Awful Athens
“They say beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. But some places are really awful.” - Isaac Caballero
I want to know where I am living and what it is really like. I don't want to just spend all my time in the tourist areas. Actually, while living in Corfu, I came to despise the tourist areas that catered for "The English" by cutting back on the amount of garlic in the food. Tzatziki without garlic is just yoghurt!
I met Isaac, the Spanish tour guide from PlanetWonk on a tour I found on Airbnb, and joined Eric, a Parisian on our walk through the dodgy areas of Athens. The places that the Greeks don't go to but where the food is authentic and reasonably priced.
We walked around a police raid on the wrong side of Omonia Square, just a block away from the gentrified area where hip, young Athenians were drinking €15 cocktails.
I walked the side street of the Bordello area, unable to bring myself to be up close and personal with the hotels that I don't believe accommodate willing prostitutes, with the lights on, a menu written on the wall and apparently a website where the ladies are rated. Which was all a little different to the walk down the actual street where the heroin users were injecting and using pipes and the block with the 15-minute hotel where the desperate addicts sell themselves for €3 - still not quite voluntary but not trafficked.
I walked through Victoria Square and learned that it isn't much different to Fordsburg where immigrants gather to network for accommodation and mostly exploitative employment opportunities. (I learned the immigrant story and found great places to eat when I did the Fordsburg tour with Ishvara of African Secrets Tours).
And now I feel settled. All places have a good side and a bad side, all countries are dealing with issues and a balanced perspective allows me to feel okay.
