More around the Neighborhood -- Athens in Springtime

Now that we are settled in, here are a few of the sights that give us pleasure or pain in the course of the day:

 Oikos store window - blue display

           The Miracle Marble man, on Odos Aeolou:  everyday, he cleans dirty squares of marble pavement in the main pedestrian shopping street, to hawk his wares.  God only knows what's in that stuff. 

  Runner statue outside the Athens Hilton, made of sheets of broken glass (or is it plastic?).  Very cool! 

Periptera (newsstand) and Smart Car in front of the endless construction at Kolonaki Square.  The concrete blocks are to keep car bombs away from the British Council (not to be confused with the British Embassy), where this photo was taken from. 

Everest Cafe on Marasleion, and the fruit and vegetable market next door (with Gary in blue searching for a sugar donut):

Cake, a trendy gourmet coffee bar, complete with trendy Athenian youth

Rare sight:  recycling bins for paper (yellow) and aluminum (silver)

Hand-pulled trash carts on sidewalk on Moni Petraki Street.  Will the new anti-litter campaign and pooper-scooper law mean their days are numbered? 

Motorcycles outside cafes, main square in Kolonaki

Get ready for the beach!  Weight loss ad in the Metro station

...and avoid that pizza! 

 (left) Trendy clubwear in Kolonaki window on Patriarchou Joachim (the main shopping drag for the rich folks) -- see my entry on Thanksgiving Night at the Bouzoukeria!

(right)  Flats for spring?  No self-respecting Athenian woman would be seen in them!  Here's a bankruptcy waiting to happen!

(above) Post-modern store window on Charitos

Our new parking garage -- and do the 127 free spaces keep a red-blooded Athenian man from parking on the sidewalk?  Hell, no! 

And would Kolonaki be complete without another of our endless traffic jams, complete with cars trying to go through police barricades, and a regular symphony of car horns ("klaxon")?  I think not!  This one resulted from traffic being diverted from the main avenue on March 20, where another anti-war protest was going on, marching towards the US embassy: 

Looking up Marasleion Street near Evangelismos Hospital

Vas. Sophias avenue, outside the War Museum

-- Edie Folta, March 28, 2004 

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