ATHENS IS FILTHY!!! part 2

ATHENS IS FILTHY!!!
Part 2

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Now let me talk about the negatives of Athens, Greece because there are quite a few. Over the years many people have told me that they hated Athens and that it was the dirtiest city they had ever been. Most people will tell you to visit the islands and stay away from Athens. I can see why. If I ever return to Greece on vacation it will be to visit the islands and avoid the cesspool that is Athens. I consider the Akropolis an oasis in a desert of filth. So I will now mention a few negative things about Athens.

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The first and most obvious is the filth. Athens really is a filthy city because so much of the city is a neglected garbage heap. I walked around much of the city looking for the cleaner parts and only found a few places. In the north it´s nicer but that is far away from everything. There´s graffiti everywhere, most of the buildings are run down and look abandoned. It´s like taking the worst neighborhoods of New York City and stretching it out over a whole city. I took a few pictures of the carnage. Take a look below:

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I also found the Parthenon was a big disappointment. It hadn´t been kept up in centuries and was basically a hollowed out shell of what it should have been. Even the Temple of Athena was basically just walls. The best part of the whole Akropolis was the Amphitheater at the bottom. Here are some pictures of the Parthenon and the Temple of Athena.

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This leads to another negative for Athens in that it stinks so badly. The foul odor comes from the garbage, the abandoned, run down buildings and probably up from the ground. It just stinks and if you add the hot weather then walking in the streets is no stroll through a bed of roses. I´m waiting for an honest artist to make a statement by walking down the streets wearing a gas mask. It just reeks.

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Another negative, which is a sign of the slumbering economy is prostitution. I don´t want to pass judgment on the men and women who are forced into this life because that is just not fair but to see it every few blocks is disturbing. I read a blog that stated that men in Greece were forced into this life like women and that is terrible. The prostitutes are like zombies because they are destitute addicts. This goes on all over the city, night and day. I imagine drugs are a big problem too but I didn´t see any of that.

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An important negative to mention is the friendliness of the people. I found many nice people but how you´re treated depends a lot on how you look and which country you come from. So if you have darker features or come from the Middle East, Africa or any other place with dark skinned people you will not be received nicely by some Greeks. Even if you´re a customer or a tourist. In this sense some Greeks are assholes with a very medieval mentality. The last time I was in Greece was for a conference and my work colleagues even though they were Scandinavian hated it. They found the Greeks to be scam artists and so they refused to spend money on anything in Greece.

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So to sum things up you have to understand that Greece is a third world country, in spite of the fact it is in the EU. Their economy and mentality betray this fact. I was told a funny story about how the Greek Govt. was doing tax audits on a region. They asked the people who had pools to declare them on their taxes. Only one person did, and when the govt. flew over the region and took pictures they found that everybody had a pool and days later they all had tarps over their pools to hide them from helicopters.

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I don´t think that I will be returning to Athens when there are so many nicer places to visit. So much of Europe has become more and more an overpriced garbage pale. I heard Spain is still a nice place to visit so maybe I´ll visit there next and then head to the Far East or Africa. Those countries are far better for tourism. They don´t rely on borrowed glories of the past and are not overbearingly, self entitled and lazy.

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Remember the famous quote by the Athenian Pericles. I´m taking it a little out of context to mean that how we treat each other is more important than the nice things around us.

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”      quote from Pericles 

So, basically, what I have to say is that Europe has increasingly become a disappointing, overpriced tourist destination and Athens is no exception. So many countries in Europe or 3rd world countries with people that have medieval mentalities and that is no fun. So if you do go to Greece visit the islands but stay away from Athens.

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So this is the end of ATHENS IS FILTHY!!! blog. Click here for Part 1.

The End