We tend to be home and in bed before it gets late when we travel, but the sun sets early in January. Athens feels very dark at night, with fewer functional streetlights than most cities. But no expense is spared when lighting the historic monuments.
For dinner on Saturday night we decided to cross over into Kerameikos, a neighbourhood just north of our place in Thissio. This is an area with many trendy bars and upscale restaurants, but they are intermingled with vacant and sometimes crumbling buildings. The graffiti is as omnipresent in Kerameikos as anywhere in Athens.
At first glance it looked a bit alarming, but routinely passing packed restaurants and well-dressed people on their way to and from them made it feel okay. We enjoyed a very nice Italian-esque meal at the oddly-named The Sam Has the Wrong Boyfriend restaurant, where they squeezed us in despite our lack of reservation.
Another evening, back near the touristy core, we wound our way home through part of Plaka and passed (quite accidentally) by the Roman Agora, the historic center of Athens during Roman times. This is distinct from the older Greek Ancient Agora we’d already visited.
The Roman Agora contains the unusual Tower of the Winds (c. 50 BC) which was a sort of early clock-tower with numerous sundials and a water clock. It was built tall so that it could be seen easily throughout the Agora.
Nearby the pretty streets of Plaka were emptied of the usual tourist crowds.
Apostolou, the wide pedestrianized avenue that wraps around the Acropolis for several kilometers, is dotted with small kiosks and other vendors.
