★Things to do in Athens: Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage sites: the Acropolis and the medieval Daphni Monastery. The National Archaeological Museum contains artifacts dating to 6,000 B.C. The Epigraphic Museum Herodion theater, an ancient theater. Acropolis Museum is an archaeological museum built to house the artifacts found on the surrounding slopes from the Greek Bronze Age to Roman and Byzantine Greece. Acropolis Hill Plaka is the oldest district in Athens built near the Acropolis Monastiraki is a very old neighborhood in Athens known for its flea market. Thission is a lovely and historic neighborhood. Zappeion Hall in the National Gardens of Athens. Kifissia and Kolonaki are wealthy neighborhoods known for excellent restaurants and bars and upscale shopping.
Koukaki is also home to the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST). Once the Fix Brewery, the building that houses the museum has undergone a major transformation. Not yet fully operational, the EMST is destined to become a beacon of creative talent that will showcase the work of both Greek and foreign contemporary artists.
For jewelry aficionados, the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum is a must-see. Housing over 4,000 pieces of Lalaounis’ work, it pays homage to the ancient art of goldsmithing. Within a very short distance of the city’s most treasured accomplishments of antiquity, Koukaki provides the visitor to Athens with a window on modern life, a display of the promise that the present era holds for the city.
Perhaps the most charming area in the neighborhood is the pedestrian zone running from Koukaki Square along Georgaki Olympiou Street, which has a city-meets-jungle feel to it. Overhanging trees, including palms, entirely conceal the concrete facades of the buildings above the cafés and restaurants. Instead, fairy lights and glowing lanterns create an atmosphere akin to a Cuban Midsummer Night’s Dream, if that’s a vision you can imagine. Brightly painted wood and wicker chairs adorn the pavements where Athenians young and old come to socialize.
With an eclectic mix of cafés and quirky bars inspired by everything from Louisiana to Noah’s Ark, this street caters for every mood and style. At the bottom of Olympiou sits a veritable institution, Bel Ray, a one-time car wash turned retro café-bar, serving perfect croque-madames and tropical concoctions like the Calypso, a rum-based cocktail complete with dates, choco bitters and lime. With a minimalist yet cozy atmosphere and with thought-provoking street art as a backdrop, it is clear why this place has become so popular with young local trendsetters.
Yet in a fashion that Athens knows best, the new never quite supplants the old. Just around the corner, on a street lined with a mix of pre-war housing and modern apartments, lies the traditional Archontiko Café, brightly lit and simply furnished, where elderly gentlemen play backgammon, read the daily papers and play with their worry beads so loudly the noise echoes across the square.
Opposite, the sounds of 1940s jazz can be heard as couples learn their dance steps at the Jump & Jive Athens Swing Team Dance Studio. The whole scene is almost like a time capsule, transporting the wanderer back to a bygone Athens, quite removed from those establishments close by that are striving to push the capital into a new age.
