A guide by sorel
One of the most visited areas of Athens; old bookshops; Greek art shops; rags and bones; old DVDs and CDs and bursting with tourist and locals all year.
At the end of Athinas and Andrianou street ,metro station Monastiraki or Thission
www.athensguide.org/ravel-to-athens.html
The main Athenian venue for classical music, and perhaps one of the best of its kind in Europe. Top orchestras and top conductors, with pretty near perfect acoustics, and more adventurous programming than you would find at, say, the Festival Hall.
Vas. Sofias & Kokkalis. Has its own metro station.
Tel 210-7282333
Go to Texas, the most famous rock club in Athens. Plays classic rock and metal every night until morning. Often frequented by bands such as Motorhead after they've played in the city. If you like Texas you can also try nearby Revenge of Rock.
Texas is on Ippokratous Street in the bohemian area of Exarhia. Revenge of Rock is on Leofourous Alexandras, also in Exarhia. Exarhia is central Athens – a 10 minute walk from Ommonia square or take a cab (most taxi drivers will know these clubs)
Make a late-night call to a Rembetika club to hear the haunting hashish-fuelled blues of the Greek refugees who were forced to leave Turkey in the repatriation that followed the 1922 Asia Minor catastrophe.
Intimate live music venue with a great atmosphere where you can see some of the better local musicians on the jazz and ethnic jazz scene in the city. Particularly recommended acts include Human Touch, Takis Barberis, Nikos Kapilidis, Mode Plagal and Haig Yazdjian, all of whom play there on a regular basis. Closed during the summer.
Damareos 78, Pagkrati;
tel: 210 7560102
Predominantly a music venue in a truly spectacular setting on top of the Likavitos Hill in central Athens. Worth going just for the incredible view, but also puts on many fine concerts in the summer months, with acts ranging from top Greek performers to first division international jazz musicians (McCoy Tyner, Jan Garbarek, Branford Marsalis etc.) rock acts such as the recently reformed Van der Graaf Generator and other international performers (Italian singer Milva gave a spectacular concert of songs by Astor Piazolla recently, and Salif Keita has performed there).
Above Kolonaki; tel: 210 722 7209 (box office)
The most atmospheric concert venue in the city. A genuine ancient (Roman) theatre situated just below the Acropolis, which can be clearly seen from most seats. Spectacular indeed, especially on a night with a full moon. Concerts of every imaginable kind. Artists I have seen there include the Japanese Kodo Drummers, Paco Pena, Vladimir Ashkenazi conducting the EU Youth Orchestra, the Boston SO, Jan Garbarek, and the late Dizzy Gillespie.
Dionysiou Aeropagitou Str, Acropolis Metro;
tel:210 3232771/3235582
A cosy jazz 'museum' in the posh area of Kolonaki.
Enjoy vintage jazz in an appropriately smoky environment and have a philosophical chat with Costas the legendary owner.
Avoid telling him that you prefer modern jazz (that's anything after bebop!), he may ask you to leave his bar!
4 Deinokratous st (oposite St George Lycabetus Hotel)
Kolonaki
210-7258362
The highpoint of any trip to Greece is a visit to the Acropolis – if only to discover as Freud did, that it exists “just as we learnt at school”. As monuments go it’s breathtaking, no matter how many times you see it up close. But climbing the limestone rock is neither kind nor easy in the torturous Athenian heat. The trip should be made early morning, or (gates permitting) at sunset when the capital is bathed in red, violet and blue.
Dionysiou Areopagitou; Tel: 210 321 0219; Nearest metro: Akropoli; Open: 8am-sunset daily Apr-Dec, 8.30am-2.30pm daily Jan-Mar; Admission: €12, €6 concessions, free to under-18s, free to all Sun Nov-Mar (no credit cards); www.culture.gr/
If you fancy a break from the busy tourist trail around Athens in the summer, but want to continue the sightseeing take a 20-40 minute ferry trip to the island of Aegina. Here you can visit the beautiful Temple of Afaia – one of the oldest surviving and well-preserved ancient temples in Greece.
As it is tucked away on a pine-clad hill, the temple attracts only a few travellers so it’s definitely a place to escape the crowds. I went at the height of season last summer and was joined by just two or three others.
Also once you've visited the temple, you can relax on some of the lovely beaches (either in Aghios Marina, or the ones within walking distance of Aegina Town) and still make it back to Athens before evening.
Take a Flying Dolphin ferry to Aegina from Piraeus port (costs around 10-15 euros). This will take you to Aegina Town - here you can jump on the Aghios Marina bus which will drop you right outside the temple
The Byzantine museum has been recently renovated and houses the best collection of Byzantine art in Greece. Although the Byzantine period stretched for over a 1,000 years and influenced modern Greece as much as ancient history, it is often overlooked by visitors. Well worth a visit – and less busy than the archaeological museum.
22 Vasilissis Sofias Ave, next to the Athens Hilton
Probably the best museum in the world for marble sculpture
Patission avenue, Athens
Athens has a number of important and interesting museums. The Museum of Musical instruments in Plaka may not be on the top of the list, but it is a very pleasant small museum, where you can examine beautifully handcrafted traditional musical instruments, listen to recordings of their sounds and meet the ancestors of the famous bouzouki. The location is tranquil and on the little square next to it (Platanos Square), you will find excellent traditional food (Taverna Platanos), and Rere's cafe, one of the few remaining hangouts for the locals of Plaka, where you can relax over a decent cup of Greek coffee made the way it should be. This is not hip Athens, it is Athens old style.
In Plaka, next to the 'Tower of the Winds' and the ruins of the old Madressa of Athens (one of the few surviving Ottoman landmarks), just of 'Platanos' Square;
Metro: Monastiraki
The Acropolis and the museums are free on Sundays all day.
And if you have a European student card you get in for free at other times. I have a rather dodgy looking student card from five years ago for a language school I worked at in Spain, and that was good enough for every place I went to in Greece (Mycenae, Corinth, etc...).
The Vorres Museum consists of a complex of buildings, gardens and courtyards, covering an area of 80 acres. The museum has been donated, in the form of a cultural and artistic foundation, to the Greek state by the Vorres family.
It is mainly a museum of modern Greek art, which presents important works of art and sculpture created by Greek artists of the second half of the 20th-century. A general survey of the works clearly shows the significant influence of classical, Byzantine and folk tradition.
Good collection of work by artists who will be unfamiliar to most but none the worse for that. Beautiful setting, and can be combined with a visit to the impressive Peania Cave which is within walking distance if you are feeling energetic.
1 Parodos Diad. Konstantinou, 190 02 Paiania, Attica;
tel: 210-6642520, 6644771
Saturday-Sunday 10.00-14.00, Monday-Friday: please contact with the museum
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