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This is a space image of Athens. Do you see how beautiful it is? Like a huge and graceful spider, braided in a brilliant net of lights. Athens is a chameleon city with many faces. Anyone living in it can find what fits him or her the most. See it through our eyes.

Why Gypsy and Peruvian music does not sound strange at the foot of the Acropolis

Anastasia Balezdrova

My Athens does not resemble any of the pictures that have been filling the TV screens in the past two years. It is connected with the memory of my first trip back in 1990. Of course, I did not even imagine then that one day I will live in this city and make reports on violent events, accompanied by a plenty of tear gas.

To me, however, Athens is a sunny and welcoming city and I always find something new and interesting. One can find nowhere else the ancient and the modern so close to each other and the feeling resulting of this closeness is unique. The walk down the paved boulevard Dionisiou Areopagitou that starts from the Temple of Olympian Zeus and gets to the hills of the Acropolis and Philopappou is always full of surprises. Athens is a capital attractive to tourists from around the world and there is nothing funnier than looking at the colourful mosaic of people, colours and tempers, combined with the cheerful voices of the travellers. This mixture gives the impression of travelling without passing more than a few kilometers from your home.

I like to walk in the labyrinth of narrow streets and the steep steps in Plaka and especially the part called Anafiotika. There the settlers from Anafi have carried the architectural style of the Aegean islands. The results are small whitewashed houses with blue shutters, with the eternal large pots of flowers that the guests are often faced with as guardians, not allowing you to continue along the non-existing street.

The proposal for lunch is the Avisiniya café situated on the eponymous square to Monastiraki. All customers feel like friends there and the live music draws them even closer together.

Just outside is the market for antiques. Old furniture, books, ornaments, chandeliers, old swords, knives, jewelry and a lot more bring the people to times gone by, but they are attractive enough to provoke them to find a suitable place for them in their otherwise modern homes.

Coffee drinking in Greece is a very old tradition. The capital is full of large and small, modern and traditional cafes and coffee shops, but what is the enjoyment of the refreshing drink if it is not combined with a beautiful view? Tisio is the place that offers them both. Most likely, it is always full of people because of that.

And how about ending this full of pictures and scents day in a summer cinema? There are some downtown Athens and films from the golden years of Hollywood are often screened. The screen surrounded by greenery brings to life forgotten films such as African Queen and Some Like It Hot, and stars such as Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. And all under the stars and into the embrace of the cool evening.

Of course, Athens is a modern city living under the rules of the modern era. But to me its beauty lies precisely in the way the old coexists with the new in harmony and the music of the Romani brass bands and of the Indians of Peru at the foot of the Acropolis does not sound strange to anyone.

Tranquility in the sea of ​​concrete buildings

Marina Nikolova

The best weekend walks in Athens for me and my child are those in the neighbourhood where I live in downtown Athens, close to the square of Tisio. As you have already guessed, I'll tell you about a few nice places where you can go with your child, have fun and enjoy the spring sun.