living in Athens Greece
There have been thousands of articles about Athens on thousands of websites but this particular article it wont be a tourist guide to Athens. The article is about my personal views and experiences of someone that was born and lived here, so don't expect a review of Athens written for tourists that usually visit the capital of Greece mostly for its monuments and mainly Acropolis and its museums or for a stop over before getting to the Greek islands with a visit to Plaka and Monastiraki and probably some shopping in Athens.
But Athens is not only the area around the sacred rock of the Acropolis of Athens ,it is a huge city that together with its greater area and suburbs counts about 5 million inhabitants almost the half of the Greek population. Athens like most metropolis in the world is divided in to the so called rich areas where the the stronger financial social classes are living or they used to live and the the poor areas where the labour class use to live traditionally ,though this kind of diversity is a bit hard to be accurate , the measurement today of "rich" and "poor" areas is a matter of rental and building costs. In the first zone lets call it the expensive area are the suburbs of Psihiko, Marousi, Ekali, Kifisia, Drosia the so called north suburbs and Paleo Faliro , Alimos, Glyfada, Vouliagmeni and Varkiza in the Athens Riviera in the South West. In the center we have the less expensive areas of Kypseli, Pagrati, Ampelokipoi , Ano and Kato Patisia ,Nea Ionia and Perissos to the north and Nea Smyrni, Kalithea Moshato to the south. The working class areas are located to the north west including the areas of Liosia Peristeri and further west Aegaleo, Agia Varvara, Korydallos, Nikea, Amfiali ,Drapetsona ,Keratsini and Perama the traditional strong holds of the labour class including Kaminia, most of them belonging to the area of Piraeus. Piraeus its self has its own rich areas that are traditionally Pasalimani and Kastela and lately Hadjikiriakio.This deviation reflects as well the real estate and property prices.
I had the luck to be born when the Attica sky was still deep blue and the sun was smiling to Athens over Hymetous mount every morning without the infamous smog that today is hanging a few hundred meters of the roof of Athens. that was the time when when the children where playing happy in the small poor neighbourhoods without any cars passing by. But life goes on and things are chamging. My area that belongs to the labour class areas of Piraeus had only 7000 inhabitants when I was born in the 50's and today has more then 200000, that gives an idea of the population grouth the last 50 years in the basin of Attica.
Describing the Life in Athens today its more a matter of personal view and subjective criticism depending of the personal experience and financial situation, but some problems of athens are universal and effecting both rich and poor.
The biggest problems of Athens are the Pollution ,the overpopulation and the anarchic building planning. You can read here more about the traffic, parking and driving in Athens.
The pollution problem after the recent fires on the mount Parnitha that destroyed a huge part of the National Forest of Parnitha (the main oxygen lung of Athens) will bring more problems to the already existing ones.
The other problem of Athens is the population growth and therefore more flats growing like mushrooms day by day, many Greek Banks advertising attractive housing loans and many maisonettes are build almost in every empty space of Attica. Many Athenians that have the financial facilities are getting a second house and slowly moving out of Athens in the small coastal resorts like Nea Makri, Rafina, Agioi Theodoroi, Kinetta ech.
As the cost of living in Athens increases whilst the salaries remain low, a big part of the lower income population has not many alternatives of recreation and entertainment except a small family outing for a sulky ,pizza or coffee and ice cream in the local square. A big part of the weekly shopping mainly fruits and vegetables held in the local street markets. The Greek TV is the only window in the world for many families of the low incomes.
A main problem in Athens and in Greece in general is the bureaucracy in many areas of the public life. Since the 80's the governments tried to reduce bureaucracy and in some fields there have been some developments as many forms and applications can be obtained by the new service KEP (Citizens Service Centre) and some bills like the telephone (OTE) can be payed in several shops of mobile telephony. One usual thing in every public service in Athens is the queue. It takes a lot of patience and strong neves if you have to submit your tax declarations by your self in the local tax department if you can't afford a tax technician's bureau to make all this for you, long queues as well in the banks especially on Mondays and in the external surgeries of the public hospitals. Though Greece has a free health system (ESY) many Greeks prefer the private surgeries, dentists, diagnostic centres and even hospitals if they have the financial abilities. A visit to a private Doctor cost between 30-50 Euro in average, Dentist though are the cheapest in Europe especially if you want tooth replacements, bridges , dentures etc.
About working in Athens and in Greece in general read our article about working in Greece . EU citizens are allowed to work in Greece. There are difficulties and a huge paperwork if you are not an EU citizen and want to stay and work in Athens and Greece in general. Since the early 90's there is an increase in criminality but not in a huge scale like organised gangs etc. Since the early 90's Greece had a huge wave of foreign labours mainly from the Balkans (Albania) , Ucraine and Russia and later from other countries of Asia that entered Greece as refuges, many of them are living and working in Athens, today official documented immigrants estimated in over a half million but this is a plasmatic reality, as the number of the illegal immigrants is much more than one million.
The traffic system has been really improved thanks to the Athens metro as an example it takes only 15-20 minutes to go from Aegaleo in west Athens to the station of Ethniki Amyna (the Greek Pentagon) a journey that in older days it could have taken more then one hour by bus. Taxis have the lowest fares in Europe but many Athenians prefer to take a taxi instead of a bus. From 1st of May 2008 all transport tickets will be 80 cents and can be used in all public means of transport for one and half hour (buses, tram, trolleys, metro). Though the average income is one of the lowest of Europe (700-750 euro) many consuming products and services are expensive. The most incredible are the prices of many central Cafeterias where a coffee can cost up to 4 Euro (twice as much as a coffee in Paris, Rome or London). More and more Athenians getting use to buy bulk from huge supermarket chains once a week as it is cheaper and there are offers every week.
But Athens is not only the area around the sacred rock of the Acropolis of Athens ,it is a huge city that together with its greater area and suburbs counts about 5 million inhabitants almost the half of the Greek population. Athens like most metropolis in the world is divided in to the so called rich areas where the the stronger financial social classes are living or they used to live and the the poor areas where the labour class use to live traditionally ,though this kind of diversity is a bit hard to be accurate , the measurement today of "rich" and "poor" areas is a matter of rental and building costs. In the first zone lets call it the expensive area are the suburbs of Psihiko, Marousi, Ekali, Kifisia, Drosia the so called north suburbs and Paleo Faliro , Alimos, Glyfada, Vouliagmeni and Varkiza in the Athens Riviera in the South West. In the center we have the less expensive areas of Kypseli, Pagrati, Ampelokipoi , Ano and Kato Patisia ,Nea Ionia and Perissos to the north and Nea Smyrni, Kalithea Moshato to the south. The working class areas are located to the north west including the areas of Liosia Peristeri and further west Aegaleo, Agia Varvara, Korydallos, Nikea, Amfiali ,Drapetsona ,Keratsini and Perama the traditional strong holds of the labour class including Kaminia, most of them belonging to the area of Piraeus. Piraeus its self has its own rich areas that are traditionally Pasalimani and Kastela and lately Hadjikiriakio.This deviation reflects as well the real estate and property prices.
I had the luck to be born when the Attica sky was still deep blue and the sun was smiling to Athens over Hymetous mount every morning without the infamous smog that today is hanging a few hundred meters of the roof of Athens. that was the time when when the children where playing happy in the small poor neighbourhoods without any cars passing by. But life goes on and things are chamging. My area that belongs to the labour class areas of Piraeus had only 7000 inhabitants when I was born in the 50's and today has more then 200000, that gives an idea of the population grouth the last 50 years in the basin of Attica.
Describing the Life in Athens today its more a matter of personal view and subjective criticism depending of the personal experience and financial situation, but some problems of athens are universal and effecting both rich and poor.
The biggest problems of Athens are the Pollution ,the overpopulation and the anarchic building planning. You can read here more about the traffic, parking and driving in Athens.
The pollution problem after the recent fires on the mount Parnitha that destroyed a huge part of the National Forest of Parnitha (the main oxygen lung of Athens) will bring more problems to the already existing ones.
The other problem of Athens is the population growth and therefore more flats growing like mushrooms day by day, many Greek Banks advertising attractive housing loans and many maisonettes are build almost in every empty space of Attica. Many Athenians that have the financial facilities are getting a second house and slowly moving out of Athens in the small coastal resorts like Nea Makri, Rafina, Agioi Theodoroi, Kinetta ech.
As the cost of living in Athens increases whilst the salaries remain low, a big part of the lower income population has not many alternatives of recreation and entertainment except a small family outing for a sulky ,pizza or coffee and ice cream in the local square. A big part of the weekly shopping mainly fruits and vegetables held in the local street markets. The Greek TV is the only window in the world for many families of the low incomes.
A main problem in Athens and in Greece in general is the bureaucracy in many areas of the public life. Since the 80's the governments tried to reduce bureaucracy and in some fields there have been some developments as many forms and applications can be obtained by the new service KEP (Citizens Service Centre) and some bills like the telephone (OTE) can be payed in several shops of mobile telephony. One usual thing in every public service in Athens is the queue. It takes a lot of patience and strong neves if you have to submit your tax declarations by your self in the local tax department if you can't afford a tax technician's bureau to make all this for you, long queues as well in the banks especially on Mondays and in the external surgeries of the public hospitals. Though Greece has a free health system (ESY) many Greeks prefer the private surgeries, dentists, diagnostic centres and even hospitals if they have the financial abilities. A visit to a private Doctor cost between 30-50 Euro in average, Dentist though are the cheapest in Europe especially if you want tooth replacements, bridges , dentures etc.
About working in Athens and in Greece in general read our article about working in Greece . EU citizens are allowed to work in Greece. There are difficulties and a huge paperwork if you are not an EU citizen and want to stay and work in Athens and Greece in general. Since the early 90's there is an increase in criminality but not in a huge scale like organised gangs etc. Since the early 90's Greece had a huge wave of foreign labours mainly from the Balkans (Albania) , Ucraine and Russia and later from other countries of Asia that entered Greece as refuges, many of them are living and working in Athens, today official documented immigrants estimated in over a half million but this is a plasmatic reality, as the number of the illegal immigrants is much more than one million.
The traffic system has been really improved thanks to the Athens metro as an example it takes only 15-20 minutes to go from Aegaleo in west Athens to the station of Ethniki Amyna (the Greek Pentagon) a journey that in older days it could have taken more then one hour by bus. Taxis have the lowest fares in Europe but many Athenians prefer to take a taxi instead of a bus. From 1st of May 2008 all transport tickets will be 80 cents and can be used in all public means of transport for one and half hour (buses, tram, trolleys, metro). Though the average income is one of the lowest of Europe (700-750 euro) many consuming products and services are expensive. The most incredible are the prices of many central Cafeterias where a coffee can cost up to 4 Euro (twice as much as a coffee in Paris, Rome or London). More and more Athenians getting use to buy bulk from huge supermarket chains once a week as it is cheaper and there are offers every week.
posted by George at 6:18 AM
3 Comments:
Hi. I'd be visiting your blog once in a while. i am planning to work at Athens and I want to be familiar with it as much as possible. Thanks!
Hi man, I live in Edinburgh Scotland and my girlfriend is Greek. Im relocating to Athens :) at the end of february. I was wondering about the music scene in athens as im a musician in my spare time (im gonna teach english too though). What is the live scene like? do you know if there are many practise rooms? Is it an easy going thing? Thanks very much for your post it helped me alot, most sites are dedicated to tourists... im moving FOREVER!!! (oh, as i said im scottish, so i've never felt an earthqauke in my life!! are they frequent?!?!) CHeers
Hi Neil, thank for the post, well we have some earthqaukes from time to time but no big problem, its a matter of get use to live with it like the people in San Francisco. As about music, well guess what I am a pro musician too.As for musician jobs in Athens, a bit tricky if you don't have a Greek repertoire but its all depends on what instrument you play and how good are you. If you play the Piano that makes things more easier. The musical scene in Athens is difficcult in matter of jobs most of small live music bars,restaurants, taverns ech will give you a job mostly on the weekend (Friday Saturday). Check at the music cafe Vatrahoi at Solonos street 103 run by George Arapakis. Good luck.
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