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My Guidebook to Athens:
Essential Spiral Athens
My guidebook to Athens, Essential Spiral Athens, is the result of many visits to the Greek capital since I first went there over 30 years ago. On that trip I could only afford to camp at a campsite in the northern suburb of Kifissia, and went into the centre of Athens on the rickety old subway. I can still remember my first view of the Parthenon on top of the Acropolis – and in those days visitors could wander inside the building and touch the stones. Today, of course, it is fenced off to protect what to many people is the most beautiful and important building in the world.
I also remember stopping for lunch in a taverna in the Plaka, on my way up to the Acropolis. As I left I asked the owner for directions, as finding your way up there through a maze of back streets isn't as easy as you might think. The taverna owner scratched his head and told me which way he thought it was. 'You know,' he said, 'I've been in Athens for 30 years and one day I must go and visit the Acropolis!'
Photo by Donna Dailey
I fell in love with Athens on that first visit, despite its noise and its heat and its general air of chaos. For many years I heard other travel writers dismissing Athens as a dirty, traffic-filled mess of a city. I could never understand it – yes, it was noisy, and no, it wasn't as pretty as Paris, say. But it was a city with character, with an atmosphere all its own, with a long and fascinating history, crammed with ancient monuments – and a city whose people were always passionate and knew how to enjoy life. Since then I've been going back at regular intervals, either for holidays or to research and write guidebooks and travel articles. For many years the charm of Athens was that it never changed. My favorite tavernas were always there, along with the cheap hotels I liked because they were central and friendly. In the last ten years or so, though, there have been enormous changes in the city. It's been re-born, and today boasts Michelin-starred restaurants, a huge number of stylish and boutique hotels, cool clubs and champagne bars, and new museums too. I had to make a lengthy visit to research and write Essential Spiral Athens, which was an expanded and updated version of my first guide to the city, Essential Athens. I sipped champagne as well as retsina. I dined in top-class restaurants like the Tudor Hall at the King George Palace Hotel on Syntagma Square – and in back-street tavernas where you can still eat good simple food at cheap prices. I still loved the city just as much as I did on my first visit – and little did I know, back then, that one day I'd be writing my own guidebook to Athens. Life's full of surprises!
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