Athena | Athens

The City of Athens, view from the Acropolis

As we drove on the well-maintained highway away from the airport towards Athens, the architectural density of the city struck me—it almost seemed as if every inch of land was occupied by an apartment complex. I found myself pondering the city’s population and its sprawling environs. A blog I’d perused before the trip had warned me about Athens’ reputation as one of Europe’s sweltering hotspots, a fact becoming evident amid the concrete jungle that seemed to trap the heat.

Approaching my hotel, however, a sense of unease crept in. The graffiti-laden, somewhat decrepit apartment blocks, with their endless rows and uniformly shaded balconies, left me disconcerted. Back in America, copious graffiti often signals a neighborhood on the decline—a place you’d rather not linger, think South Chicago or Orange Mound Hill in Memphis. The scene didn’t improve as we closed in on the hotel; if anything, it worsened. “2 min ETA!” … “1 min” … “Arrive.” At one point, I nervously asked my Uber driver if this neighborhood was safe, but his mumbled response in Greek (he didn’t speak English) didn’t reassure me.

A sigh of relief as I got to the hotel. Surprisingly, the interior was invitingly clean, a stark contrast to the graffiti-adorned exterior and the seemingly “dilapidated” apartments nearby. What an entrance into Athens.

Graffiti on buildings near and around my hotel and everywhere in Athens