Athens Agora, City Market by Day

If you continue from Monistiraki square down Athinas street towards Omonia, you will find yourself at the Athens Market.

Morning is the time to be here. It's a mob scene but lots of fun and a reminder that the true wonders of Athens may not be in the dead past but in the very alive present. Some of the butchers come from generations of butchers who have had stalls in the market for a century.

The Fish market is my favorite part. Wear shoes. The ground is kind of wet and fishy. Wander around and look at all the fish, some fresh, some frozen, and listen to the voices of the merchants as they call out their prices. Surrounding the fish market on three sides is the meat market and across the street are the fruits and vegetables.

For some reason the pigs feet are in with the fish and I have not understood that. Any fish you can find in the Aegean and even some imported are here. The weirdest animals are found in the meat section closest to Omonia, though this depends on the season. I have seen giant wooley animals that looked like either a giant wild boar or a mastadon.

Check out the stores that sell olives. It's OK to sample. Find a type you can't live without and buy a kilo to keep with you on your journey. I like the big ones from Agrinion. Andrea likes the shriveled oil-cured type. Taste them all.

If you love olives this is your special heaven. There are also spice shops, cheese shops, canned goods, dry goods, live chickens, you name it. If you want to be creative with your shopping for gifts to bring back to family and friends, look around here. I usually bring back around ten giant cans of Mytilini sardines to go with my ouzo. Tour An Olive Shop Here

If you are hungry visit the three working class restaurants in the meat market and the secret underground restaurant at the bottom of the vegetable market by the olive shops.

There are several restaurants and fast food places in and around the market including some old ouzerie-cafeneons and an old Rembetiko cafe upstairs.

Don't forget to try the Patsa.

One thing I love about staying at the Attalos Hotel is it's proximity to the Central Market, where Athinians come to do their food shopping. There is nothing more invigorating then to start the day (after coffee of course) with a walk through the covered streets that house the meat and fish market. Just the sound of the voices alone is facinating as the merchants call out their prices in a variety of voices that can sound like a musical composition by John Cage.

Of course the sights can get a little weird and there is some blood and guts as some of the pictures towards the bottom of the page will show (consider this a warning). But for me anyway, the Athens Central market is the most alive place in the city and I never get tired of it.

Take a virtual tour of the Athens Agora Market....
The entrance to the fish market	The fruit and vegetable market gets less hectic by the afternoon.
Feta Cheese is less than $2 a pound	Fish is plentiful
Nuts and dried fruit. I like the salted peanuts with the red skin on them. They are way too salty but go great with beer and ouzo.	Bakaliaro is dried salted cod eaten mostly in the winter, deep-fried and delicious with skordalia (garlic sauce)
Herbs	Bacon
Athenian shoppers in the fruit and vegetable market	With the merchants all dressed in white it looks like some kind of hospital during WWI
Fresh pig (made in Greece)	When the shopping is over at the end of the day it looks like this.

Used with permission from Matt Barrett's Athens Survival Guide