Today, the Alternative Tours of Athens ‘took over’ Aischylou Street, a rather degraded street in the heart of Psiri, and added their own colourful touch.
Who are the Alternative Tours? Their Facebook page describes them as thus:
Alternative Tours of Athens (ATA) shows you the city, in easy to follow scheduled tours that focus on aspects like architecture, street art, nightlife and urban life. Come with us and the real side of this crazy place!
The objective of Alternative Tours of Athens (ATA) is to enhance the local community and promote culture and tourism through alternative landmarks, with an emphasis on modern city life. Through its action, it aims to contribute both to the development of relations between visitors (foreigners or Greeks) and the countryside, as well as interaction by promoting new talent, ideas and proposals.
The fields of action of ATA are mainly alternative thematic tours: architecture, nightlife, street art, photography, creative workshops, literature, social movements, cycling. The activity extends to the organization and production of software or printable guides of Athens, co-organizing cultural events and educational seminars.
The Alternative Tours of Athens aims at a fruitful cooperation between tourist affiliates, scientists, cultural agencies, organizations, local businesses, training centers, authors, artists and people that shape the active stage of the city now.
Come see the real life of Athens!
It was a great atmosphere with a great bunch of people whose objective is about re-building, not destructing. See for yourself:
And as I wandered home, look what I stumbled upon, tucked away down a side street in the Psiri neighbourhood of central Athens?
A treasure trove awaited me! I just had to step inside to see what goodies were on offer, and I wasn’t disappointed – come and see with me:
You may not know this, but I have been dying to go to Greece for almost a lifetime! I am a world traveller, having been to 50+ countries, but for some reason, Greece continues to evade me. My husband never really wanted to go to Greece, so for the first 30 years or so, that was the reason, some other country always took precedence. Now I travel alone at least once a month and so maybe, just maybe, I will make it to Greece this year. Thanks for this lovely post about neighborhoods of Athens… I hope to make it there one day!
Cacinda! When you make it over here – be SURE to get in touch so I can show you MY ATHENS. I’d be honoured to show you around.
:0)
I like the idea of the alternative tours. This is such a great way to get to know city in a way the locals do. Alternative Tours of Athens had a nice initiative to add some color to the streets of Psiri. Beautiful street art!
Thanks Frank. Yes, I see it as art and not graffiti – although obviously it depends too!
I realllllllllllllllly want to go to Greece! It’s been “top of my list’ for years but I still haven’t made it over. I think Athens would be one of those places that changes my perspective of my place in time. The Alternative Athens tour sounds fun!
Very cool Bex, loved the tour! Hope you can join us today by linking up to Travel Photo Mondays, the link is up for the whole week!
I love street art, so addicted of taking picture of it! Love the paintings on the yellow columns!
Will be great to welcome you here in Athens Karisa :0)
Thanks Noel!
Yes – I love street art too – but draw the line at out and out graffiti