Athens: With Maturity Comes Some Grit…

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As one of the world’s oldest cities, Athens is beautiful, dirty and vibrantly alive. The streets team with peo­ple: Tourists, locals and immigrants alike. In this city known as the birthplace of democracy and the cradle of Western civilization, ancient marble structures converse with the sleekly modern, as well as the cheap and tawdry. Families beg on the doorsteps of four-star hotels, and stray dogs roam in parts of the Parthenon closed to the general public. Continuously inhabited for at least 7,000 years, Athens has character, and the grit to prove it.
The grit is the first thing I no­tice as we trudge up the cement steps leading out of the metro to Omonoia Square. Buildings are grey and grimy and adorned with occasional graffiti. A small boy crouches on a stoop with an extended hand. While I’m debat­ing whether or not money given the child will actually go towards feeding him, I wonder, where’s Athena, Athens’ patroness and protector when her people need her?

My husband, Jesus, taps me on the shoulder and raises his eye­brows. I’m staring too hard, be­sides the light has changed and it’s our turn to cross. Omonoia square is not square at all, but is actually a large circle with side streets radiating out. Our hotel lies at the end of one of those streets. Finding it is the trick.
After a few tries we make a go of it and get to the hotel in one piece with all our gear. While our room has views of the Acrop­olis only partially obstructed by modern construction, I’m eager to get out and get a better view and perhaps something to eat while we’re at it.
We set out to pay our respects to Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. Her temple, the Parthe­non, is perched upon the high hill of the Acropolis, where it’s held court over Greece’s capital city since 438 BC, surviving reincar­nations as a Christian church, a mosque, and a fortress. Despite the scaffolding and construction materials surrounding the tem­ple, it still impresses, although I must confess I prefer the nearby Erectheum with its “Porch of the Maidens.”
Graceful figures, swathed in marble robes balance the weight of the temple on their heads. Mere copies of the originals, they pose without complaint for endless cameras with no mem­ory of the temple’s original pur­pose. For my part, I can’t help but shudder when I imagine the sacred snake once housed in the temple’s foundations, thought es­sential for the safety of the city, fed honey-cakes by the priest­esses.
Even in the fleeting sunlight, Athens is a curious mixture of the modern and ancient. My stomach grumbles at the men­tal mention of honey-cakes, and briefly distracts me from breath­taking views of modern Athens, speckled with the Athens that was. Open theatres carved into the hillside, sculptures and cem­eteries speak of a golden age, long past.
Glimpses of that Athens are everywhere I turn on the walk back. Across a busy street in a small park, stand the Columns of Olympian Zeus, only 15 of the original 104. Seventeen me­ters tall, they tower over tiny humans, palm trees, and fields of clover. A 16th column reclines in the grass, knocked over during a storm in 1852. Along the way, a statue of Dionysus, god of wine and revelry, winks at me as cars zoom by, stereos blasting the latest top 40 hits. He obviously knows and appreciates my affec­tion for food and drink.
We wander away from the more touristy areas and settle on a small but busy restaurant where we order a small metal jug of retsina, a typical Greek wine with a strong resin flavor, with Tirokafteri, a spicy cheese dip to start. Feta-cheese and ol­ive oil based, it comes heaped on a plate and flecked with hot pep­per. Mopped up with thick slic­es of crusty bread and washed down with retsina, I would call it dinner, but we already ordered main courses. Before we can even polish off our cheese, Jesus is presented with a fragrant hunk of lamb on a mountain of very yellow potato wedges. While I’m explaining to Jesus that the potatoes are so yellow because of the olive oil, spices and lemon used to season them, the waiter reappears with my slab of Mou­saka, topped with a thick layer of béchamel sauce. It’s far too much food, but I’ll manage some­how….maybe Dionysus will step in and lend me some appetite.
If you can’t get to Greece or one of the Greek restaurants in the area to eat and are having spicy cheese cravings, make your own spicy cheese dip. Mix 1 cup crumbled feta cheese with 1/2 cup ricotta; 1 small hot pep­per, chopped; three tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice; a pinch of salt; and a sprinkle of red pep­per flakes and oregano to taste. Et voila, you have an easy, au­thentic Greek recipe that’s great with bread, crackers and grilled or raw veggies.

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