Snapshot from Athens

Often Athens is ugly and dirty. Some times, if you squint, it's quaint and oriental. Others it's laid back and trendy(-ish). Others still, it's amusingly peculiar.

The other day I had to go first thing in the morning to the Ministry of Culture to hand in some architectural designs for a building we're trying to get licensed. (Greek red tape is marvelously convoluted and senseless at times.)

The Ministry of Culture, I found out, is behind the Museum. (The Museum being the Archaeological Museum, proving by it's name just how many proper museums we have in Athens.) The Museum is right next to the Polytechneio (the old building of the school of engineering where nowadays only the architecture department is housed.) In between Greece's biggest and oldest museum and the old venerated university building there is a paved street with trees, a bit of greenery and a couple of statues. It sounds nice, doesn't it? The sort of place you'd like to sit on a bench and feed pigeons or read a book.

Only I wouldn't advise you to. Because, you see, this cute little paved street has probably the highest concentration of junkies in Athens. Junkies in Greece are mostly harmless, all they do is ask for money. They do have, however, the strange habit of snorting or shooting drugs in broad daylight. So it's nine in the morning. Some homeless addicts are still sleeping on the benches as I pass. Others are waking up, and yet others are taking their first hit of the day. I feel kind of weird, passing through in my office clothes on the way to the Ministry for official business.

It gets even more surreal as I reach the top of the paved road to find the front of the ministry crawling with police officers and security cars. I can't help but laugh. This is so typical of Greece. The police could care less about the junkies shooting up (and possibly overdosing) a stone's throw away, as long as they stay away from the Ministry building. Everyone minds their own business and everyone is happy.

I can't help but wonder if this sort of thing happens in many other European cities. Maybe it's a general phenomena and I never noticed.