful. It is, after all, the capital of the country - but it is a city that has seen so much tourism you can't help but get the sense people wish you weren't there.



It really is a pity, because the city is beautiful and with so much history.







But I guess that's just how it is when tourism gets the better of a place.