23 POSITIVE things that non-Greeks taught me, about Athens
I recently had a heated (but SO interesting) online exchange of arguments with a lot of people (Greeks and non-Greeks), regarding the qualities, vices and virtues of Athens.
Being a born-and-raised Greek myself, but also having lived in the UK for 9 years and having traveled all over the world, I tend to miss things that non-Greeks seem to notice and appreciate about my home country, since they have a different perspective and lifestyle attitude.
Therefore, I have to admit that those non-Greeks DID teach me a lot of things about how one may view and appreciate one's home city. I am truly grateful for that learning experience.
Here is a (non-exhaustive) collection of some of those POSITIVE views about Athens, put forward by non-Greeks. Thank you guys...!
Athens is a very interesting city and it has a great nightlife and good culture
I fell in love with the ugliness, couldn't live anywhere else. Athens is poetic in every way
So much is going on every day
We can change it by being more conscious and attentive, by doing a little, each one of us
It has its charm and unique qualities
I love athens, many parts are quite beautiful, fun, great nightlife, relatively safe, more so than most big cities in europe, asia or the usa. It has flavour. Its also a great beach city with beautiful beaches half an hour away. It has it all
Lykabyttos is awesome, the mountains next to peiraias as well, there are the royal gardens
I love this noise and life and everything!
For me Athens is the most amazing city with its own magic.
Athens is the best destination to live in. It is an amazing magic place that I will never exchange
Wish there was something I could do to help ease the pain for those living there... even brighten up a small square anything to make a difference
I'm quite fond of Athens. Cities that are too uniform & 'clean' look & feel boring to me
When the sun paints a sea of apartments orange at twilight...there's a beauty even in the grubbiest streets
I quite like the graffiti. Some are created by really talented artists
Give me the grit and madness of Athens over the sterile, streamlined boredom of cities like Munich or Oslo any day
Whoever talks negatively for a city like Athens should go live in a better-cleaner looking place like Zurich or Strasburg ...and come back running (to Athens) because of extreme boredom
Athens is also full of Bauhaus Architecture, I live in a Bauhaus house from 1936, it's a dream come true for me
Athens is so sexy
I adore Athens and find it to be "up and incoming" and in some areas very hip. I love the graffiti art as well.
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. And no kidding, after living in Asia for a decade and seeing a few Asian capitals (even the clean ones) I find Athens breathtakingly beautiful
Beautiful! Athens has some fantastic pieces of Graffiti Art
I thought about those "piles of stones"...where would Athens be today if there had been a "clean up" of all of those stones and ruins....
The whole of Greece is beautiful. But also what makes Greece what it is, is the Greeks, whom I love. The food is out of this world.