Athens and the Acropolis

I can imagine what it would be like to know you were back home with your eyes shut. I’m learning that each place has a distinctive smell and feeling to the air. I think I first noticed this when in Peru in high school, when we could feel the humidity as soon as we got of the plan. Athens was cooler than the UAE, but also slightly more humid. It smelled like pollution and occasionally I got a whiff of the gyros which were cooking on every block. It’s slightly gritty, helter skelter streets felt refreshing after Abu Dhabi. I also loved the fact that I would round a corner, turn down a normal street, and suddenly have a view of the acropolis, all lit up. A hole in the ground would at first look like construction, and then as I got closer, I'd realize it was the foundation of an ancient building.

There was a lot of homelessness in Greece. Before, I would have interpreted the lack thereof in the UAE as a good thing, but because I know there's extreme poverty there, it instead seems sinister that it is so invisible. It reminds me of an argument I read when writing a con law paper on public forums (fora?):

"In their article, “Begging to Differ: The First Amendment and the Right to Beg,” Cohen and Herschkoff argue that this discomfort is a valuable result of free speech. To deprive poor people of the right to beg does not only deny them of a way to earn money but also denies them the ability to make the public aware of their plight. Begging is an individual commentary on social order—the belief that it is the duty of the prosperous to help the less fortunate in their communities. It also provides the listener with valuable information about their opportunities to be charitable. Although begging is certainly partially financially motivated, so are other protected forms of expression such as movies, music and books."

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It's a problem when people are denied the ability to communicate their need. On the other hand, the different could stem from the fact that the poor in the UAE are working: I'd bet a lot that unemployment is much higher in Greece. Also, marginalized populations in the UAE are there FOR work whereas some of the marginalized populations in Greece (the Roma) may be discriminated against in hiring. Anyway, this is all just speculation.

(And now for a lesson in contrast...)

On my first night in Greece, we ate at the Athens Club with Theo and Michelle, which was quite the introduction. The Athens Club is sort of an old school British gentlemen's club that only allowed women in a few years ago. Theo had decided that EMJI would have their graduation there, so we were scouting it out. It was there that I discovered that even zucchini is good with enough lemon. This made enough of an impression that I wrote my first Greece post about the wonders of lemon. We also had a Greek salad with lemon, feta and spinach pastries, and dolma in lemon sauce. There was an amazing view of the Acropolis from the roof, and at the table next to us, some cabinet members were discussing their choices for their new under-secretaries.

On Sunday, before the EMJI academic program started but after I'd prepared some materials for Rachel, I went to go see the acropolis with the journalists. It was a beautiful, very sunny day. In January, I went to see Ephesus in Turkey with my father, and I think the Acropolis itself was a bit of a let down for me after this. Maybe the Acropolis is more architecturally impressive or restored with more care, but Ephesus is really cool because it's a whole city. I liked imaging people meeting in the agora, going to the library or walking down mainstreet. The Acropolis is a temple where people went once or twice a month, so there's less scope for the imagination.

However, the view of Athens and the surrounding countryside from the Acropolis is absolutely amazing. Athens is a pretty big city--6 million out of Greece's 11 million inhabitants live there-- but from the Acropolis, you can take in the whole city and the mountains. It was clear enough for us to see all the way to the ocean. I'd have hiked up just for the view alone.