On our last full day in Athens, Sachi and I decided to simply walk around; we went on roads we had not walked before, but still kept to the Omonia/Monastiraki area. Along one road where there were a lot of public buildings, it was hard to miss the classic influence on their design.

Just as hard to miss were all of the street vendors, again reminding Sachi and I of the streets of Shanghai.

We also saw this kind of sight twice: street vendors who had gathered up their loot quickly and were on the move. Once we saw them dashing rather madly, making us wonder if they’d been chased out by the police or something.

We found that other cafe I mentioned in the last post, which was far cheaper–about €12 for food for the both of us–and was much better food. A Souvlaki sandwich, Caesar salad, and ham & cheese pie, along with drinks, at a place called Coffee Right. Yummy.

We continued our walk, and saw more of the same-shop-type-concentration, this time with candy shops.

Something else you see a lot of on the street in Athens is street vendors selling bread products–not quite pretzels, not quite bagels.

Along the way, we also hit on something relatively common in the city center–a church, or chapel, or whatever kind of religious building.

The artwork over the door was odd; Jesus looks like a dwarf, and Mary looks like a guy in drag with a sardonic expression.

After eventually hitting Monastiraki, we ventured in yet another new direction, and stumbled upon a strikingly different neighborhood: it was clean and nice-looking.

In that area, we stopped at a cafe that sold gelato, which, for some reason, is usually kept heaped in improbably high piles.

While they are present in numbers almost everywhere in the city, we seemed to notice a lot more bikers in this nice area.

At this time, I was finally able to snap a photo of a local swallow. Usually, they are on the move, flying constantly. But if you can catch one landing, it usually is on a bare wire, cable, or branch close above you, and they don’t scare away easily.

One thing that stood out to Sachi and myself was the sheer amount of graffiti on the walls of most neighborhoods. This is everywhere. Although the ‘finest’ and official establishments seem to keep their walls fairly clean and the ancient stuff is unmarked, everything else is fair game–and barely a spot is left unpainted. Graffiti is all over the place.

Eventually, we hit some parks west of the Agora, and decided to call it a day. We headed back to the hotel and packed for our trip into Rome the next day. We had to get to sleep early, because our flight left at 8 am, meaning a 4 am wake-up alarm.