Monastiraki Flea Market
Mike Gerrard of Greece Travel Secrets visits the Monastiraki Flea Market in Athens, followed by Sunday lunch at Sigalas on Monastiraki Square.
The Monastiraki Flea Market
Monastiraki gets its name from the
monastery that used to stand on this square in central Athens. Anything less monastic these days it
would be hard to imagine, especially on a Sunday morning when crowds flock to
the weekly flea market that starts here and flows through the streets around.
Monks would perhaps avert their gaze from the stalls selling second-hand copies
of Playboy and Penthouse and browse instead at the one right next door which has
beads, Bibles and candles. The sacred and the profane are neighbours in these
Athenian streets.
Monastiraki
No doubt they were in ancient times too.
Across the railroad tracks is the site of the market-place of ancient Athens, the Agora, a
market since the 6th century BC. The foundations of the shops are still there,
making it easy to picture the scene, then as now – people sniffing round for a
bargain, checking the quality of the fruit and vegetables, or just mooching about.
Monastiraki Flea Market
No-one then would have found what caught my
eye on one visit: a large inflatable aubergine, the use for which beggared the
imagination. Perhaps it was to decorate a restaurant. Along here you could
fully equip any eating place, with chairs and tables, hat stands and mirrors
half-blocking the road in a way not many cities would tolerate. But Athens has never lost its
human touch.
The Monastiraki Flea Market
Here are rare first editions, bootleg CDs, a
bouzouki maker, fading postcards and typewriters so old they look like they do
date back to the 6th century BC and have only just been dug up.
As you head towards the Keramikos Cemetery
(this part of Athens
was named after Keramos, the patron saint of potters, hence the word ceramics)
the roads can get impossibly crowded. Wallets and purses should be well tucked
away. Take a diversion into the cemetery, the main burial place of ancient Athens, with tombs dating
back to the 12th century BC. It's a peaceful respite from the crowds, with
chaffinches dashing and chattering in the olive trees, and terrapins lurking in
the grass.
Sigalas
If the smells from the market food stalls
make you hungry, try not to spoil your appetite with a snack but head back to
Monastiraki Square and hope you can find a table at Sigalas (full name Bairaktaris
Taverna Sigalas). It's not quite as old as the ancient market, and
dates back only to the late 19th century (as do some of the waiters, it seems).
Sigalas
Life is a cabaret, in Sigalas, with its
intriguing mix of local characters and more adventurous tourists. Black and
white photos of film stars and politicians gaze down from the wooden walls, and
there are all kinds of nooks and crannies, upstairs and down. Don't expect a
waiter to greet you at the door and show you to a table. You're on your own.
Walk in and hope you can find an empty place somewhere. Menus? Who needs them.
Take a look at what's cooking. It won't be gourmet dishes but it will be tasty
and generous and easy on the pocket.
Whenever I'm in Athens I eat at Sigalas as often as I can manage it. Turn up twice and you're a regular. More than that and you're one of the family. After one Sunday lunch I was relaxing with a newspaper when one of the waiters began clearing the table next to me. They'd left half a bottle of retsina, which he plonked down in front of me with a wink. A few minutes later he brought a plate of chips to go with it. When I'd finished that lot he gave me a juicy apple for a dessert, and then a cup of coffee. All unordered, and none of them on the bill.
Suitably sozzled, I tried to imagine that
happening in any other European capital city, and couldn't. Only in Athens, where the generous
spirit lives on.
More Athens pages
This drive around Attica offers visitors high hills, beach resorts, small villages and classical sites like Marathon and the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion.
If you're wondering where to eat in Athens and Piraeus we have a few suggestions including some favorites around the Acropolis, Omonia Square, and Syntagma.
Pictures of Athens from the Greece Travel Secrets website
In My Athens on Greece Travel Secrets travel writer Mike Gerrard describes what he loves about Athens including the Acropolis and eating!
Around Monastiraki is the flea market, Athens cathedral, Kerameikos Cemetery, the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art and the Psirri and Gazi nightlife districts.
There's all kinds of entertainment in Athens whether you're interested in theatre, dance, classical music, jazz, Greek music, rock music, disco, opera or movies.
Easter in Athens is, like everywhere in Greece, the biggest religious celebration of the year and this page tells you what to expect over the Easter weekend.
The best views in Athens include views from the Acropolis and of the Acropolis from the top of some of the city’s several hills and from hotels and restaurants.
Two of the best cocktail bars in Athens, MoMix Kerameikos and The Clumsies, are making creative cocktails using that most Greek of Greek spirits, Metaxa.
The Greece Travel Secrets website looks at the Athens weather, the chance of rain, the climate in summer and winter and the best time to visit Athens.
Athens walking tours and other experiences like cookery lessons, ceramics workshops, dining with a family, and street art are available from Alternative Athens
There are lots of flights from Athens to Santorini as well as a ferry service from Piraeus, with flights to Santorini leaving from Athens International Airport.
Athens in the rain isn’t something you’re likely to experience but here are suggestions for things to do in the rain in Athens including museums and shopping
Athens Food Tours are being introduced by new company The Greek Fork, and will include tours of the Central Market, and the best street food.
Athens, an Eater's Guide to the City, is published by Culinary Backstreets, who do walking food tours in Athens and the book recommends the best places to eat.
This Athens dining guide doesn't list restaurants but gives practical advice on types of eating places, tipping, hotel breakfasts and picnics.
Athens culinary tours are among the food walking tours offered by an unusual company, Culinary Backstreets.
Athens car rental options include almost all of the major international car hire firms such as Avis, Budget, Hertz, and Europcar.
Athens Airport car rentals include Alamo/National Car Rental, Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz and Sixt, all with offices at the airport.
The Athens Acropolis has the city's most iconic building, the Parthenon, along with other historic buildings and is where the Elgin Marbles were taken from.
This extract of Artistic Athens in the Lonely Planet book Culture Trails takes visitors on a journey through the artistic side of Athens..
This walk around the Kolonaki neighbourhood of Athens starts and ends in Syntagma Square and takes you to several museums, Kolonaki Square and Mount Lykabettos.
Greece Travel Secrets picks the best time to visit Athens with a month-by-month account of the weather, hotel prices and any special events that are happening.
Greece Travel Secrets lists the ten best museums in Athens, with the top two being the National Archaeological Museum and the Acropolis Museum.
Athens is a top vacation destination. The Greece Travel Secrets Athens guide has information on hotels, museums, Athens airport and all the best things to do.
Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...
Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?
- Click on the HTML link code below.
- Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment,
your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.
-
Greece Travel Secrets picks the best time to visit Kos, with a monthly summary of the weather, plus hotel prices and special events to help plan a visit.
Read More
-
Greece Travel Secrets picks the best time to visit Samos, with a monthly summary of the weather, plus hotel prices and special events to help plan a visit.
Read More
-
The Council of the European Union on Monday agreed on the directive establishing the European Disability Card and the European Parking Card for persons with disabilities. The announcement follows the…
Read More
-
A coastal pedestrian-bicycle lane from Kallithea to Voula along the Athenian Riviera is the next big project to be implemented after an agreement signed this week between the Region of Attica and the…
Read More
-
Boosting investments and the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece are at the top of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ agenda for his visit this week to London.
Read More
-
Greece Travel Secrets picks some of the best things to do on Naxos in the Cyclades, including discovering the beaches, villages, and ancient ruins.
Read More
-
Greece Travel Secrets picks the best time to visit Naxos, with a monthly summary of the weather, plus hotel prices and special events to help plan a visit.
Read More
-
Greece Travel Secrets picks the best time to visit Kefalonia, with a monthly summary of the weather, plus hotel prices and special events to help plan a visit.
Read More
-
Greece Travel Secrets picks the best time to visit Zakynthos, with a monthly summary of the weather, plus hotel prices and special events to help plan a visit.
Read More
-
Greece Travel Secrets picks the best time to visit Lesbos, with a monthly summary of the weather, plus hotel prices and special events to help plan a visit.
Read More