Throwback to #Athens, because I’m just counting down the days.
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Athens is strange - people sometimes get disappointed in it because I think visitors expect something different. There is a lot of history here, but Athens is not like Venice or Bruges, cities that feel beautifully preserved in amber. It is a living, breathing, capital city, one that has gone through a succession of seismic changes; that shows throughout the sometimes chaotically laid out neighborhoods and streets.
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Athens doesn’t have the outward beauty of a Vienna or Paris either. But what Athens does have, something I don’t necessarily feel in many other large capitals of the world, is a rebellious, strong soul, deeply rooted in the ancient city.
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Underground events, live experimental music of every type, innovative art, graffiti with strong political messages and street art line many centuries-old paths. The old, the ancient, intersect with the new and alternative, and it creates an environment that is constantly changing, constantly adapting to new conditions and a new world.
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But what Athens and Greece have most of all, and what the recent fires reminded us of, are communities. Communities who rushed out to help put out fires miles away from them, communities that flooded in so many donations that centers had to ask them to stop because they couldn’t fit in donated goods anymore within 12 hours of the initial request. No matter what Greece goes through, this inner fight, this cohesion in times of crisis, is why I will always have hope. And right now, I hope all that inner fight and energy will be mobilized to make sure nothing like the recent disaster will ever happen again. The people of Greece deserve so much better ❤️
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