Karma on 2 Wheels: Walking along in Athens

Walking along in Athens: September 2017

The job was to accompany a group of 18 of our Executive MBA students to our partner Alba Business School, Athens for a week’s Immersion Programme from September 18 to 22, 2017. And another chance to be in Athens! We, my young colleague Safal Batra and I, had the entire day of September 17 free to ourselves so we invited our old friend Prof Evangelos Efendras to lead us. Evangelos is an electrical engineer turned linguist with a fantastic knowledge of history. So every discussion ends with a history lesson, and what more can one ask for in Athens!

It was a quick walk to the nearest Metro station at Megaro Musikis. We walked past a tiny triangular park next to Hotel Athinias on Vias Sophias Avenue and there is this tiny bronze statue of an old lady, and past the American Embassy with its imposing walls topped by numerous cameras and of course, razor wire. Then one station hop to Evangelismos. The walk started and the first stop was at Athens War Museum. There is a semi-abstract statue that is a memorial to non-combatant Cretans during the invasion of Crete by Germans at the entrance. The museum has an entry fee of Euro 2, and is worth it. There is an interesting painting of the Macedonian phalanx, the formation that Philips II of Macedon had copied from the Thebans and inducted in his army. This formation has the hoplite or heavy infantry armed with 6m long sarissa or pike and overlapping shields. In all a formidable formation that enabled Alexander win many battles and the core of the phalanx was a formation called syntagma! There was this small but beautiful bronze statue and another bas relief of Alexander. You would notice that Alexander’s horse did not have stirrups!The rest of the museum covered the later wars up to the WW2 and the strife in Cyprus.

A short walk from the museum lies the ruins of the Lyceum of Athens. It is said that Socrates asked his students to exercise and wrestle, in addition to their studies!!!! A short walk, one could see glimpses of shining white Chapel of St George, on the Mount Lykabettos. The chapel is accessible by a small funicular and provides a panoramic view of entire Athens.

Another short walk, with a roadside flower shop with amazing orchids on display, and we were near the Greek Parliament, with its unique guards wearing skirts over tight pants and hob-nailed boots with pompoms! The changing of guards is an amazing sight, attended by tourists, but I had witnessed it earlier. Another short walk and we were at Syntagma Square with its fountain at the centre. There is this amazing bronze statue of an athlete at one of the corners of the square.

We then walked along Metrople Street with its mix of old and new houses. An old balcony with its wrought iron railing with its dainty shape and accompanying graffiti caught my eye and soon were at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens. Beautiful, needless to say, and there so many families sitting benches under trees in the forecourt, sharing food from baskets. TT There was this rather imposing martial statue of Constantonos IX, the last Greek king who died fighting the Ottomans in 1453 at Constantinople. I realised that I was semi-literate in Greek, thanks to high school physics, only if I could remember the Greek alphabets and a bit of fuzzy logic!!!!

Lunch time was approaching, and we found ourselves near O Thanasis, which incidentally is a favourite of Evangelos. Lunch was a delight spread of moussaka, lamb kebabs and Alfa beer in half litre flagons!

Lunch over, in a mildly euphoric state, a few steps more and we were at Monastiriki Square. The metro station is visible on the right, the Acropolis distant centre. Monastiriki is very colourful and one of the roads leads to the official Athens Flea Market. The ruins of an ancient library stand very next to the metro station. All the colourful garments on display were made in India!!!!There a hundreds of vendors selling curios, and during my last visit in February had witnessed about twenty African immigrants sitting in the middle of the square and beating up a wonderful impromptu concert of drums and suddenly one young Greek woman did an even more impromptu dance performance!

The walk ended there for that day, to be taken up another evening starting from there up along the Adrinou Street with its colourful upmarket shops selling curio, haute coutre and its small art galleries.

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