Finding the quiet spaces in Athens

I’ve just told 15-years-ago me that I spent this Christmas vacation catsitting in Athens and she thinks I’m messing around with her.

It takes a pinch-me moment to keep me grounded wherever I travel, perhaps especially here. My first morning out after I arrived last week, I nearly went head over heels—literally—when I tripped on weird bit of marble sidewalk. Because some pickpockets nabbed my phone when I was here in 2018, I’m extra vigilant with my bag and with my surroundings. And just the overall big-city chaos is jarring to my small-town, easily stimulated neurons.

Monastiraki Square, nothing to see here.

I’m sure you find it no surprise that I gravitate to the quiet places. I think without trying, I’ve managed to patch together a map of peaceful places in Athens, little oases of rest in the chaos of the city.