A Half-Day in Athens

April 6, 2019

Last week I found myself with a spare half-day in Athens in between meetings. What to do?

When first visiting a new city I like to spend some time just walking around to get the feel of the place. Unfortunately half a day is barely enough time to get out of the hotel and to an interesting location. I’m also not a great one for visiting the tourist spots and photographing what everyone else has done several million times before (although these images snapped from my hotel window show some interesting variations in the skyline as the day progresses over the Parthenon temple, probably up there as one of the most snapped locations in the world).

Acropolis, Athens (Late Afternoon) – Fujifim X-T3, 35mm f/2, ISO160, F/11 @ 1/320s

Acropolis, Athens (Evening) – Fujifim X-T3, 35mm f/2, ISO160, F/5.6 @ 5s

Acropolis, Athens (Sun Set) – Fujifim X-T3, 35mm f/2, ISO200, F/8.0 @ 1/220s

According to the complementary travel magazine in my hotel room Anafiotika is a ‘scenic’ part of Athens which is part of the old historical neighbourhood called Plaka which lies beneath the Acropolis hill. Anafiotika was originally built by workers from the island of Anafi who came to Athens to work on the refurbishment of King Othon’s Palace. The neighborhood was built according to typical Cycladic architecture and has somewhat of the feel of a Greek island in the heart of the city, with lots of white and multi-coloured walls and small spaces. Unfortunately much of the area has gone to rack and ruin with may of the walls and buildings being covered in graffiti and in a somewhat precarious state of repair.

I spent my half-day walking around the area and decided I quite liked the off-beat feel the place had with the graffiti adding to its slightly bohemian air. Here are some images I made while there. Not your typical Athens photographs by any means but nonetheless something that captures some of the feel of the place.