Athens Downtown

By air:

The new award-winning Athens International Airport, Eleftherios Venizelos, has been serving Greece's capital since its opening to the public on March 28th, 2001. Its stellar design has -according to surveys- made it one of the world's leading airports in overall passenger satisfaction for the last four years and Europe's fastest growing airport.

At the crossroads of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Athens is a city that is easily accessible from virtually any point of departure. Flights from major airport hubs in London, Berlin, Paris, New York, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Zurich, Rome, Milan, Larnaca and Dubai come in daily and frequently.

Located 33 km (20 miles) southeast of Athens, it is easily accessible via Attiki Odos, a major highway constituting the Athens City Ring Road. Public transport to Athens and the port of Piraeus is provided by the new metro, express airport bus connections, taxi and high-speed rail.

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Arrivals/Departures: +30 2103530000
General Information: +30 2103531000
Website: www.aia.gr

Visit: Athens International Airport

Browse: Airline Companies

By road:

Athens can be reached by road via Western Balkan countries, Bulgaria, Albania and Turkey.

Athens' road network consists of motorways, national roads, highways and asphalt roads. Greece's main road axes are:

Athens - Thessaloniki (E 75)
Athens - Corinth (E 94)
Corinth - Patras (E 65)
Corinth - Tripoli - Kalamata (E 65)
Patras - Pyrgos - Olympia (E 55)
Thessaloniki – Kavala - Alexandroupoli (E 90)

The new Attiki Odos Motorway in Athens is a cutting-edge motorway that links the town of Elefsina (located in western Attiki) to the Eleftherios Venizelos Athens International Airport (Spata, eastern Attiki). Part of the Athens peripheral ring road, it circumvents Athens and offers 27 main and secondary interchanges for entrance and exit into /from the capital. To enter the motorway tolls are paid, the fare depending on vehicle category based on height and axis number.

For more information go to: www.aodos.gr

Ymitos circumferential road is a modern highway connecting the southern suburbs of Athens Greece (districts such as Argyroupoli, Elliniko, Glyfada, Voula, Vouliagmeni, Varkiza) to the north (districts such as Papagou, Agia Paraskevi, Psyhiko, Holargos) and providing access to the new Attiki Odos Motorway.

Driver's Licenses: EU citizens can use their own.Other nationals should have an International Drivers License in addition to their valid driver's license.

Traffic Police: 10400; +30 2105284000

By sea:

There are daily ferryboat connections from Italy (Ancona, Bari and Brindisi, Venice and Trieste) to Patras the second largest port of entry to Greece; approximately 220 km (135 miles) from Athens. The Middle East is accessible via the port of Volos.

Visit: Ports

Browse: Ferry Companies

By train:

The main railway network of Greece currently provides links between Athens and Northern and Southern Greece and the rest of Europe through the Western Balkan countries and Bulgaria.

Thematically, Athens’s beautiful fairy tale begins many many centuries ago, and has its roots in the mythological years, when the admirable ancient Greek spirit envisioned the co-existence of men and gods in that blessed land. When, on the sacred rock of Acropolis, Athena and Poseidon claimed primacy over the city, offering their gifts; when the goddess of wisdom offered the olive fruit as her gift, came out the winner, and became the patron goddess of the city.

Written by: George Petritsis

Edited by: Yallou

A DOCUMENTARY LIKE APPROACH TO ATHENS 

Athens, with its fairy tale history and its memories, adorned as they are with romantic visions of lovely days, is a unique source of cultural wealth. The themes that can be developed are multifarious and of great interest in terms of aesthetics, historic testimonies, and every form of informational material. They bear within a poetic disposition, a nostalgia, and, at the same time, they are a living part of Greek history.

On the sacred rock of Acropolis the Parthenon was built, the Golden Age bloomed and democracy was born.

There, the Athenians organized, in honour of the goddess Athena, the small Panathinaia, which took place every summer and the big Panathinaia that took place every four years and went on for twelve days. The celebratory events were impressive, spectacular but also intensely religious. The program included majestic processions, music and dance contests, sports events, as well as religious rituals and sacrifices.

Under the shade of the Parthenon, in the ancient market, and on the opposite hill of Pnyka, even today, live the visions of Pericles and all those that shaped the spirit of democracy and brought forth the Golden Age of Athens. The period of the Athenian democracy with the amazing achievements in terms of social life, the arts and philosophy; of Athenian democracy that, through its values, deeply affected the development of mankind.

On the foot of the Acropolis, Dionysus’s ancient theatre brings to mind one of the most glorious religious feasts of the ancient Athenians. The Big Dionysia take place there every year with mass participation by the Athenians. During the Big Dionysia the renowned dramatic competition took place: a competition which the most prominent dramatists of the time participated in. Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, the three grand playwrights of ancient Greece, with their ageless present, have enlightened humanity and made whole generations bow to their great spirit.

A little further on, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus brings forth the continuation of the story of the Roman and the Hellenistic years, during which Athens continued to be the giver of light in terms of spirit and artistic creation.

But then comes the death sentence of the ancient Greek spirit by the Byzantines which brings with it the decline of Athens.

Later on, even darker years follow, which reach the dream, but do not actually reach the spark of the fairy tale. Through the centuries conquerors pillaged the city, desecrating her glory and obliterating her culture, turning her into an insignificant Turkish village. But the spark of the fairy tale stays patiently lit, longing for the chance to be set alight once more.

During the 19th century, essentially after 1834, when Athens becomes the capital of the newly established Greek state, the suspension comes to an end and the time for the continuation of the fairy tale arrives. The registering of the new chronicle of the city begins: a city that from an insignificant little village is transformed into a glorious capital. A transformation that is not, in essence, a transformation but, rather, a revival. From the ashes of the fairy tale a new fairy tale is born, and the ancient gods return to offer their gifts.

Otho’s arrival in Athens marks the beginning of the period of Bavarian occupation, with all its negative political elements, but, at the same time, with the onset of the countdown to the reacquisition of the ancient grandeur of the city. Great architects adorn the newly established capital with their neo-classical masterpieces. The raising of the palaces begins, the cathedral is established, gardens are created, the squares of Syntagma and Omonoia are constructed, the University is built using the designs of famous architect, Hansen, who, a few years later, offers his architectural masterpiece, The Academy of Athens.

The beautification of the capital continues even more intensely during the second half of the 19th century, with the economic recovery and the inflow of foreign currency. The reign of Georgios I makes its own mark and brings about new customs. The Trikoupian reformist period ends ingloriously with bankruptcy, but nothing gets in the way of the evolution of the city and of its extending in terms of its rapid population increase.

The re-establishment of the Olympic Games in 1896, in the restored Kallimarmaro stadium turns all eyes onto the re-born queen.

And the 20th century arrives, with the Athens of the Belle Époque and its romanticism—regardless of the big problems of the first decade—with its days of happiness and its period of the triumphant Balkan wars and with the trying days of refuge following the destruction of Asia Minor in 1922. But it is also a time during which there is a noted creative renewal of human resources. The refugees offer their spirit, their knowledge and achieve great things. The spiritual generation of the ‘30s establishes its intense presence through literature, poetry and art.

The nostalgic event-recording tour evokes the pulse of yesterday’s Athens: bringing to life snap-shots, habits and quaint elements that left their mark on the personality of the city during certain periods. A dreamlike retrospection through the decades of romanticism and finer feelings, and a deep incision into the soul of Athens, reveals the true personality and the innermost world of the city Kostis Palamas called: ’’source of the idea, queen of the beautiful”.

The years of the German occupation bring a sad darkness onto the evolution of the lovely fairy tale. But in post-war Athens pictures slowly slowly find their lost colour again. Pictures--visions with snap-shots we still mentally revive. The children that despite their poverty play carelessly in Plaka’s back-streets. Open-air cinemas. The refreshment stands of the Museum Garden, the Pedion Areos, ‘Aegli’ in Zappeion. Variety shows. The traffic-warden of Chafteia. Aiolou street at Christmas. Open-air vegetable stands. Football games in alley-ways. The transformation of Omonoia square. Fokionos Negri street. The popular beaches of Faliron. The first trolleys…

And the tour can be completed by visiting Athenian spaces in which history was written. Syntagma square, the Old Palaces, the old Houses of Parliament, Klafthmonos square, the Makrygianni army camp, Pedion Areos, Goudi, Exarheia (the blue condominium).

Written by: George Petritsis

Edited by: Yallou