A Closer Look at Athens

Anonymous Last night, many of us in this program went to an Irish pub for karaoke night. After talking with some of the Athenians there, there seemed to be a local consensus that while Athens is a great city and parts of it are uniquely beautiful, it is not what they would call a pretty city. As I begin to look more closely at Athens, I disagree. I find the city to be actually quite beautiful. Apart form the ever present Olympic stadium and the Acropolis, Athens is littered with old libraries, churches and numerous other ruins. Then there is the Ancient Agora, the birthplace of Democracy. But apart from the ascetic beauty of the city and its ruins and monuments, I find the grime and wear of the city to also be attractive. This city feels lived in. As you pass the old Byzantine churches sunken into the expanding city, you can see by this vertical growth that Athens is built on all that has come before it. This city has seen some stuff, and it shows. But everything that has happened here, good and bad, has not only shaped the identity and history of the city and the Greek state, but also the world. Because of this, I find the evidence of life, and continued life that is here to be very attractive.