Reflections: Athens the city

Athens is a city that straddles the east and the west. If Western European powers were expecting that a result of their interventions and demands over past generations would instil a sense of western culture, they will be disappointed. 

The myth of Ancient Greece is securely tucked away on the Acropolis and devoid of all but Greek antiquity. The missing period? 335BC to 1820, has been erased from the mountain. 

Athens has an overall sense of the chaotic that fits with its freedom living peoples. No better is the chaos experienced as on the streets; both driving and parking. Cars live in gridlock and a parking spot on a street once gained is rarely vacated. They are truly the public parking garage for most people.  It’s a walking city of obstacles and steep inclines. But the city is vibrant without airs and graces. Apartment living is dense and without flair or fancy. The building heights are human scale though the terrain often lifts them above that threshold. 

The Acropolis is viewed from many vantage points against the modern city; it’s an ever present reminder of the myth that draws people from around the world who marvel at the ruins of a bygone empire and Greek democracy. But that was a hard fought for reality for Greeks and the quest to be a democratic nation state. 

Greek history post 1821 -1827 (War of Independence) is one of the changing face of the Greek nation, from monarchy to anarchy, to parliamentary democracy to military dictatorship and back to Parliament and a national entity that was cohesive, stable and independent. 

But Greece is bolden to the EU and its largesse and often its demands on the Greek economy and society. The Greeks just keep on keeping on and enjoying living the moment.