 THE PLAKA OF ATHENS
Plaka is the old historical neighbourhood of Athens, Greece just under the Acropolis, with labyrinthine streets, many restaurants and souvenir stores.
The Plaka is visited by many tourists year round.
Adrianou Street is the oldest street in Athens still in use, and is now home to many tourist shops.
Museums in Plaka include the new Jewish museum, the Greek Folk Art Museum and the Frissiras Museum.
The Plaka is charming and definitely our favourite place to be in Athens.
 MATT'S GUIDE TO THE PLAKA
The Plaka is the oldest section of Athens. Most of the streets have been closed to automobile traffic, though you should still keep a watchful eye for a speeding motorcycle or delivery truck. At one time it was the nightclub district, but most of these closed down when the government out-lawed amplified music in the area in the seventies in an effort to get rid of undesirables. The strategy was very successful and it is now an area of restaurants, tourist shops, and cafes.
Though it is quite commercialized it is still a neighborhood and arguably the nicest neighborhood in central Athens. Most of the restaurants are typical tourist places but the quality of food is not bad and if you follow my leads in the restaurant section of this guide you should have a few enjoyable evenings and not be unpleasantly surprised by the bill.
As for the tourist shops they are crammed full of stuff, some of it junk but plenty of interesting items if you feel compelled to bring back gifts to everyone you know.
The cafes are generally over-priced if they are on the main roads (Kydatheneon, Adrianou) and around the squares, but in a way worth it for the view. If you sit in one of these cafes long enough you will see that everyone who comes to Greece walks down these two streets. From famous basketball players to rock stars and nobel prize winners, these streets below the Acropolis are a major crossroads of civilization.
Some people like to get right out, walking around and shopping. Personally I like to find a nice quiet outdoor cafe and have an ouzo and a snack so I can relax and get into my Greek groove. First of all you need to get your bearings. The Plaka is under the Acropolis. There are two main streets. Kydatheneon begins at Nikis st, which is one block down from Constitution or Syntagma Square. The easiest way to find it if you are not already in the Plaka is to find the square. Ask anyone. It's big and you can't miss it. It's surrounded by tall (by Athens standards) buildings, one of which is the Grande Bretagne Hotel and another that houses the MacDonalds which displaced the popular Papaspyros Cafe, a gathering place for hippies and travelers in the sixties and seventies and a landmark for decades.
Return to the square. Then find the McDonalds. I hate to refer people to it even as a landmark, so once you have found it and utilized it for the purpose of navigation I want you to forget it even exists. Now, with your back to the square walk down the famous pedestrian street of Ermou. The first street you come to is Nikis. Take a left and start walking. Right before it curves and connects with Phileninon street, you will see on your right a small pedestrian street.
That's Kydatheneon. Turn right onto it and you are in the Plaka.
If you continue past a small Byzantine church on your right and the Folk-Art Museum on your left (worth a visit), you will come to a cafe on the corner. This is as good a place as any for a beer, a soda or an ouzo, and though it has gone slightly upscale in the last few years, it's a nice spot to people watch and enjoy the late afternoon, early evening. It's not my number one choice, but it will do. We call this 'The Nice Guy' Cafe. I think it is because the owner yelled at us once. But he has been nice ever since. Sit with your back to the small park that surrounds the tiny Byzantine church. It used to be a traditional cafeneon but now it sells gelato. Still the old guys still come here to play cards and backgammon.
If you order ouzo you may ask for a 'mecro pee-kee-lee-a', which means a small snack. If you don't ask for anything you will probably get a bowl of peanuts which is OK too. The whole art of drinking ouzo and living to tell about it is the eating of mezedes, snacks that keep body and mind relatively stable while drinking.
You will very rarely see a Greek obnoxiously drunk. Drinking in Greece is a from of communication. I don't want to endorse the consumption of alcohol as a remedy for
anything but when done in moderation there seems to be almost a spiritual dimension - for me anyway.
If you continue down Kydatheneon you will pass a small shop on your right that sells drinks, yogurt, coffee etc. This is a nice place to have a coffee in the morning. There is only one table so you better get there early. He has an assortment of commercial flavored yogurts and cartons of fruit drinks (peach and pear are both amazing). Right next to it is the Children's Museum, a nice place to see with or without children.
You may notice that there are several restaurants with tables in the street. In fact it will be difficult not to notice because every time you pass one, a maitre'd, (I use the term loosely) tries to pull you over to see the menu. These restaurants are not bad. Typical fare: mousaka, pastitsio and souvlaki though they will encourage you to go for the giant shrimp and lobster because they cost more. But if you want to know where the locals eat keep walking until you come to a small park on your left.
There is a kiosk (periptero) that sells everything from gum to English language newspapers (including the ATHENS NEWS, USA TODAY and the INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE.) Surrounding the kiosk are tables that belong to the restaurant across the street. This is the Byzantino Restaurant. It used to be called Kostis and all the locals ate here. The owner of the building took it over, made it a little more upscale and though some might disagree, it's a better restaurant. The locals would say he spoiled it.
It's one of the best in the plaka, especially for lunch, and the parade of people walking by make it an evenings worth of entertainment. You can sit on the street or under the trees in the park.
The next cafe after the Byzantine restaurant is the Sikinos cafe. The tables are under the trees of the small park and it's another great place to settle down for a drink and a night, morning or afternoon of people-watching. It is expensive though no more then a similar cafe in New York or San Francisco. I usually get an ice coffee (Frappeh) with milk and sugar (mehtrio), read my Athens News and watch people for an hour or too. It's one of those spots where if you sit long enough you will see everyone you have ever known. Usually after an island trip I will hang out there and see people that I saw on the ferries or the beaches. They also have half decent capuccino. Whatever you do don't confuse it for a restaurant. A meal here will cost you a week's wages. I usually sit at the table with the column underneath.
The Plaka is full of street musicians, flower sellers, photographers and people who sell beads or will write your name on a grain of rice for 1000 drs. My personal favorites are the moldable faces made out of balloons and the girl who sells the fuzzy marionettes.
Of the musicians I like the Albanian folk singer. My favorite song is his rendition of Stevie Wonder's 'I Just Called To Say I love You'. Don't be afraid to request it if he comes to your table.
But my favorite street musician is the accordian player on the corner of Kydatheneon and Voulis. He plays so beautifully and looks so sad I always leave him one or two hundred drachma. If you see him why not do the same? He is usually there in the daytime.
Across the street is the Cine Paris, the best outdoor movie theater in Athens. Of course you haven't come to Greece to go to the movies but if you are not ready for a wild night out and just want to sit back and be entertained, you are in for a treat. Almost all the movies are in English with Greek subtitles and when you go inside you will discover that the theater is on the roof with a view of the Acropolis. Some nights you can see the colors change during the sound and light show.
There is a bar and you can have a brandy and watch your favorite stars in the shadow of the Parthenon.
As you continue down Kydatheneon street you will pass a gold shop, a tourist shop and a gelato-ice-cream store. Then on your left, above Domigos Bakaliarzidiko is Brettos Liquor store. But it is more then a liquor store. It is the oldest distillery in Athens. Go inside and admire the old barrels full of spirits and the colored bottles that line the walls up to the ceiling. He has a tiny bar where you can get drinks by the glass.
Try good ouzo - have some of his. It's very mild tasting and a great before-dinner drink. Be sure to stop here before you go back home. His brandy is better then Metaxa. You can buy ouzo in metal canisters if you are worried about bottles breaking in your luggage and it's a great gift to take home.
If you take a taste test comparing his ouzo with commercial brands that are available in the USA you will be surprised at the difference. I have turned around many people who claimed they didn't like ouzo. They had never had good ouzo. Hopefully I haven't ruined their lives. Try his Raki too. Imported from Crete. You won't need more then a glass to loosen up.
Last summer when I went into Brettos it was crowded with people who had read this guide, all talking about their trips, some on the way in and some on the way out. I was very pleased by this for several reasons. First of all, before I put this info on the web the business was in trouble. Most people looked into the shop and admired the colorful bottles and barrels and perhaps took a photo, but then moved on. The business was in trouble because most of it's support was coming from the locals.
As one of the last traditional businesses in the Plaka it would be a tragedy for Mr. Brettos to close his doors. This brings me to the second reason. My wife says the day Brettos closes his doors it will be such a tragedy that she will never come to Athens again. So be sure to visit Mr. Brettos, have a drink, buy a metal cannister of ouzo or a bottle of his excellent brandy and let him know how important he is.
Oh yes. The third reason this pleased me is because everytime I walked in there someone bought me a drink. Even Mr. Brettos.
Next to Brettos and across the street are a couple shops that sell milk, juice, soda, yogurt, cookies, pastries etc. One store sells crepes out of the window but last time I was there it was gone. It will probably re-open as a tourist shop. Neither is expensive and if you want a snack to bring back to your room these stores are as good as any.
Kydatheneon meets Adrianou street, which is the other main street in the Plaka. If you continue on Kydatheneon you will pass a small newspaper shop on your right. Whatever you do, don't touch one of their newspapers or even stop to read the headlines. They will yell at you and embarrass you. I have walked miles to avoid buying a newspaper from them. I don't know why they are so mean, perhaps they don't like their job, but shop there at your own risk and under no circumstances adjust papers on the racks so you can read the headlines.
If you like to Shop and stroll, make a right on Adrianou. Tourist shop after jewelry store after T-shirt store and then repeated again and again. Everybody who comes to Greece walks up this street and buys postcards, worry beads (komboloi), ashtrays, icons, you name it. There are also street venders selling nuts and refugees from what was once Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union selling the strange toys made from flour and balloons or offering to write your name on a grain of rice for 1000 drachma.
The Byzantino Jewelery store is on your left at 120 next to the ice-cream shop. This is where my wife buys her jewelery from because the prices are so low and the work is so good.
They work primarily with 22K gold in a variety of styles, of which my favorites are those that are based on the ancient Greek designs or exact copies. Laura from California works here. I go in sometimes and have her try on pieces of jewlery "for the website" I tell her.
Byzantino Jewelry crafted the jewellry worn in the closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Sydney. If you are a lover of Gold jewelry, don't buy anything until you have seen their work.
If this does not excite you there is an alternative. Turn left up Hill Street (or Chill street, depending on which of the two street signs you look at) and follow the street as it becomes Scholiou and then Epiharmou Street. Stop and look straight ahead and up. It's the walls of the Acropolis and below it, where Epiharmou connects with Tripodon is an ouzerie known locally as Kouklis. You will see a building with a packed balcony and windows. Sit down and have a drink. Or sit on the sloped street of Kydatheneon at the ouzerie known as To Cafeneon which was my primary hang out when I lived in the Plaka. Next door to Kouklis is a fancy ice-cream and milk shop called Amalfi. If you have a sweet tooth I encourage you to go inside. Again you won't see many tourists but at least one copy of the menu is in English.
Anafiotika is the cluster of small houses built on the slopes of the Acropolis above the Plaka. It's like being on a Greek Island. It's named Anafiotika because the original inhabitants were stone masons who came from the island of Anafi to build Athens in the mid 19th century. Just continue up the steps between Kouklis and the Byzantine church next to it. You can wander around the small streets and if you continue to your right (facing the Acropolis) you can walk along the road that overlooks the city and leads to the entrance for Greece's most famous building.
Whether you like hanging out, shopping, eating, or wandering around, the Plaka is a great area. From it you can walk to all the desirable parts of central Athens with a minimum of contact with the aspects of modern civilization many people find unpleasant: autos, pollution, noise and crowds.
The Plaka is like a small island in the middle of the city and it was not very long ago that the Plaka was the city of Athens. If you have time to kill get off the beaten paths and walk through the back streets. Admire the architecture of buildings that have stood for hundreds of years or climb the hill and see buildings that have lasted for thousands.
It seems like everywhere you look in the Plaka there is evidence of some past civilization, being it Greek, Roman or Ottoman Turkish. In some places the pavement has been opened to reveal ancient columns and houses.
Or in the case of Hadrian's Arch, built in honor of the emperor during the Roman period, a large and impressive monument overlooks one of Athens most busy streets at the entrance to the Plaka. In fact the name Adrianou, the main street in the Plaka means Hadrian.
Just beyond Hadrian's arch, across Amalias street is the Temple of Olympion Zeus, started in the middle of the 6th century BC and not completed until 650 years later.
Today there are only 15 of the original 104 columns still standing. The column that is laying on the ground was blown over in a storm in 1852, but the possibility of any of the remaining columns falling on you during your visit is about the same as being eaten by wild weasels while waiting in line at the post office in Syntagma Square.
Use the Plaka as your base and get to know it while venturing into other pleasant areas like the National Gardens and other green areas or as a place of refuge to return to from visits to Omonia, the Central Market, Monastiriki flea market and some of the wilder parts of Athens. And of course the Plaka is the best place in Athens to buy that perfect gift for someone special.
Used with permission from Matt Barrett's Athens Survival Guide
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Replica of an Ancient Greek Helmet in the Plaka, Athens, Greece
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