The first Academy

view from the Aeropagus, where ancient aristocrats ruled from and St Paul preached

Athens lives up to expectations, surpasses them elegantly. It is crowded and chaotic on the streets, but still and meditative on Aeropagus next to the Acropolis, or in the National gardens.

It is a city of 4 million, yet when I ask a teenager for directions he walks half a block with me to show me the exact place, just as if it were a village.

Of course the Acropolis, an imposing rock, an island against potential invaders, rises like a fist in the midst of the city and draws all attention to it. Whenever I catch a glimpse of it, it always lifts my spirits... an effect, I learn, that is quite universal.

On or around it, you can see and touch history... the theatre where the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Aristophanes were performed, the agora where Socrates questioned and Diogenes disgusted the public, the little temple to the god of healing erected when besieged Athens was struck with plague... I could write screeds. Great things happen everywhere, all the time, yet in Athens we have records of them... many records.

Even the underground stations here are museums. Got some free space...? bung up a replica of the Parthenon freize. Better yet, display the ruins we discovered when digging this place out. Sometimes you can't move in Athens for ruins.

I've heard at the Acropolis in September you can't move for tourists - well, just a month later, it is a spacious place except on Sunday (Sundays November-March are free). It's also very warm and comfortable outside, unseasonably so... climate change is definitely noticeable to Greeks. There are down sides to travelling in November though... most sites close their gates by three oclock, meaning I have to plan my days quite carefully in order to see all the old stuff I want to see.

Standing on glass above the ruins that surround the foundations of the new Acropolis museum

No closing hours on the sites of my own personal pilgrimages though: through hints in history books and talking to local shop owners I manage to find the ruins of Plato's Academy, in a park in a district near Larissa train station. Well outside the walls of the ancient city, I rest here for a while, as people walk their dogs and scooters buzz near me. Visiting these old schools is rewarding for me. For the first time I can imagine the students here in three dimensions: some skiving off from a lecture to drink wine, some enthralled, some with a crush on their teacher. Here, the intellectual history of our world is not a sterile thing, it lives and breathes and gets bored and excited just as we do.

"No!" day

"Was it worth leaving Belgrade for this?" Agneta is embarrased to be at the "Oxi (No) Day parade. "Don't tell anyone I am here."

October 28 is the date of Prime minister Metataxas' probably apocryphal one word reply to Mussolini's ultimatum. My guidebook mentioned folk dancing, so I rushed to get to Greece in time. There was a little dancing, but we missed it. What we did see was a little more disturbing. Dozens of squads of school children of all ages, in uniform (only worn for the day) marching straight-armed behind a proudly waved Greek flag.

Two things surprise me about Greece as soon as I arrive. One is the level of english. Quite different from other mediterranean countries I have visited, everyone speaks amazing english. As usual in such countries, most American movies are shown with subtitles. Cause or symptom, of language proficiency? Both I expect.

The other is the level of nationalism. The Oxi Day parade we went to was the small 'academic' one. The main one involved a parade of, among other things tanks. There's prejudice and xenophobia too. Albanians, in particular, are a target. Usually the best student in the school carries the flag for Oxi day. If they are Albanian immigrants, however, they may be barred.



Another example. I'm listening to a greek hip-hop album. "They started out anarchist" says Agneta. Then in their second album they went mad about Ancient Greece." I ask her what she means. "Well, they rap in ancient greek, and they are saying that, because of our past, we are the best country in the world".

At dinner in a Taverna, Dimitrious expands on this theme. "You know the story about the Argo, Jason's ship?" It was meant to go at the speed of thought. Some people, stupid people, actually believe that happened, and they believe Greece is absolutely the best.