Athens Guide: Omonia Square and Beyond

Beyond the Athens Market on Athinas street is the Platia of the Dimarcheo, or City Hall Square, the government center for Athens. The square, which is known as Platia Ethniki Andistassis (National Resistance) until recently was a total disaster. When they were building a parking lot they discovered antiquities. The archaeologists rushed in, excavated it and then left it for years as a giant fenced in pit for people to throw their garbage in. But now it has been covered up and is one of the most impressive squares in Greece, surrounded by some beautiful neo-classic buildings from the turn of the century. In the early days of travel to Greece this platia was the tourism center with all the tourist shops which gradually moved to Monastiraki and then to Plaka.

Unfortunately it became a hangout for drug dealers and junkies at night, but it was always perfectly safe by day since it is in the primary shopping area of Athens and now they have moved all the undesirables to the area by the train station. The plans are to have them completely out of Athens by the Olympics, to where, nobody knows for sure. Be sure to check out the sculptures on display here and the pet store with the exotic parrots and toucans. There are a couple great cafes on the square, especially the one next to the pet store where you can buy a cheese pie and spend hours being entertained by the pigeons who fight each other for it. Across the square from the pet store are a couple classic cafeneons just on the other side of the ruins. If you go another block you come to Lamvropoulos, a 6 floor department store and a good place to hang out if you want to shop in the summer and not leave air-conditioning. There is a nice little cafe-restaurant on the top floor.

If you continue down Athinas street from the Central Market , you will come to Omonia square, Athens oldest. It's worth a trip, just as you can't go to New York without taking a peak at 42nd street. If you are from New York it will remind you more of 14th street. Omonia is pretty tame these days but for awhile it was a place to avoid. It's surrounded with fast-food stores and the enormous famous old cafeneon has been turned into a Cafe-Neon, sort of a cafeteria where you can get just about anything. The food is not bad and some old guys still hang out there. The pedestrian streets on the other side of the square are interesting in a third-world kind of way. There are several major hotels that have been bought up by big hotel companies and renovated and the whole area is undergoing renewal.

Omonia square was at one time quite beautiful and a centerpiece for the city. If you go downstairs into the metro station you can see old photos of it in the glory days. When Athens embraced the automobile, Omonia was one of the major casualties and the square became less people friendly and eventually it was not even automobile friendly as cars converged on it from all directions. They have been trying to recapture the bygone days and have rebuilt the square several times in the last few years either to 'get it right' or to make sure a construction company owner or city official does not go to bed hungry. The current version of Omonia square is a mystery. First of all nobody knows if it is finished or not. (That gives you an idea of the architecture). They want to ask the people who built it but apparently they can't be found. I personally would have loved to see a few more trees so it would slightly resemble the old photos but there are none. In fact it looks like a lot of concrete was used to get that Eastern Europe during the Cold War look. My sources tell me nobody is happy about it so we can look foreword to yet another look for Omonia in the near future.

A block from Omonia in a feat of engineering skill that will be studied in city planning departments in Universities all over the world the traffic planners have actually managed to have one street where traffic is reversed. On the small street that connects Eolou and 28th of October street between Stadiou and Panapistimiou the lanes are reversed so it is as if you are driving in England. This is not mentioned so you can visit it as a tourist attraction but so that you won't get run over when crossing the street because you were looking the wrong way (the right way actually).

On the opposite side of Omonia it is even more interesting because the only way for the large avenues that lead to Patission and Syntagma to connect with Athinas Street is by following the signs which lead traffic through a series of back streets.

If you take a right on Panipistimiou and your first left you can walk a few blocks up 28th of October street and be at the Polytechnic University where the demonstrations of Nov 17th 1973 eventually brought about the fall of the Dictatorship. The students barricaded themselves inside the University and broadcasted on a clandestine radio for their fellow Greeks to rise up and overthrow the government. They were joined by many and for 2 weeks the country looked like it might break into revolution but finally the army was called in. On the night of Nov 17th a tank burst through the gate and many students were killed. The gate has remained locked since then. Though not a popular tourist destination it is a symbol of resistance. Every year on the anniversary a march begins here and goes to the US Embassy which supported the dictatorship, led by the mothers of the students who died, dressed in black. You can click on the photo to enlarge it so you can actually see the students confronting the tank, many of whom died a few moments after this picture was taken. See my section on Rebellion in my History of Greece.

If you walk into the neighborhood behind the Polytechnic you will come to Exarchia which is the student area of central Athens. Lots of clubs, bars, restaurants and cafes, all of them pretty affordable. There is a small square, called Exarchia square, with lots of cafes and tables, where they occasionally have live bands and sometimes the anarchists come to battle the police. No it is not particularly dangerous but if you should come at the wrong time you may get a whiff of tear gas or burning tires. Needless to say few older tourists venture in here but it is certainly a young person hang-out and a pretty good one at that. There are lots of computer shops here.

If you are not this adventurous you can continue walking up 28th of October street and you will come to the National Archaeology Museum. As you have noticed I have broken a couple golden rules of travel writing. First I have used a picture of my daughter and my niece which would classify this as a personal photo and rendered this page unprofessional. You will also notice the demonstration in the background (museum workers protesting against high taxes in case you are interested) something you don't normally see in a travel guide. But the picture serves the purpose of illustrating that even if you come upon a demonstration you are not the target and in no danger no matter what your nationality. There are marches almost daily, a sign of a healthy and free society since it is in the nature of all governments to be somewhat self-serving or corrupt and the nature of all sane people within that society to voice their discontent.

Beyond the museum is Green Park and Kypseli which is one of my favorite areas. Kypseli, despite being one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the world has Fokoinios Negri, a long avenue that was turned into a park and bordered by cafes and restaurants. See this section in the restaurant guide.

If you walk back up Panipistimiou from Omonia you will pass the University of Athens on your left. If you want to see what Ancient Athens looked like in it's golden age these buildings will give you a good idea. On the right in the concrete park-like area called The Koral is a Starbucks and next door is one of those Official Olympic shops. Further on is the Home of Henrich Schlieman(photo) on your left and the giant Eleftherodakis English language bookstore on the right. The Schlieman Mansion is considered to be the finest work of the architect Schiller and now houses the Numismatic Museum. For those who don't know, Schlieman was the German archaeologist who discovered Troy and Mycenae and Numismatic means coins.

Eleftherodakis Books is certainly worth a visit if you are running low on reading material or you want to see a selection of books that are unique to Greece as well as books that will make you feel like you are in Barnes and Noble. There is a cafe on the top floor. There are a couple stoas (like streets but covered so they are indoors) between Stadiou and Panapistimiou which run parallel to each other and connect Omonia and Syntagma Squares. If instead you walk up Stadiou street from Omonia you will pass Virgin Records Superstore on your right. Also the OTE building where you can call home if you want to pay cheaper rates than you will get from your hotel.